Sliders

Not being from the true Midwest, I do not have a proper appreciation of the slider. Growing up in Montana, a big juicy burger was the norm. A mini burger...what is the point? And of course burgers have onions on them. And burgers still always taste best at my grandparent's house. (I don't know if Mama pays off her butchers or what.) Some folks get an appreciation for sliders sometime in college. I can guarantee that most of us who have friends with a soft spot in their hearts for White Castle. By the time Adam and I got around to visiting a White Castle in the Midwest, our palates were probably more mature than strictly sensible and we weren't drunk or high -- which I am told is an important pre-requisite for enjoying 'Whities." We went and I ordered what I was supposed to and was woefully underwhelmed. This? This is what everyone talks about? They named a movie after this? Greasy, bland, warm... hmmm.

A few weeks ago, I ran across this post from the Paupered Chefs blog. I knew Adam would be very excited to run a slider experiment if only for nostalgia's sake and I knew that whatever we came up with at home would be vastly superior to those we'd tried before. Here are the ingredients suggested by Nick Kindelsperger and edited by me:

• * 1 pound (or 16 oz) ground chuck (or 80/20 grind) rolled into 2 oz balls makes 8 sliders.
• * 1 vidalia onion, very (very!) thinly sliced
• * Slider buns or potato dinner rolls, halved
• * Sliced American cheese ( we had our deli slice this for us so we doubled up our cheese as it was thin. Slicing American at home is a pain. Get it done for you.)
• * dill pickle chips or bread and butter pickle chips
• * salt and pepper
• * ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise (optional) (Adam says mayo on a slider is sacrilege)

We started with an 80/20 grind from one of our favorite purveyors in the Puget Sound called Central Market. Adam also procured slider buns (but as noted in the original post, potato dinner rolls would also work), pickles (Claussen whole dills, sliced later), a huge sweet onion, and sliced yellow American cheese from the deli case. I salted and peppered the meat and rolled them into roughly 2 oz balls. I weighed the first ball and it was exactly 2 ounces, so I didn't weigh any of the rest of them because I figured that once you have perfection...

I tried to stay true to the original post as closely as possible. But I did disobey in one major way. The author had a lot of trouble with his cast iron skillet and strongly recommended a non-stick for ease of use after he spent a lot of time testing various methods. I love my cast iron skillet, however, and was determined to try it. The cast iron worked perfectly for me. And mine has a pretty serious coating so I didn't have near the sticking problems that he did. We tried batches of two and four. The batch of four worked well, so in the future, I would likely make four at a time instead of just two -- although it is fun eating them straight out of the skillet -- we don't have many meals like that these days.

Setting the meatballs in a hot skillet, you then top with an egregious amount of onions. Adam used a Santoku to slice the onions paper thin and we piled them on. I waited about 30 seconds for everything to soften before smashing the onion topped meatballs into the skillet. Then I waited another minute and a half before flipping the patties over on top of the onions to finish cooking and caramelizing. Now it isn't the prettiest process -- Onions will be everywhere. I found that heating the pan closer to the medium side of medium high gave me a good caramelization and browning with just enough steam.

Once you flip the patties onto the onion side, you herd the onions back close to their original positions, then top with cheese and their buns, and then cover to steam everything. The original instructions say that you can steam from 2 to 3 minutes. Our first couple were only steamed 2 minutes and later batches 3 minutes. The extra minute really helps the texture of the buns and the egregious number of onions really helps to generate the proper amount of steam, so I recommend the full 3 minutes.

Once the three minutes are up, you de-lid the skillet and plate your sliders. I preferred mine with 3 dill pickles, a little yellow mustard and a little ketchup. Adam liked his similarly except with bread and butter pickles and warned that too much ketchup could really interfere with the burger.

We served these with some spicy roasted potatoes and homemade chimichurri sauce (cilantro, parsley, jalapeno, garlic, vinegar & oil, salt & pepper) and a bottle of Pinot Gris. I think Harold and Kumar just pulled in. Hopefully they brought Neil Patrick Harris...

Asparagus Season

Here in Washington State (and countless other places of course) it is asparagus season. When I was young, my mom and I used to cook up some hard boiled eggs and sizzlean then jump into the car with Bunny the mastiff and drive down to the banks of the river. There we looked for asparagus. It was hard to find with all the other reedy plants around. We stopped to play in the water and even carved our names into a tree. Those days with my mom are still some of my fondest memories (I had a silver coat! Rad!) and I think of her every time I eat asparagus. Which is admittedly a lot.

I found some big fat asparagus at the store this week. Chef Beef and I were in the mood for a quick dinner so I found some lean top loin steak and assigned him to the grill. (That is his fire roasted garlic butter on the steaks -- its a secret process I know nothing about)

I cut the asparagus (2 bunches) on the bias and sauteed it in about 1TB of olive oil for about 4 minutes. I then added minced garlic (4 cloves) and steamed for another 2 minutes, then added pine nuts (1/4 cup) for another 2 minutes browning everything off. Here's how it all turned out. Fast and supremely good.

I heart my CSA basket

We are so lucky in Seattle to have a large year-round public market and an above average community relationship with local growers. At our house, we have been members of a Community Supported Agriculture program from several local farms over the years. This year, we are receiving produce (on Wednesdays for 22 weeks) from Tiny's Organics in Wenatchee, Washington.

Participating in a CSA has done several things for us. First, it has taught us about so many different foods that we didn't know about or how to prepare and has widened our horizons in a big way. As we are both from the northern to central "midwest" we were pretty familiar with the starch and meat equation but not with the tremendous variety. I had no idea what sorrel or mizuna was four years ago. Secondly, it has taught us to value fresh, local ingredients. Chef Beef's father is a farmer in Ohio, so we have mixed feelings about swearing allegiance to the organic movement, however, we believe heavily in the local food movement for the simple facts that it supports the local economy and tastes a lot better.

Thirdly, it has vastly increased our vegetable consumption (which was not terrible before). There was a time when Chef Beef could not have imagined eating only vegetables for dinner. This year's basket is also relatively fruit heavy. I have no talent for canning or preserving, but I have pawned off an awful lot of fruit crisp this summer from pluot crisp to apple crisp.

Pike Place market itself provides produce throughout the year in addition to local butchers, cheese crafters, arts, dairies, food vendors and flowers...(for the decoration-ally challenged).

Fresh Ground Burger Craze

Because I cannot pass up a bandwagon when it comes to cooking, we successfully tried the fresh ground beef craze about a month ago. The Food Network tends to be my default channel when there is nothing on (and that is often) so I have watched numerous celeb chefs recently demonstrate the technique with grinders and processors and wholeheartedly extol its virtues.

Almost 2 years ago, we bought a 1/4 of a cow, thinking it would be an economical way to satisfy our beef intake. (If you didn't know, 1/4 of a cow fits into a top freezer and can be ordered from your butcher cut in a variety of ways to fit your lifestyle.) So we ate the hamburger. And we ate the steaks. Then we ate the stew meat. And then there were roasts. Big roasts, small roasts, pot roasts, arm roasts, rib roasts...you get the picture. Though when pressed, I can make a roast, its not my favorite food.

Maybe, we thought, those roasts would be better served as part of a burger. An arm roast worked well for this venture, combined with a lonely chuck steak for a little higher fat content on the grill. We found that small batches of cubed meat in the Cuisinart pulsed about 12 times (a longer pulse than you'd use for crumbs) worked really well. Make sure you get picky and cut out all the connective tissue because its just not fun to bite into. The fries on the side of the picture are parmesan oven fries done with Yukon Gold potatoes. For minimal effort, not only can you have better control of your ground beef, but you can use up those roasts you might have stashed in the freezer but really should use. Overall, it was a success and a technique I was hesitant to try, but now fully endorse.