Archives for May 2007
Best burger, ever
No… not this one!
The best burger, ever was scarfed down without restraint… it was so damn good I didn’t get a photo.
The best burger ever was 1/3 of pound of grass-fed, organic beef, grilled to a medium-rare perfection, and served on a lightly toasted whole wheat bun with vine-grown, local tomatoes (green-house), vidalia onions, pickles, a dab of mustard and a smidge of this awesome ketchup. Served with a tasty BV Pinot Noir it was an excellent meal.
This burger will do in a pinch. It’s the same fabulous beef, slightly over cooked to medium (fault #1), no fresh crunchies, like lettuce or tomato (fault #2), and it is definitely overdressed with way too much ketchup and mustard (fault #3)…but I was able to get a photo of this average burger. Of course, the faults were all my own doing…too busy doing too many things at once, too lazy to stop by the store and pick up some lettuce or tomato, and way to excited about the ketchapeno and the french mustard…but that’s me…I’m an excitable girl.
I loved Mark Bittman’s article on making the best burger. I absolutely agree with him that grinding your own is the way to go, especially if you don’t know where your beef is coming from and how it was raised. I grind mine with the grinder attachment for my Kitchen-Aid mixer. It really is easy and totally worth it. However, since we buy 1/4 sides of beef from our local farmer I do get quite a bit of ground beef and since I do know where it comes from…etc…I have no problem eating it medium-rare. My secrets to a perfect burger are:
- Form the patties with a light hand…be gentle
- Right before I put them on the grill I sprinkle the first grill side with kosher salt
- Once they’re on the grill I give them each a quick dash of Worcestershire sauce
- Flip only once, after the flip they’ll be ready with 1-2 minutes
- Pay attention and don’t overcook
- Don’t get carried away with the condiments
This is a typical storm that will whip up right around the time I want to grill…nothing like lightening and huge winds to turn burger night into…chili night!
Almost Tassajara…lemon poppy seed muffins
GH and I got married in 1988 in San Francisco. We were renting a studio apartment in the outer sunset and either the weather was glorious with luminous sunshine, or cold and miserable with incredibly dense fog. Honestly I don’t remember what it was like that day, but I do remember friends and family came from afar to join us, the radio played KJAZ, and we had a case of champagne.
Besides the actual ceremony, which I remember very well, I especially remember the cake (of course!). It was a poppy seed cake from Tassajara Bakery and it was moist and tender, its lemony, vanilla cake combined with the poppy seeds to create a mellow, nutty goodness. KJAZ and Tassajara are both gone and I’ve spent the intervening years searching for a cake like that one…to no avail. However, these muffins from Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking From My Home To Yours come as close as anything yet. They have the same mellow nuttiness and their lemon flavor can be played up or down by varying the amount of lemon juice in the icing.
Lemon Poppy Seed muffins
Adapted from Baking From My Home To Yours by Dorie Greenspan
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp poppy seeds
2/3 cup sugar
Juice of one lemon
1/2 cup yogurt
1/4 cup half-and-half
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Combine the all the dry ingredients except for the sugar, set aside.
Add the sugar to the butter mixture and stir. Combine the yogurt and half-and-half and stir until no longer lumpy, add to the butter/sugar mixture. Add the eggs, vanilla, and lemon juice to the butter and combine.
Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients. Make sure not to overstir, just gently fold and combine…lumps are okay.
Spoon into the muffin cups. Bake for 12 -15 minutes or until golden brown and a knife inserted into a muffin comes out clean.
Cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Drizzle with icing made from lemon juice and powdered sugar. I use about 2 tsps lemon juice and enough sugar to make a thick, drizzley glaze.
Ginger and black sesame chicken - WHB
I was shopping the other day when I came across a product new to me…Ginger People’s Ginger Juice. Of course I managed to embarass everyone around me when I gleefully shoved the bottle of ginger juice in their face and blurted out something along the lines of “Wooohooo ginger juice…I am soooo excited“. Actually I should have been embarrassed but I was just too damned pysched about the ginger juice to care.
I’ve not done much with it yet other than whip up this marinade for chicken. Chicken breast really doesn’t do much for me unless its been bathing in a bath of deliciousness like this plump specimen was allowed to do. I know I’m given to hyperbole when it comes to food but really, this marinade mixed with the heat of the grill combined to transform this hohum chicken into chicken you’ll fight for. Just make plenty and if you don’t and a fight ensues…well don’t say I didn’t warn you!
The black sesame seeds gave it an almost smoky flavor when they cooked over the fire. All that good taste and good for you too. According to Wikipedia sesame seeds are rich in manganese, copper, and calcium and contain Vitamin B1 and Vitamin E. They also contain antioxidants called lignans, which are also anti-carcinogenic and phytosterols, which block cholesterol production.
Ginger Black Sesame Marinade
1 tsp ginger juice
1/2 tsp wasbi powder
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsps lime juice
1 tbsp black sesame seeds
salt
This is a weekend herb blogging post and many thanks to this weeks host, Ellie of Kitchen Wench
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