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Beer Braised Onions

• Melt butter in saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and saute, stirring frequently, until tender, about 5-6 minutes. Add 3/4 cup beer, sugar, and salt. Cook until all the beer has been absorbed by the onions and they begin to brown slightly, about 18 minutes. Add the remaining 1/4 cup beer and bring to a simmer. Keep onions warm.

Burgers

• In a large bowl, thoroughly combine the ground chuck, Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper. Gently form into 4 patties, handling as little as possible so as not to make the burgers tough.
• Grill burgers to your desired degree of doneness.
• Toast buns on the grill.
• Serve burgers on the toasted buns topped with the cheese, beer braised onions and ketchup.

• Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 475 degrees (450 degrees in a convection oven). Line a heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil, and spread a thin layer of salt over the surface of the foil to absorb any drippings and prevent the oven from smoking. Arrange a wire rack so that it sits at least 3/4 inch above the surface of the pan.
• Break the beef into 1- to 2-inch lumps with your hands and drop into a mixing bowl. Season with salt, Worcestershire, and a generous amount of black pepper. Mix gently, using your fingertips to break up the meat and incorporate the seasonings. Over-handling the beef will make for tough, dry burgers.
• Divide the meat into 6 portions. Molly Stevens likes to eyeball even portions and arrange them, before shaping, on a large plate. “This way I can add a little here and remove a little there until I have 6 equal-size lumps to start with.” If you have a kitchen scale, you can use that too: have it so each burger weighs 5.3 ounces. [My method was just to grab a hunk of meat and shape it willy-nilly.] Lightly shape the beef into disks about 3 1/4 inches across and about 1 inch thick. Set the burgers at least 1 inch apart on the wire rack.
• Roast the burgers for 10 to 16 minutes, checking on them either with an instant-read thermometer (the quickest waor by cutting into one to peek. For medium-rare, look for 130 to 135 degrees; for medium, 140 degrees. (If you’re mad enough to like your burgers medium-well, take it to 160 degrees; but WHY WHY WHY?!). If adding cheese, top the burgers with cheese when they are about 2 degrees away from being done to your liking and return them to the oven for 1 minute to melt the cheese.
• Transfer the burgers to buns, English muffins, split focaccia, or favorite bread and garnish as you like.

• Clean mushrooms with a damp cloth and remove their stems. Place in a glass dish, stem (gilside up.
• To prepare the marinade, in a small bowl whisk together the vinegar, water, sugar, garlic, cayenne pepper and olive oil. Drizzle the marinade over the mushrooms. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for about 1 hour, turning mushrooms once.
• Prepare a hot fire in a charcoal grill or heat a gas grill or broiler. Away from the heat source, lightly coat the grill rack or broiler pan with cooking spray. Position the cooking rack 4 to 6 inches from the heat source.
• Grill or broil the mushrooms on medium heat, turning often, until tender, about 5 minutes on each side. Baste with marinade to keep from drying out. Using tongs, transfer the mushrooms to a plate.
• Place each mushroom on a bun and top with 1 tomato slice, 1 onion slice and 1/2 lettuce leaf. Serve immediately.