Adobo Burgers

This last weekend was pretty brutal, Friday night Lisa, Seth, DJ Paul Ortiz and myself went and saw the awesome Austin metal band The Sword at the Launchpad and drank a little. Then Saturday the male Orphic employees went to Santa Fe early in the morning and installed a new network for YSFS all day long, and then Sunday along with the stupid daylight savings change I braved Costco and REI and finished up a site design. But I digress...

So sometime last week I found a Rachel Ray recipe for Adobo Burgers somewhere in the series of tubes that are the internet. Now Rachel Ray knows spicy food about as well as any midwesterner can and this recipe sounded interesting, so Sunday night I made the single handed command decision that I'd make those for dinner. First issue was that the recipe called for Adobo sauce which despite our fairly close proximity to Old Mexico was not available at the Smurr's we shop at. So I cheated and bought a can of chipoltes in adobo instead. I just pureed the chipoltes and adobo in my mini Cuis and added that to the patty mixture. Now the recipe calls for 2 1/2 tsp of adobe, I added 4 Tbsp which added a nice heat and flavor. the recipe amount would probably add a minor hint of heat and flavor if anything.

Everything else was fairly de rigeur but the burgers came out really nice. I gas grilled the patties to medium, toasted up the Smiths brand whole wheat rolls and added shredded lettuce and tomato. The avocados at the store were a little hard so we skipped those. The corn in the spread mixture might seem a little odd but it adds a nice crunch and some body to the mayo mixture. Putting the cheese in the mayo mix was a little odd too but not bad. Next time I do these I might put melted cheese on the burger instead and leave it out of the mayo mix. Overall though, not a bad recipe with some tweaking. I manged to forget to take any pictures since I'm new at this. The camera now lives in the kitchen so I'll be forced to remember.

Ode to my Pepper Grinder

Last year my loverly girlfriend received a Sur la Table gift certificate for one holiday or another. Unfortunately here in the Burque we have a dearth of Sur la Table's and an overabundance of fuckin Williams-Sonoma stores. To me, Williams-Sonoma should only be entered by people who hope to appear like they know how to cook. It should be avoided by anyone who actually cooks on a regular basis. I mean if you like to pay 3-10 times more than you could by going to a real restaurant supply store, for almost anything kitchen related, then by all means shop away. But if you dont like to be sneered at by late middle aged white women who HAD to get a job just so they didnt have to be around when their Hummer driving husbands returned home after a hard day trading stocks, stinking of their 25 year old secretary's perfume, then you should either try a real restaurant supply store, or try Sur la Table.

Sur la Table is like a cleaned up, mall worthy restaurant supply store, with a French name, and everyone knows, the French know food right? Their prices are decent, their selection rocks, but the best thing is their sale racks. On one of our multiyearly travels to the Mile High City, we went to the Cherry Creek Sur la Table. Now I had been to a couple of these stores so I knew what to expect, Benski hadnt visited one before so she was unaware of the Sur la Goodness. Anyway, in the door I immediately go for the sales rack and find, to my immediate joy, this Peugeot Pepper Mill on sale. Now, these things are regularly $50... for a pepper grinder. Now at the time I found that to be OUTRAGEOUS. This one on the other hand was 50% off with another 50% off of that. Yes this mill was $12.50. Oh and it had a chip in the paint, shucks. Damaged or not, I knew we needed a new grinder. We managed to spend another $150 bucks in about 45 minutes before going to Cherry Cricket with x Steve-O x for The Best Burger in Denver and then going to DWR to drool on Noguchi tables. All the while I was wondering how well this thing would perform.
Once I got this thing home though, I knew that should this one ever fail I will immediately go throw down $50 for a new one without batting an eye. This thing grinds pepper like all pepper mills should, quickly, quietly, easily and most important, adjustably. With a mere twist of the stainless steel ball on the top you can adjust from rough restaurant salad grind to fine powder grind in no time. Now I have been using this thing daily for about a year, and it has never performed at anything less than perfection every twist. I wish every kitchen tool I have worked this well.

I have no idea whether this is the same company that makes Peugeot cars, if it is I damn sure wish they'd start importing the 206 to the US so I could purchase one immediately. But if you're in the market for a good mill, or are looking for the perfect gift for that cook that has everything, find them any of these products and I guarantee they will be over spicing everything for about 2 weeks just for the chance to use this thing. I swear they arent paying me off either.

Pierogi Lunch

For our luncheon today, (I love saying luncheon it sounds so Victorian) evil scientist girlfriend Benski and I decided to try some Trader Joes brand frozen Cheddar & Potato Perogi. If you're unfamiliar with pirogi, they're like Polish potstickers or eastern european gyoza. They typically consist of a pasta like dough pocket filled with some sort of potato mixture. Steamed or boiled and then pan fried and then topped with some sort of sauce is the standard suggested procedure for preparation. We decided to have just the pirogis themselves without any sauce today with a nice tossed salad on the side.

So while the water was boiling and Benski was prepping the salad I rocked out a lovely dressing that I used to make all the time but hadn't in recent memory. It's a delicious Dijon aioli that Scalo used to serve as a salad dressing back in the late eighties when it was one of the best places in town. Since I eyeballed all my ingredients the proportions might not be dead on but try it anyway, it's delectable.

Dijon Aioli
1 egg
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
3 Tsp white or cider vinegar
1/4- 1/3 cup olive oil
Pinch Kosher Salt
2 grinds of Fresh black pepper

In a blender or small processor pulse the mustard, egg, vinegar salt and pepper then slowly stream in olive oil until mixture thickens to about mayo consistency. Easy and tasty.

Once the salted water was boiling I tossed the Pirogis in for about six minutes while I sauteed some diced white onion. Once the pirogis were done and drained I removed the onions and tossed them into the hot pan with a tablespoon or so of olive oil and sauteed til they were a bit brown and crunchy looking.

After adding back in the onions I micro-planed on some Vermont super dry white cheddar on top and let that melt. The pirogis turned out really well, but I could have sauteed them a bit longer to get more crunchy goodness but all in all they had nice consistency and texture. I do think the onions made a big difference, delivering that nice bit of character to the dish. I really want to make these from scratch some day soon and see how they are maybe with a nice marinara or possibly a brown gravy... mmmm yum. We got these at Trader Joes in the frozen section and I think paid $3-4 for the package that fed us both nicely. Combine that with a total cook time of maybe 15 minutes and I think we have another addition to the household's fast, inexpensive yet delicious culinary constraints.