The yin and yang of In-N-Out

Posted on August 24, 2021 by Burnt My Fingers
In N Out Hot N Cold

The yin and yang of In-N-Out: onions, tomato and lettuce are cold, burger, cheese and bun are hot.

On my frequent return trips to San Francisco, I have a routine. The night I arrive (or sometimes the next night, if the trip out has been too long and strenuous) I go to the same In-N-Out and order the same meal, two cheeseburgers with double raw onions, mustard instead of sauce and pickles. (Ideally there will be an order of extra-crispy fries as well, but this trip the hateful Dr. Ludwig shook his finger at that.)

The first bite of this burger is about as close as you can come to nirvana in a public place, and this time I realized one of the key benefits is the juxtaposition of hot and cold elements in a combination that initially perplexes but ultimately delights the palate.

The burger and cheese are warm, of course, and so is the lightly toasted bun. But the lettuce, tomato and onion go straight from the refrigerator to the prep area and are slightly chilled or at worst room temperature. The pickle and mustard, my custom additions, are also chilled. The mouth does not know what to make of this combination and simply opens wider in happy submission.

Smithsonian mcdld

McDLT styrofoam box, photo courtesy of The Smithsonian.

I am not the first to take note of this appealing balance of opposites: for several years McDonald’s sold the McDLT, a burger in which the lettuce and tomato were literally separated from the burger in a styrofoam tray so the diner could combine them at the critical moment. The McDLT, which was immortalized by a pre-Seinfeld Jason Alexander commercial in 1985, was discontinued in 1996 for environmental concerns.

Please note you cannot experience this bliss in the Animal Style, which we reviewed against our “Texas Burger” a while back. It has grilled onions, eliminating that coolness factor, and the mustard is heated up along with the meat on the griddle. Avoid.

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Review: Ken’s Tableside Caesar Dressing

Posted on August 19, 2021 by Burnt My Fingers
Ken's Tableside Caesar Dressing

This bottle of Ken’s Tableside Caesar Dressing is almost gone. Luckily I have more!

Daniel Berman is a friend and erstwhile food blogger who has strong opinions which have earned him the sobriquet “Profusser” (as in “fussy”). When we helpfully posted hints for improving bottled salad dressing, he commented that the best thing to do was to throw the bottle in the garbage.

I expect the Profusser will eat his words, along with his greens, when he has his first mouthful of Ken’s Tableside Caesar Dressing.

Where has this stuff been all my life? Amazon reviewers sing its praises, including one who claims it’s the dressing served at the Crown Plaza near the Phoenix airport. (Pro tip for restauranteurs: if you’re using a bottled dressing, don’t broadcast that fact to customers.) And “tableside” really does carry some magic, since many of us have had the experience of having a Caesar mixed in front of us a la the original location in Tijuana.

What makes it so good? It’s tart, salty and cheesy, characteristics which are typically missing in bottled dressing. Maybe it doesn’t taste exactly like the Caesar of my dreams (no eggs) but it does include anchovies, dried mustard and even a jolt of Tabasco. The only drawback is that it’s only available in 9 oz bottles so you’re going to be buying a lot of them—which I did when I found them on sale at my local supermarket.

If you’d like to experience Ken’s Tableside Caesar Dressing and there is none available locally, you can order a test bottle from Amazon (affiliate link!). Sure there’s a premium for Prime shipping, but you’ll still pay less than if you ordered a Caesar in your favorite red sauce place. Check it out!

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Recipe: Minita’s Toor Dal

Posted on August 17, 2021 by Burnt My Fingers

Minita Sanghvi is a Skidmore professor who’s running for office in my town. The long hours of campaigning have kept her from cooking for her six-year old son as often as she’d like, so when she made Minita’s toor dal for him he ate four plates of it. You may do the same—it’s simple but delicious. Makes 8 servings. P.S. If you would like to know more about Minita and her campaign, here is her website

Ingredients:
1 to 1 ½ c* dried toor dal (split yellow pigeon peas)
½ t nigella (kalonji) seeds**
½ t cumin seeds
3 T neutral cooking oil
1 onion, chopped
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced or grated
1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped, or more if you like
½ c chopped cilantro leaves, plus more for garnish
1 large tomato, chopped
¼ t turmeric
1 t Kashmiri red chili powder**
Salt to taste, maybe 1 t
1 T anchur (dried mango) powder**

Method: rinse the dal and simmer in 4 c water until they are tender but still hold their shape, maybe 25 minutes. Drain and reserve. Sauté cumin and nigella seeds in oil till fragrant, then add onion, garlic and ginger and sauté until onion is translucent. Add tomato, chili and cilantro and simmer until tomato softens and the mixture clears the bottom of the pan when stirred. Add turmeric and chili powder and simmer for several minutes. Add cooked toor dal, salt to taste and anchur powder plus a little water if too thick. Serve hot over basmanti rice, with a garnish of chopped cilantro.

*Minita starts with 1 ½ c dried toor dal, but I prefer the flavor balance with a lower ratio of dal to spice mixture.
**These spices should be easy to find at a well stocked Indian or Asian market. There are no substitutes.

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Recipe: No-Potato Mashed Potatoes

Posted on August 12, 2021 by Burnt My Fingers
No Potato Mashed Potatoes

No Potato Mashed Potatoes, served with some nice midsummer short ribs cooked in stout.

No-Potato Mashed Potatoes are another creation from the laboratory of the irrepressible Dr. Ludwig. They provide a pleasant paleo base for whatever stew or gravy you want to pour on top when you’re avoiding straight carbs. You can taste the cauliflower and beans but the flavor is mild and will complement whatever you serve it with. Makes about 8 servings.

Ingredients:
1 medium cauliflower
1 can (approx 14 ounces) cannellini or other white beans, drained, or 1 ¾ c cooked beans made from dried
2 T olive oil or butter
¾ t Kosher salt
¼ t ground pepper

Method: core the cauliflower and cut into chunks. Steam until the stems are tender, maybe 20-30 minutes. Drain and add drained beans, oil and spices. Mix with an immersion blender (or use a potato masher) to the consistency of coarsely mashed potatoes. Serve hot.

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Recipe: No-Lasagna Lasagna

Posted on August 10, 2021 by Burnt My Fingers
No Lasagna Lasagna

No Lasagna Lasagna

Recent excesses have driven us back into the clutches of the wily Dr. Ludwig. Fortunately, there are plenty of tasty dishes that follow the low-carb precepts of his Always Hungry diet. No-Lasagna Lasagna, in which eggplant slices take the place of the pasta sheets, is a good example. Vary the ingredients according to what’s on hand; the only mandatories are the eggplant and a good tomato sauce fortified with extra tomato paste. Makes 6-8 main dish servings.

Ingredients:
1 eggplant, about 1 ½ lb
Kosher salt (maybe 1 t total)
Olive oil
1 lb Italian sausage
Lots of garlic, maybe 8 cloves, chopped
½ pound mushrooms, sliced
¼ c green pepper, diced
½ c parmesan cheese, or more if you like
1 ½ c good tomato sauce (marinara, primavera etc)
½ can (3 oz) tomato paste
1 t dried oregano
1 t fennel seed

Method: peel the eggplant, slice into rounds ¾ inch thick, salt each side and rub it in so the surfaces are thoroughly coated. Stand the slices in a colander over a sink or plate so they can drain the liquid produced. Crumble the sausage into a skillet and sauté, along with the garlic, until the sausage loses its pink center. Reserve. Drain the eggplant slices, pat dry with paper towel and sauté using very little oil till both sides are lightly crisped and the eggplant is tender.

Assemble the dish in a 9” square baking pan. Mix tomato paste and sauce, adding a bit of water if it is too thick to pour, then coat the bottom of the dish. Make a layer of eggplant then add sausage, mushroom, green pepper, spices and half the cheese. Add a second eggplant layer, pour over the rest of the sauce and top with the remaining cheese. Bake in a 375 degree oven 35 minutes until the sauce is bubbly and the cheese is nicely crisped. Serve hot, with a garnish of chopped parsley if you like.

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Recipe: Grilled Avocado

Posted on August 6, 2021 by Burnt My Fingers

 

Grilled Avocado Pieces

Serve grilled avocado pieces on top of the skin, with a sprinkling of seasoning.

Grilled avocado: why not? Grilling gives them a bit of extra flavor plus crisps the surface so pieces are more likely to stay intact. Serve in their jackets sprinkled with seasoning salt or furikake, or add the chunks to a salad. Important note: the avocados need to be just-ripe, not hard but definitely not mushy, to hold their own on the grill.

Ingredients:
Ripe avocados (see note above)
Olive oil for brushing
Seasoning salt or other condiment as desired

Grilled Avocado

Quarter a ripe avocado (removing the pit), brush surfaces with oil and grill with skin on.

Method: cut the ripe avocados into quarters without peeling. One of the quarters will have the pit stuck in it; carefully scoop it out with a spoon. Brush the interior surface with olive oil and grill until lightly charred. The skin will slip off easily when done; you can discard it or use it to serve the individual pieces.

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Grilling with the BlueStar Platinum range

Posted on August 3, 2021 by Burnt My Fingers
Grilling with the BluesStar Platinum Range

Grilling with the BluesStar Platinum Range.


My BlueStar Platinum range came with a “cartridge” which can drop in to replace two of the burners. It consists of a metal frame which can accommodate either a cast iron griddle or a broiler grate; the grate also has a stainless steel v-shaped diffuser that sits on top of the flame to even out the heat and keep fat and liquids from dripping directly into the burners.

BlueStar Grill Heating

The grill heating up. Be sure your exhaust system is turned on to HIGH!

I’d tried the broiler when I first got the range, using the manufacturer’s directions to turn the underlying burners to high to preheat it then turn down the flame. The grate was way hotter than I wanted it to be. This time I applied the home griller’s technique of heating to the point where you could not hold your open hand, palm down, over the grill for more than a second or two.

Shishitos and Squash

Shishitos and Squash on the grill.

First on the grill were some slices of yellow squash. Good to start with something other than a costly piece of meat. They were quickly coated in olive oil that had been flavored with salt, pepper and herbes de provence. Then some shishito peppers… should have used a basket for these, as I lost a few between the grates.

CAB Top Sirloin on Grill

Top sirloin at the turn. Grill marks a little more aggressive than I’d like.

Finally a CAB top sirloin, a little less than 1 ½ inches thick. Dipped it in the same seasoned oil to prevent sticking then salt and pepper on the grill. These grill marks are just a little too aggressive; I’ll back off next time.

This sample is a nice medium rare, though you can see one side is cooked a bit more than the other. And it’s trimmed from the outside so it’s a little more well done than the center of the steak, which was rare but not bloody just as we like it.

Medium Rare Taste Test

The finished product… medium rare on the edges, rare ion the middle.

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Recipe: Sumac Onions

Posted on July 30, 2021 by Burnt My Fingers
Sumac Onions

Sumac Onions.

Dominic Colose, who runs an excellent middle eastern restaurant in our
town, recently professed his love of sumac onions in a Facebook post. Research revealed that most sumac onion recipes use red onions and lots of parsley, but Dominic’s photo showed gleaming white slices with minimal adornment and that’s what we tried. The result was beyond excellent. Use as a condiment on your mezze platter as well as with hamburgers and just about any place you would use raw onion.

Ingredients:
1 medium onion (sweet Vidalia type)*
1 T ground sumac
¼ c finely chopped parsley
2 T fresh lemon juice
½ t Kosher salt

Method: peel the onion then slice in half lengthwise (stem to root) and slice each half into half-moon rings ¼ to ½ inch thick. You should end up with about 2 c. Mix in a glass bowl with all other ingredients and massage with your fingers so onion pieces absorb the spices. Allow to macerate an hour or so then taste for seasoning (we think the base seasoning is perfect). Will keep a couple of days in refrigerator; the second day is even better.

*If you use regular yellow onions with a harsh, eye-burning effect consider blanching them quickly before you proceed with the recipe.

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How to make bottled salad dressing 10x better

Posted on July 26, 2021 by Burnt My Fingers
Hotel Saiad Dressing Kit

Trader Joe Romano dressing + balsamic vinegar: how to make bottled salad dressing 10x better

It’s easy to make bottled salad dressing 10x better. It’s also quick and virtually free, because you probably have the key ingredient on hand. (I am staying in a hotel at the moment but luckily there is a bottle of said ingredient.) So let’s get started.

First, you need the bottled salad dressing. Products that claim to be vinaigrettes (“oil and vinegar”) are best for this though it will work for creamy dressings like thousand island and bleu cheese. Orange-y french dressing, not so much; but we have another hack for that. For our example we’re going to use Trader Joe’s Caesar Romano.

Now, dress your salad as you normally would… but drizzle on some vinegar before you serve. Wine vinegar (white or red), balsamic vinegar, cider vinegar all would work… just not white vinegar that has an acrid taste.

Taste… and see if you don’t agree that your bottled salad dressing is now 10x better! This works because commercial salad dressings are intentionally milder than they should be; they are calibrated for the broadest possible audience and the producers don’t want to lose customers who think it’s too tart.

Bonus hack: sprinkle on a bit of black pepper if you want an extra kick. (But not salt… these dressings are likely over salted already.) And this works especially well with “French” dressing, as well with vinaigrettes.

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Food for Thought: Dainty Desserts for Dainty People

Posted on July 20, 2021 by Burnt My Fingers

Dainty Desserts for Dainty PeopleDainty Desserts for Dainty People is available for download from archive.org, aka The Wayback Machine. It won’t cost you a penny, though you should consider making a contribution to support their work and help insure such treasures continue to be accessible.

In 1915 when this booklet was published, there was no such thing as pre-flavored jello. You had your choice of Knox Sparkling Gelatine #1 and Knox Sparkling Gelatine #3 (#2 is never spoken of). Each contains two envelopes that will make one quart of a jelled product; each contains an envelope of Pink Vegetable Coloring should you feel the urge to dye your product; #3 also includes an envelope of Lemon flavoring and thus is Acidulated.

There are quite a number of basic recipes for such treats as Jellied Prunes and Rhubarb Jelly (both on p 9), but we’re most drawn to recipes that seek to reproduce traditional dishes in gelatin (like Bavarian Cream, p 11) or use the medium in wildly creative ways. Marshmallow Crème (p 14), for example, has you beat egg whites into a gel base (hence “marshmallow”), divide the result into thirds, then add the pink coloring to one batch, melted chocolate to a second and lemon to the third for a result much like Neapolitan ice cream.

As a bonus, Dainty Desserts for Dainty People includes guidelines on how to set a table, how to seat guests and how to serve a formal meal. (“When dinner is announced the host should enter the dining room with the guest of honor. The hostess with the man guest of honor [sic] should be the last to enter. The guests should stand back of their chairs until the hostess is seated, and each man should adjust the chair for the lady he is escorting and see that she is comfortably seated before he takes his place at her side.”)

It is their hope, say the publishers, that “with the aid of this little book the housewife will find the making of a great variety of appetizing, nourishing and attractive dishes easier and more pleasant.” Check it out!

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