End of Summer Barbecues

If you’re looking to change things up over the Labor Day weekend or the UK Bank Holiday, why not try homemade caramelized onions and blue cheese burgers? It’s a lot easier than it sounds I promise! I was inspired by watching Sandra Lee on the Food Network. While she isn’t exactly a gourmet chef and doesn’t always use fresh ingredients, she does come up with some great quick recipes. Check out her Ale House Burgers with Red Onion Compote.

 The onions are really easy to make and can be done ahead of time and reheated when ready. Sandra put the cheese inside the burger patties which results in a gooey burger, but I like to see my melted cheese. You can see I went with pepper jack in the picture below, but the red onion compote would go really well with some crumbled blue cheese. You could even go a step further and mix some blue cheese with mayonnaise for a spread. OR! in a small food processor combine some Gorgonzola, mayonnaise, splash buttermilk and freshly cracked black pepper. Then you’d have a nice spread that could also be a dip. You could even use leftovers to make a white pizza. If you’re going the blue cheese route, I’d suggest some arugula/rocket as the greens. Either way, this burger is sure to be a big hit!

PS. I apologize for the dirty plate. I was in charge of grilling and by the time I got to sit down I was starving.. barely managed to get a photo in before I inhaled this burger!

To go with that burger, I highly recommend my Corn Casserole. I won’t take all the credit on this one as I’ve simply added to Paula Deen’s recipe. But this is a classic and goes with any barbecue or roast dinner. You can either make it Paula’s way or add a bit of kick with two chopped (de-seeded) jalapeños and topping it with shredded pepper jack cheese. The most difficult thing about this recipe is being patient enough to wait for it to finish cooking! It’s slightly sweet but savory. If you can’t get your hands on ready made corn muffin mix, here’s a recipe to make it from scratch (US recipe or UK recipe). Simply use all the dry ingredients in these recipes and add to the corn casserole.

To finish it off, how can you go wrong with some fresh guacamole?? The key to really good guacamole is ripe avocados and good seasoning. You have to take into account that people will be dipping salty tortilla chips in too!

• The Avocados – slice in half lengthways, twist apart, squish the seed out or spoon it out, using sharp knife, gently cut slices lengthways and then across (to make squares), then scoop it all out into a mixing bowl, this makes it easier to mix.
• The Limes – it makes the biggest difference to have fresh lime juice. I usually use a whole lime for about two avocados, but add a half at a time until it’s flavored to your liking. Also if you have slightly firm avocados squeeze the lime juice over it immediately and smash together a bit. Then go onto other ingredients and let the juice soften the avocado.
• The Other Good Stuff – for me, guacamole must have these ingredients but some may disagree. I like very finely chopped red onion, de-seeded jalapeño, cherry tomatoes (must be cherry or grape) and cilantro/coriander.
• The Seasoning – if you can use kosher or good quality sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper. This can easily elevate the quality of any guacamole.

Hope you enjoy your Labor Day weekend or Bank Holiday for you Brits out there!

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NY TRIP (PART 3) : COMFORT FOODS CONT’D

I find it amusing that this is my third post (there will be one more) about my 7-day trip to New York. Clearly I eat a lot. I’ll admit I went a little overboard. This is what happens when you’re a foodie and you’re deprived of New York. Thank goodness for the good weather while I was there and all the walking to offset it.

As promised, I’m writing about the rest of the comfort foods I enjoyed on my trip. (Please see previous post for comments on comfort food, if you haven’t already) Almost all of the places in this post were favorites of mine when I was living in the city.  And I was absolutely delighted to find that nothing had changed. Quality, ambiance, staff – everything was exactly as I had remembered it. That’s something I adore about New York. When New Yorkers find a good thing, they make sure it sticks around for a long time. There’s a loyalty that seems to be inherent in the city. Once you find your favorite bar or favorite brunch place (what have you), you will be damn sure to go there as frequently as possible.

A quick note on the foods I’m about to share. They’re not in chronological order. And they’re in completely different categories of goodness. So please take each into consideration on its own. If you think about them all at once, the combination isn’t entirely pleasant. 🙂

First up – ZAITZEFF.

This place has great memories for me because it was literally around the corner from where I used to live in the Financial District. It was one of the first places I ate at when I moved to the city. And like all great neighborhood joints, I grew to have a really friendly rapport with the chef whose name I could never remember. Most importantly though, the food was TO-DIE-FOR.

Zaitzeff is a burger joint. It’s a hole in the wall with only a couple large wooden (park-bench-esk) tables. The one downtown seems to cater mainly to professionals who order delivery or only have time for take-out. But this means that the main focus is the quality of the food. Just take a look at what Serious Eats had to say (they agree with me).

This trip I wasn’t able to visit Zaitzeff at a respectable burger-eating-hour, so I went for breakfast. Don’t be mistaken. Their breakfast sandwiches sure beat any Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts sandwich any day. And their secret – what I have never had anywhere else – is the bun. A Portuguese roll. It’s like an English muffin but lighter and with a slight sweetness to it. I had a very simple egg and cheese sandwich but it was SO fluffy and really hit the spot. However, I left a little sad that I didn’t get a chance to have my favorite – the ½ pound Kobe burgers served PERFECTLY medium rare and juicy with caramelized onions, Vermont white cheddar, avocado, lettuce, tomato and bacon. But I borrowed one of the pictures from Serious Eats to share with all of you. I don’t want to go into too much detail about this burger since there’s much to talk about this post, but I do want to emphasize that in addition to the fantastic rolls this place uses grass-fed beef which makes the taste and quality of this burger THAT much better. So if you ever venture into the Financial District or East Village (this one’s open late), I highly recommend!

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