Now that its summer I'm trying to come up with some new things to cook up on the barbecue. I've been grilling up some corn, some other vegetables, and various types of traditional barbecue fare. As much as I like hamburgers (and cheeseburgers!), I've been working on a recipe for turkey burgers for awhile now.
Usually, I find turkey burgers to be dry and not very appetizing. However, the addition of some sauces makes for some interestingly flavored burgers. So far I've been most successful using Trader Joe's Soyaki sauce. I've been hunting around for a recipe to make a homemade equivalent, probably involving teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, and ginger but I've been unsuccessful.
1. Dice the shallot and mix with the turkey, ketchup, and soyaki sauce.
2. Divide the mix into eight equal portions. Roll the portions into balls and then press into patties.
3. Grill burgers over high heat. Because turkey is rather dry, try to sear the outside of the burgers to trap some of the soyaki inside.
4. Serve like a normal burger. Because of the soyaki sauce, I like to add a fair bit of sriracha to the normal condiments.
I have very few rules about eating in restaurants. I'll try almost anything, almost anywhere. A rule that I encourage everyone to follow is whenever a waiter/cook asks if you would like something not on the menu or an alternative preparation of something on the menu, always say yes.
The second variant of this rule came up this weekend at Gabino's Diner. Every time I go to this place I have an interesting dinning experience. Last time I ended up getting some complementary flan and some of the best chips and salsa on Long Island. This time, I had some of the best enchiladas I've had on the east coast.
Eventually I'll order traditional diner fare at Gabino's. I'm sure their pancakes and eggs are delicious, and their sandwiches all look amazing. However, Gabino's also happens to have the best Mexican food within 40 minutes of my house. Given that the only other Mexican place I know of on the island is an inconveniently far distance away, and there are plenty of places to get pancakes and eggs on the island, it'll probably be awhile before I order traditional diner fare at Gabino's.
On my most recent trip to Gabino's a very interesting question was posed to me, "Would you like beef and an egg on those enchiladas?" Given my rule of dining, I absolutely had to say yes. Especially since the waitress assured me that this was the way that everyone in the back ate their enchiladas. With that sort of recommendation, I really couldn't say no. Now I like almost anything with an egg on it and I like beef a lot, but I wasn't really sure how it would all work. Turns out it all works amazingly well, the egg and the tomatillo sauce work well together as does the beef and chicken enchiladas. What looked to be a massive pile of random foodstuffs turned out to be quite flavorful and delicious.
I haven't been led astray by following my rule of restaurant eating. Nor have I been led astray by Gabino's. Every time I go there, I have a memorable dinning experience. And really, I can't ask for more than that.
I noticed there were a bunch of food pictures on my camera when I was uploading pictures of stuffed peppers. Lets just say I'm even more excited for summer now that I am reminded that Summer means BBQ and BBQ means grilled meat for fajitas!
These pictures were taken over a year ago. I think the delay in posting them means I need to start making grilled fajitas post haste.
Despite not using a recipe and knowing next to nothing about Turkish cuisine, I thought these came out pretty well. I was worried that the rice was going to be undercooked, but aside from some al dente pieces here and there, that wasn't a problem. The spices and everything really work well, though I think I'll add more cumin and parsley next time around.
The fragility of the peppers is an issue I wasn't really prepared for. Using tongs to get the peppers out of the pot caused a few of them to implode, which meant that a lot of the stuffing fell into the water. A more careful approach (spoons and patience) is probably necessary.
Since it is almost summer, I've been thinking about how to make these on the grill. I'm thinking that pre-cooking the filling (the night before maybe) then roasting some peppers on the BBQ would work well. It would certainly do more to preserve the spice flavor than boiling everything. I saw a stuffed pepper recipe online that features grilled sausages, so I might get distracted and just make that.
I ate a lot of pork at this restaurant. When I say a lot of pork, I don't just mean a large volume of pork. My entree contained no fewer than four preparations of pork served over mashed potatoes that were at least 50% cheese. Did I mention this is sort of a fancy place?
We were inspired to go to Au Pied de Cochon after seeing the insanity that is Head Chef Martin Picard on Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. Seriously, this guy seems more than a little bit nuts. His food, however, is amazing.
Our experience wasn't quite as overwhelming as the one shown in the video (and involved far less foie gras). Half the people present were, more or less, able to finish their dinner. Not without significant work mind you, and with no room at all for dessert, but still. I finished my entree (eventually), but was literally not hungry for days afterwords. Compared to Au Pied de Cochon, La Banquise was just a preview of coming attractions.
For an entree, I ordered the PDC Melting Pot. I had read online that it included pork and mashed potatoes. With this in mind, I was less than prepared when a pot of sausages, pork, potatoes, mushrooms, and duck fat arrived. This isn't my photo, but someone on Flickr got a photo that sort of does this monstrosity justice. From what I could tell, the contents included boudin noir (blood sausage), pork sausage, pork belly, and pork shoulder. All of this was served over mashed potatoes that included a metric (this was Canada after all) ton of cheese, mushrooms, and duck fat. It was incredible.
Objectively, potatoes with that much cheese and fat couldn't be anything less than amazing. I'm normally not the biggest fan of boudin noir when served on its own, but even that was really good. Combined with the potatoes, I could pretty much eat it all day, every day. I'd be a million pounds and have a heart attack a week, but I could do it. The rest of the pork products were equally good, with the pork belly being my favorite I think.
We had a (nearly) vegetarian lunch many hours before going to Au Pied de Cochon. In retrospect, this was probably a good thing. Aside from lunch being amazing (and it totally was), Au Pied de Cochon is not the place to go if you are looking for anything resembling plant-based nutrition. I thought (and still think) that the food was basically the best thing ever. If I'm ever in Montreal again, I'll be making a stop at Au Pied de Cochon.
Turns out I forgot to take any pictures while in Montreal. Anyway, the weather was pretty bad (Snow! In April!) and there wasn't a lot of sightseeing. There was, however, a lot of eating. I'll write up something about the ludicrous dinner at Au Pied de Cochon later, but first I wanted to talk a bit about something a bit less classy, but equally ludicrous. Poutine.
Our first night in Montreal, we decided to get some poutine at La Banquise a 24 hour poutine restaurant. Well known for its variety of poutines, La Banquise was featured on the Quebec episode of Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and was the first stop of our unintentionally intentional tour of eateries featured in that episode.
As you can see, poutine isn't exactly for the faint of heart. We actually ordered four varieties of poutine (one for each person present) which turned out to be a bit too much cheese curds, fries, and gravy. I'm hard pressed to remember the exact varieties we ordered (to be fair, their names were in French), but there was a lot of meat products involved. The original (just cheese curds, fries, and gravy) and the version with chunks of onions and sausage were my favorite, but all the varieties were good in their own evil sort of way.
I'm really surprised poutine hasn't immigrated south. Seems like there would be quite a lot of people interested in something that is essentially cheese fries + gravy. Hopefully this will happen sooner rather than later.
There is a diner near my house that serves complementary beets. They also make a decent Rueben sandwich. Thus they are vastly superior to the terribly kitchy diners that exist in literally every town on the island. Turns out Long Island has some decent stuff, its just hidden and probably in a strip mall.
How did almost three years pass without anybody telling me that is a secret Turkish restaurant very close to where I live? Though having now discovered it, and stood in the dinning room, it appears it is still a secret to most people. I think I've found my new non-bagel eatery of choice on the island though.
I've made this a few times in the last few weeks. If it is big enough, you can roast the chicken, the vegetables, and the potatoes in the same pan. I tried some to make some pan gravy out of the chicken drippings the last time. If you are gravy-inclined, I recommend it.
1. Preheat oven to 425. Zest lemon and squeeze lemon juice (careful of the seeds and open cuts on your hands!) into a bowl. Dice garlic cloves.
2. Combine lemon zest and lemon juice with olive oil, oregano, and garlic.
3. Spread delicious lemon mixture on top and bottom of the chicken pieces. Salt and pepper the pieces.
4. Cook chicken covered for 30 minutes. Remove cover and cook for another 30 minutes.
I'm actually pretty happy with the way this turned out. Maybe a little too spicy for some tastes, though I think its very mild. I would like to add a bit more smokey flavor though, maybe I'll add some bacon next time.
Smokey Chili
Ingredients
2 Dried Chipotle Peppers
2 12oz Cans Diced Tomatoes
2 12 oz Cans Black Beans
2 Small Red Peppers
1 Red Onion
2 Cloves Garlic
1-2 Pounds Cubed Meat
3 Tablespoons Oregano
1 Tablespoon Cumin
1 Teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes
Salt
Pepper
Method
1. Dice onion, peppers, and garlic. Cube meat into chucks roughly a quarter inch in length. Reconstitute chipotle peppers by placing them in hot water. I usually boil some water in a tea kettle, pour it in a bowl, then place the peppers in that.
2. Simmer the onion over medium heat in a sizable pot until pieces start to become translucent. Add garlic. After a few minutes, stir in the cubed meat. Any meat will do really. I've used both beef and venison and the chili was good on both occasions (though the venison was probably a bit too lean). Pork would also be fine, as would a combination of different things. I make chili to get rid of stuff taking up room in the freezer, so use whatever you have on hand.
3. After meat begins to brown, stir in the peppers. Add 2 tablespoons of the oregano, 1 teaspoon cumin, and salt and pepper to taste.
4. Drain the beans and add beans and diced tomatoes to the mixture. Dice the reconstituted chipotle. If you want mild chili, be sure to remove the seeds (but be careful, capsaicin is not your friend unless you are eating it). Stir chipotles into mixture.
5. Add the rest of the spices and let the mixture simmer for awhile. Maybe watch an episode of Battlestar Galactica or Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations. Really, the longer you simmer everything together, the better. I don't recommend sitting down and reading War and Peace or anything, but about 45 minutes to an hour will do nicely. If you are starving, you can eat as soon as the beans and chili are sufficiently warmed.
Serve with Cheddar Cheese and Cornbread.
-As I already mentioned, I think adding bacon to would help achieve the smokey flavor I'm going for. The chili is almost to where I want it, so I'm hoping the bacon pushes it over the edge.
-If you find that the chili is too spicy, add beer. I never put water into my chili. An ale or pale lager works best and adds another flavor to the chili.
I've been trying to refine this for awhile now. I'm still not entirely satisfied with the result, but I think what I have is a pretty good base to add/subtract things.
1. Bring the water to a boil, adding a pinch of salt. Slowly pour the cornmeal into the water. Reduce to medium heat.
2. Stir the water/cornmeal slowly and constantly. The mixture should begin to thicken after 5-10 minutes.
3. Continue stirring mixture. Add vegetable, cheese and spices when mixture is semi-think.
4. When polenta is sufficiently thick (like porridge) set aside. Prepare eggs over easy or sunny side up (you want the yolk to be runny enough that it will enervate the polenta when you are eating).
5. When eggs are done cooking, pour the polenta into bowls. Place egg(s) on top.
Serves two with a fair amount of leftover polenta.
Something is still missing from the recipe. I think it needs to be more savory. I tried adding bacon with the egg and that wasn't quite sufficient (though you could just substitute the bacon for the egg). Perhaps substituting the water for chicken stock (especially if you make your own) would help. Adding more cheese is always a good idea.
