SO THERE I WAS IN my local Food Emporium, remiss over the fact that they had sold out of this artisanal brand squid ink pasta that I had wanted to use to make dinner with, and was ambling up and down each aisle looking for inspiration. I did find it, surprisingly, when I came across a stand featuring new Pepperidge Farms Sliders: Mini Sandwich Buns.

It is that burger/hot dog time of the year, and although I’ve made more than my share of burgers, I couldn’t remember if I’ve ever made sliders. And being smack in the middle of the meat section and the seafood section, a quick scan of the proteins within my periphery quickly led to the idea of Surf ‘n’ Turf Sliders.

Getting home, I added some cooked bacon bits, fresh cracked pepper, and a couple drops of worcestershire sauce into so 80/20 ground beef Angus chuck and gave that a thorough hand-mixing. I arranged the pre-cooked shrimp into yin/yang couples and sandwiched them between two thin rounds of the ground beef.

The raw sliders getting salted on their exteriors, brushed with butter, and then placed in a very hot skillet. Meanwhile, I made two separate sauces to go on the sliders. For one, I mixed together some mayo, red curry powder, hot Madras curry powder, garlic powder, salt, white pepper, honey and cider vinegar; for the other, I mixed together tomato paste, balsalmic vinegar, lemon juice, paprika, chili powder, hot pepper sauce, salt and pepper.

I lightly toasted the tops and bottoms of the mini sandwich buns, smeared three of the bottoms with the curry honey mayo and three with the spicy tomato sauce, placed a slider on each of the bottom buns, then topped them with wild arugula and the top bun.

Bun Apple Tea!

.kac.

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