Lamb Burgers with Tzatziki Sauce

This week I went Greek, kinda sorta. Well, the cheese you see on there is mozzarella and that’s arugula peeking out on top, but that’s what was in my fridge so there.

Burgers:

1 lb. ground lamb

1 Tbsp capers, minced

Fresh parsley, chopped

1 tsp. garlic powder

Salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, and make 4 patties. I like to make some divots in the middle of the patties so they cook a little more evenly. Preheat a skillet to medium-high, then cook for 2-3 minutes/side. Top with mozzarella during the final minute or two.

Tzatziki:

12 oz. (by weight) Greek Yogurt

½ cucumber (~4 inches long), diced

Juice of 1 lemon

1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Dill, chopped

1 large clove garlic, minced

salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients, taste and adjust, and allow to sit in the fridge for at least an hour before serving. Makes way more than you’ll need for the burgers, but that’s alright.

Assembly:

Toast the buns, stack the burger, red onion slices, tomato, tzatziki, and arugula

Roasted Golden Beets with Sun-dried Tomato Pesto and Creamed Corn

In a rare twist, I actually cooked a meal that didn’t involve meat in some way shape or form. I’m still not a huge fan of beets, but I’m trying. The creamed corn recipe is from Ad Hoc at Home. The pesto was leftover, which is why it looks a little worse for the wear in the photo.

Pickled cherry tomatoes:

~12 oz. cherry tomatoes

¾ cup water

¾ cup cider vinegar

4 tsp kosher salt

2 tsp sugar

Lime peel from ½ a lime

1 garlic clove, finely minced

1 tsp crushed red pepper

Method: bring the water, vinegar, salt, and sugar to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat, and cool for 20 minutes. Place remaining ingredients in a container and poor cooled vinegar mixture over contents. Refrigerate.

Roasted Beets : Peel beets, cut into ¼” thick rounds, season with salt/pepper/olive oil and bake at 400°F for 25 to 30 minutes

Creamed Corn:

Kernels from 2 ears of corn

2 Tablespoons butter

Salt

Juice of ½ lime

1/3 cup heavy cream

Lime zest

Chives

Method: In a pan melt the butter over medium heat. Add the corn, season with salt and lime juice (I used ½ a lime). Turn the heat to medium-low, and cook for 15 minutes, until the liquid is evaporated and the corn begins to sizzle. Add the cream and lime zest and cook for 6-8 minutes more, until the corn absorbs a good bit of the cream. Remove from heat and add the chives.

Sun Dried Tomato and Walnut Pesto:

¼ cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil

¾ cup basil

1 clove garlic

½ cup grated parmesan

¼ cup walnuts

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

Method: add the garlic and walnuts in a food processor and give them a whir. Add the tomatoes, basil, and parmesan and turn the machine on. While it’s running, pour in the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

Salmon with Orange Buerre Blanc, and Glazed Vegetables (with a bonus lime and mint sorbet)

First, some thoughts on how this turned out

• The orange beurre blanc was amazing. I guess a stick of butter will make anything better
• I’ll definitely try the glazed vegetables again (carrots were a little overcooked this time), but I wouldn’t do it again when there’s already a hearty butter sauce on the plate
• I thought this would look fancier. One of these days I’ll figure out how to plate food properly.
• The lime mint sorbet started to melt with the quickness. Though it was like 85 in my apartment.
• Speaking of the sorbet, it needed something else. Just the lime and mint made it taste like lime-ade (with a hint of mint). Maybe some watermelon would work.
• Fava beans are more of a pain than they’re worth

Recipe:

Orange Beurre Blanc (from: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/orange_beurre_blanc_sauce_for_seafood/)

Juice of 1 orange (about 3/8 cup)

1 teaspoon orange zest

1 teaspoon minced shallots

¼ cup white wine (I actually used Vermouth)

1 stick (1/4 lb.) butter

Salt

Pepper

Add the orange juice, zest, shallots, and wine in a small sauce pan. Bring to a simmer, cook over medium high and reduce until the sauce is nearly a glaze (took me ~10 minutes). Add in the butter in 4 additions, whisking continuously as you do so to emulsify the sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

Glazed Vegetables

3 carrots, halved, then quartered

Fava Beans (like 8 stalks I think?)

½ - ¾ cup chicken stock

2 Tablespoons butter, divided

Lime juice

Lime zest

Salt

For the fava beans: remove the beans from the stalks. Parcook the beans (I was lazy and microwaved them) until the outer layer shrivels. Remove the inner, edible part.

Place the carrots in a medium sauté pan, and cover halfway with chicken stock. Add 1 Tbsp butter. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook on medium-low, until carrots start to get tender. Add the fava beans, the remaining 1 tbsp of butter, and raise the heat to medium-high. Stir until the liquid reduced to practically nothing, tossing the vegetables to cover them in glaze. Squeeze in a bit of lime juice, and add some lime zest.

Salmon:

Score the filet along the skin (so it doesn’t curl up in the pan), and season with salt on both sides. Heat a skillet over high heat. Pour a little vegetable oil on the fish, coating both sides. Place the fish in the pan, skin down. Reduce heat to medium, and cook for ~3 minutes. Flip and cook for another minute. Times will vary based on how thick the fish is, the filet I used wasn’t very thick.

Lime and Mint Sorbet:

4 Limes, halved and skin removed

Leaves from 1 sprig of mint, roughly chopped

2 Tbsp sugar

4 cups ice

Add the ingredients to your Vitamix in the order listed. Turn the blender on, and increase the speed from 1 to 10. Blend for 45 seconds, tampering down with the big black tampering thingamajiggy that they give you. The sorbet is done when the blade makes a whirring sound. Serve with lime zest.

Soy, Citrus, and Sriracha Marinated Chicken

This week’s 52 Weeks of Cooking theme is BBQ/Grilling, which is like a cruel joke to me since I live in an apartment and don’t own a grill. If I did own a grill, I would have cooked this chicken on there, but we’ll just have to pretend instead.

Recipe:

¼ Cup Soy Sauce

3 Tablespoons Orange Juice

1 Tablespoon Lime Juice

2 Tablespoons Sriracha

1 Tablespoon hoisin

1 Tablespoon honey

2 teaspoons sesame oil

3 sprigs cilantro

1 clove of garlic, minced

2 teaspoons ginger, minced

2 chicken legs (thighs and drumsticks)

Put everything except the chicken together in a bag/dish. Taste and adjust. Add the chicken, marinade for 4-6 hours. Preheat your oven to 425°F, and bake the chicken for 40-45 minutes, until juices run clear. Better yet, grill it. Meanwhile, reserve the marinade in a small sauce pan. Bring to a simmer and reduce by about half. Turn off heat. Brush marinade on chicken two or three times during the cooking process to get a bit of a glaze going. Toss the chicken under a broiler for a hot minute (both literally and figuratively) if you want some additional color on it.

Pizza Bianco with Pork Roll and Eggs

This recipe is a take on a recipe from Michael Ruhlman’s Twenty. If you’re unfamiliar with pork roll, then you’re missing out on the single greatest non-Springsteen thing to come out of New Jersey. I find it hard to describe pork roll, because much like a hot dog, I have no idea what’s in it. It’s sort of sausage like in a way, but at the same time nothing like that at all. Pork goodness is all I have to say. I’ve never had tallegio prior to making this pizza, but boy does it smell funky. It melts well though, so it worked out in the end.

Dough (for one 12” pie):

250 Grams Flour

150 Grams warm (110°F) water

1 gram instant yeast

5 grams kosher salt

½ tablespoon sugar

Toppings:

Pork roll (I ended up using in ~3/4 diced)

3 eggs

Tallegio cheese, grated

Extra virgin olive oil

Basil

Arugla

Add the yeast, sugar, and about half the water in a container and allow the yeast to work its magic for 5-10 minutes. Add to a mixer bowl along with flour, salt, and water. Mix in an stand mixer on medium low for about 10 minutes, until the dough can pass the windowpane test. Transfer to a bowl that’s been sprayed with cooking spray, cover, and allow to rise for 2-3 hours, until doubled.

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Punch down dough, and on a well floured surface roll out with a rolling pin, rotating as you go to maintain a circular shape. You’ll want a disc with a circumference a little larger than the skillet you’ll be working with. Place the dough in the skillet (no need to oil the skillet), and fold the sides down to create the crust. You may need to trim some excess dough to get everything sized correctly. 

 

Brush with olive oil, then top with diced pork roll and tallegio. 

 

Place the skillet on the stove and turn the burner on high. Let it go for 3 minutes, then transfer to the oven. Bake for 13 minutes, then remove from the oven. Use a ladle to make divots in the dough and pour in 3 eggs (I suggest you use ramekins to make this easier).

 Place back in the oven for 5 more minutes. Remove, and top with arugla and basil.

Dat Crust

Stromboli

There’s a few different stories about the true origin of Stromboli, but for the sake of regional cooking week, we’re going to assume that it was indeed invented in the town of Essington, outside of Philadelphia.  The basic idea is a meat-y (or vegetable-y, if you’re into that sort of thing) filling inside pizza dough. Not to be confused with calzones, which are just pointless.

Adapted from: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/stromboli-recipe/index.html

Stromboli (yields 2 big ass strombolis)

Pizza dough (recipe follows)

½ pound Italian sausages, casings removed

1 cup diced onions

1 lb. package of mushrooms, sliced

2 serrano peppers, deseeded, deveined, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

¼ pound pepperoni

¼ pound capicola ham

¼ pound pancetta

Tomato sauce

2 cups grated mozzarella

1.5 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Oregano

Fresh basil (a handful), chiffonaded

Fresh parsley (a handful), chopped

Salt

Pepper

1 large egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon of water for egg wash

First things first - In a large sauté pan over medium heat, brown the sausages. Remove and let cool. Add the onions, mushroom, and peppers, and cook on medium/medium low for about 7 minutes, until the onions are softened and the mushrooms have released their liquid. Add the garlic, season with salt, pepper, and oregano and cook for a minute more. Remove from heat and let cool.

Assembly – on a lightly floured surface, divide the dough in half, and roll one half into a rectangle approximately 16 inches long and 12 inches wide. Scoop on half the onion mixture, half the sausage, half the meats, a ladle full of tomato sauce, half the mozzarella, and ½ cup of grated parmesan. Top with the basil and parmesan. You’ll want to stack all of the filling in a line, off center (closer to you). Brush the far side of the dough with the egg wash. Fold the dough up creating a lazy cylinder. Bring the far side up last, pressing it against the near side of the Stromboli. Transfer to a baking sheet and cover, letting the dough rise/proof/whatever it does for 20-30 minutes. Repeat with the rest of the dough and fillings.

Baking - Preheat your oven to 375°F. Bake the strombolis for 20 minutes, rotating the two between oven racks halfway through. After the 20 minutes, top the strombolis with the remaining parmesan cheese, and cook for 5 minutes more, until the cheese is golden. Don’t be tempted to use the broiler for this, or you’ll just end up burning the tops. Ask me how I know. Apparently when you take these out of the oven you should let them rest for 10 minutes, but I sure wasn’t about to wait.

Pizza Dough

500 Grams (about 4 cups) all-purpose flour

300 grams (about 1 ¼ cup) water

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons kosher salt

Add about half the water to a bowl/container and add the sugar and yeast. Let the yeast do its thing for 10 minutes or so – it will be foamy. Place the flour, remaining water, yeast/sugar/water mixture, salt and olive oil in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix with the dough hook to combine, then mix for 5-8 minutes, or knead by hand. Once the dough is nice and smooth, break off a piece and stretch it. If it stretches until translucent, you’re in business. Spray a large bowl with cooking spray, transfer the dough to the bowl, cover and let rise until the dough has doubled in size and doesn’t spring back when you push your finger in, 2-4 hours depending on how warm it is in your kitchen.

Strawberry Gazpacho with Pancetta

This version of gazpacho comes care of the Eleven Madison Park cookbook, with some slight modifications. The moment I came across this recipe I figured I absolutely had to try it, due to both how awesome it looked and the fact that it doesn't require your own personal brigade to pull off like some of the other recipes. Cleaning and prepping all the strawberries was time consuming, but other than that it's a simple recipe. I went a little overboard on adding hot sauce, but there's worse things in life to go overboard on. I definitely want to make this again, but substitute some of the strawberries for watermelon.

Gazpacho (serves 8)

6 cups strawberries, hulled (about 2 lbs.)

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tomato, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

1 large cucumber, peeled and diced

1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed but left whole

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1.5 cups croutons (recipe follows)

1.5 teaspoons salt

Hot sauce, to taste

Hull the strawberries (remove the stem part) and quarter, and place in a large bowl along with the green and red diced bell pepper, diced tomato, diced cucumber, garlic, 1.5 cups bread crumbs, red wine vinegar, and salt.

Cover and let marinade at room temperature for 3-6 hours. Puree in batches in a blender on high speed until as smooth as possible. Strain and transfer to a large bowl/serving vessel. Taste and adjust for salt, and add hot sauce to taste. Refrigerate (unless you want hot-spacho) until cold.

Croutons:

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, crushed but kept whole

5 sprigs thyme

3.5 cups hearty stale bread

Remove the crusts from the bread and cut into 1 inch cubes. Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the oil and the garlic; when the garlic starts to sizzle, add the bread and thyme. Cook until the bread starts to color (5 to 8 minutes? I wasn’t really paying close attention to how long it took, exactly), but be careful not to burn them. Add 1.5 cups to the gazpacho mixture, and reserve 2 cups (let them cool) for serving.

Strawberry confit:

16 small strawberries, hulled and halved lengthwise

1.5 teaspoons olive oil

1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar.

Preheat the oven to 195°F.  Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat. Hull and halve the strawberries, and toss with the olive oil. Place cut side down on the baking sheet, and dust with the confectioners’ sugar. Bake for 1.5 hours. Flip the strawberries and bake for 30 minutes more. Let cool on the sheet, then store in a flat, airtight container coated with olive oil to keep the strawberries hydrated. The strawberry confit can be made ahead and stored in the refrigerator.

To serve:

Gazpacho

Reserved croutons

Strawberry confit

Pancetta

Basil

Coriander Flowers

Black Pepper

Extra Virgin Olive oil

Pour the gazpacho into chilled bowls, and throw everything else on top to make it look purdy.