Recipe: Daddy Burgers

Posted on June 23, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Daddy Burger

Daddy Burger, with recommended condiments

When we make burgers in the Burnt My Fingers household, we make Daddy Burgers. Enjoyed by over two generations. The ingredient list is fixed but the proportions are approximate; vary to suit your taste. (As written, the recipe is conservative with the mix-ins; we generally add more salt, onion, Worcestershire and pepper.) When you’re done the raw product should taste so good you want to eat it uncooked, like steak tartare. Makes 4 daddy burgers.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef: chuck, 85% from supermarket or your own grind
1/3 c dried minced onions, reconstituted with 1/3 c water or beer
1 ½ T Worcestershire sauce
¾ t Kosher salt
½ t ground black pepper
Recommended condiments:
Sharp cheddar cheese, melted on top
Yellow mustard
Texas-style barbecue sauce
Raw sweet onion, sliced
Sliced dill pickle

Daddy Burger Raw

Daddy Burger, before cooking

Method: mix raw ingredients by hand; taste for seasoning. Shape into ¼ pound patties and grill or griddle to your liking, perhaps with melted cheese on top. Serve with Whole Shabang Potato Chips or equivalent and one of our many coleslaw recipes.

Posted in Eating, Mains, Recipes | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Chilling and Grilling for Father’s Day

Posted on June 18, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Father's Day Gril

Grilling for Father’s Day… some suggestions

We did our grilling for Father’s Day a few days early because of some planned travel. The results were good, so we’re passing them along. The numbers refer to the keys on the photo above.

1.The basic plan: we took some nice asparagus spears and sliced red bell pepper and marinated them briefly in olive oil flavored with herbes de Provence, salt and pepper. Asparagus and sliced peppers are great for grilling because they cook quickly and it enhances the flavor if they pick up a bit of char.

After the vegetables went into the grill basket, we used the oil to coat some fancy grass-fed strip steaks from Healthy Living Market. This wasn’t for flavor so much as so they wouldn’t stick on the grill.

2.Want to get those cross-hatched grill marks you see in steakhouses? After the meat has been on the grill a couple of minutes, test it with tongs and see if you can pick it up without sticking. Once the steak releases, rotate it just a few degrees and continue cooking on that side till you’re ready to flip. Don’t wait and try to get grill marks on the other side because the meat will be too well-cooked to respond.

Steak Cross Section

Father’s Day steak came out rare-to-medium-rare as requested.

3.See the drops of brownish liquid here and there on the plate? These are steak juices and give you a clue as to how your steak will look when you cut into it. If there’s a pool of blood-red liquid the steak is still too rare and needs more grilling time. No juice at all means it’s over done. Just a little liquid will tell you it’s medium rare.

4.If you don’t have a grilling basket for your vegetables, get one, Here is one of several sold on Amazon which we recommend because it has a dark porcelain coating. Benefit: it heats faster and doesn’t look gross after it’s been used a few times as stainless steel would. Ours came from Pier One, as I recall, and it’s been used dozens of times and is good as new.

Happy Father’s Day in the Year of the Pandemic. And don’t forget to socially distance while you’re hanging around the grill!

Posted in Cooking, Eating | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Recipe: Healthy Cole Slaw

Posted on June 16, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Healthy Cole Slaw

Healthy Cole Slaw

All coleslaw is healthy cole slaw because of its cancer-preventing, COVID-fighting properties, but this recipe gets an extra boost by using yogurt rather than mayo or oil as the main creamy element. An excellent sweet/sour balance is achieved through a larger than usual dose of salt. From a recipe by dietitian Ellie Krieger, who also proposes the inclusion of caraway seeds which you can try if you like. Makes 8 servings.

Ingredients:
1 medium or ½ large head green cabbage, shredded
¼ c red onion or sweet yellow onion, sliced thin
1 medium carrot, shredded
½ c whole fat plain Greek yogurt
¼ c mayonnaise
1 T honey
3 T cider vinegar
1 t Kosher salt*
¼ t ground black pepper

Method: in a large bowl, dissolve honey in vinegar and add salt and pepper. Add yogurt and mayo and whisk until thoroughly combined. Add shredded cabbage, carrot and onion and mix well. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving.

*You might want to start with ¾ t salt then add a little more after the coleslaw has cured to develop flavor.

P.S. Do you think we are too obsessed with coleslaw here on Burnt My Fingers? Then check out the most recent comment on the Vincent’s Cole Slaw post. The grandson of the original Vincent checked in to comment! That’s like Neil Young stopping by to jam with your local garage band!

Posted in Eating, Recipes, Sides | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Recipe: Xinjiang Cumin Lamb

Posted on June 11, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Xinjiang Cumin Lamb

Xinjiang Cumin Lamb

Xinjiang Cumin Lamb comes from the Uygur region in northwest China, but in the U.S. it’s found most often in Sichuan restaurants. With my favorite place closed due to COVID-19, I tried to replicate it by tweaking an excellent recipe from Omnivore’s Cookbook: lots more onions, and whole toasted cumin seed instead of ground. Now the restaurant’s open again, and I’m surprised to find I like our version more than the original. Serves four as part of a combination meal with rice.

Ingredients:
1 lb leg of lamb, cut into bite size strips approximately 2 x 1 x ½ inches
1 T dark soy sauce
1 T Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
½ t Kosher salt
¼ c cornstarch
For the spice mix:
2 T cumin seeds
2 t Sichuan chili flakes*
½ t Sichuan peppercorns
For the stir fry:
½ c neutral oil
¼ c dried Chinese chili peppers, cut into thirds with scissors*
1 large onion (approximately 1 ½ c), peeled and sliced
1 T grated ginger
6 cloves garlic, chopped

Method: combine lamb, soy sauce, wine and salt and marinate at least 30 minutes and as long as overnight. Grind the Sichuan peppercorns fine and add them to a small skillet with cumin and chili flakes; heat until fragrant and reserve.

After marinating lamb, drain liquid and toss in cornstarch until evenly coated. Heat oil in a wok and stir fry the lamb in two batches, turning it quickly so the exterior is crispy but the inside is rare. Reserve. Drain about half the oil and add chili peppers, onion, ginger and garlic. Stir fry for about a minute until the onions are just beginning to wilt. Add lamb pieces and spice mix and toss while heating for 30 seconds or so. Serve hot over rice.

*Chinese chili flakes and whole dried chilis may look like similar American ingredients but they have much less heat. Do make the effort to get the real thing, at an Asian market or on Amazon (those are affiliate links). If you have to use American chilis reduce the quantity drastically; the dish will still be good but less complex.

Posted in Mains, Recipes | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The end of Takeout 2.0?

Posted on June 9, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Blue Hen Spiedies Takeout

Takeout 2.0: Blue Hen Spiedies meal for one, as it came out of the bag

On March 26 we wrote about Takeout 2.0—the new phenomenon in which fine dining restaurants were shifting to takeout to stay in business during the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, many of the restrictions are easing. In my home town of Saratoga Springs, NY outdoor dining is now allowed with safety measures and restaurants will open their doors to diners next week if all goes well. Some of the most innovative takeout meals will probably be discontinued, which is fine with me because they’re not a sustainable economic model.

Several of my favorite takeout 2.0 experiences have been through the Adelphi Hotel group of restaurants—the Salt & Char steakhouse, fine dining at The Blue Hen and upscale sushi at Morrissey’s. A three-course meal at one of these places in normal times would easily run $50-75 per person, but they’ve been selling a rotating menu of takeout specials for $15 and $20 for a three-course meal.

Blue Hen Spiedies Plated

As plated, with some cole slaw from home and additional spiedies sauce

Last night Blue Hen offered this for $15: SWEET POTATO TOTS with chili honey · PORK SPIEDIES on a butter-toasted hoagie roll · KEY LIME TARTS. Being a big fan of spiedies, a grilled specialty of the city of Binghamton NY which we’ve investigated in the past, I could not pass it up. The bun could not have been better but the spiedies as I anticipated were not juicy enough; fortunately I had some State Fair Spiedies Sauce left over from earlier experiments to correct the saucing.

Blue Hen was really on a roll the week of Memorial day, offering · SPRING “PANZANELLA” with asparagus, onions, favas, jalapeño cornbread · SMOKED BRISKET with texas style bbq sauce · MIXED BERRY VOUL-AU-VENTS on Monday May 25 followed by FRIED CALAMARI with green curry remoulade · HERB ROASTED HALF CHICKEN with crushed & crispy potatoes · CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH CUPCAKES on May 26. Each of these meals is accompanied by a sommelier recommendation that generally costs far more than the food itself. Salt & Char tends to stick closer to its protein base, but last week diners were tempted by Arugula, Radish, Tangerine Salad • “Fish & Chips” fried cod, crispy artichokes, truffle potato chips, caper aioli • Blueberry Peach Cobbler at $15.

I haven’t talked to the kitchen about the strategy behind these menus, but my guess it’s a way to keep the cooks involved at a time when their income has taken a hit. It’s been a great ride. In a couple of weeks, COVID permitting, I’ll be in San Francisco. There, restaurants can’t open for outdoor dining till July 15 so I’ve been investigating the fine dining scene along with verifying that my favorite places like Wing Lee Dim Sum and King’s Thai Cuisine are open for takeout with their regular menu. (They are.) Even with limitations, many of the fine dining places have menus butting up against $100 per person and sell out well in advance. But I’ll go out of my way to get the tasting menu at Benu, which is operating as a test kitchen for a Korean restaurant to open in the Mission in the near future.

Currently (through June 15) Benu is offering Soy-Braised Cornish Hen with Sweet Potato, Mushroom, Peppers; Chicken and Fresh Ginseng Soup, Chonggak Kimchi; Short Grain Rice Cooked in Chicken Broth and Drippings; Squid and Cucumber Salad with Chojang Sauce; Stuffed Summer Squash Jeon; Strawberry Roll Cake with Lightly Whipped Cream all for $46 per person.

I’ll be renting a car to avoid public transportation, so will swing by and pick up my meal on the way from the airport. Already getting hungry.

Posted in Eating | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Cure COVID with cabbage?

Posted on June 4, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Asian Slaw

Can you cure COVID with cabbage? I dunno, but this impromptu Asian slaw came out pretty good.

The other day I needed something healthy and crunchy to go with the last of my Instant Pot Thai Roast Pork. So I pulled a half head of cabbage out of the refrigerator, shredded it on the coarsest side of the box grater, added a little ginger and garlic, some chopped jalapeños for heat and carrots for color, then mixed up a dressing with 1 T cider vinegar (couldn’t find the rice vinegar), 1 T fish sauce, 1 T toasted sesame oil, 2 T neutral oil and salt and white pepper to taste. It was delicious and would have been even better if I could have let it mellow a couple of hours but one of my quarantine cohorts had eaten it by then.

A couple days earlier I was cooking Chinese and made some Hand-Torn Sichuan Cabbage with the first half of that head. I should add that these dishes provide almost instant satisfaction through their ease of preparation, though in most cases they get better with age. And have I mentioned sauerkraut?

My point is this. You’ve got enough on your plate to also have to worry about salad greens wilting or not getting enough roughage in your diet. Just eat cabbage with every meal!

As we mentioned way back in 2012, cabbage is a miracle foodstuff in its versatility and adaptability. “Here is a vegetable that is cheap, available everywhere year round, and prevents cancer. What more could you want, for God’s sake? You don’t even have to wash it; just peel away the top layer and you’re good to go.” Can you cure COVID with cabbage? I don’t see why not.

Over the years our love of cabbage has only grown more profound, as you can discover by doing a search for “cabbage” and “cole slaw” in the sidebar. We like to stock up at St. Patrick’s day when it’s on sale, and a head will be good for a couple of months once you remove the outer leaves, but even at a regular price of a buck a pound or so it’s far more economical than salad greens.

We’ll close with the analogy to the friendly character called the Schmoo, in the classic L’il Abner comic strip, which we cited in the earlier post. To quote Wikipedia, “Shmoos are delicious to eat, and are eager to be eaten. If a human looks at one hungrily, it will happily immolate itself—either by jumping into a frying pan, after which they taste like chicken, or into a broiling pan, after which they taste like steak. When roasted they taste like pork, and when baked they taste like catfish. (Raw, they taste like oysters on the half-shell.)”

Shmoos are imaginary, but cabbage is almost as good and it’s real.

Posted in Cooking, Eating | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Recipe: Mom’s Meatloaf

Posted on June 2, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Moms Meatloaf

Mom’s Meatloaf is good pandemic food because it’s easy to make, hard to screw up, and you’ll probably end up with leftovers for several meals.

Maybe we should call this Many Moms Meatloaf because it combines a number of best practices from around the internet. Feel free to make your own adaptations. Carrots are non-traditional and you can leave them out if you don’t enjoy their crunch, which persists through cooking. Add some sautéed mushrooms if you like. But do be sure to try the glaze which is what ketchup wants to be when it grows up. Makes 8-10 servings.

Ingredients:
2 lb ground chuck or other ground beef with no more than 15% fat content
1 c dry bread crumbs
½ c whole milk
1 egg, beaten
1 c chopped onion
½ c diced carrot
½ c chopped celery
1 T Worcestershire sauce
¾ t Kosher salt
¼ t ground black pepper
For the glaze:
¼ cup ketchup
2 T brown sugar
1 T red wine vinegar

Method: preheat oven to 375 degrees. Soak bread crumbs in milk until absorbed. Mix all ingredients except glaze in a large bowl and transfer to a loaf plan or 9×9 inch baking pan. Smooth the top; mix glaze ingredients and evenly distribute. Bake uncovered 55 minutes. Remove from oven and let the meatloaf rest a few minutes before slicing into servings with a spatula.

Posted in Eating, Mains, Recipes | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Recipe: MaryLou Whitney Cheese Wafers

Posted on May 28, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers

MaryLou Whitney Cheese Wafers are the creation of Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, the gracious woman who was the queen of social life in Saratoga Springs until her passing in 2019 at the age of 93. This recipe was found in a celebrity cookbook by a reader of Steve Barnes’ Tablehopping column. It is presented, as Rod Serling said on the Twilight Zone, for your consideration. We think it is a bit flour-y and could use an egg for binding, a bit of salt and Tabasco, a little longer in the oven at a lower temperature, and maybe a spritz of chopped chives. But the recipe does showcase the potato chip, which of course was invented in Saratoga, and that’s the most important thing. Makes about 20 wafers.

Ingredients:
1 c very sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 stick barely melted butter
1 c all-purpose flour
1 c potato chips (a generic brand, not Saratoga Chips), crushed

MaryLou Whitney Cheese Wafers

MaryLou Whitney Cheese Wafers

Method: combine grated cheese and butter; add flour, then fold in crushed potato chips and mix thoroughly. Shape into 1 inch balls then space them out on an ungreased half-sheet pan. Using a fork, press each wafer flat. Bake in 375 degree oven for 10 minutes. “Delicious when served hot with soup, or hot or cold as hors d’oeuvres.”

Posted in Baking and Baked Goods, Eating, Recipes | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Recipe: Instant Pot Thai Roast Pork

Posted on May 26, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Instant Pot Thai Roast Pork

Instant Pot Thai Roast Pork, with a spritz of Chili Vinegar

This is the comforting, salty-sweet dish everybody loves, adapted to make Instant Pot Thai Roast Pork. (If you don’t have an Instant Pot you can slow-cook the pork in a crockpot or dutch oven.) It’s actually a bit mild for our taste, but we solve the problem with generous amounts of Chili Vinegar or Nam Pla Prik Manao Kratiem (Thai Crack Sauce). Makes quite a few servings, perhaps 10-12 when served over rice.

Ingredients:
Pork shoulder or leg roast, 4-6 lbs
2 T neutral oil for sautéing
8 or more garlic cloves, chopped
4 or more coriander roots, chopped (use coriander stems if you don’t have roots)
3 cloves
2 whole star anise
¾ t white pepper
1 stick cinnamon
8 slices galangal (Thai ginger, optional)
½ t fennel seeds
2 T soy sauce
2 T oyster sauce
2 T fish sauce
2 t five spice powder
¼ c brown sugar
1-2 c water
Approx 2 T additional fish sauce, to correct seasoning
Approx 2 T lime juice, to correct seasoning
Salt to taste, about a t

Method: Heat oil in Instant Pot on Sauté setting. Cut pork into several large chunks (maybe 3 inches square). Brown in batches, including the meat attached to the bone if there is one. Reserve. Briefly sauté garlic and coriander root and spices until aromatic. Return pork to the pot and add soy sauce, oyster sauce, fish sauce and sugar. Add water; you can use as little as 1 c but we like to use 2 c so the meat will have more contact with the sauce, then cook it down after. Seal and cook on high pressure with natural release 50 minutes if you want pork chunks that hang together, 60 minutes if you want something close to pulled pork.

Coriander Root

Coriander Root. This are longer than usual. The fibrous ends aren’t edible but can be used for flavoring.

When pork is cool enough to handle, remove it from the pot. Strain off as much fat as you like (there will be a lot of fat) with a ladle or by cooling in refrigerator till fat becomes solid. Simmer the juice in a pan (or just return to Instant Pot) till reduced by half. (Skip this step if you used just 1 c water to begin with.) Strain out solids and taste; you may like it just the way it is but we add a bit of lime juice, fish juice and salt at this point.

Unless pork is falling-apart tender, cut it into approx 1 inch bite size pieces. Heat the pork and sauce together in a wok (or do it in stages on the Sauté setting of IP) till it crisps on the edges. Serve hot, over rice.

Posted in Eating, Mains, Recipes | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Recipe: Thai Chili Vinegar

Posted on May 26, 2020 by Burnt My Fingers
Thai Chil Vinegar

Thai Chili Vinegar, made with chopped jalapeños

Thai Chili Vinegar is the white liquid with chili slices floating that’s on the table in every Thai restaurant. It’s a simpler, quicker cousin of our Nam Pla Prik Manao Kratiem (Thai Crack Sauce). Makes half a cup, enough for a group to enjoy with a Thai meal.

Ingredients:
½ c distilled white vinegar
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
one jalapeño or three serrano chilis
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt

Method: chop chilis if using jalapeños, slice into thin rounds if using serranos. Add other ingredients and mix well. Serve over roast meats like Instant Pot Thai Roast Pork. Can be used immediately, but the flavor will deepen a bit if you let it sit overnight.

Posted in Condiments, Recipes | Tagged | Leave a comment