Today I came to the conclusion that I would like a hamburger!
I was in the mood for something with a little kick, so the Blue-Cheese Burgers With Spicy Celery Slaw on page 96 it was! To go along with that, page 368 had Macaroni Salad With a Horseradish Kick. The first thing to do was to prep the burgers, as I could store them in the fridge while the rest of the meal was prepared.
As I assembled the burgers, I noticed a flaw in the recipe. These were "inside-out" burgers, so the cheese is actually stuffed inside the meat. I've made these before, and enjoy them thoroughly. However, the book said to divide two teaspoons of blue cheese amongst the four burgers. Simple math says that this is only 1/2 a teaspoon of cheese per burger.
As you can see, this will not do. I more than doubled the amount of cheese that the recipe called for and went about my business. Once the patties were formed, they were stored in the fridge, and I proceeded to make the slaw and macaroni salad.
I noticed an immediate problem. This recipe called for hard-boiled eggs, and The Bride ABHORS eggs. I realized that I would have to keep the eggs separate the entire time, and only add them to my portion as I plated them.
When I first tried the macaroni salad I was concerned. The Bride is also not terribly fond of parsley, and this was rather heavy on the parsley taste when I first mixed the recipe together. Honestly, at this point I was less than thrilled, and was about to dub the recipe a "swing and a miss." With everything ready to go, it was time to fire up The Forge. My last experience with burgers was less than exciting, but this time around the burgers were the only things being grilled. I used five pounds of charcoal, the temperature was just right for direct medium, and I went with four and a half minutes before flipping, and then another four minutes of cook time.
What lovely smoke...the burgers turned out just like I prefer. They were crisp on the outside, and medium on the inside. The blue cheese melted well, and I was very happy with my decision to double the amount of cheese. Next time I might even do more!
I liked the burger a lot. As stated before, I like inside-out burgers. Blue cheese on burgers brings a nice tang, and the slaw provided a nice texture. I was a little disappointed in the "spicy" aspect of the slaw. Being a bit of a chile-head, next time I will bring a little more heat to the party. The same goes for the horseradish aspect of the macaroni salad. I usually make my own horseradish from scratch, and using prepared horseradish from the grocery store was a mistake. If I make this again, a fresh root will be required. I would like to point out the harsh parsley flavor dissolved into the salad, and became only a background note. This brought a bit of a sigh of relief. So, long story short, these are good starters as recipes. Double the cheese, bring more heat, use fresh horseradish root, and you will be in business!
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