Burgers

A burger should be an easy thing to make but in reality it isn’t. I spend this week worrying about how to make the perfect burger. I must have looked at about five or six different websites trying to find the perfect recipe. I live with two wonderful friends who happen to have a bit of a different taste to food than I do. Knowing what they like and don’t like was something I also had to take into consideration while I was searching.

I don’t particularly like red meat but from time to time I’ll have something with ground beef in it (guess my body needs the protein, right?). I am not someone who tends to order a burger in a restaurant but recently I have found a sandwich shop near my house that makes the best burgers. A simple classic burger but it is seasoned well and cooked to perfection. Pure joy I tell you. Summer is more or less here and I didn’t feel like making anything heavy today so I decided on making a burger. Hold on for a sec, I didn’t just make one burger but ended up making two different kinds and get ready for this, I also made rosemary roasted garlic potatoes and cream corn (I can hear your thoughts – what the hell was she thinking?) but it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. Most women can multi-task and I happen to be one of them.

I woke up this morning with the start of a sinus headache and by the time I got up from my afternoon nap I was in serious pain. I took something and off to the kitchen I went with my wild bed hair, headache and pj’s (Sunday is the one day where I don’t worry how I look, so please do not judge me). I knew that if I wanted to have everything ready at the same time I needed to be focused and organized.

Step one:

I started on the potatoes because I knew that they would take the longest to cook. I preheated the oven to about 230 and I washed and cut up some potatoes into 1-inch wedges. I took the potatoes and mixed them together with a couple of smashed garlic cloves, some salt and pepper, fresh rosemary sprigs (I think everyone is meant to have a rosemary plant in their kitchen so if you don’t, please do get one the next time you are out) and some olive oil. I then layered the potatoes onto a hot tray and baked them in the oven for approximately 45 minutes but every ten minutes or so I would turn them.

Step two:

While my potatoes were baking I decided to make my first set of burgers. I made some fabulous Spiced Thai Burgers that (a) one of my friends had sent me and (b) that I couldn’t eat because they were too bloody spicy. The basic components of a spiced Thai burger are: ground turkey, peanuts, scallions, garlic, chili, fresh coriander, lime and some salt and pepper. In a food processor I mixed the peanuts, scallions, garlic and chili. I could not find fresh chili but I was able to find some in a jar. I don’t eat chili and they looked so small so instead of only using one I decided to use four or maybe five (sometimes it is good not to change the recipe!!!) and added the mixture into the turkey along with some lime zest and  juice, fresh chopped coriander and some salt and pepper.

Step three:

While the spiced Thai burgers were “marinating” in the fridge, I started making the other burgers. Making these burgers was difficult because I still wasn’t sure how exactly I would be seasoning them. I decided to go with the less is more theory and just ended up seasoning them with some salt & pepper, and Worcestershire sauce. I then put them in the fridge for about ten minutes. You know what they say “the longer you leave the burger, the better it will taste”.

While my burgers were marinating I started making cream corn. I have always loved cream corn and for as long as I can remember I have always eaten it straight from a tin.  One of the joy’s of living in a big country is that you can find anything. Since moving to Europe about two years ago and found out that I couldn't  find nor buy cream corn here, my heart has been broken. One of my dear friends Shannon is always making her own things; her theory is that if you can’t find it then make it yourself. About a month ago she made cream corn and it was tasty. So after thinking about it and talking about it forever, I finally decided that I would try making my very own cream corn. This recipe called for combining corn, heavy cream, salt, sugar, butter in a pot and adding some milk and flour and stirring it until it thickens. I made the cream corn and it tasted good but I still prefer the one from a can. Guess some things are meant to be from a tin.

When I finally had all the cream corn ingredients in a pot, I started frying up some bacon and burgers. At certain moments I had my right hand stirring the corn and my left hand flipping burgers and making sure my bacon wasn’t burning. Multi-tasking is possible but not always easy. Fifteen minutes later everything was ready. By everything I really mean everything; burgers – check, crispy bacon – check, roasted potatoes – check, cream corn – check and the rolls were in the oven – check. I ALSO somehow managed to set the table with a few extra burger goodies.

 

I had a little bit of everything but really only loved the rosemary roasted potatoes and the “regular” burgers. The potatoes were so good. I don’t eat a lot of potatoes but every time I do they seem to taste fabulous. The so called regular burger wasn’t regular but delicious (the secret is to coat the burger with some mustard while it’s cooking), it was juicy and cooked to perfection. Served with some sautéed onions (made those as well), cheese and bacon made it all even better and it makes my mouth water just thinking of it again.

After taking a bite of the Thai burger I decided that I wasn’t going to eat it. It was too spicy for me. The burger was seasoned well (both my roommates preferred this burger) but it was too much for me. Not sure if I would make this burger again but it is a wonderful recipe to pass on to someone who likes spicy food.

Apple Crumbe

When life gives you lemons we are meant to make lemonade – okay true but only if you are allowed to add tons of sugar. When I think of lemons (mind you this does not happen often) I just want to take out a medium sized sugar jar and burry the damn lemons underneath it. As some of you might notice here, a lemon is an ingredient that I have a taste for. But nevertheless I ended up using it this week.

I had a sudden craving for apples this week and wondered what kind of chicken apple recipe I could find but then thought to hell with it and decided on making apple crumble instead. I found myself surfing the food network website until I found the perfect apple crumble recipe written by the one and only Melissa d’ Arabian (I have never heard of her nor do I know who she is) and before I knew it I was in the kitchen cooking up a storm so to speak.

To make an apple crumble we need the following ingredients:

apples

zest & the juice of one lemon

a bit of sugar

a bit of cinnamon

a pinch of salt

some flour

brown sugar

unsalted butter and a cup of oats.

At the moment I am currently located in Europe in one of the international cities of Poland and for most part we can find everything except for crabmeat, creamy salad dressings and most of the American stuff that I need and miss and a long list of other things but that isn’t important at the moment. I quickly popped by a grocery store and had the hardest time finding oats. I stood in front of the cereal aisle and believe it or not, they didn’t have oats. Seriously how difficult would it be to import oats? Long story short I did indeed find oats at an international shop and nearly paid a fortune for a five small sachets because selling it in a box is obviously too difficult.

This was such an easy recipe to follow. I pre-heated the oven and combined flour, sugar, salt and oats in a bowl. In another bowl I simple mixed sliced up apples, cinnamon, salt and lemon juice and I just had to take a taste to see what the filling would taste like. I tasted an overpowering taste of lemon and when that hit my tongue I cringed and added some more sugar. In a casserole dish I melted the butter and poured the butter into the flour mixture and incorporated it with a fork. In the baking dish I “arranged” the apples and topped it with the flour mixture and baked it for approximately 45 minutes.

I just love a hot sweet dessert with ice-cream served on the side. The apple crumble was delicious. The oats topping was crunchy, the apples were all soft and gooey and even a bit sweet but you could take the tartness of the lemon. Had I not had ice-cream, I don’t think I would have been able to eat this. The lemon added a bit too much tartness for my liking. I will make this again but I will have to double the amount of sugar and cinnamon. What can I say…this gal has a sweet tooth.

Shepherds Pie

I am not a huge fan of potatoes or red meat but every now and then I just have to have some. A wonderful way of having two things you don’t really like it to simply combine them together with a few extra bits of this and that…

In my first year of college I was sitting in the cafeteria enjoying lunch with another student (no I do not remember her name or what she looked like – sorry) when she mentioned the words “shepherds pie”. Right than and there I demanded for her to tell me more. This woman’s recipe sounded so amazing…mashed potatoes, ground beef and her secret ingredient was creamed corn. I remember writing down every word and before I knew it, I was baking my very own shepherd’s pie. People let me tell you it was delicious. So delicious that I have been using the same recipe for the last decade (okay maybe not decade, I’m not that old!!)

As most of you might have noticed I am a big foodie and over the years I have been watching Hell’s Kitchen on and off. I recently got back into watching the show and I absolutely wish I could meet Gordon Ramsey. On TV he seems like the worst dragon but a big part of me believes (and hopes) that he is a sweet gentleman in real life. For some reason I cannot get myself to believe that someone could be that cold and rude, but than again we don’t live in a perfect world so anything is possible.

This week I decided to step into Gordon’s “kitchen” and cooked his famous shepherd’s pie. Before I give you all the juicy details about my cooking experience this week, you’ll be happy to know that I wasn’t cooking in my pj’s and I am proud to inform you that maybe this will not become a habit after all.  The recipe called for a few simple ingredients and most of them I had at home. I purchased ground beef, Worcestershire sauce, red wine (the recipe called for about ¼ cup but believe me more was needed), tomato puree (this is something I never have in my cupboards) and the rest are things I always seem to have – carrots, onions, fresh rosemary & thyme (but I cheated here and used dry thyme), garlic, salt and pepper.

I began by cutting up a few potatoes and made some mashed potatoes. I always find it interesting what people use to make mashed potatoes. According to chef Ramsay one needs heavy cream, butter, egg yolks and parmesan cheese and according to my friend Shannon one needs butter and milk (a small note her – Shannon’s potatoes are AMAZING) but I make mine with butter and sour-cream. Don’t pull your nose at me…try it and you’ll see just how delicious it tastes!!!

While the potatoes were boiling, I stared all the prep work and made the beef mixture. Into a pan I poured some olive oil and added the meat (according to the recipe the meat had to be stirred as if my life depended on it – and that is just what I did).  After stirring for a few minutes, I then added the rosemary, thyme and garlic and did some more stirring. I then quickly HAD to add the carrots, onion and did some more stirring and last by not least added the sauce, tomato puree and red wine and did some more stirring. At this point my arm started hurting and I was in serious need of a glass of wine.  No where in the recipe did it indicate to put in the salt and pepper and truth be told salt and pepper wasn’t enough. After tasting the beef I had to added a little more of my own stuff….if I remember correctly I added some curry, cayenne pepper, and maybe even some cinnamon (guess I was going for the Greek flavor) and it all tasted good.

For the final part I scooped in my meat mixture into a deep dish and then spooned mashed potatoes over the top (I did leave some mashed potatoes and meat so that I could taste/eat while I was waiting for my pie to bake) and sprinkled a generous portion of parmesan cheese and into the oven it went for approximately 20 minutes. While the pie was baking, I was enjoying the exotic smell in the kitchen and ate the little that I had put aside but that little ended up being more than I thought it would be and by the time my pie came out I wasn’t that hungry anymore (a brief note here – do not taste/eat your food while cooking).

All in all I was happy with the recipe – the beef mixture was juicy and semi-sweet with a bit of a spice. The potatoes were oh so good with a crispy cheese topping and the combination of everything put together worked well but I don’t think I will make it again. Old habits don’t always die and as much as I enjoyed making and eating chef Ramsay’s shepherds pie – I enjoy my own version better and will be making it more often after I have mastered how to make my own creamed corn.