Don't Call It a Comeback

Sooo, I've been a tad tied up lately, but I won't even go there since we have a lot of catching up to do! In the last 2 weeks I have braised everything you could ever braise, stewed everything you could ever stew, grilled... I think you get it. Anyway, with the long holiday weekend ahead of us why don't we talk about some new stuff you all can try out?

 Let's talk burgers. America has been going gangbusters for burgers in the last few years with everyone jumping on the burger train. To name a few... DB Bistro (Daniel Boulud), Bobby Flay's Burger Palace, In-and-Out, Shake Shack, Burger Joint, and Five Guys are all carving their niches in the search for the perfect burger. What makes a perfect burger? That's a difficult question, but what we hear most commonly is (1) the meat to fat ratio and (2) the combination of various cuts of meat (both of which chefs like to keep to themselves). According to completely unauthorized and unofficial Google searches I've done, Shake Shack burgers have a 80:20 meat to fat ratio and are comprised of 50% chuck, 25% sirloin, and 25% brisket (if you need to brush up on cuts of meat you can look here).

Now... what do you do if you're not a burger fanatic or need to feed 20 hungry family members on a budget? Stuff the meat with some butter! We spoke many moons ago about the magic of butter, but I'm not even kidding. We did it with our burgers in class - cut up little cubes of butter and just mixed them into the meat cold. They come out so juicy, it really is a great trick. And let's be honest, I know half of you are thinking, "butter is making an already fatty thing unnecessarily more fatty." Perhaps. But let's remember that at the end of the day you're still eating a burger (maybe 2).. and fries.. maybe a hot dog.. some ribs? Get over it.

Now this is how you save yourself from putting the butter in the burger: quinoa. It's everyone's new favorite superfood so you might as well try and at least pretend that you're cool and make it. So what is it? If you've never had it before, essentially everything you can do with rice or couscous, you can do with quinoa. It looks like a grain, but it's actually in the beet and spinach family and it's an edible seed. Most noteworthy though, it's considered to be a complete protein as it's comprised of roughly 15% protein and has a balance of all eight essential amino acids. It's also low in sodium and high in fiber. All in all, it's awesome for you so just eat it. Here's a recipe we used in class that I really liked (yield is about 4 servings):

• 4 oz. of quinoa
• 12 fluid oz. of chicken stock
• 1 red pepper, small dice
• 1 scallion, finely chopped
• Salt and Pepper

The method to cooking it is exactly like rice. Bring the chicken stock to a boil, add the quinoa, reduce it to a simmer, cover it, and let it simmer until all the liquid soaks up. The only difference is that quinoa should be rinsed before you cook it because the seeds often have a bitter shell around them that a quick rinse should wash away. When they're done they should be translucent, but still a little firm. Then you can add the red pepper and the scallion (or whatever else you want to add). You can eat it just like that or make a vinaigrette to toss it in like we did in class. I'll give you an example here, which I thought was really yummy, but feel free to really do anything you want with this. Again - anything you can do with rice, you can do with quinoa.

Vinaigrette:

• 1/2 fluid oz. of lime juice
• 2 fluid oz. extra virgin olive oil
• Ginger (to taste, but we did about 1/4-1/2 tsp.)
• Cilantro (same as ginger)
• Salt and Pepper

So when the quinoa had cooled off a bit, we mixed in the vinaigrette and dug in. Eat it warm, eat it at room temperature, doesn't matter. Simply enjoy!

Hope you all have a great weekend! I'm sure I'll be seeing most of you. Oh and, Happy Birthday to my favorite boyfriend, Matt, who turned 24 yesterday! Ciao!

Photos: Burger (Bronx Banter); Quinoa (Online Pastry Chef)