Bro Burgers

What up bros?!?! It's the end of the world tomorrow so I figured I should get one more post in while I still can (http://www.ebiblefellowship.com/outreach/tracts/may21/).

I've recently discovered the secret to the perfect burger. I know what you're thinking - that's a cliche thing to say and everyone has their own "perfect burger" so this guy's probably full of shit. Well I'm here to tell you that you're full of shit and you need to listen to me!

Best Burgers Ever:

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef (prefer 80-20 or 85-15)
1 TBL Fresh Thyme chopped
1/4 cup panko
1 TBL Milk
1/2 oz parmesan
1 onion
salt and pepper
olive oil
burger buns (or dinner rolls for sliders)
1/5 TBL Butter
cheese

I like roasted onions on my burgers so I start with that. just slice the onion pole to pole and toss onion strings with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes or until they get to your desired softness.

Onto the burger!

In many recipes for meatballs or meatloaf, the chef will call for bread or bread crumbs soaked in milk as a base for the meat mixture. This contributes to the tenderness of the loaf or ball. I figured I can use this method for making the burgers oh so tender.

I always have panko on hand so it's a little easier for me (wheat bread doesn't work as well and I rarely have white bread on hand) and you can just use the little bit that you need. Soak the panko in the milk for about 10-15 minutes stirring occasionally. The mix will become a paste.

Put the thyme and meat in the bowl and start mixing. You want the panko paste to be evenly distributed throughout the meat. Take the parmesan and start grating through a microplane (or a very fine grater) into the meat mixture. The parmesan really promotes browning and evenly seasons the meat with a rich flavor compounds in the cheese.

Make patties with a slight depression in the middle. Season both sides with salt and pepper.

Put some oil in the pan (olive or vegetable) and let it heat up to medium high. Put the burgers in the already hot pan and listen to that nice sizzle. Regardless of your oil or use of a nonstick pan, these burgers are going to stick. As the cheese melts, it will begin sticking to the bottom of the pan. Because of this, you want to shake the burgers loose right as they hit the pan. After about 90 seconds of cooking, the burgers will develop a deep brown crust that will sit in the pan without sticking, but if this crust develops while the burgers are sitting in the same place they'll adhere to the bottom of the pan and you won't be able to get them out without making a mess.

Cook the burgers for a couple minutes on either side then place them on a piece of aluminum foil. Put roasted onions and cheese on burger patties and place under a hot broiler for a few minutes until the cheese melts.

Meantime, prep your buns by toasting in a skillet with butter.

Assemble burgers with mustard or mayo or whatever the hell else you like on a burger and enjoy!

The crust is dynamite, the burgers will be so tender you'll freak out, and the thyme provides a great earthy flavor to the meat. Yes, it's the end of the world and you made it to heaven!!

xo,
Levi

Fun with Avocados

My sweet mother came to visit me this past Sunday. Her mission was to turn my new apartment into a home. We hung pictures on the wall, went shopping for a coffee table, and she generally just gave a little feminine touch to my otherwise dingy man-cave. We had some successes, but there's still a lot of work to do. We did make it to the grocery store (newflower...my new favorite grocery store in the world) and she got food for my dad and her, but she left a few things behind to fill out the kitchen. One of which was 4 avocados. That's a lot of avocado for one person to eat on his own. Avocado #1 became some guacamole to eat nachos with. The second became an avocado omelete. very tasty. By the time the third avocado came I was at a loss as to what I should make. I had a bacon and avocado sandwhich last week...I didn't really want Mexican food...what do I do?!!? Well, I came up with the following salad that is a great way to use items you probably already have in your pantry.

Shrimp and Avocado Cold Stuffed Tomatoes
8-9 shrimp per person (21-25 count)
1 lemon
1 avocado per person
2 tomatoes per person
2 green onions
salt and pepper
cayenne pepper
paprika
bay leaves
peppercorns
3 cloves garlic
vegetable oil

Begin by marinating shrimp. In almost all shrimp dishes I make, I marinate the shrimp in salt, oil, and garlic that has been put through a garlic press. Mix together and put in a ziploc bag in the fridge for a minimum of 30 mins.

Meantime, boil about a quart of water and add cayenne pepper, paprika, bay leaves, peppercorns, and salt. This is going to be the boiling liquid for your shrimp. Let it simmer on the stove for a while to let the flavors marry.

Chop the whites of the green onions off and add to the water. Zest the lemon into a bowl and squeeze juice out. Add lemon halves to the water.

Add shrimp along with garlic to the simmering water and cook for about 2 minutes. Be sure to not overcook. remove from water and let cool in the fridge.

to the bowl of lemon, add chopped green onions, salt, pepper, a little cayenne and some paprika. Slice avocado in half and remove pit. Score avocado with the knife in a checkerboard pattern. Use a spoon to remove flesh which will now be in cubes. Add to lemon and onions. Chop shrimp into chunks similarly sized to the avocado. Add to avocado salad. Stir.

Cut tomatoes in half and scoop out seeds leaving only the outer flesh and skin. Scoop shrimp salad into tomato halves for a fun presentation.

This is a delicious salad that can be modified in many ways. Add balsamic and bacon to the recipe listed above for something a little more lively. Or maybe cilantro, lime, cumin, and chili powder for a mexican twist.

I found this to be a fun new way to use those avocados that you're worried about going bad in the next couple days.

xo,
Levi

Island Food

Hi everyone. It's been a long time since I updated which is a bummer. I think partly because I broke my wrist and it's been more difficult to cook (let alone type!) so I haven't been quite as active. However, last night I made something that I wanted to memorialize in the blogosphere, because I'll likely find myself craving this dish on the regular.

Caribbean Jerk Tilapia with Pineapple Jalapeno Relish

First, you must make the spice rub. I recently bought a spice grinder so I've been experimenting with using whole spices to make various types of rubs/seasoning mixtures/etc. This is a Caribbean Jerk mix. It's easy to make and it definitely tastes much better when you grind it up yourself.

1.5 TBL allspice berries
1.5 TBL black peppercorns
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (very serious about freshly grated)
2 tsp light brown sugar
1.5 tsp salt
2 TBL dehydrated onion flakes
1 tsp cayenne

It's a good idea to toast the first 3 ingredients in a dry skillet. Just don't let them get too brown to the point of burning. Usually takes about 4-5 minutes.

Put all ingredients in your spice grinder (which can be a coffee grinder that you only use for spices) and grind into a powder.

Wasn't that easy? It tastes great and you really can use this stuff on a lot of things. This weekend I had it on a ribeye steak (see the post "Let Them Eat STEAK!!" for a recipe). And part of the fun is to play with the proportions of the different spices to make the perfect mix for you!

Pineapple Jalapeno Relish:
1/4 of a fresh pineapple
2 Jalapenos
2 Serranos
2 tsp honey
pinch salt
freshly ground black pepper

I like this relish to provide several different textures as well as sweetness, flavor, and spice. Cut the pineapple into 1/8" to 1/2" pieces so the textural variety will be there. The peppers provide a nice crunch when diced into 1/4" pieces.

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. It's best that you do this at least an hour before you plan on eating so the flavors can marry.

Tilapia:
3-4 fillets tilapia
2 TBL Caribbean Jerk Seasoning
pinch salt
2 TBL Butter

Season the fish with salt and sprinkle the caribbean jerk seasoning all over it. Be generous because you want a lot of those spices to play off of the salsa.

Put a pan over medium-medium high heat (maybe 6 1/2 if your stove goes from 1-10). Allow it to heat up for about 5 minutes then add about 1 TBL of butter. Once that melts, put the fish in the pan and cook for about 3 minutes per side. If it looks like the pan is getting dry, add more butter.

Serve fish with a generous pile of pineapple jalapeno relish on top. It's a great balance of sweet and spicy, but the fish isn't lost in the mix.

I hope everyone can give spice grinding a try. It's a lot of fun and you can make some really great food.

xo,
Levi

Thai Curry

Hey y'all. My favorite food in the world to eat is Thai. If it's pad kee mow extra spicy or panang curry tofu or a lemongrass soup: I love it all. Unfortunately, I have almost no experience cooking Thai food. I have decided to remedy this and I plan to learn how to make some Thai. I can have it anytime I want and I'll learn to make it a little more healthy than restaurants. I made this last night and it came out quite nicely.

Thai Chicken Red Curry
ingredients:
2 large chicken breasts
1 14 oz. can coconut milk
1 white onion
1 bell pepper (orange, red, or green)
3 cloves garlic
1.5" piece of ginger
Zest of 1 lime
juice of 1/2 lime
2 tsp soy sauce or fish sauce
1 TBL Vegetable oil
1 tsp tumeric
2-3 TBL red curry paste
1 tsp red pepper flakes (none for a mild curry, I used about 4 tsp because I like it spicy)
Cooked basmati rice

Cube the chicken into about 1" pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Heat a skillet until it's really hot and add oil. We want the skillet to be hot enough to brown the outside of the chicken without cooking it all of the way through. The chicken will finish cooking in the sauce right before serving. Brown the chicken pieces in the oil and remove from pan and reserve on a plate. Reduce heat in the pan to medium

Thinly slice the onions into uniform slices. Put the onions into the pan over medium heat with a little oil if necessary, salt, pepper and tumeric. Tumeric is the spice that makes ballpark mustard really yellow and it's a necessity in curries. It just so happens to also taste amazing with sauteed onions. You can put these onions on burgers, in omelets, in tacos, etc. Cook the onions for about 10 minutes until they start to break down. Add bell pepper and crushed red pepper. Cook for 5-7 minutes. Add garlic, ginger, lime zest, lime juice, and soy sauce or fish sauce. Cook for 1 minute. (Lately I've been preparing my garlic, ginger, and zest all with a microplane. This tool is a godsend if you do a lot of cooking.)

Add the coconut milk and curry paste to the aromatics. You can add more or less curry paste depending on several factors. (1) the strength of your curry paste (2) how spicy you like it (3) how much you want it to taste like curry. Let the sauce simmer for a few minutes then taste and add more curry paste or red pepper flakes depending on how you want it to taste. Overall, the sauce should simmer for about 20 minutes then add the chicken and simmer for about 5 more minutes. The coconut milk does thicken as it cooks so keep that in mind.

Serve over basmati rice.

This dish came out as good as a lot of curries I've had in Thai restaurants. If you are trying to limit your starchy carbs, you can replace the rice with pureed cauliflower (add a little milk and tumeric to steamed cauliflower then puree in a food processor or with an immersion blender).

I'll definitely have to blog next time I have a successful adventure in Thai cooking.

xo,
Levi

Pizza

Last night I had a couple friends over so we could eat dinner and watch Beyonce wear 3d glasses while she watched Usher sing a Michael Jackson song. Needless to say, we had fun and it was really tight.

I remember when I was a kid, we would have pizza on french bread all the time. Largely because us kids really liked it and it was really easy to prepare. I like it right now because I am kind of convinced that I'm incapable of making delicious pizza crust from scratch. The sauce is really what makes this pizza anyway.

French Bread Pizza:
ingredients -
1 Loaf French bread
3 links italian hot sausage
3/4 lb ground beef
1 large onion
1 large bulb fennel
5 cloves garlic
1 28 oz can tomatoes
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp sun dried tomato paste
2 tsp fennel seeds
1 red bell pepper
Fontina cheese
Quattro Formaggi cheese blend
Fresh basil leaves

Heat up a big skillet or pot on the stove. Remove sausage from casings and brown with the beef. Take meat out of the pan leaving the fat behind. You want 1 TBL of fat so pour it out if there's too much or add olive oil if there isn't enough.

Add diced onion and fennel and cook for 5-6 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. At this point use an immersion blender or food processor to blend the vegetables because I don't like chunks of veggies in pizza sauce. Add the veggies back to the pan with the tomatoes, sun dried tomato paste, fennel seeds, and oregano. Cook for 15-25 minutes. Add meat back to sauce and cook for 5 minutes.

Split the french bread loaf. I tore out some of the inside because I wanted it to be less heavy on the bread. Spread the sauce evenly on the bread. top with sliced red bell peppers, fontina, and quattro formaggi.

Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted. Top with basil chiffonade.

I love this pizza because I think tomato sauce with italian sausage is just begging for a lot of fennel, basil, and bell pepper flavor.

xo,
Levi

Comfort Food Party

Yesterday I was battling a case of the Monday blues due to an excessively raucous weekend. The cure could be found in my favorite comfort food of this winter season, grilled cheese and tomato soup. I've been working on my recipes so I can come up with one that I'm really proud of and I'm pretty sure I found it last night.

Gruyere Grilled Cheese
Ingredients:
Sourdough bread
Cremini Mushrooms
Gruyere cheese
Fontina Cheese
Fresh spinach
Butter
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

What you might notice about my ingredients list is that I haven't shown any quantities for any of the ingredients. The fun of making a grilled cheese is that you can make it as cheesy or buttery or (in this case) mushroom-ey as you want. There aren't any rules so don't be so anal.

First off, slice the mushrooms. Heat a pan until it's really hot and add a teaspoon of olive oil and a tablespoon of butter to the pan. Add mushrooms with salt and pepper and cover. Stir regularly. If the pan is really hot, the mushrooms will brown on the outside and have a really nice texture on the inside. You'll see that the mushrooms "drink" up most of the fat. It's ok, don't add more fat or you'll have greasy mushrooms. The mushrooms will release some of their delicious, earthy moisture after they've cooked for a few minutes.

I used a vegetable peeler to cut very thin slices of the gruyere. I think this helps the cheese to melt better. I basically tore the fontina into chunks. This cheese doesn't have any problem melting (which is part of why it's so great for grilled cheese).

Put the cheese, mushrooms, and spinach onto the sandwich and close. Add butter to the outside of the bread and cook in a saute pan or a sandwich press. (or, if you're like my awesome friend Lindsey, you'll use a waffle iron!)

After eating this sandwich, I don't think I'll ever be able to eat another grilled cheese unless it has gruyere and mushrooms. This grilled cheese will change the way feel about life.

Tomato Soup
Ingredients:
1.5 TBL butter or olive oil
2 Medium Onions
3 Stalks Celery
3 Carrots
5 Cloves Garlic
2-3 TBL Tomato Paste
1.5 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 - 28 oz. can san marzano tomatoes
1/4 cup heavy cream
15-20 fresh basil leaves

Heat the butter or oil in a dutch oven on medium-high heat. Add diced carrots, celery, and onion (also known as a mirepoix) to the fat along with salt and let it sweat for 8-10 minutes. Add garlic and cook for a minute. Add tomato paste and cook for another 5-7 minutes. This is the base for your soup.

Add the chicken broth and the can of tomatoes. Stir to break up the tomatoes then cover and cook for about 15-25 minutes depending on how much texture you want the vegetables to have.

This is the base that I like to use for all tomato soups. From here you can add chipotles, curry, fennel seeds, or many other flavors to make the soup take on whatever characteristic you would like.

For this soup (which I would call a standard tomato soup) you add the cream and basil. Use a stick blender to blend the soup until smooth (you could use a regular blender or a food processor).

Tomato soup is really easy to make, delicious to eat, and pretty good for you if you can go easy on the oil and cream. I'd recommend never buying it again.

Last time I made tomato soup and grilled cheese I was discussing the nature of comfort food. I think the point is to make your friends and family feel comfortable and comforted (a pretty noble cause when you enter the kitchen). I hope that sometime soon you can get in the kitchen to make something delicious and comforting for your friends and family.

xo,
Levi

Pigskin Party

Hello everybody. This weekend I had the pleasure of having over a whole mess of friends to watch my beloved Cowboys beat up on the Eagles. Thankfully, each of the dishes seemed to be a big hit with everyone! The meal included BBQ pulled pork sliders and potato salad. This is an extra long blog post so I'll get right to it.

The first recipe is a fantastic german potato salad. For those who haven't tried this dish, it is a potato salad that utilizes salt and vinegar flavors as opposed to mayonnaise and mustard. I really don't like mayonnaise at all but I love potatoes so it's just perfect for me.

German Potato Salad:
Ingredients:
6 lbs. red potatoes
7-9 strips bacon
1/2 cup minced onion
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
4 TBL flour
1.5 TBL sugar
1 tsp brown mustard seeds
2 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1 TBL celery seeds
1/4 cup fresh chopped Italian parsley
Salt and pepper

The above quantities made a ton of potato salad, so it's probably a good idea to cut this recipe in half if you aren't cooking for a crowd.

First step is to cut the bacon into 1/2" pieces and saute in a dutch oven over medium heat until crispy and all the fat has rendered out. Remove bacon and reserve on paper towel.

Saute they onions with some salt in the bacon fat over medium heat. After 7-8 minutes the onions should smell sweet and delicious. This means they're ready.

In a separate bowl combine the mustard and celery seeds, sugar, and flour. This dry mixture will actually become a roux with the onions and bacon fat. Just keep the heat at medium and be sure to continuously stir when you add the dry to the fat and the onions. The mixture should turn into a paste.

Combine the vinegars (1 cup total) with 1 cup of water. Add this mixture to the roux a few tablespoons at a time until you've added all 2 cups of liquid. After each time you add liquid, stir the dressing until it's thickened and smooth.

Fold in potatoes that have been cut into cubes and boiled. If you stir in too violently, the potatoes will fall apart and you'll have salt and vinegar mashed potatoes instead of potato salad. Add the parsley and the reserved bacon pieces just before serving.

This recipe is really great. Try adjusting the amount of sugar and vinegar to get the balance that you like the most. Even though I had a bunch of leftovers, the potato salad was all gone after 24 hours!

Homemade Pickles
Ingredients:
5-6 Pickling Cucumbers (if you're in Dallas, you can find these at the Central Market on Lovers)
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup water
2 TBL salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 TBL Pickling Spice
1 tsp brown mustard seeds
2 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1 TBL black whole peppercorns
1 tsp celery seed
1 tsp red pepper flakes
4 cloves garlic

This recipe is extremely easy. I recommend preparing at least 24 hrs ahead of time.

Take all ingredients except the cucumbers and put in a sauce pan and bring to a boil then simmer for about 5 minutes.

Pour liquid over sliced cucumbers in a mason jar. Put in the fridge for 24 hrs.

That's it. No, seriously, that's it. The fun part of making pickles is that you can change the recipe however you want. The general flavor has to do with the proportions of vinegar to water to salt to sugar. So adjust these amounts according the kind of pickles you want (i.e. more sugar for sweet, more vinegar for sour, etc.). I think next time I'll be adding onion slices and serranos or jalapenos so I'll have spicy pickles. Try different things until you find your very own ultimate pickle!

I made a pulled pork recipe using the rub and basting sauce from this Emeril Lagasse recipe (I made my own BBQ sauce, but I don't want to post it until I make it a few more times). I had a 9 lb pork shoulder that I roasted in the oven at 225 degrees for about 10 hours. I put the basting sauce in a spray bottle and I sprayed the shoulder about once an hour for the duration of the cooking.

The pork was tasty, but I think it's juicier when you cook it in a slow cooker as opposed to the oven. In a slow cooker, you can't really have a rub and a basting sauce so you want to put a bunch of aromatics (onions, garlic, celery, carrots, ginger, etc.) in the pot with the shoulder.

To be honest, I have a long way to go to start blogging about BBQ. It's serious business here in the south. I plan to get a smoker this summer. Once I start getting serious about BBQ, I'll blog more.


The party was a great success and everyone's bellies were full of some tasty food. More importantly, I got to spend quality time with some of my best friends! I love you guys and we'll do it again soon.

xo,
Levi