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May 24, 2008

On the grill this weekend: Spanish pork burgers

I knew that Tom would want burgers at least once this weekend and this Spanish Pork Burger from Eating Well caught my eye.

The ground pork that my grocery store carries has 22 grams of fat per 4 ounces. Yikes! No way am I going to use that. Pork tenderloin has 3 grams of fat per 4 ounces. That sure sounds better, huh? So rather than buying a pound of store-ground pork, I bought a 1-pound pork tenderloin and ground it in my food processor. This got me thinking that it's time to think about buying the meat grinder attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer. The food processor does a decent job of making ground meat, but it is very easy to go from ground to mush. The meat grinder attachment would solve this problem.

The Spanish Pork Burger is flavored with chopped caramelized onions, smoked Spanish paprika, chopped green olives, and garlic. The onions do a great job of keeping the burger moist. It's served with more of the caramelized onions, a lemon-saffron mayo, and roasted red peppers. The original recipe calls for Piquillo peppers, but I couldn't find them, so I used roasted red peppers.

This burger takes a little while longer to make than a traditional burger, but it is well worth the time. While the onions caramelized. I made a quick Spanish-flavored carrot salad by shredding about a pound of carrots, a small onion, and a large clove of garlic in the food processor. I tossed in about 2 tablespoons of chopped Spanish olives, about 2 teaspoons of dried thyme, 3 tablespoons of sherry vinegar, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and salt and pepper.

Rather than chopping the caramelized onions by hand, I tossed the onions, garlic, and Spanish olives into the food processor and then scraped them into a mixing bowl. I cut the pork tenderloin into small chunks before grinding it in the food processor. I get the best results with making ground meat in the food processor when I take the time to chop the meat first. I added some smoked Spanish paprika, salt, and pepper, mixed everything together, and formed it into 4 patties. The mixture is soft, but it held together perfectly.

As soon as the burgers went on the grill, I mixed the lemon-saffron mayo. I love saffron and I wish I had warmed the lemon juice and soaked the saffron in the warm lemon juice rather than just mixing the saffron into the mayo, and then adding the lemon zest and juice. Next time.

I cooked the burgers for 5 minutes, then flipped them and cooked them for another 5 minutes. I missed the instruction about adding the Manchego cheese and cooking for another minute to melt the cheese, so we had unmelted cheese on our burgers.

I assembled the burgers by first putting some of the caramelized onions on the bun, then the burger, then the cheese, then more onions, the mayo, and topped with roasted red peppers, and the bun top.

We loved these. The flavors went together perfectly and a pork burger was a delicious change. The pork tenderloin cooked up beautifully. It was lean, but moist and delicious.

Continue reading "On the grill this weekend: Spanish pork burgers" »

Posted May 24, 2008 8:37 PM in Recipes, Test Kitchen | Comments (2)

May 16, 2008

A delicious way to eat your antioxidants

The members of the Cooking Light Great Food community brought these Fig and Ginger Truffles to my attention. The recipe is from Ellie Krieger, a chef and registered dietitian with a show called Healthy Appetite on the Food Network. Combine dried figs, crystallized ginger, honey, and cinnamon, then dip in chocolate. Delicious and full of antioxidants. A perfect gift for a friend's birthday.

My usual truffles have a chocolate ganache center. The fig and ginger truffles are completely different.

The figs, ginger, honey, and cinnamon are whirled together in the food processor, then formed into balls. I put the balls in the refrigerator for an hour to make them easier to dip.

Before taking the balls out of the refrigerator to dip them, I decided to temper the dipping chocolate. The recipe calls for 2 1/2 ounces of dark chocolate. I knew that I would be able to dip the balls with that amount of chocolate. It's easier to work with a larger amount of chocolate, and if I have extra chocolate, I mold it into a bar for nibbling.

I've been using with different methods of tempering chocolate. This time I used the stovetop method described in Making Artisan Chocolates. Although this recipe doesn't call for tempering the chocolate, I like to temper it so that the truffles can be stored at room temperature and the chocolate will not bloom. I tempered about a pound of chocolate and used a little more than half of it to dip the truffle centers.

Continue reading "A delicious way to eat your antioxidants" »

Posted May 16, 2008 6:34 PM in Recipes, Test Kitchen | Comments (5)

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