Not Your Average Burger!

Hey y'all! Hope those of you who read this are doing well. Tonight's dish is actually what I made for dinner last night. This one came from Rachael Ray's "The Book of Burger" and it was really good! On the menu was "Big Beef Burgers with Crunchy Sour Cream Onion Rings"!!

First comes the onion rings. These were really tasty and very easy to make! First up, get the oil heating to 350 degrees. If you have a fryer you can set the temp. I don't have a fryer so I use my dutch oven. If you place the burner between medium and medium high, it should be around 350 in 20 to 30 minutes. If you have a candy thermometer you can test it with that. Rachael Tip: If you don't have a candy thermometer, take a wooden handle spoon and put the handle down in the oil. If bubbles fly rapidly off the handle, the oil is ready to go! While the oil is heating, take a yellow onion and peel it and then cut into fairly thick slices and separate the rings. In one bowl you mix the buttermilk and sour cream. In the second dish, add the flour, chives salt and pepper. Soak the onion rings for a new minutes and then toss in the flour, then in the buttermilk mixture and then the flour again. That's right, double battered goodness! Fry them in batches about 4 minutes per batch and turn them once while frying. These were really, really good and made a great side and topper to the burgers! 

While the oil is heating and the onion rings are soaking in the buttermilk and sour cream mixture, you can start the burgers. These burgers were seasoned really simply. They consist of ground chuck seasoned with worcestershire sauce, lots of black pepper and a tiny sprinkle of kosher salt. Rachael Tip: Kosher salt gives a great crust to meat! Mix the meat till all the ingredients are combined, but don't over mix it as it can become tight and end up with a tough burger. Rachael Tip: This is a two-fold tip. First is Rachael's tip to get patties that are roughly the same size. This comes in handy since we've all been making either hamburgers or meat balls and get to the end and have this tiny amount of meat and we end up with a patty that is way smaller than the others. To stop that from happening, form the meat into one mound and score it into 4 equal parts with the side of your hand. This way you know that each section is about the same size and the burgers will be roughly, the same size! Second part of this tip is how to battle the burger bulge. When forming the patties, make them a little thinner in the middle. All burgers rise in the middle when they cook so making the patty thinner in the middle allows for you to have a flat burger when they are done. Otherwise, they bulge up in the middle. This also helps the burger to cook evenly! Once the patties are made place them in the skillet and cook to desired doneness. I cooked them for about 7 minutes on each side for well done. They were still very juicy and not dried out at all! FYI, when I put the burgers in the skillet, that is when I began frying the onion rings. Timing wise they were done at just about the same time the burgers were done!

While the burgers are cooking you can mix up the special "Red Ranch Sauce" Rachael paired with this. Combine buttermilk, sour cream, a little ketchup, dash of hot sauce, salt, pepper, lemon juice, chives, parsley and dill in a bowl and it's done. Once the burgers and onion rings are done, you're ready to build your burger. Place the burger on the bun bottom, top with lettuce (I used romaine but any crisp lettuce you want is fine), crunchy onion rings and spoon the red ranch sauce on the bun top to act as the glue that holds the top on the burger. I used the extra onion rings as the side for this instead of making french fries to go along with it! As Rachael says, this burger was as big as my head! I have a big mouth and it was still a stretch to fit it all in one bite! But, it's totally worth it. Hope you guys enjoy this one! I sure did! One of the many reasons I enjoy Rachael Ray and her take on food, she helps you rethink what a classic, ordinary food like burgers can be! Enjoy and until next time, happy cooking! 

Recipe: This recipe can be found in Rachael Ray's book "The Book of Burger".

Vegetarian for a Day

Hello All! I apologize for the absence. My sister was recently married and I was home in Alabama for two weeks. Needless to say, I didn't have to do a lot of cooking. Was great to be back home and have some of my mom's home cooking, but I'm excited to be back in NY and back cooking! On tonight's menu was a vegetarian meal that was really great! Tonight I made Rachael Ray's "Lemon Spaghetti with Leeks and Hot Tomato Bruschetta". First up, the pasta!

So this pasta is very fresh and herbaceous. Fill up the pasta pot and put the water on to boil. The recipe originally calls for ramps rather than leeks. I have actually never seen ramps anywhere in my life and because Rachael made this meal in march and said it was a seasonal thing, I assume they aren't available in freezing cold November, and opted to use leeks as a substitute just as Rachael suggested. Leeks are a bit of a unique thing. Most things you clean and then chop. Leeks are not that way. You first must chop them and then clean them. Leeks are grown in very sandy soil and as they grow up and the various layers form, sand gets trapped in each layer. Rachael Tip: Chop the tough, green tops off the leeks and chop the root ends off. Slice them in half lengthwise and then chop into half-moon shapes. Once chopped, either fill up the sink with cold water or fill up a large bowl with cold water. Drop the leeks in, separating them as you go and give them a swish in the water. Let them sit for a few minutes. This allows the grit to fall to the bottom of the bowl or sink. Then remove them and dry them on a kitchen towel and they are ready to go! Once the leeks are ready to go, add them, the garlic, fresno chile, lemon zest, salt and pepper to the pan and let them sweat out. At this point the water should just be coming up to a boil. Add the wine to the pan, turn down the heat to low and drop the pasta. The pasta I used is a pasta that has lemon flavor baked into the pasta, which I found at Buon Italia located in Chelsea Market in NYC. This would probably be available in a specialty Italian foods market but if it isn't available, regular spaghetti works fine. Be sure to salt the water! When the pasta is done, reserve a little of the starchy cooking water and drain the pasta. Turn the heat back up and add in the lemon juice, starchy cooking water and butter. The recipe calls for meyer lemons. I've heard them described before as having he flavor of a lemon, lime and orange all in one. I couldn't find them so I used plain lemons. The recipe doesn't clearly say whether to toss the parsley and mint with the veggies or just top the pasta with it. I tossed most of the herbs with the veggies and pasta and then garnished with a little more. Toss the veggies with the pasta and the pecorino romano cheese. Toss it for a good minute or so. This will thicken the sauce around the pasta! Plate it up and garnish with a little of the parsley and mint! This one is very good and would actually be a great pasta supper in Spring or Summer when the veggies and herbs are more in season! Either way, it was still good!

Rachael paired this meal with merguez sausages, which are a spicy lamb sausage. I wasn't feeling sausage so instead I decided to reach back to an old 30 Minute Meals and make "Hot Tomato Bruschetta". The "Hot" in the recipe title isn't referring to the temperature but to the fact there are red pepper flakes in the tomatoes, making them a little spicy! I actually didn't look up the recipe for this. It's really simple and really good. Turn the oven on 450 and let it preheat. I had some baguette left over so I used that. Slice it up and arrange on a baking sheet. Once the oven is preheated and ready to go, put the bread in and let it toast till golden brown. Watch it closely as it goes pretty fast. When you start the pasta water, you'll start the tomatoes that go on the toasted bread. In a skillet, add enough EVOO to coat the bottom of the pan. Add in enough tomatoes to fill the pan. The original recipe called for cherry tomatoes.

I actually bought a container of mixed tomatoes so i had red, orange, yellow and red with green specs. Basically, get whatever small tomatoes are looking great at the store. Add a few cloves of chopped garlic then sprinkle with salt, pepper and some red pepper flakes. Turn the pan onto medium-medium high and put the lid on the pan. After about 10 or 12 minutes, the tomatoes will begin to burst. Once they have burst and started giving off their juices, you can use a potato masher and break them down a little more. Take the lid off and let the mixture reduce and thicken up. Once thickened, add in a little chopped basil and turn off the heat. Spoon onto the toasted bread and top with a little extra basil. This one is one of my favs and I might have enjoyed it more than the pasta :)

Hope you all enjoy this one. It's a great vegetarian meal and if you left out the romano cheese, it would be a vegan meal. Why you would wanna leave out the cheese, I have no idea ;). Have fun with this one. Until next time, happy cooking!

Recipe: The pasts recipe is found in Rachael Ray's book "My Year In Meals". The bruschetta recipe can be found at the following link: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/bruschetta-with-hot-cherry-tomatoes-recipe/index.html