Monthly Archive for October, 2009

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Ode to a fall treat: the potato.

Published on in cooking. Closed

I enjoy most carbs. I think we are genetically hard-wired to. I love pasta, rice, couscous, quinoa, you name it, I love it. But today, I want to spend a little time appreciating the potato.

This tuber is of significant importance– the great potato famine, Van Gogh’s “the potato eaters”, the Humboldt County Fair Potato Decorating contest. Its myriad uses and willingness to absorb fats make it a truly versatile vegetable.

Now that it’s fall, the potatoes are out en masse. Fingerlings, sweet potatoes, purples, butterballs, and the rest of the lot. On a recent trip to the farmer’s market, I picked up a nice little blend for some roasting. With just a touch of sage, the old-man fingers of the earth became stars shining on a plate. Think this is overdramatic? Maybe. But damn, they were good. Just cut them in half, toss them in some olive oil with salt and pepper, and throw them a hot oven. You’ll know when they’re done.

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Don’t worry, those puppies didn’t stay alone on that plate for long. They were accompanied by a tremendous burger.

I am also a fan of the “cook then fry” technique, which helps get that fried potato feeling without the guilt of eating a deep-fried item (or the expense and hassle of buying cooking oil by the quart). What I like to do is boil up some fingerlings until they are about 82.4 percent cooked (isn’t that a great description? I love it when chefs use terms like that, as though there is a gauge on food items). Then let them cool off a little bit, cut them in half, and place them cut-side-down in a non-stick pan with a little oil. Throw on whatever herbs you like, and cook until they are golden brown and crispy (5-7 mins). In the below picture, I seared the potatoes in a mixture of olive oil and bacon fat. I guess there is some guilt eating these guys, too. But damnit, they taste good!

Potatoes 1

Potatoes 2

That’s it. Now get out to the farmer’s market and buy some potatoes!

Tags: cooking.

Bak it up.

Published on in lunch spots. Closed

Hit up PJ Clarke’s for lunch today, and DID NOT have a burger. I know. For shame. Instead, I just had some chili and a salad. What can I say, I’m a healthy guy.

On the way back, we hit up the new Turkish Bakery on 2nd avenue and 52nd st, next door to Barros Luco, Güllüoğlu for some baklava. I had read good things about this place on Midtown Lunch, and knew it would be solid. Being that I had already eaten lunch, we just got a few pieces of baklava for the road.

We got some of the Şöbiyet, which is the baklava with pistacchio and cream, and some regaular baklava. Both were tremendous. The cream filled one was rich, almost like a ricotta (as said by a co-worker), and the traditional was flaky and buttery. I highly recommend for anyone looking for a tasty treat over in Midtown East. Sure is a great way to help pass the time on a Friday afternoon.

Definitely going to check it out for a solid lunch at some point in the near future.

Also worth checking out is Onya, on 47th street, for some high quality udon noodles. I know it’s totally unrelated to baklava, but still, gotta give it some love somewhere.

Güllüoglu

2nd avenue and 52nd st.

Onya

47th st and 3rd avenue

Fall has arrived.

Published on in Greenmarkets. Closed

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The weather has turned slightly cooler, and the air is crisp. Fall has arrived, and it’s time to enjoy all of the splendor of the fall fruits and vegetables popping up at the farmer’s markets. Of course the root vegetables are coming out in full force, but all sorts of cabbage and squash are making their appearances, and apple season is officially upon us.

At the market yesterday, I picked up some Ronnybrook yogurts (duh), and a few apples from the Terhune Orchards (jona mac and gala). Next to the Ronnybrook stand has been the Sun Fed beef people, and they’ve been selling hard. Uberchef and I went in halfsies on a couple of pounds of ground beef, which is going to be used in the bloggingforburgers ground beef taste test, to be scheduled for later this fall. Their beef is grass fed and grain finished, depending on if it’s a heifer or a steer, and I’ve got high hopes.

I also picked up some sun gold tomatoes. I’ve been obsessed with these things lately. They are the sweetest tomatoes that you will ever find, and they are perfectly firm yet with a tender skin that pops in your mouth like a ripe grape. I’ve been simply splitting them in half with a generous glug of extra virgin olive oil and a splash of balsamic. Maybe a few rough-chopped leaves of basil and you’re golden. Like a sun gold tomato, yuck yuck.

I also picked up some brussel sprouts from the Rexcroft Farm, since they’ve been staring me in the face for two weeks now. They are sold fresh onthe branch (is that a branch, is it a root?). I’m looking forward to roasting these guys with some oil/s/p and calling it a day. Gotta love the fall.

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My other purchases were not very exciting, so not worth getting into details. I have decided that my second bo bo chicken (the silky chicken) will be finding its way into a braised dish at some point in the near future, so keep an eye out for him.

Uberchef also made a unique purchase o fa scarlett rose apple, drawn mostly by the “PINK FLESH!” sign that was positioned behind the bin of them. Apparently it tasted like an apple, but it looked crazy! It’s like a Dr. Suess apple.

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Other than that, I’m getting ready to ship off to gay Paris in a couple of weeks. I’ve already got my scarves and skinny jeans out, so I’m ready to go.

Tags: Greenmarkets, Rexcroft Farm, ronnybrook farm, Terhune Orchards.

Blogging for (Camping) Burgers. A guest post.

Published on in burgers for guests and cooking. 2 Comments

I just got back from an off-site meeting that had the word “innovate” peppered in like a steak au poivre, so it’s time for a blogging for burgers first– a guest post! That’s right, you all don’t have to listen to me rant and rave (for once). The below post was inspired by a recent trip to upstate NY and features a solid camping burger for all y’all who like to sleep in tents. BB prefers 1000-count sheets. And now, without further ado, I present to you, campingwithburgers:

Hello Blogging for Burgers fans! Your regular host has graciously invited me to share my latest burger experience. While I can’t claim to be the mega fan that he and Burgergal are, I do enjoy a tasty burger (preferably with cheese and relish), especially if cooked over a grill and eaten alongside a beer and a campfire.

Despite a greater chance of rain and cooler temperatures, October is my favorite time to go camping. Needless to say upstate NY is beautiful this time of year so it’s a great time to be outdoors in general and after spending a few hours hiking, my friends and I were hungry for burgers.

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I have to be honest here; generally we do buy prepackaged patties for camping but I think that is going to have to change. (If you do go that route, Bubba Burgers or Great American are the general standby’s.) Here is the recipe that changed our camping burger ways:

Pre mix as much as much as possible! I made sure to pack a baggie of 1 ½ cups bread crumbs, 3 tsp minced garlic, 3 tsp salt, 2 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp basil, 1 tsp rosemary. In a separate baggie was half a chopped red onion.

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Using whatever materials are available, mix 2 eggs and 5 tsp of olive oil was beaten in a plastic cup.

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For 6 people I used a little less than 2 lbs of beef, flattening on a plate and creating a volcano hole in the center (yes I played with my mashed potatoes as a kid). A little at a time, I filled the hole with the egg/olive oil mixture and folded into the beef. I repeated about 4x and there was about a quarter of mix left at the end.

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Next came the onions, by spreading evenly over the flattened beef, kneading, and repeating, a relatively even spread of onion was achieved.

Finally, using the same method, an even spread of breadcrumb/spice mix was distributed, kneaded, repeated.

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Finally the meat was separated, rolled into balls, and flattened into patties.

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At this point I turn over the work to my hubby who likes bbq sauce/mayo as a burger topping and is our group’s general camping grill master. He cooked over charcoal until browned on both sides (we like medium rare burgers and these were still pink in the middle).

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In terms of grilling, we prefer a charcoal grill over propane. Never pour lighter fluid on charcoal to get it going or your burgers will be gross. In fact anything you cook on that charcoal will taste like lighter fluid. If you use any form of match light charcoal, make sure you let the lighter fluid burn off entirely before putting the burgers on the grill or else same problem. The charcoal should be gray but still hot, not black or flaming.

Finally, the hungry hikers’ burgers were ready and eaten with relish. Ok, I was the only one with literal relish on my burger, the rest of the group just found the burgers savory and delicious, particularly the flavor added by the onion.

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[Editor’s note– look at that cheese! That’s perfection on a bun, ladies and gentlemen. Special thanks to LM for rockin’ the post out today. Let me know next time you’re going camping, I’ll be sure to take the ‘chopper in for a special landing for lunch, then take off before the wildlife comes out.]

Tags: burgersforcooking, cooking.

I'll have the chilean sea bass, or maybe just a sandwich.

Published on in lunch spots. Closed

Uberchef and I hit up the farmer’s market, and fall is in full swing over there! More to come on that later.

After filling up on some Ronnybrook Lowfat Yogurt drink (which I had never had before, got the honey vanilla flavor, and it was awesome. And the price was right– free), we were starving. We were going to hit up a ME standby, lenny’s, but uberchef remembered that a buddy of his had told him about Barros Luco, a new Chilean spot on 52nd street named after the famous south american sandwich and Chilean president.

I had a few doubts before walking in. First of all, the space is one of those cursed restauarant locations that needs to just become a double-decker McDonald’s if it wants to become something that will last for more than a year. Let’s remember back to Zip Burger and 99 miles to philly for a moment…

Now that that nightmare is over, let’s live in the now, and take a trip down to South America. The menu is simple enough– for the sandwiches, which come on freshly baked chilean bread, you can get a traditional barros luco with either steak or chicken, with melted cheese. If you are feeling adventurous, you can go for something a bit more difficult to pronounce, and get other accoutrements. Or, you can get vienesas, which are basically chillean hot dogs. They also have some other sides, including empanadas and string beans, and sweet potato fries.

Uber-c and I decided to split a couple of sandwiches, and nothing else, since we were both coming down from a milkfat high. We went with a steak chacarero, which has some pounded steak, string beans, pickled peppers, and tomato, and a chicken italiano. We started out with the steak, taking our first bite in synch so as to avoid any judgment tampering. We both agreed that the string beans were flavorful, and I thought it was pretty good steak for something that is basically fast food. I had picked up some fresh basil at the market, and I think that it added a nice herbal touch that was otherwise missing. Uberchef was missing peppers, so I think that there were some consistency issues across our two halves. Overall, it was satisfying, but a larger portion would have been appreciated.

We then moved on to the chicken italiano. At first glance, I didn’t have high hopes for it, and the flavor, or lack thereof, was pretty consistent with my expecations. The color was kinda blah, the avocado was blah, the tomato was blah. It didn’t have any kick or anything. It just tasted like a grilled chicken sandwich from a deli. In the words of Uberchef, “this tastes like a diet.”

Anyway, check out Barros Luco if you are in the mood for something different. Just do yourself a favor and stick with the steak.

Barros Luco

52nd st at 2nd ave

3.5 out of 7 cows (isteak alone would have been 4.5)

Tags: lunch spots, ronnybrook farm.

A post about Gourmet Magazine because this is a food blog.

Published on in Burgeruminations and food marketing. 1 Comment

So I need to have some sort of opinion.

I feel like I would be remiss not to post about Gourmet magazine being yanked from the shelves after the November issue (I don’t need to link to it because if you’re reading my blog, you probably know about this already). Working in the marketing business, I have had long standing relationships with a few people who worked at Gourmet, and I have nothing but positive things to say about them all.

That said, my own relationship with the magazine has been a tumultuous one. That’s a little melodramatic, but blogs revel in the extremes. I am a dedicated reader of both Gourmet and bon appétit. I will put that out there first. Around five years ago, I devoured bon ap like there was no tomorrow. To be honest, I didn’t like Gourmet. I thought it was too hoity-toity, with all of its edit about traveling to Italy and eating truffles in Piedmont, and going to Warsaw to eat pierogi. It was so snobbish. BA was there, like a trusted advisor, for home chefs, like me. I wasn’t going anywhere but the D’Agostino around the corner, and if I was feeling frisky, to the Grand Central Market. I could have carried my passport if I went to Chinatown, just to make it feel authentic, but for all intents and purposes, I was a land-locked, cash-strapped, twenty-something with a tiny kitchen and a moderately strong food imagination. Replete with recipes, BA was my go-to guide in the culinary world.

Then a funny thing happened. The economy crashed. Gourmet lost ad pages. All of a sudden, Flushing, Queens, was the new “hot spot.” The ad pages dropped dramatically. McKinsey knows that. But anyone who is a dedicated reader could have told you that long before looking at a P&L sheet. For us readers, this was great. We were getting: a) more relevant content; b) fewer pesky ads (ssh, don’t tell anyone I said that); and c) a better sense as to what Gourmet had been trying to do from the onset, before it got sucked into the Condé Nast “holier-than-all-other-magazines” way of operating. I became a dedicated Gourmet reader. I relished its arrival in my free magazine pile every month. bon appétit lost me along the way, at some time around its “food porn” redesign. I had gone Gourmet, and there was no turning back. Chicken liver is for oafs… I only eat foie gras from the Périgord.

And now, Gourmet is gone.

Personally, I am conflicted about this. While I will probably head back to BA, groveling with the smell of stale caviar on my breath, I will miss the feeling that I got from reading Gourmet. That said, in all honesty, I will not read it online, I will not buy cookbooks under the brand name, and I will not watch “Diary of a Foodie.” Basically, the brand will be dead to me. And life will go on. I really liked CHOW magazine, too, and we all know how that ended.

On a more professional note, I am less conflicted. I am happy to see it go. I think Condé needs to wake up and smell the roses, and I am glad that McKinsey is making this happen. The editorial was great, but great editorial doesn’t always pay the bills (unfortunately for the editors). From an advertiser’s viewpoint, the product was mediocre at best, and the disproportionately high ad pricing resulting in a disproportionately high decline in ad pages proves it. Sorry, maybe you should have negotiated rates when you had the chance.

Thoughts?

Tags: burger thoughts, food marketing.