Black Garlic Sliders with Habanero, Brie and Cornichons

Some weird part of my brain thought this strange set of flavors and textures might just work. Remember now that I'm the savory nutbar that, when compelled to enter a dessert competition, came up with Grilled Banana Scallops with Maytag Blue Cheese and Guava Gelee. You have been warned...

From gastronomic guesswork
The idea for the full sensory experience here was to play with sweet + earthy + hot + acid in a fun food form factor (the flavors respectively, black garlic + beef + habanero toned down + cornichon). As crazy as brie and habanero sound, the fat of the brie contained the heat while letting the great flavor of this dastardly little chile come through; the flavor of brie is completely lost but you won't miss it. Somehow everything worked so well I'm calling this an instant personal classic, and I can't wait to make these for some adventurous foodie guests.

The burger meat was fresh ground from a rump roast, then 1 lb was mixed with a mince of 3 cloves of black garlic, 1 clove of fresh garlic, a little kosher salt, and two turns of fresh ground white pepper. These were pan grilled, plated on toasted sour dough rolls, topped with a round from a brie log (the cheap stuff), a thinly shaved cut of habanero pepper (1/16" - 1/8" thick), and some slices of cornichons for a little acid. One good part of the flavor profile that I think I stumbled on here was the black garlic with the cornichon, as I think the fermented nature of black garlic evokes some of the flavor sensations of smoked meats, a classic pairing with cornichons. For the less adventurous, the black garlic + ground beef flavor was addictive on its own.


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