Shrimp Stuffed Burgers

So the other night I pondered what to make for dinner. Since my freezer is completely loaded, I decided to come up with something a bit out of the ordinary. I knew I wanted a burger. I saw the frozen shrimp in there and thought... hmmm... what would it taste like to combine the two. Stuff the burgers with a shrimp mixture. I thought the idea interesting and thawed both to try it.

First of all, I wrote down the night before what I could use to flavor the shrimp. I knew, of course, there would be garlic, as I love the vegetable and always gives food a nice flavor. So, I used fresh garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper, basil and oregano. I also splashed it with a touch of Triple Sec for an interesting orange flavor. Well, hey, if you're going to have shrimp and it comes from the sea, you might as well give it a nice tropical citrus taste, right?! Plus I have an overabundance of alcohol that I can throw into my dishes for flavor, lol.

I took the spices and ground them to powder using my mortar and pestle, and then I used a touch of butter in the skillet and cooked up the garlic and spices first, then added the shrimp. Oh my, the intense and delicious flavor that it gave the shrimp was incredible.

Once I let that cool, I ground up the shrimp. Made a nice little filling and put it into a large bowl.

To that, I added some shredded colby/jack cheese.

When I decided that forming burgers and using two patties to put the shrimp into, I thought, nope, just mix it all together, so that's what I did instead. The mixture proved a bit soft, so I added an egg and some unflavored bread crumbs. That worked and into the cast iron skillet six burgers went.

I have to say... the flavor was incredible. I tasted the shrimp filling and the cheese inside. I toasted two slices of white bread to serve. They were juicy and cooked just to perfection.