Burgertime Deluxe...

You would think that after our three day burger extravaganza back in July, that we would have moved on around here, but with warm weather on the wane around here, we wanted to squeeze in just a few more dinners on the grill before we head back indoors for the winter.

I still had some andouille sausage kicking around my refrigerator from the stash I used to make those stuffed pork chops and the soup with greens, and I had one last recipe from my Pinterest queue for which I wanted to use it, even though it would mean facing burgers again for dinner. Then again, burgers are one of my favorite meals. I could easily eat one every day, if I wanted to weigh a thousand pounds. 

Plus, when we went through our last round of burgers, I experimented with pretty much every form of ground meat except beef. There was pork, lamb, and turkey, but I don't think a regular beef burger has every left my kitchen. The burger recipe I found that called for andouille paired it with ground beef, and those two things were novel enough for me to want to give it a try.

Ultimately, I really enjoyed the spicy kick provided by the andouille, and the extra bit of chewiness from the sausage casings. However, the bits of sausage made it difficult for the patties to maintain their shape. If I make these burgers again, I'll either have to cut them smaller or even put the sausages through a meat grinder to make the texture of the burgers more homogenous, though the meat grinder option may destroy the pleasant toothsomeness created by the casings. The burgers did utilized finely chopped pecans in the role occasionally played by breadcrumbs, as a binder for the meat. Though they added a nice je ne sais quoi in terms of flavor, they didn't really do much to hold the meat together.

I even followed the recipe's suggestion in caramelizing onions for a topping. They suggesting adding garlic to the onions as they caramelized, and I was skeptical that it wouldn't burn, but it ended up being a nice touch. I did not, however, enjoy the extra sugar that the recipe called for, which made the onions too sweet. When I caramelize onions, I usually omit this shortcut, in favor of allowing the natural sugars in the onions to caramelize, which takes much longer than adding additional sugar, but the flavor is much improved. In the future, I would stick to my technique, but leave the garlic in the mix.

Overall, I would be happy to add this to my burger oeuvre. The recipe needs a few further tweaks to improve the cohesiveness of the patties, but the flavors were spot on, especially with a few pickles added for garnish. I was past due for a beef burger recipe, and now I'm happy to report that I have one, even if it's still a little unconventional, not unlike me...

Andouille and Beef Burgers with Spicy Mayo and Caramelized Onions

adapted from Epicurious

Spicy Mayo

3/4 c. mayonnaise

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning blend

1/4 teaspoon Tabasco, or hot pepper sauce

Burgers

1/2 lb. andouille sausage, cut into scant 1/4-inch cubes

3/4 cup pecans, toasted and chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 1/2 lbs. ground beef chuck or ground beef (20% fat)

Caramelized Onions

2 large onions, sliced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

For mayo:

Mix all ingredients in small bowl. Cover and chill.

For burgers:

Toss first 4 ingredients in large bowl. Add beef; blend gently. Shape mixture into six 1/2-inch-thick patties. 

Brush grill rack with olive oil. Grill until burgers are cooked to desired doneness, about 3 minutes per side for medium. Place some onions, then burger, on each bun bottom. Top each with pickle slices, if desired. Spread caramelized onions on top of burgers. Serve with spicy mayonnaise. 

For caramelized onions:

Toss onions and garlic in large skillet with oil over low heat. Cook until onions are golden, stirring often, about 45 minutes. Remove from stove; season with salt and pepper.

Lemon Head...

Now that we are headed into the back stretch of August, fall is coming up just around the corner. For us, that means that our days for grilling are numbered, so it is time to squeeze in a few more weeknight cookouts before it gets too chilly to cook outdoors. Considering that I didn't really enjoy grilled food when we bought our Weber two months ago, it's surprising how well I've taken to it. I think it helps to be in control of the grilling process, so that the food gets a nice smoky flavor without becoming charred and blackened, like so much grilled food seems to be.

My Pinterest board has filled up with recipes for the grill that I never thought I'd be drawn to, but for tonight, I opted for a citrus and rosemary flavored chicken dish, because there was a good deal on lemons at the grocery store this week.Though I've never been a fan of regular lemon chicken, or lemon in general, I thought that this dish might be a better option because it tempered the tartness of lemon with the addition of orange juice.

I turned out to be partially correct. While the orange blunted the sourness of the lemon, and added a pleasant complexity to the dish, the predominant flavor was still lemon. Still, it was different enough that I really rather enjoyed the meal. The thought of cooking and reducing the leftover marinade into a sauce was rather unnerving for me, as I was paranoid about all the bacteria from the raw chicken, despite the fact that I was to boil it for an extended period of time. Neither Justin or I have food poisoning yet, but it's hard to ignore all the years of food safety indoctrination telling one to dispose of anything that has touched raw chicken.

This meal will definitely be gracing our table again when grilling season rolls around once more, but with one exception. The original recipe called for grilling up two sliced oranges and two sliced lemons, with the intent of squeezing them over the chicken at mealtime. While the gently charred citrus wedges looked beautiful on the platter, the chicken already had a sauce, and squeezing more citrus over it was overkill that doused the plate and made everything else on it soggy. We ended up not using them beyond the first portion, and now we've got a ton of leftover grilled citrus for which we have no other use. I hate wasting food, so I'm going to omit that step in the future unless I want to wow some house guests with an impressive and beautiful food display.

Grilled Citrus Chicken Breasts
adapted from Bon Appétit

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil plus more for brushing
1 cup fresh orange juice
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary
2 teaspoons kosher salt plus more for seasoning
2 1/2–3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded gently to even thickness

Whisk 2 tablespoons oil and next 4 ingredients in a large bowl; stir in 2 teaspoons salt. Add chicken breasts; turn chicken to coat, cover, and chill overnight.

Build a medium-low fire in a charcoal grill, or heat a gas grill to medium. Remove chicken breasts from marinade; set marinade aside. Place chicken breasts on grill. Cover and grill, moving chicken to different spots on the rack for even cooking but without turning, until slightly charred and cooked through, about 165 degrees.

Meanwhile, bring marinade to a boil in a small saucepan and cook until reduced to glaze consistency (about 1/3 cup); season with salt. Transfer chicken to a platter and spoon glaze over chicken.

Happy Birthday to Dad...

It's pretty rare around here that I repeat recipes. My to-do list is currently 140 recipes long for savory dishes, and 61 recipes long for desserts, which doesn't give me a lot of time to back and repeat past favorites. However, there is a certain someone in my life who is unapologetic about being set in his ways, and it isn't Justin. It's my dad, and given that he's pestered me pretty much since the onset of stone fruit season about when he was going to get another peach pie, I decided to pull a repeat performance of last year's success in honor of his birthday last week.

Last year, I did a lattice crust for the pie, but I was more pressed for time this year, so I did a basic double crust, and it was still perfect.

 Actually, my repeat pie performance was just a small fraction of a larger cookout that Justin and I hosted to mark Dad's 58th year on Earth. As it turns out, Dad was sent a very large, and very expensive box of steaks from Allen Brothers, a company that provides choice meats to some of the fanciest steakhouses in Chicago. Without a working grill at their house, the frozen meat had been taking up a huge chunk of space in Mom's freezer for the past seven and a half months. Eager to reclaim her valuable real estate, Mom had been suggesting that she bring the steaks over for a cookout ever since we got our grill. Since the meat was technically a gift to Dad in the first place, we decided that his birthday would be the perfect occasion.

I had Justin read up on proper grilling technique for steaks, with a tutorial from one of my favorite food writers, J. Kenji López Alt. Basically, his tips boiled down to a few key points: salt the meat generously, and well in advance of when you plan to toss it on the grill; use a two zone fire, cook the meat slowly over the cooler side until it is close to the desired temperature, then sear it over the hot side at the very end; flip it as much as you want; and don't be afraid to use a meat thermometer. 

With those lessons in mind, Justin did an absolutely superb job grilling the steaks. They were on par with any steak I've had at a steakhouse, and since the meat was a gift, the whole experience was free. After we ate, I looked up Allen Brothers online to see how much our meal would have cost us, and it was over $250!! Honestly, I'm glad that I didn't find that out until Justin was already done cooking, because I think that would have been an awful lot of pressure for a novice grill master.

I'd like to think that the pie was the highlight of the meal, but I think that honor goes to Justin's steaks. More importantly, Dad seemed to enjoy himself, and that's all that really matters. Happy Birthday, Dad!

Cleanin' Out My Cupboards...

I never thought I would see this day. Frankly, it has always boggled my mind a little bit when I read a review of a recipe, especially a recipe that originally aired on television, and the author says something like, "Saw this and ran into the kitchen to make it. Delish!" Honestly, who has so much food in their house that they can watch a random cooking demo on television, then run to the kitchen, pull out all the necessary ingredients, and replicate it at home? Especially when that recipe calls for strange, and uncommon components? Apparently, I do.

Ordinarily, I rarely have food in the house that isn't spoken for in some way. I try not to buy anything that I don't have a specific plan for, because more often than not, it will go bad before it gets eaten. Our household only has two people, and we can only eat so much. Yet, somehow, the stars aligned this week, when I happened to catch a show on the Cooking Channel about Vietnamese food. This particular episode featured dishes from the mountain-dwelling Hmong people of Northern Vietnam, and the host prepared a dish of pork skewers that looked particularly interesting. Justin happened to be in the room watching as well (which is unusual unto itself, since he barely tolerates pretty much all forms of television), and he suggested that we give the dish a try. 

When I headed to the show's website, I realized that somehow, miraculously, we had all the ingredients in the house except for the meat. The original recipe called for pork neck, a fatty cut of meat popular in Vietnam, and I knew there was basically no hope of finding something similar in a regular grocery store around here, so I decided to substitute pork steak. We had the meat sitting in the marinade the very same day.

Now, I do probably have an above average number of southeast Asian ingredients in my pantry, since we seem to have become enamored with those flavors lately. The complete dark-horse for me was that I happened to have an unopened tube of lemongrass paste languishing in my fridge, purchased on a whim when Dominick's was giving out free tubes of different herb pastes to promote the brand that manufactures them. I had narrowed down the decision to basil and lemongrass, and went with the lemongrass because basil is readily available in its regular, leafy form. Plus, we had been making a lot of Asian dishes lately, so I figured I'd be able to find a use for it. Eventually, my instincts proved correct.

Even though we've been eating a lot of Vietnamese-inspired dishes lately, I was not prepared for these pork skewers. The recipe called for a whopping three tablespoons of fish sauce, which may not seem like a lot, until you factor in the fact that fish sauce is the smelliest, most pungent ingredient in my kitchen, and probably anybody's kitchen. Fish sauce is the liquid runoff that is the byproduct of rotting, fermenting anchovy carcasses. It is a very common ingredient in southeast Asian dishes, where a very small amount adds a hit of umami and complexity without overwhelming the dish. Given how bad it smells, I've always been amazed that it manages to fade into the background, but in the case of this marinade, there was simply too much of it.

Justin didn't seem to mind the skewers, but to me, all that fish sauce made them unpleasantly funky. It was really all I could do to finish the portion on my plate. Clearly, I'm not ready for the big leagues when it comes to Vietnamese food.

Still, I'm proud to say that I was able to cook an unusual recipe on a whim, entirely out of ingredients I had in my pantry and refrigerator (sans meat). I never thought I would be one of those kind of people, but now I feel like I've joined some sort of well-stocked pantry secret society. Now I'm left to wonder what else I could make out of the food already in my house -- only time will tell...

Burger Bash - Day One

Though potlucks are a great way to minimize the stress and preparation of hosting a big get-together, they do have one downside -- no matter how much you plan and coordinate with your guests, you're going to have too much of certain things, and not enough of others. For instance, the guest who had volunteered to bring beer to the party ended up blowing off my gathering all together, and we ended up with only a few bottles from a friend who is into home brewing and wanted to share his work.

On the surplus side of things, as I mentioned yesterday, not only did we end up with two entire watermelons, but we also had an insane surplus of hamburger buns. I'm not sure if all my friends are secretly on the Atkin's diet or what, but the vast majority of the meat consumed at the party was eaten without the accompaniment of bread. As a result, I've decided to have a mini-burger festival this week, not only to use up the mountain of buns currently cluttering my counter, but also to work my way through some of the burger recipes that have been languishing in my recipe queue.

First on the docket was a recipe for Asian-inspired pork burgers that I'd spotted months ago when we tried a new, albeit unsuccessful fried rice recipe that called for ground pork. The fried rice only called for a couple ounces of the meat, so we froze the rest, and I ultimately ended up using it to make meatball banh mi, but I kept that burger recipe in the back of my mind. Since we ended up loving the banh mi so much, I decided to use the burger recipe as a springboard for creating a banh mi-inspired burger recipe that would capture the flavors of our beloved sandwich in a format that would be easier to replicate.

To accomplish this, I stole many of the flavorings from our meatball recipe, with the addition of extra green onions, as called for in the burger recipe. I lifted the sriracha mayo directly from the banh mi recipe as well, but left out the pickled daikon and carrot salad in favor of a slaw dressed with a simple soy and sesame oil vinaigrette straight out of the original burger recipe. Thankfully, my experimental mash-up worked out marvelously. The burgers it produced were so good, Justin was asking me when we could have them again before we were even done eating. 

With a response like that, I know we'll be making these again before grilling season is over. The only thing I'd do differently, at Justin's request, is double the recipe so we'll have leftovers. With a dinner this tasty, you definitely want enough to eat it twice...

 

Banh Mi Burgers

Sriracha Mayo

2/3 c. mayonnaise

2 green onions, finely chopped

1 tablespoon sriracha

Asian Slaw

3 c. coleslaw mix

3 teaspoons rice wine vinegar

1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce

scant teaspoon sesame oil

scant teaspoon sugar

Burgers

2 pounds ground pork

5 green onions, finely chopped

1/4 c. fresh basil, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon sriracha

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced

1 1/2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 teaspoon salt

ground pepper to taste

Light the grill.

1. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients for the burgers. Mix gently until incorporated but not overmixed. Form into 6 large patties or 8 small ones. 

2. Grill the patties approximately 8 minutes, turning once, or until cooked through.

3. Meanwhile, stir together the ingredients for the sriracha mayo in a small bowl.

4. In another small bowl, stir together the rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugar for the Asian slaw. Toss dressing with cole slaw mix.

5. Assemble burgers on toasted buns with Asian slaw and sriracha mayo.

Happy Fourth of July...

Ever since Justin and I have been settled into our new place, we've been meaning to have a housewarming party. We've been wanting to show off our humble abode and welcome our friends into our new space. I tried throwing a combination housewarming/birthday party back in April, but it turned out that I had bad timing. Only a couple of people could come, so I decided not to bother. 

Since then, I've settled for entertaining a couple of small groups of friends and family, mostly in dinner party format, but I never lost sight of my goal of hosting a big shindig to inaugurate our new home. When I mentioned to my friend Jess that we'd gotten a new grill, she suggested that we ought to have a cookout, and I took her idea and ran with it. The Fourth of July seemed like as good a date as any, especially because it fell during the middle of the week (so there'd be no weddings or other longstanding obligations for people), and everyone would have the day off regardless of their work schedule.

As per usual, I received RSVPs up until the last possible second, but we ended up with a crowd of about fourteen people. To save myself the stress of feeding that many people, I turned the party into a potluck, with a focus on grilling.

Justin served as the grill-master for the event, and he was a true hero, slaving over the grill on a miserably hot day to turn out turkey burgers, tofu hot dogs, sausages, portabello mushrooms, corn on the cob, and chicken breasts. We certainly gave our little Weber a run for its money!

Inside we had a good range of dips and side dishes, from my quickly-becoming-a-party-classic guacamole, to hummus, taco dip, chips, caprese salad, watermelon, and Justin's famous potato salad. Dessert was also well-represented, including my peach ice cream pie, ice cream sandwiches, and that perennial cookout staple -- s'mores. Not only was everyone well fed, we ended up with an insane surplus of leftover food, especially hamburger and hot dog buns. I guess more people are still doing the low-carb thing than I originally anticipated. We're practically going to need another cookout to use up all the bread.

For the most part, the ladies gathered inside around the food, while the menfolk stood out on the patio drinking their beers and sweating profusely, thereby creating a vicious cycle. I think our central air-conditioning was a major selling point for the party, given the near-record high temperatures we've been experiencing lately. Even though our dining room table expands to seat ten people, we still had to seat people on the sofa to eat, but I was still happy to have such good attendance for my gathering.

Overall, I feel like the party went very well. Even though most of my friends don't know each other, and come from different phases in my life, I seem to be drawn to people with similar interests, and everyone was able to find common ground for conversation. Getting ready for the party and coordinating all the food was stressful, but ultimately very rewarding. After today's fete and the baby shower I hosted earlier this month, I think I may be ready for a brief break from entertaining, but I'm looking forward to doing this again.

I like to call this my "fireworks" dress.

There are few things better than being surrounded by close friends, and being reminded of the kindness and generosity of the people I'm lucky enough to call friends. After we'd gotten the house cleaned up, Justin and I discovered that we can see the Evanston fireworks display from the air-conditioned comfort of our living room. As we stood there and watched the sky light up, I couldn't help but feel very blessed in my life right now. Happy Fourth of July everyone!

A Skewer Runs Through It...

Justin and I are settling in to life with our new Weber grill quite comfortably. Last weekend, we used it to make some simple brats, corn on the cob, and a marinated pork tenderloin that came out perfectly cooked. We worked out some kinks with our chimney starter (a more eco-friendly way to get the coals going that forgoes the traditional lighter fluid method), and learned heat management techniques through trial and error. Another visit to Home Depot netted us a fire extinguisher, which has greatly increased Justin's grill confidence, even though we hope to never need it.

Tonight, we thought we'd put kebabs to the test, using a recipe that employed both chicken and Italian sausage, because encased meats automatically make any dinner better. I was hoping that the chicken, which we marinated overnight in a combination of rosemary, olive oil, and garlic, would share some of the characteristics of the pork tenderloin I made last weekend, which has all of the same ingredients. Mom has been making that tenderloin for years, and it's long been a family favorite, so I was hoping to capture some of its magic albeit in a different context.

As it turned out, I should have just used the same marinade, as this one was surprisingly bland, given its components. I'm not sure how something so similar could have gone so far astray, but the chicken was practically flavorless, aside from the smoky quality imparted by the grill. I was also underwhelmed by the sweet Italian sausage, which I had used because the recipe called for it, despite the fact that we universally use hot Italian sausage in the other dishes we prepare in our household.

Between each piece of meat went a fresh sage leaf, which was the instruction of which I was most skeptical. Sage can be a very dominant flavor, and I was concerned that it would overpower the duo of meats. In reality, the sage was actually the part of the dish that worked the best, as it imparted a touch of extra herbal flavor without being too much.

We also could have made a better selection with our choice of vehicle for getting the meat onto the grill. We used bamboo skewers, soaked in water for about an hour before grilling, because that was what we had on hand. The soaking was supposed to keep the skewers from catching fire and burning, but the technique didn't work for us, and some of our wood disintegrated on the grill. Next time, we'll know to procure some fire-resistant metal skewers.

I still think there's some merit to the idea of a mixed grill using flavorful marinated chicken and juicy pork sausage. When I get around to making the appropriate tweaks to my technique, I'll be sure to keep you posted on the resulting recipe...

Girl Meets Grill...

All things considered, I had an incredibly productive weekend. Not only did I see two movies, but I also ran a number of errands and scratched several items off my to-do list. Justin and I headed to Home Depot, found some planters that match our apartment, bought some soil, and Justin re-potted all of our plants. Aside from looking better and more cohesive with our decor, most of our botanical menagerie was long overdue for new housing anyway.

While we were at Home Depot, Justin also purchased our long-awaited grill, which we've been talking about buying practically since we moved in. I actually don't like grilled food that much, as I find its charred flavor unappealing, but I find myself frequenting employing my grill pan to make all sorts of dishes. Given our questionable ventilation system, I manage to fill the house with smoke practically every time I pull out the grill pan, so I've been eager to move the entire process outdoors.

Plus, for the time being, the condo adjacent to ours is vacant, as it moves through the foreclosure process. Because we share a deck with it and another unit, we've been eager to snag a prime location for our grill while the competition is minimal. As of today, the spot officially belongs to our new Weber.

That doesn't mean that we've had the time to assemble it, however, so for tonight's "grilled" chicken, I had to turn to my stove top one last time. Predictably, our living room filled up with smoke, and the sticky, sweet glazed burned onto the surface of the pan, making it a nightmare to clean afterward. Next time, we will definitely be making this dish outside.

Despite my bias against grilled food, I actually rather enjoyed this dinner. It's hard to go wrong with peaches/nectarines as far as I'm concerned, and cooking them quickly over high heat seemed to intensify their sweetness. I was relieved that the glaze tasted strongly of peaches, because when I stirred the ingredients together it smelled overwhelmingly of barbeque sauce. It may be downright un-American of me to say, but I absolutely hate barbeque sauce. I think it has a lot to do with my strong aversion to molasses, but other than that, I can't really put my finger on why I loathe it so.

Thankfully, the adobo sauce from the chipotles, which added the color and smokey notes of conventional barbeque sauce, was ultimately quite subtle in the dish. In fact, I think Justin was disappointed that the dish wasn't spicier, after I'd told him that it contained chipotles. In the future, I might experiment with adding a bit more adobo.

Once we get our new Weber up and running, I'm looking forward to giving this recipe another chance. Keep a lookout for more grill-friendly recipes as the summer progresses!

Grilled Chicken and Nectarines with Chipotle-Peach Dressing

adapted from Bon Appétit

1/3 c. peach preserves

1/3 c. peach nectar

4 teaspoons red wine vinegar

2 teaspoons adobo sauce from a can of chipotle peppers

2 teaspoons olive oil plus additional for brushing

3 large nectarines, cut into 8 wedges

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1. Coat grill rack with nonstick spray. Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Stir preserves, next 3 ingredients, and 2 teaspoons oil in medium bowl; season dressing with salt and pepper. Transfer 1/4 cup dressing to small bowl.

2. Brush peaches, then chicken with oil and dressing from small bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

3. Grill chicken until cooked through, to 165 degrees. Grill peaches until slightly charred, about 2 minutes per side.

4. Place 1 chicken breast on each of 4 plates. Surround with peaches. Drizzle dressing from medium bowl over chicken and peaches.