Category: burgers

a month or two ago I signed up to host a handful of interns for supper.  Who knew the schedule this week would be unforgiving.   We couldn’t let them down though and served up sweet raspberry limeade, lemony wedge salads, mushroom cheddar burgers and cheese fries with a side of conversation.  I am particularly pleased with our presentation – baskets and stripy liners.

Cheese Sauce

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk
1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese

melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Whisk in flour and cook for several minutes to get rid of the floury taste.  Whisk in milk, a half cup at a time.  Whisk in cayenne.  Whisk in sharp cheddar and serve over oven baked fries.

i have this thing about cookbooks and kitchen tools (plates, knives, pans, etc) and I have also realized I have a serious love affair with burgers. During our last pass through the bookstore I spied Spike Mendelsohn’s new book, Good Stuff, named for his new eatery (it’s on the to do list at right!) in DC. Spike is of recent Top Chef fame and we actually saw him cook with Richard Blais at a fun event here in Orlando where I got his autograph. Chefs are the new rock stars…
Anyhow, Z snapped it up and hid it from me until my birthday (my idea.) I am ridiculously excited about it. We made cheese fries and the Good Stuff Melt for dinner. Spike is a proponent of wrapping your burger in paper to meld the flavors together which I think works well. This melt is filled with …good stuff. In the form of Good Stuff sauce, sauteed mushrooms, sauteed onions and two cheeses. It was great. This book is worth digging into a little further.
A side note. His cheese sauce, if you try it, is the most ridiculous recipe I have ever seen. It starts with a roux which is NORMALLY equal parts butter and flour. He calls for 1/4 cup butter and a CUP of flour. That is not the stuff that good sauce is made of. I knew that before I made it but figured maybe it would work. Not really. I am not deterred though and will be cooking my way through this extravaganza of burgers and sides and wedge salads.

the dallas burger. The very last one in a parade of burgers and toppings. Those were the comments. Don’t doubt the Flay. There isn’t much left to say. We have made every burger and haven’t been often disappointed.
A turkey burger on a buttered potato bun with homemade barbeque sauce, cheddar and texas style slaw. Z really wanted tots on the side. So, there you have it, the grand finale.

today ends an officially ‘good’ day. Z was in the hospital for an, up to this point, unexplained fever of 103.4. But, he is home now and not a moment too soon. Yesterday was the anniversary of his liver transplant and all is more or less well. There will always be things to contend with, like this fever, but I think we both learn a little something each time.
While he was in the hospital I subsisted on eggs and food from the Cafe at work. I didn’t really feel like making dinner tonight but goodwill for Z prevailed and I got up the energy to pull off the next to last burger of our book challenge.
The patty melt is based on that all-American favorite but with the twist of Bobby Flay and my own twist of turkey.
Buttered and pan toasted rye with melty Swiss cheese and an unctuous reduction of red onions, red wine, red wine vinegar, honey and thyme – red onion relish. We served it up with some bread and butter pickle slices and a serving of crunchy jalapeno onions by Alexia.
We enjoyed it but felt it could have used Bobby’s prescribed pickled jalapeno that I didn’t have time to put up – just for that extra kick.
The best thing about this evening is having dinner together at home.

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the day kind of started out as a disappointment. We had planned to head to Gasparilla (aka pirate fest) in Tampa for the mardi-gras style parade and dinner with my mom and dad at Columbia’s, which is housed in Ybor City and serves up some rockin’ spanish inspired Cuban but I have been sick all week and decided I needed to stay in today and recuperate. But, we had started one of the toppings for this burger last night and decided it was ready to eat so we figured we could make the burger at least.
Last night after work I made pickled red onions. They are a gorgeous pinkly tinted jalapeno pickled addition to this burger. The burger is our usual ground turkey on a buttered heated kaiser bun but this one had the most complicated sauce so far, a mole. Mole is an unctuous concoction filled with almonds, honey, chocolate and many other things in a tomato based sauce that is cooked down to a thick paste. Topping the mole were super creamy avocado slices and queso fresco along with the onions. We served it with a few jalapeno slices and oven baked onion rings.
The whole thing was both tart and creamy with many tastes mingling together and was a really different and interesting combination. The day definitely came together even if it wasn’t how I planned.