Fun With Buns!

We're both big fans of burgers, and we thought it was about time we try our hand at making some brioche buns to go with our summer cook-out favorites.  You know by now that we're not into baking as much as we are cooking, but if we're ever going to improve so we have a shot at winning MasterChef, we need to practice!  You can't discount the importance of the bun to a good burger.  While some opt for potato, kaiser, or Portuguese rolls, nothing really makes a burger like a light, airy, malty, perfectly browned brioche bun.

We found this recipe online, and since we'd had some success with Smitten Kitchen recipes in the past, we knew she wouldn't steer us wrong.  Start by mixing together warm water, milk, yeast and sugar, and let it stand for about 5 minutes.  The warm water helps activate the yeast, while the sugar acts as food for it.  After about 5 minutes, this mixture will be foamy, and ready to mix into your dough.

While your yeast is standing, you can start to mix your dough.  For the dry ingredients, whisk together your bread flour, all-purpose flour, and salt.  Rub the butter between your fingers, and mix with the flour mixture, forming crumbs.  Ours didn't really form crumbs, per se, but once the butter was incorporated as much as it could be, we added the yeast mixture and a beaten egg.

We don't have a dough scraper, so we just used a rubber spatula to mix the wet and dry ingredients together.  Within minutes, we had a nice ball of dough.

Here's where some of the manual labor comes into play.  On a floured surface, you'll have to knead your dough.  We followed the recipe, which suggested using a scooping/slapping method.  You scoop your dough up from the counter and then slap it down.  In 8-10 minutes, it should be smooth and elastic.  Be careful not to add too much flour to the dough, as this will leave you with tougher buns.  Our dough was a bit tackier than it probably should've been, but we didn't want tough buns.  Once you've kneaded your dough, place it back in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let it rise until it doubles in size.  This took about an hour for us.

Once your dough has risen, divide it into 8 sections.  We only made half the recipe, so we ended up with 4 buns.  Roll them into balls, and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Spray some plastic wrap with some nonstick spray and loosely cover your buns to let them rise again.  We didn't have any nonstick spray on hand, so I just brushed a little vegetable oil on it.

Like I mentioned earlier, our dough was still fairly tacky, so it was a bit difficult to roll them into balls.  Instead we shaped them as best we could, and let them rise again.  When you're ready to bake, place a dish of water in the bottom of your oven, and heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Beat another egg and brush it on top of each bun, and if you want to add sesame seeds, do that now.  Pop 'em in the oven, and let them cook for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown, turning the pan about halfway through.

And voila!  Golden brown buns!  Let them cool completely before you cut into them.  At first, they seemed kind of tough on the outside, but once they cooled, and we cut into them, they were pretty light and fluffy on the inside.

For our burgers, we used Polyface Farms ground beef from our share, and simply seasoned them with salt and pepper.  We had some humboldt fog leftover from our grilled cheeses, that got nice and melty on the warm, grilled burgers.  We also caramelized some onions with port wine that topped the patties, along with some fresh arugula.  Add one of our dill pickles, and we had the perfect burger.

Burgers. Beets. Battlestar Gallactica.

Tonight's post is dedicated to Dwight Shrute and the end of The Office.  We're pretty sure our beets came from a farm in Virginia, but Scranton isn't too far from DC, so I guess there's a slight chance they came from Shrute Farms.

This week's share gave us some Polyface ground beef, which we are always excited for. With the warm summer weather, burgers on the grill sounded like the perfect dinner.  We still had some umami dust on hand, and since Umami Burger isn't DC yet, we had to make our DIY version.  This recipe was our inspiration.

The twist this time around was the oyster mushrooms and onions in a port reduction that topped the burgers.

It's a really simple way to elevate any meat, whether it's a burger or a piece of steak.  Start by slicing and dicing your mushrooms and onion, and saute them in some brown butter.

Once they've softened, you'll add about 1 cup of port.  Here's where you'll deglaze your pan, making sure to scrape up all the tasty bits that are stuck on the bottom of your pan.  Then just let the liquid reduce down, stirring occasionally, until you have a thick glaze on your onions and 'shrooms.

We tucked our patties into some lettuce leaves, topped them with the port 'shrooms and onions, and some crumbled bleu cheese.

Since we didn't have any sweet potatoes for fries, we decided to make beet chips again to accompany the burgers.  They're super simple, and add a sweet, crispy component to the meal.  I would advise using a mandoline to slice them, if you have one, so that each chip is the same thickness.  Otherwise, take your time slicing and use a really sharp knife.  We used the beet greens to make a simple salad for a little extra roughage.

The beet chips, along with the port, added a nice sweetness that balanced out the rich umami flavors of the burgers.

And if you use your imagination a little, doesn't my plate kind of look like Dwight?

Umami So Fat!

Umami...that elusive 5th flavor...

You've likely heard all about it in those Kikkoman soy sauce commercials.  But tonight, we bring you umami burgers.  Just like the ones in LA.  And instead of fries, we went with kimchi brussels sprouts, ala Momofuku.

So let's start with the burgers.  To get the umami flavor, we finally got to use our bottarga, plus some pulverized dried straw mushrooms and nori.  With that, we mixed in a blend of white pepper, salt and wasabi that we picked up from the Asian market last week.  This gave us a salty, savory umami dust to work with.

We were fortunate enough to receive some ground beef from Polyface Farms.  If you've been following along, you'll remember me gushing about Polyface here.  We mixed the beef with our umami dust and a splash of fish sauce.  Then we just formed them into 2 patties and got them into the pan to start cookin'.

While the burgers cooked, we got to work on the kimchi brussels sprouts.  I should've kept the last beating stick...then we could've had a proper duel!

But alas...we started with some bacon...because every good dish starts with bacon.  Once it was nice and crispy, we threw the sprouts into the pan so they could roll around in the bacon fat.

Once they were seared, we slid them into the oven to roast.  After about 15min., they came out of the oven, and were bathed in some butter, salt and pepper.  We added the bacon back into the pan, along with some of our sliced kimchi.

We let all the flavors meld together for a few minutes, so each ingredient was coated in the butter, and spicy juices of the kimchi.  By the time the sprouts were done, so were the burgers.  We're getting much better with this whole timing thing!  The sprouts were garnished with a little raw carrot, and our burgers got some avocado and creasy greens.

The burgers had such a rich, salty, savory flavor, and creaminess of the avocado balanced it all out.  The sprouts were nicely roasted, with a sharp spiciness from the kimchi and a nice crunch from the raw carrots.  It was quite the delicious meal!

CSA Recap

Happy MLK Day, and Inauguration Day!  For as close as we both live to the Capitol, all we could hear were sirens all morning.  In preparation for our next share tomorrow, its time for a recap of how we used all the food from our previous share.

If you remember, here's what we picked up last time...

And here's what we cooked up...

• Thai Peanut Stir Fry
• purple carrots
• broccoli
• spinach
• sweet potato
• dill
• Spaghetti Squash (we spared you ANOTHER post about spaghetti squash)
• pork sausage
• Stuffed Pork Loin & Butternut Squash Polenta
• gold rush apples
• butternut squash
• Sausage Egg Scramble & Home Fries
• pork sausage
• potatoes
• Bison Steak & Kohlrabi Fritters
• bison NY strip steak
• kohlrabi
• spinach
• bibb lettuce
• romaine lettuce
• Turkey Burgers & Sweet Potato Fries
• dill
• sweet potatoes
• Pain Perdu (like fancy french toast) & Hash Browns
• pink lady apples
• onion
• potatoes

The only thing we haven't used up is the head of cabbage, though we have plans to try another kimchi recipe.  Fingers crossed we don't get another one in tomorrow's share.

Flippin' Burgers

When I first really got into cooking, I was (and still am) a fan of Rachael Ray.  Her recipes were easy and used common, everyday ingredients, and she made cooking look fun and easy.  And it turns out Justin had a bit of a crush on her too (which I can kinda see, she rescues pitbulls, can cook, and has delightful catchphrases such as "yum-o").  Anyway...one of the few recipes of hers that I still make are her spanikopita burgers.  The spinach and onions keep the turkey juicy, and the feta gives the burger a nice saltiness.  To kick up the Greekyness, I like to top them with homemade tzatziki.

So here goes...

Start by chopping up some red onion and garlic and get that sauteing in a pan.  Once they become really fragrant, and the onions are translucent, set them aside to cool.

For the spinach component, I take the easy route and just use frozen chopped spinach.  Once its defrosted, you'll want to wring out all the water so your burgers don't become soggy.  Just like I did with the kohlrabi the other night, you'll want to put the spinach into a dish towel, and just wring it out.

You'll be surprised by how much water comes out of the spinach.  To quote Justin, "The spinach is peeing!"  Yes, we're like 5 year olds sometimes :)

Once you've gotten as much water out of the spinach as you can, toss it in the bowl with your ground turkey.  Then you add in some feta crumbles, and the spices.  This time we went with salt, pepper, oregano, parsley, a little rosemary, and some dill.  Now its time to get down and dirty and mix everything together so all the ingredients are evenly distributed.  Then you're ready to make your patties and cook 'em up!

While the burgers were cooking, we made the tzatziki.  I like to grate the cucumber so its easier to get the water out of it, but Justin took the time to slice it really thin.  If you have a decent amount of time on your hands, you can sprinkle the cucumber with salt and let the water leach out of it.  But if you're making it while the burgers cook, you can squeeze out the cucumbers just like you did with the spinach.  Otherwise your tzatziki will be runny, and nobody likes runny tzatziki.

My mini food processor was the perfect size for the amount of yogurt we had left.  We just used non-fat plain yogurt on hand, but I prefer to make it with Greek yogurt.  It just adds an extra bit of tang, and its a little thicker than plain yogurt.  Regardless, either will work just fine.  So into your food processor, toss the yogurt, some garlic, the cucumber, fresh dill, a splash of lemon juice, and some salt and pepper.  Puree it all together until the garlic and cucumber are finely chopped.  And there you have it.  Piece of cake!

Sometimes when I make these burgers, I like to make a little salad to top the burgers.  This usually consists of sliced tomatoes, pepperoncini, red onion, and some arugula, dressed lightly with olive oil and red wine vinegar.  The only thing I had on hand this time were the pepperoncini, so I just sliced up a few for a little added spice.

And because you have to have fries with your burgers (I'm pretty sure there's a rule written somewhere to that effect), we made some sweet potato fries as our side.  And we had plenty of extra tzatziki leftover for dipping!