Kentuckipino

Beer

2012-12-04T19:53:00.001-08:00

Beer, that glorious liquid, that granter of courage and attractiveness, beer is why I have returned to that fickle mistress the blogosphere (do we still call it that?). Since our last writing, I have taken on a new obsession, but one that fits in well under the auspices of the Kentuckipino. I have begun home brewing beer and it has been glorious…and by glorious I mean beer filled, and bottle filled, and bucket filled, and carboy filled, and did I mention the buckets?

Home brewing has proven to be a fantastic pastime and one that deserves some chronicling, if only so that I may avoid repeating mistakes and ensure that the mistakes I make in the future are new and more expensive/delicious/hazardous. In truth, there has been so much to learn and while I’ve been doing my research, I’ve on just begun to scratch the surface of beer geekdom in the past year since we started brewing.

So, what have we done to date? Glad you asked:

Imperial Nut Brown Ale (kit, extract)
Robust Porter (kit, extract)
Holiday Ale (kit, extract)
Pale Ale v1 (extract)
Amber Ale (extract)
Kolsch (extract)
Cream Ale (all grain)
Saison (extract)
Pale Ale v1 (all grain)
Pale Ale v2 (all grain)
Weiss (all grain)
Dragon’s Milk Clone (extract)
Watermelon Wheat Ale (all grain)
Victory Milk Stout (all grain)
Russian Imperial Stout (all grain)

There will be more brews ahead as well as dips into beer science and the home brew/craft beer culture in and around Chicago. Until then, don’t worry, relax, and have a home brew, and another, and another, and another…

Aaand we're back again, for the very first time

2012-12-04T19:18:00.002-08:00

So, to recap what’s been going on since our last post:

Clare and I started Kellogg to earn our MBAs
Clare and I finished Kellogg and earned our MBAs
Clare is expecting the Kentuckipino the First.
Much food and drink has been had since our last post

Well, that about does it for the recap. Now, on to the new stuff.

Grilled Pizza Goodness

2010-08-07T19:29:00.000-07:00

I love pizza. There I said it. I’m an addict. I’ll take it any way I can get it. Neopolitan, Pizza Hut, New York, Chicago, it’s all good to me (well, within reason anyway). For my money though, it just doesn’t get any better than making your own. Sometimes though, you don’t want to crank up the oven, especially in the summertime when it gets so hot. For those occasions, we make grilled pizza.
The Dough

Now, I’m no rocket surgeon, but I have been working on my pizza dough for a few years now and I’ve learned a few things.

You don’t want dry dough.If you don’t use enough water, you won’t get enough gluten and that will cause a load of problems. The dough will be hard to stretch out without breaking, and it won’t have that chewy texture that people love in pizza.
You don’t want wet doughIf your dough is too wet, it’s going to stick to your grates and be impossible to take off. Or, if you’ve gone to the extreme, it’ll run between your grates and gum up the works.
You want to roll your dough out thinlyLet me put it this way, if you roll out your dough too thick you’re going to need to shut the lid and bake it in order to cook properly all the way through. This is called grilled pizza, so make it thin so that you get a crispy crust in a short amount of time.

For my grilled pizza dough, I’ve added twice as much olive oil as I do for my traditional oven dough. I’ll be honest, I have no idea where I got this idea from, but I’m pretty sure it was from a grill book I read years ago. It does add extra moisture and flavor to the dough, and it seems to help with the sticking issues once it gets on the grill.

The Toppings

Tomatoes - I know where I got this one, and it was none other than Mr. B himself, Alton Brown. On one of his grilling shows he sliced up a tomato and grilled it while the dough was going. He flipped the slices once and then once they were done he smashed them onto his pizza crust with his spatula. I like to toss mine in a bit of olive oil and hit them with some salt and pepper while they’re on the grill.
Mozzarella - Obviously fresh is best here, so don’t skimp if you don’t have to. I really like the mozzarella pearls for this because they’re really easy to handle and distribute across a pizza.
Herbs - For pizza margherita, this means basil. This summer we’ve been growing our own, so we’ve had a lot of it. Add it just before coming off the grill or just before serving to preserve that fresh taste and look.
Other - If you’re going to add anything that needs to be cooked, be sure to precook it before starting the pizza. You’re not going to have time to let it cook through…unless you want a burnt crust. The nice thing about pizza, even on the grill, is that it’s leftover Velcro, so have at it.

Pizza dough working on the grill.

It took a few tries, but we’ve gotten pretty good at this. If you’re new to grilling or bread making, I think this is a great way to learn about both. I’ve since learned about the hot and cold spots on my grill and have a better understanding of the bubbles and textures in my crust. On top of that, you can impress your guests with a delicious dish that looks complicated but is actually easy and cheap!

Joel’s Dough

Ingredients:
3 ½ cups of AP Flour (15oz by weight)
2 ¼ tsp of instant yeast
1 tbsp of honey
¼ cup of olive oil
1 tsp of kosher salt
1-1 ½ cups of water

Equipment:
Stand mixer with dough hook

Steps:

Combine 1 cup of water, yeast, and honey. Let contents dissolve.
Add olive oil.
To the mixture, add your flour and then your salt.
Mix on low until everything comes together then increase to medium speed.
Add water until you reach your desired consistency.
Mix for a total of 15 minutes.
Remove the dough from the mixing bowl (if you would like to make smaller pizzas, now would be the time to divide the dough)
Let the dough rest in your large, oiled bowl until it has doubled in size.

Grilled Pizza

Ingredients:
2 medium tomatoes or 1 large, sliced
6-8 oz of mozzarella (cubed, shredded, or pulled apart)
3-5 leaves of basil (chiffonade or torn)

Equipment:
Grill
Spatula
Pizza peel (optional)

Before getting started, make sure your grill is hot, clean, and lubricated. After, set your grill to medium.

Roll out your dough and lightly oil it with olive oil.
Toss the tomato slices in olive oil and place on the grill.
Place the oiled side of the dough on the grill. (I like to use a pizza peel for this and flip it onto the grill)
Flip tomatoes when they have begun to cook through. Season with salt and pepper.
Oil the top of the dough and watch the underside. Flip when golden brown.
Brush on some olive oil to the cooked side of the crust, and then transfer 2-3 slices of tomato to the crust. Using the heel of your spatula, break up and smear the cooked tomatoes across the face of your crust.
Top with mozzarella and allow it to melt.
Take off the grill, finish with basil, and serve to your amazed guests.

Easy Vinaigrette

2010-02-21T18:02:00.000-08:00

This post is for Lynne, the woman who cuts my hair. I was in her chair yesterday, on my way to fabulous, and we were talking about how nasty bottled salad dressing is. Indeed, it's gross. I started making my own dressing a couple of years ago in a really basic way. I bought a bottle of balsamic vinegar and I would just dress my salads with a little dash of that and a little dash of olive oil. That's good, but sometimes I want something a little different. I consulted my trusty Better Homes and Gardens cookbook compendium, and I found this recipe. It's easy, fast, and really cheap. Best of all, it's delicious! You can toy with this basic at will - different herbs and vinegars will change the taste to match what you are serving.

Basic Vinaigrette
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup vinegar (balsamic, red wine vinegar, rice wine vinegar, or you can substitute lemon or lime juice)
1 T. sugar
2 t. fresh thyme, oregano, or basil OR 1/2 t. dried crushed thyme, oregano, or basil
1/2 t. paprika
1/4 t. dry mustard OR 1 t. dijon mustard
1/8 t. black pepper

Things to add: parmesan cheese, red pepper, garlic, celery seed, ginger...

Half Acre Brewing

2010-02-15T13:32:00.000-08:00

I don’t even know where to begin. A couple of Saturdays ago our group of friends were able to take a private tour of the Half Acre Beer Company brewery in the North Center neighborhood (just a couple blocks away from our old apartment over Bowman’s). If you haven’t had their beer, you’re missing out. Bookmark this page, shut down your computer, go out and buy some Half Acre right now. I’ll be here when you return.

Back? Great. Pretty good huh? You can thank me later.

Half Acre’s founder Gabriel Magliaro was our tour guide for the evening and he couldn’t have been a better host. We were able to try three or four different beers (including the not-sold-in-stores Gossamer session beer) and when the Baume tap blew, Gabriel was nice enough to open a bomber bottle up so we could sample it.

The tour started up on the second floor where we were able to see some of the cask conditioned experiments that Half Acre is working on. There were various casks used to finish the different beers including a bourbon cask.

Next we moved on to the barley grinding room where we even got to taste the barley used in their beers. It had a very familiar cereal taste to it that, as was later explained to me by Clare, probably comes from the fact that Grape Nuts is a wheat/barley cereal. Gabriel talked about the roasting process that gives the malted barley, and eventually the beer, its color. New vocabulary word learned that day: lovibond.

Lastly Gabriel took us down to the mash tun and the fermenting tanks. Some of the equipment they had on hand were purchased from another brewery that either upgraded or went under. Either way, the craft brewing industry is apparently quite incestuous that way.

Throughout the tour Gabriel answered our many questions graciously. In this regard, Half Acre separates itself from all the other brewery tours that I’ve been on by being quite open with not just what goes on in the brewery, but within the craft brewer community and the business side or brewing as well. It was quite enlightening to learn that the different local brewers will help each other out when hops or yeast is running low. I think this sense of community is most clearly reflected in the collaborations that craft brewers have been engaging in as of late. This is definitely something you would never see Anheuser and Miller do.

All in all, this was a great evening and I can’t recommend it enough. Half Acre holds free tours on Saturdays at 1pm but you must sign-up. If you’re looking to try any of Half Acre’s brew check out their list on the site.

Some tid-bits that we learned on tour:

Half Acre is named after Devil's Half Acre in eastern Pennsylvania
Part of the 22oz. Bomber series, Daisy Cutter is named after a specific kind of anti-personnel bombs.
Half Acre is going to be transitioning from glass bottles to aluminum cans. Reasons for the switch are that overall it's better for the beer because the aluminum blocks sunlight more effectively, it is lighter and therefore easier/less costly to transport, and it is easier to recycle.
All beer labels, throughout the country, need to be approved by one guy in the federal government whose name is, no joke, Battle.
Half Acre doesn't make a beer we don't like.

Where Did January Go?

2010-02-15T10:19:00.000-08:00

Joel looking dazed and confused trying to figure out his accounting homework while on vacation.

It is amazing how much can change in just a few weeks. After the holidays, school started and while it has been a rewarding experience on a number of levels it doesn’t leave much time to cook and even less to write about it. What we don’t lack are stories and pictures that we want to share, so hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll be able to carve out more time to documents some of the fun things we’ve been doing in our kitchen.

The Baking: Sugar Cookies & Royal Icing

2009-12-25T17:23:00.000-08:00

For years, I have been laboring under the assumption that this recipe was my aunt's. This year, I saw it in my Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook! Scandalous! The dough is very fragile, so the chill time is absolutely necessary. Make sure you have similarly sized cookie cutters so the baking time is consistent. The thing I like most about these cookies is that they bake up nice and soft, as opposed to a crunchy, shortbread-like cookie.

You can frost these using the royal icing recipe below or you can use baking sugar to decorate them before baking. The sugar is definitely easier, but the icing is nice if you're looking for an art project.

Sugar Cookies

1/3 c. butter
1/3 c. shortening (I like the Crisco sticks - they're easier to measure)
3/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
4 Tbsp. milk
2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt (table salt - double this volume if you are using coarse kosher)

Cream shortening, sugar and vanilla.

Add egg, beat until light and fluffy.

Sift together dry ingredients. On low speed, blend dry ingredients into creamed mixture alternating with milk.

Chill at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375.

On a *well* floured board, roll to about 1/8th inch thickness. Don't try to move the dough around like a pie crust. It's going to stick to the surface a little bit, and that's okay.

Cut with cookie cutters (decorate with sugars, non-pareils, etc.). Use a spatula to move the cookies from the work surface to a parchment lined cookie sheet. You can leave the cutters on until the cookies are on the sheet to help protect them as well. (The cookie cutter idea is a great tip from Good Eats!) If you don't have parchment paper, you can go with a basic ungreased cookie sheet - just let the cookies cool on the sheet for a couple of minutes before moving them to cooling racks.

Bake 6 to 8 minutes or until bottoms are just starting to brown. The tops of these cookies will stay very pale.

If you want to ice your cookies, let them cool completely on wire racks.

Here is the royal icing recipe that I use. It has to be really stiff in order to do the outlines on the cookies, and then a bit thinner to "flood" the centers: Martha's Royal Icing. If it's too thin to start with, you can add more powdered sugar. Some people think this messes with the taste of the icing, but it's icing. It tastes like sugar.

The Baking: Haystacks

2009-12-25T17:16:00.000-08:00

I make these every Christmas. The first time people see them, they are usually skeptical, but they taste awesome. I always make them too big - they're really best if they're a little smaller since they are so rich, but the chow mein noodles cling together, so it's difficult to make them super small. This is the recipe from the back of the Nestle butterscotch chip bag, omitting the marshmallows and increasing the noodles.
Haystacks

3/4 c. smooth peanut butter (If you usually buy organic or low sodium, don't. This recipe relies on the hydrogenated, sugary, salty flavor of plain old peanut butter.)
1 package of butterscotch chips (10 oz)
1 can chow mein noodles (8 oz)

In a heavy pan on medium low heat, melt peanut butter and chips until smooth.

Mix in chow mein noodles.

Spoon onto parchment paper by rounded tablespoon. Let harden (takes about 4 hours, longer if you have a hot kitchen).

Twelve Beers of Christmas

2009-12-22T13:06:00.000-08:00

Between getting married, buying a place and starting school, the past few years have been chaotic swirl of activity. With everything going on (and the amount of money that flew out of our coffers) buying gifts for our friends was impractical, but we still wanted to do something for everyone. Luckily our friends like beer, and eating what we cook, so out of this the Twelve Beers of Christmas party was born.

Spending time with our friends and slowing down even for an evening was the best way we could think to celebrate the holidays and in its second year it is proving to be a great success. Clare and I cook a bunch of heavy appetizers and we ask everyone to bring a different beer to share. Then everyone votes for their favorite brew and the winner gets a prize.

For this year's party we made pretzels, a veggie plate with Clare's hummus, sausage balls and Ad Hoc's chocolate chip cookies among others. After last year's inaugural TBOC beers running the gamut from ales to pilsners to stouts, we limited the field for this year's to seasonal and holiday beers hoping for a more focused tasting. The beer our guests brought were varied and delicious. (I've included a list of everything below)

After sampling the varioius offerings, we cast our votes to determine a winner. This year, our friend Ethan took home the honors by bringing Great Lakes Christmas Ale.

Fun was had by all and it was a great way to kick-off the holiday season. If you couldn't make it this year, know that we raised a beer in your honor and then quickly drank it down...then we repeated this process a few dozen more times. The memories will last a life time but the 70 leftover beers sitting on our balcony will probably go before then.

This Year's Beer List

Great Lakes Christmas Ale - 1st Place

Winter's Bourbon Cask Ale - 2nd Place

Goose Island Mild Winter Ale

Capital Brewery Winter Skål

Big Sky Brewery Powder Hound

Anchor Steam Christmas Ale

Harpoon Winter Warmer

Full Moon Winter Ale

Bell's Sparkling Ale

Leinenkugel Fireside Nut Brown

New Glarus Fat Squirrel Ale

(Plus one that our friend Justin brought that I can't for the life of me remember)

It's Still All About Family

2009-12-21T10:30:00.001-08:00

Since Joel's family and my family live in different states, we split up Christmas and Thanksgiving. This year we had Thanksgiving with my family, so we will have Christmas with Joel's family and then see my family over New Year's. Next year, we will have Thanksgiving with Joel's family and Christmas with mine and so on. We like this set up because it allows us to see everyone, and we're not always going to Thanksgiving or Christmas with the same family. On the other hand, it is hard to avoid the feeling of homesickness that accompanies a big holiday with someone else's family. Don't get me wrong, I love my in-laws (and I'm sure Joel would say the same...right? right?), but everyone's family celebrates holidays slightly differently.

One way that Joel and I have helped ease our homesickness is by cooking the food that we grew up with. Joel has to have lumpia at Thanksgiving because it's just not a holiday for him without it, so we made them in Atlanta this year and shared them with my family. My mom and I typically bake about a million cookies to give away over Christmas, and I do that every year for my co-workers. My mom also always bakes a pecan pie for Thanksgiving every year, so I attemped one (with disastrous results) last year when we had Thanksgiving with Joel's parents.

This year, as usual, I dug out the email that mom sent me with all of the cookie recipes for Christmas and got to baking. I made four different things to share with my office (Ad Hoc chocolate chip cookies*, chocolate peanut butter chip cookies, sugar cookies, and haystacks). The smell of the haystacks, and the feel of rolling out sugar cookie dough immediately made me feel like I was home. Even though I won't see my family on December 25th, I've already conjured them up in my heart, and I am with them in spirit. Every time I share the joy of The Baking with someone new, I feel some sense of home again.

I know that when Joel and I start a family, we'll be able to pass down a really cool mix of traditions through our food, and it is one of the things in the future that I am most excited about.

What food traditions always take you home?

*This chocolate chip cookie recipe is reason enough to buy the book. Seriously. Delicious.

Basic Must-Have Recipes: Hummus

2009-12-18T17:15:00.000-08:00

I didn't start eating hummus until college. I didn't even know what hummus was until I was at least 20 years old, but once I got into it, there was no stopping me. We tried a lot of different ways to make it our senior year of dorm living. My roommate, Cara, was particularly partial to the hummus mix she could get in the "hippie" section of the grocery store for two reasons: it was cheap, and it was really easy to make. We also tried making it from scratch, but that never really turned out right. Most of the time, we just bought it in plastic containers like everyone else. Even now, most people just buy hummus. I think that's because they don't know how easy or cheap it is to make at home. It does require a food processor or blender, so that can be a problem if you're working in a limited kitchen.

This recipe is loosely based on the recipe from the Joy of Cooking. I have played with it enough to make it my own, and I encourage you to do the same. The key to good hummus is taste it, taste it, taste it. Basically every can of garbanzos is different, and every tahini tastes different, and every oil tastes different. Those three things will make or break your recipe. Oh, and don't cheap out on the olive oil. I learned that one the hard way. (recipe after the jump)

Hummus

2 cans (about 3 cups) of garbanzo beans (chickpeas) - you can use the dried ones here, but you have to cook them first.
about 2 Tbsp tahini
about 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
pinch red pepper flake (or more, if you like spicy)
1 tsp cumin
2 medium sized cloves of garlic, peeled
juice of 1 medium lemon
salt
black pepper

Crush the garlic lightly with a knife to get the skins off. Throw that in a food processor or blender with a pinch of salt and blend until you get little pieces of garlic.

Rinse and drain the chickpeas, add them to the food processor with red pepper flake, tahini, lemon juice (do NOT use bottled here), cumin, a little bit more salt and a few grinds of pepper. Process until you have a grainy paste.

Turn the food processor or blender on, and slowly drizzle in olive oil through the little access port in the top until the hummus is smooth. This will take more olive oil than you think. Just stay with it until you get the right consistency.

Taste your hummus. Add more salt/pepper/tahini/lemon juice if necessary. Blend/process until fully incorporated. (I have found over time that the lemon juice makes the biggest taste difference the fastest. Also, salt is super important, but it's best to add a little bit at a time. I like to taste the hummus with what I am serving it with, because it might taste great on celery but terrible on a pita.)

Makes about 2 cups of hummus. Serve with veggies, cut up pitas, or pretzels. Store in refrigerator in an airtight container.

If you make this hummus ahead of time, be aware that the garlic flavor gets stronger as it sits in the fridge, as does anything spicy that you might put in there.

You can play with this recipe - add roasted red peppers, jalepenos, pinenuts, extra tahini, sub in roasted for raw garlic, sundried tomatoes, celery seed....anything that sounds interesting. The recipe plays well with other flavors.

A Meatacular Christmas Gift

2009-12-17T18:57:00.000-08:00

Some of the best things about being married to Clare are the gifts that her parents give me (us?) each Christmas. Ever since our first Christmas together her parents have given me a box of country meats: bacon, sausage and ham. I look forward to this every year and as luck would have it, my gift arrived a little early this year.

The meats come from Broadbent's B & B Food's close to Clare's home town.

They include a gift card with each box and a lot of packing peanuts.

As in years past we received two 14 oz. packages of hickory smoked bacon, 2lb. roll of smoked country sausage and a 10 oz. package of country ham steaks.

I love waking up on a Saturday morning and frying up some of the bacon or sausage, but sometimes these ingredients call for more. Over the years we've found a few different recipes that showcase these delicious smoked meats but we're always looking for new ways to use these gifts. Which begs the question, what's your favorite ways to use bacon, sausage and country ham?

Pretzel Quest 2009

2009-12-15T18:48:00.000-08:00

I’m not sure when it happened, but sometime over the past year or so pretzel buns have become insanely popular on burgers. The first pretzel bun that I can vividly remember was on a Corner Bakery ham sandwich at work. I didn’t realize that it was a pretzel bun until after my first bite and then I had a revelation of what a sandwich could truly be. The saltiness of the crust combining with the buttery chewiness of the interior took that sandwich to another level of deliciousness. After that I began to see pretzel buns everywhere: Kuma’s, Hannah’s Bretzel, etc. At this point I knew I had to take a crack at making these savory buns.

I decided to start my quest by making taking a basic pretzel recipe and making rolls from them. As far as research goes the rolls were delicious, but without some kind of baseline it was hard to know which adjustments to make. That's when I decided to make traditional pretzels for our annual Christmas party.

The recipe itself comes from Alton Brown and Good Eats. It's a straightforward dough that comes together quickly, providing a great starting point for customizations.

The Dough

You want a slightly sticky dough that pulls away from the bowl and has a matte finish. Slightly sticky so that it has some elasticity to it when you start rolling. Too dry and the dough will break when you start to stretch it. If it doesn't pull away from the bowl then it's too wet and you won't be able to roll it at all, it'll just smear across your counter. What I figure the matte finish is for is to gauge the butter content in the dough. Too little and the dough will have a dusty appearance, too much and it will have a glossy shine.

The Rolling

After giving the dough time to rise we portioned it into three oz. balls and began rolling them into long strands suitable for twisting. One thing I have to recommend is that you don't flour your surface, you need the dough to grip the surface a bit, and flouring the surface just makes it way too slick. I ended up oiling the surface a little and that worked out perfectly.

The actual rolling part came together after a few tries. Once I realized that I shouldn't try to lengthen the dough by stretching alone the results improved. Here's what I learned:

It's probably half applying pressure and half stretching to get the dough to the right length.
Make sure that your hands are rolling in a synchronized way otherwise you'll get a pinch in the dough and that's where your break will occur.
Moving my hands towards the center and back out during a roll seemed to help keep the dough even.
You know you have good dough and are doing a good job when your dough is almost rolled out, your hands are at the ends and as you are rolling the middle of the dough is still rolling around with you.

The Dip

Just like Alton says, 30 seconds in the bath is more than enough. Any longer than that and you get a strong alkaline taste to the pretzel. Unless you are going to turn over the pretzels half way through, be sure to spoon some of the liquid onto the top. When the pretzels come out they are going to be slightly puffier and have a slick, almost slimy, outer shell (can a shell be slimy?). Do your best to let the liquid drain off before applying the egg wash, this will help reduce any alkaline taste.

Salt

It was impossible to find anywhere in Chicago that sold pretzel salt. There were plenty of online purveyors but since we didn't decide to do pretzels until a day or two before the TBOC party that wasn't an option. Using a coarse kosher salt though worked in a pinch. Just be sure not to crush it between your fingers while sprinkling it on the pretzels, you want as large a flake as possible.

The Results

The final product was delicious and our guests loved them. We started to run out of time towards then end of our pre-party prep so we decided to forgo full twist pretzel and went for pretzel bites instead. These one ounce portions helped me to refine my ideas for my pretzel buns...but that's another entry.

Good Eats Homemade Soft Pretzels

    * 1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
    * 1 tablespoon sugar
    * 2 teaspoons kosher salt
    * 1 package active dry yeast
    * 22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
    * 2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
    * Vegetable oil, for pan
    * 10 cups water
    * 2/3 cup baking soda
    * 1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
    * Pretzel salt

Directions

Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside.

Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan.

In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan.

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula. Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Christmas Recipes: Sausage Balls

2009-12-13T17:43:00.000-08:00

What follows might be the easiest holiday recipe of all time. It wasn't New Year's or Christmas at our house without sausage balls. They go especially well with anything bubbly like champagne, beer, or sparkling cider. I made a batch for our annual beer tasting Christmas Party and they were gone in approximately six seconds.

These are good with regular breakfast sausage from the grocery store, but they are extra-fantastic made with country sausage or homemade breakfast sausage. (recipe after the jump)
Sausage Balls

1 lb breakfast sausage
10 ounces shredded cheddar cheese (you can shred your own or use the bag cheese)
2 cups of Bisquick
a touch of water

Preheat oven to 350.

Mix cheese and Bisquick, add sausage.

Mix with your hands until all ingredients are fully incorporated. Add enough water just to get most of the Bisquick incorporated if necessary.

Use your hands to form into one inch balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheets, leaving about an inch between each ball (they spread out a little bit). Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Let them cool for a couple of minutes before serving - people tend to snarf them down, so they're better if they're warm but not blazing hot.

Makes about 36 balls.

It's All About Family

2009-12-01T18:20:00.000-08:00

Today I met Thomas Keller. Originally, Joel wanted to go to the book signing at the State Street Borders, but alas, work called. There I was, waiting anxiously with a brand new copy of Ad Hoc at Home sitting on my lap, listening to the people behind me talk about Food Network stars when he appeared as if by magic. He looks just like he does on television.

Before the signing, Chef Keller talked a little bit about Ad Hoc and about the cookbook. Keller is a world-renowned chef and culinary rock star, but there he sat on the signing table, telling us how he wrote an April Fool's email a few years ago and suddenly had a successful restaurant. It was surreal, to say the least.

Ad Hoc is all about family style meals. There is no menu there. You get what the chefs want to cook and that's that. There is a freedom in that kind of dining, you know. It's reminiscent of coming home from school and finding out meatloaf was what you were having, and then being happy about that. I like that Keller is able to take American cuisine to its highest heights with Michelin stars and all that, and also be able to be real about food and what it means, because for most of us, food means family, and gathering, and sharing time together.

I cannot wait to get started on the recipes in the cookbook. I know that some of them will be out of my grasp, and I know that others will be similar to things I've made before. No matter what, I'm excited to think about food as a family occasion and take pleasure in the transformation from raw ingredients to beautiful meals.

I got my cookbook signed, inscribed for Joel. Chef Keller writes it in a beautifully, curly script with a special pen. Just like his food, it is beautiful, but the inscription contains a message that would be the same if scribbled in crayon: "It's all about family."

Indeed.

Thanksgiving Week: Cornbread Dressing part 2 - Dressing

2009-11-29T19:57:00.000-08:00

The cornbread is by far the most difficult part of the cornbread dressing. Once you have that down, it's smooth sailing to Dressing Town. We never called it stuffing in my family because it never went in the bird. Every Thanksgiving morning, I would wake up to the smell of celery and onions sweating in a skillet. Once I got into the kitchen, I would find my dad crumbling up cornbread in our biggest mixing bowl while chicken broth heated on the stove.

I called him to get his recipe for cornbread dressing. It was surprisingly seat-of-the-pants cooking. When I asked him how much liquid to add, he told me "just enough until the mixture makes that sucking sound when you mix it." That is really the crux of family recipes. They're ways of cooking that you've done and seen done so many times that you don't need to know how many cups. You just cook it until it tastes good, like you remember it.

The minute I started sweating onions and celery for our early Thanksgiving, I was immediately transported to the kitchen I grew up in. I also knew exactly what it should taste, look, and smell like each step of the way, since I had seen it done so many times before. Here's an approximation of the recipe, but my advice to you is to make it like you like it. Add, take away, and make it your own. You'll know when it's right.

Dad's Cornbread Dressing

4 cups crumbled cornbread
1 large-ish onion (white or yellow)
3-4 ribs of celery
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
3-4 cubes of chicken bullion cubes or 3-4 tsps chicken bullion granules
2 cups boiling water
room temp water

Preheat oven to 375. Dice celery and onions. In a large skillet on low-medium heat, sweat onions, celery, and oil with a light pinch of salt to help draw out the moisture. Cook until translucent.

In a large mixing bowl, crumble up cornbread.

Add chicken bullion to boiling water to make an extra strong broth.

Mix celery, onions, cornbread and broth. Add room temperature water until the spoon makes a sucking sound as you stir the mixture. It's going to be the consistency of a thick mud. Add ground black pepper to taste.

Transfer dressing to a greased 13x9 inch pan and bake for 30-35 minutes until the top is golden brown.

See? Easy. Also, it's about a thousand times better than anything from a box.

Thanksgiving Week: Lumpia

2009-11-27T06:25:00.000-08:00

Holidays are not complete for me without lumpia, otherwise known as eggrolls. I can remember running into the kitchen at the first scent of frying oil and waiting impatiently for the first batch to come out. Usually I would burn my tongue but that wouldn’t stop me from inhaling half a dozen of them in my first go. My mom would always yell that there wouldn’t be any more left for our guests. Eventually, she relented and in subsequent years just made more.

Lumpia (along with pancit) is comfort food to me. We had them at every family celebration and this Thanksgiving would be no different since we would be making them ourselves. An exciting part of this process was making the eggrolls with Clare. She had only ever eaten them before and this was her maiden voyage into lumpia making. This year we get two cracks at making lumpia this year because Clare’s family requested it for our Thanksgiving dinner in Atlanta.

Now there are a lot of different ways to make lumpia, probably one for each family out there. In general though, there are two general types: fresh or fried. In the fresh category you have spring rolls, the healthiest of the bunch and the one I like the least. This usually consists of a filling of either fresh or stir-fried veggies (sometimes with meat, sometimes without) wrapped up but not fried. While tasty, this falls into the same category as oven-baked “fried chicken.” It’s just not the same. For me, the truest eggroll is the deep-fried, meat-filled version that my Mom always made.

Growing up I had helped my Mom with the lumpia all the time, usually with the wrapping of the little guys. Unfortunately, that didn’t help me when it came time to mix up a batch of my own, since I couldn’t remember what went into it. Asking my Mom for the recipe was interesting, since like most Moms, she had stopped measuring ingredients for her dishes a long time ago. When she e-mailed me the recipe this is what I got:

You know I don’t measure for this, so here is what goes into it. Cook a little bit of the filling in a pan before you start filling the wrappers and just keep mixing until it tastes right.

Meatloaf mix (50-50 beef and pork)
Carrot, chopped
Celery, chopped
Green onion, chopped
Water chestnuts, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Deep fry until the filling is cooked and the wrapper is golden brown.

That’s it. That’s the whole recipe. It’s deceptively simple and it would be easy to over think it. What’s the ratio of meat to veg? How hot should the oil be? Shouldn’t there be more seasoning, something mysteriously Asian? This was instinctual cooking at its most basic: just mix it until it tastes right. All too often I get wrapped up in the details of the process and lose sight of the final goal, creating a delicious meal for my friends and family. Well, there was no losing sight this time because the sparseness of the instructions allowed me to focus on my memories of how the dish should taste so that it was “just right.”

The Wrapper

Ok, so I kind of cheated here. I was out at my parents’ house earlier in the week and raided their freezer for eggroll wrappers. It’s just one of those things that my Mom always has in her freezer. She had two different kinds, but one stood out as the clear choice for any future lumpia-making. The TYJ wrappers were thin, pliable and didn’t dry out easily. I prefer the thinner wrappers because they will cook uniformly inside and out. Thicker wrappers will crisp up on the outside but be a bit chewier on the inside. The last characteristic is important because as wrappers dry-out they become increasingly difficult to work with. They begin to crack or won’t seal against itself, causing the final product to unravel when it gets into the frying oil.

The Filling

The filling is almost like a meatloaf, minus the binding materials (i.e. breadcrumbs or an egg). My Mom prefers to prep all the veg with a knife, as the food processor or grater tend to get things too small and watery. We found a way around this by chopping the veg into smaller pieces before it went into the food processor. The final product was close to a medium to medium-large mince.

When putting together the mixture, I was looking to balance a few things. The first was texture, as the meat would bring a nice chewiness to each bite, while the vegetables and wrapper would bring a crunch. Second, the savory of the meat would need to balance against the sweetness of the carrots.

Rolling

My Mom has a few different ways of rolling, but however you choose to do it, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Try to make the amount of filling you put in uniform between sheets. This will make cooking easier.
Don’t over fill the wrapper. Again, you’re looking for a balance between crunchiness and chewiness.
Minimize your air bubbles. This will help prevent the egg rolls from opening up in the oil.

Frying

This is something that I would actually like to codify a bit, mostly because cooking at too high a temperature will break down the oil and I would like to be able to use it for more than one session. As it was, my Mom's suggestion was to use the electric wok and set it to SEAR. It worked out, but I don't know how good the oil will be for another batch.

When frying the lumpia you need to make sure that the oil is hot enough to cook the meat and brown the eggroll wrappers within the same amount of time. If the oil is too hot, you will end up burning the wrapper by the time the meat has cooked through completely. Keeping the eggrolls the same size will also help when frying, because everything will be able to come out at the same time.

The one suggestion I have when frying is to keep the eggrolls in as long as the oil is bubbling. It will do so vigorously at first, but will slow after a while. You want to pull them out before they stop bubbling because once that happens there isn't enough moisture left to push the oil out of the food, keeping the eggrolls from becoming oily.

These days, I'm on the other side of the wok. Everyone seems to love the lumpia as much as I did growing up. Now if I can only get them out fast enough.

Thanksgiving Week: Cornbread Dressing part 1 - Cornbread

2009-11-24T23:49:00.000-08:00

When Joel and I were planning our Thanksgiving feast, I realized that for me it's just not Thanksgiving without the cornbread stuffing, and cornbread stuffing takes cornbread.

Not too long ago, I was watching an episode of Cook's Country featuring southern foods. Bridget Lancaster, the resident southerner on the show, was expounding about the virtues of a true southern cornbread. The key ingredients are cornmeal, buttermilk, and a cast iron skillet. The key missing ingredients are flour, sugar, and any sort of gussying up (jalepenos, creamed corn, tomatoes, and the like). As I watched her heat up the shortening in the cast iron skillet, and mix together the cornmeal and buttermilk, I was immediately homesick. I was also immediately determined to make cornbread at home. Joel and I were in possession of a sweet cast iron skillet, so it was time to start learning how.

I had several obstacles to overcome in the making of cornbread that would rival my dad's. I had the right pan now, at least, so I could check that off the list. Part two was finding self-rising cornmeal mix. Guess what? Not a lot of that around up here in the great white north. I could lay my hands on three or four different corn muffin mixes, but those are like cake compared to the gritty, homespun texture of true buttermilk cornbread.

Eventually, I found regular old cornmeal, so that left me to figure out the leavening on my own. Basically what I ended up with was a sort of Frankenrecipe that's mostly my dads, with a little help on the cooking science from a couple of internet recipes.

Southern Skillet Cornbread

2 cups cornmeal (yellow or white is fine)
2 eggs
about 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk (details below)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon plus a pinch salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil or shortening

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Put the vegetable oil in the cast iron skillet and put the skillet in the oven as it preheats.

Lightly beat the eggs in a 2 cup liquid measuring cup. Add buttermilk until you get to two cups of liquid.

Mix the buttermilk/egg mixture with the cornbread in a mixing bowl. Add salt. Do not add the leavening until the oven and skillet are fully preheated (10-15 minutes depending on your oven). The skillet needs to be lava hot in order to make the delicious crusty outside of the corn bread.

Once the oven and skillet are fully heated, pull the skillet out of the oven and put it somewhere heat safe (stove top, trivet, etc.). Mix in the baking soda and the baking powder and quickly pour the batter in the skillet. It should sizzle.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the top cracks. Invert onto a cooling rake so the steam doesn't soften the crust.

Serve warm with butter. Goes really well with chili and vegetable stew.

Make ahead a couple of loaves before Thanksgiving and freeze them so you don't have to cook one more thing the day of. Slightly stale cornbread works better in the stuffing.

Thanksgiving Week: The Turkey

2009-11-24T22:55:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure how we divvied-up responsibilities, but I knew I wanted to take a crack at the turkey. Why? Well, turkey is intimidating. It's the largest carcass we've ever had in our kitchen and when it comes to Thanksgiving, you're not just serving dinner, you're delivering an American icon. When done well, the cook gets oohs, aahs and adoration from his or her guests. When done poorly, all the cook can do is hold his head down in shame as the guests try to console him as they try to remember if the White Castle down the street is still open. In short, there is glory to be had in a well cooked turkey, and I intended to reap it.

The Supplies

I started my research a couple of weeks before the big night. I trolled through LTHForum, America's Test Kitchen and Alton and Ina's recipes on the Food Network. After all the research, we settled on a few things. First, we decided on a roasting pan, the All-Clad full sized Roti. Thankfully we still had some gift certificates left over from the wedding and we didn't go deep into our pockets for the "forever" pan. Next we decided on a bird. I wanted a locally raised HoKa turkey, but most places in our area delivered them a few days before Thanksgiving which wasn't going to be early enough for us (our dinner was the Saturday before Thanksgiving). We ended up with a 14lb. fresh turkey from Trader Joe's, which worked out nicely. Hopefully next time we'll be able to go the HoKa road because the reviews those birds were getting were great.

The Plan

Once we had that done, I chose a recipe. Never having been let down before, I went with Alton Brown's recipe (with slight modifications) from the "Romancing the Bird" episode of Good Eats. Aside from a bit of fun with the turkey, this was an easy recipe to follow that gave great results.

The Brining* - We brined the bird the night before our dinner and I left it in for 14 hours. The turkey took to the allspice berries quite well. Also the salt, sugar and pepper were noticeable but not overpowering. One lesson we learned though, was to not assume those styrofoam coolers at the grocery store are leakproof. We learned that one the hard way when the brine started to seep through the oh-so-porous bottom of the cooler. Luckily we noticed it early on and were able to salvage almost all of it.

A Slight Deviation - Alton's recipe called for canola oil to be rubbed on the outside of the turkey before being put in the oven. Well, I took a page out of Ina's book and went with butter instead. I made a compound butter using one stick of unsalted butter plus parsley and thyme. I rubbed this under the skin of the bird and the outside. I may refrain from using an herbed butter next time, because until the turkey shield goes on, those herbs are being subjected to some serious heat and may potentially burn.

High heat to start, low heat to finish - I thought this strategy worked perfectly. The entire bird takes on a golden color and slapping on the heat shield definitely helped the breast keep from over cooking. One thing did concern me though, and that was the relation between thermometer placement and cooking time. The instructions call for placing the probe in the thickest part of the breast. Well, never having done this before, I aimed a little too high in my placement. This resulted in some of the meat closer to where the limbs join the main part of the carcass being slightly pink. The overall cooking time for our bird ended up being 2.5 hours, which was about 20 minutes less than my instincts told me it should have been, but going by the book, I pulled it out of the oven.

The Results

I couldn't have been happier with the way the turkey turned out and judging by the reaction of our guests, they couldn't have been either. The meat was tender and juicy and full of flavor. It was subtly perfumed by the fresh herbs that were placed within it and the butter crisped the skin nicely while adding to the succulence of the meat. I was amazed that creating something as flavor full as this was as easy as it was. The bird had been conquered and this cook received his accolades. Not a bad way to celebrate our first Kentuckipino Thanksgiving.

Good Eats Roast Turkey

Ingredients

1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine:

1 cup kosher salt

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 gallon vegetable stock

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries

1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
Personal note: I completely forgot to grab the candied ginger when we went out to the store. Given how much the allspice permeated the bird, I can only imagine that the ginger would have added another sharp, yet subtle note to the final product.

1 gallon heavily iced water

For the aromatics:

1 red apple, sliced We went with honey crisp apples.

1/2 onion, sliced In his new book, Alton's recipe has changed this to quartered. Same with the apples.

1 cinnamon stick

1 cup water

4 sprigs rosemary

6 leaves sage

Canola oil

Directions

2 to 3 days before roasting:

Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.

Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

Early on the day or the night before you'd like to eat:

Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Very important if you don't want the bird to come out too salty.

Discard the brine.

Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity along with the rosemary and sage. In case you're wondering, you don't need to add the water. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.

Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.

* A side note about the brining, I was surprised at the sheer number of people that asked if I was going to brine the bird. The cashier at Trader Joe's asked, the salesperson at Macy's asked and I think the turkey even asked when I first bought it. Suffice it to say, brining is no longer a secret tip and it seems to have become the go-to tip that people offer up first-timers. If you want to learn more about it I suggest watching that episode of Good Eats or reading this write-up in Serious Eats. (Mmmmm...denatured proteins!).

Thanksgiving Week

2009-11-20T17:32:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving. Clare and I got talked into hosting Thanksgiving. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes...the whole nine. Neither of us had prepared a Thanksgiving dinner before. Regular dinner party? Sure, but this isn't a regular dinner party.

So, how did we get talked into hosting Thanksgiving? Well, in the summer of 2009, Clare and I bought our first place, a condo in Lincoln Square. (Who knew that the American Dream involved so much debt?) We loved having people over for group dinners, but we never had enough seating, so one of the first pieces of furniture that we bought was a gigantic table from Ikea. With a table this size we were either going to have everyone over for Thanksgiving dinner or start landing planes on it. Knowing what Mayor Daley did to Meigs Field, we opted for Thanksgiving.

Of course we needed to roast our first turkey, but we also had to make lumpia by ourselves, attempt cranberry sauce, perfect cornbread dressing, and put some finishing touches on our mashed potato recipe. The next few posts will be all about our very first Thanksgiving Feast. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did creating them.

What a Grind

2009-08-03T17:35:00.000-07:00

I love burgers. I love them any way that I can get them. Fried, grilled, broiled – slap it on a bun and I’m ready to eat. McDonald’s, Kuma’s Corner or the backyard grill-out – for the most part I don’t care where I get them, as long as I do.

What makes a great burger? With so many different choices out there, this was a harder question to answer than I thought it would be. Patty size, how it’s cooked, cheese, toppings and bun form a mind-boggling number of combinations. In the end though, we focused on the one aspect that transcends every combinations: the patty.

After much thought, consideration and a few burgers we found the perfect patty is…

Juicy – If you take a bite of a patty and don’t reach for a napkin, it’s too dry. Conversely, if you’re going through a roll of Bounty to get through a burger, you may want to back off a bit.

Texture – The best burgers have a split personality. The exterior has bits of crisp browning from where the meat was seared, whether over a flame or a griddle. The interior is like a steak – tender, medium rare and delicious. When the two mix, you get the best of both worlds.

Tasty – Unrepentantly, yet not overbearingly, beefy and well seasoned.

With this as our guide, Clare and I set out to make our Kentuckipino burgers.

Wanting a definite beef flavor and a decent amount of fat, I went with 1.3 lbs of sirloin and .85 lbs of chuck. The final product was beefy but not greasy. In fact, I’m wondering if I shouldn’t up the fat next time so that we’re closer to 50-50 between sirloin and chuck.

Once we got home, we went about prepping the meat for grinding. This was a necessary step because the last thing you want to do is throw an entire steak into the food processor. Unless of course you’re making dog food, in which case by all means proceed.

Prep consisted of cutting the steaks into 1-1.5″ cubes and then placing them on a baking sheet in the oven. Most sources (Alton Brown, America’s Test Kitchen, etc.) recommended these steps regardless of whether you are using a processor or grinder. The smaller size cuts down on the grind time and yields a more uniform consistency to the meat. The chilling time firms up the meat, allowing for two things. First, the fats to have as much opportunity to heat up and separate during the grind and second, it allows for a more solid target for the processor blades to slice through.

I will say, I was not successful at grinding during the first few batches. The meat ended up glomming on to the processor blade and smearing itself along the side of the bowl. We thought that perhaps the blade needed more to grab onto so we added more meat. FAIL. We tried taking meat out. FAIL. We tried pleading with the machine. FAIL. What Clare finally realized was that the blade was getting gunked up with meat and that was causing it to push the cubes around instead of slice through them. With this figured out, I cleaned off the blade and added a small handful of meat to try again. SUCCESS!

With the meat ground-up I started the enhancement process. Normally, I would say that the meat should be able to stand alone, with perhaps salt and pepper only. In this case, I wanted to turn the flavors up a notch because the steaks weren’t exactly prime or dry aged.

So, to the mix I added two tablespoons of mustard for brightness and two to three splashes of Worcestershire sauce for added depth. I thought about adding breadcrumbs, but I wanted to see how the burgers would hold together by themselves. I also thought that this would alter the flavor and texture of the burger a bit more than I would like. Add a couple of pinches of kosher salt and 4-5 grinds of pepper and we were ready.

Be gentle when combining the ingredients. It is really easy to over work the meat. The more the mix is compressed, the chewier the final product will be. This has to do with the collagen proteins in the connective tissue of the meat. The more protein molecules there are in closer proximity to each other, the tighter they grip each other, making for a tough and rubbery burger. I would suggest folding the ingredients by hand, and a light hand at that.

Once mixed, I formed five patties. As I was folding in the additional ingredients, Clare heated up the skillet. Once it was slightly smoking I placed the first two burgers in. These weren’t as flat as the later ones and were a bit thicker. As a result I was worried about it cooking through. I went for a total of 4 – 4.5 minutes on the first side before flipping them over. There was some great browning going on. On the second side I let the burgers cook for closer to 5 minutes because I could still see some pink from the top and I was worried that they weren’t cooked through. Once our friend Ethan took a bite though, we found out that the burgers were actually on the well done side. Thankfully they were still moist and chewy. The second batch of burgers I made thinner and wider. I still cooked them closer to 4 minutes per side. While still well done, they maintained their juiciness.

The next time we do this I’m definitely considering the following:

Seasoning the meat beforehand. I’m wondering if marinating the cubes or at least seasoning with salt and pepper before the grind will more evenly distribute the flavor without compressing the meat unnecessarily when trying to combine the ingredients.
Do one burger by itself to start in the griddle. I only mention this because the second batch of burgers looked even better than the first because there was some grease in the pan for them to fry in. It doesn’t take much.
For this size of patty I think 3 minutes a side would have been plenty for a medium rare burger.
Perhaps stuffing the burgers next time with bleu cheese or a compound butter like chipotle or herbed.

All in all, very happy with the results.

Kentuckipino Burger v1.0

Ingredients

1.25 lbs of sirloin

.75 lbs of chuck

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp of fresh ground pepper

1-1 1/2 tbsp of dijon mustard

3-4 splashes of Worcestershire sauce

Your choice of cheese, toppings and buns

Directions

Cut the steaks into 1 – 1.5″ cubes. Place in a single layer on a cookie sheet and chill in the freezer for 25-30 minutes.

In small batches, grind the steak cubes in pulses to a coarse grind. A one-one-thousand count for each pulse should suffice.

Preheat your cast iron skillet over medium-high heat.

Place the ground steak in a bowl and add the remaining ingredients, gently folding them in by hand.

Cook burgers for 3-3.5 minutes per side for medium rare, 4-4.5 minutes for well done.

Kentuckipino

2009-08-01T00:12:00.000-07:00

Kentuckipino is a word blending Kentucky and Filipino, just like Clare and I are blending our lives together. Food is a big part of that and as we make old family favorites or discover new dishes, we will be documenting it here with stories, pictures and recipes.