Monday, August 31, 2009

The Grub Report: Critics and Commentators Survey the State of Our Food Union

thought this was a good read...
*********************************
8/30/09 at 10:00 PM

Grub Street presents the Grub Report, a survey snapshot of the restaurant world in summer 2009. We polled eleven prolific eaters from around the country and in various parts of the restaurant business on ten questions, ranging from Most Important Chef to Most Overhyped Trend. What did we learn? Dave Chang is both one of the most important and most overrated chefs cooking today. Fine dining will return, but in different forms. Portland, Oregon, could be the model for how we’ll all eat one day. And, if these people have anything to say about it, the end of the burger craze, and of chalkboard menus, may be nigh.

With thanks to Tony Bourdain, Jonathan Gold, Gael Greene, Kate Krader, Ed Levine, Michael Nagrant, Adam Platt, Alan Richman, Lee Schrager, Regina Schrambling, and Bret Thorn.

1. Who are the three most important chefs in the U.S. today?

Winners: Mario Batali, David Chang, Grant Achatz.

Kate Krader, Food & Wine: I’m going to paraphrase the New Yorker’s Zev Borow here: Dave Chang is to most chefs in America as excellent heroin is to Capri Sun juice boxes. Also: Roy Choi and the Kogi truck. You cannot overestimate the power of Twitter and spontaneous information in the world of food, and Kogi really put it out there. Not only do they get their message directly to customers but they also get instantaneous feedback — "the short ribs today were overcooked." It’s an amazing way to build communities.

Jonathan Gold, LA Weekly: Mario Batali is probably more devoted to authenticity than any Italian chef in America at the moment, but more important, he has an unerring sense of what tastes good — and he seems to have mastered a formula for choosing interesting chefs for the restaurants in his empire and leaving them more or less alone.

Bret Thorn, Nation's Restaurant News: Grant Achatz, because he helps keep molecular gastronomy (for lack of a better word) relevant by making the results of it taste good.

Honorable Mentions: Daniel Boulud, Guy Fieri, April Bloomfield.

Regina Schrambling, Gastropoda: Daniel Boulud because he's an American go-getter in a French package and leads the way in less-than-obvious ways. You have to wonder if the burger insanity would be so insane if not for his DB reinvention.

Michael Nagrant, Hungry Mag: Guy Fieri has more frat boys wearing sunglasses on the back of their heads at a single Dave Matthews concert than Thomas Keller has served meals in his lifetime. Go to any non-foodie cocktail party in the nation and I’m willing to bet seven out of ten people won’t even know who Ferran Adrià or Grant Achatz are. The road to eating at Robuchon for the majority of people goes through Rachael Ray. Ray and Fieri are the culinary versions of marijuana, the food-TV gateway drug to eating and cooking either bigger, better, and badder food, or, for lazier folks, a lifetime of the cooking equivalent of smoking really bad weed.

Tony Bourdain: April Bloomfield. Because she worships (appropriately) at the Church of Fergus — and because she's good for the world.

2. What is the most important restaurant city in the country right now?

Winner: New York.

Alan Richman: Alas, it remains New York, and the reason for the regretful tone is not because I think less of New York but because the competition has backslid in these hard times even more than New York has, if you can say that New York has backslid at all. Life is more fun, where food journalism is concerned, when New York is under pressure. Economically, Vegas is in trouble. Not much is going on in Chicago. Oddly, L.A. restaurants seem to be doing quite well, with a number of impressive new places, but it's got too far to come to be a challenger. New York just got Aldea and Marea, both significant. On the low and medium end, nothing on earth is more important than pizza these days, and New York is so far ahead of any other city that the race for pizza supremacy is done. Finally, there's the David Chang factor. He's been America's hot young chef seemingly forever, even if he must be 65 by now. The next challenger might be the city with a young chef to supplant him.

Kate Krader: New York City, but I think L.A. is really interesting because they have the chance to do more idiosyncratic ethnic food than we do in general. Besides Kogi, I think Sang Yoon’s noodle bar is going to be super interesting. And the upscale-Mexican trend there is terrific. I also like that it's home to José Andrés and his wacky bazaar concept.

Bret Thorn: New York is still the center of the culinary universe, although I wish New Yorkers would remember that it’s not the only place in the universe, and I don’t understand why it’s so hard to find a good biscuit here.

Honorable mentions: Los Angeles, Portland.

Jonathan Gold: I'm duty-bound to say Los Angeles, aren't I? But even if I weren't, there is no city in the world with nearly as much diversity in its restaurants, as much access to splendid ingredients, or as much devotion to the competing concepts of tradition and change. It is not for nothing that such a huge percentage of national trends begin here.

Michael Nagrant: Portland, Oregon. Here you have a progressive semi-urban setting nestled in the cradle of agricultural milk and honey. The cooks who are innovating and feeding people here have every tool at their disposal and they’ve done it at a relatively accessible and diverse cultural level. I really believe Portland has everything at hand to be the model for how everyone in the nation can eat well. Places like Chicago or NYC are undeniably influential, but there’s an artifice to the locality and sustainability, because even the closest good farms are still hundreds of miles away and everything has to be trucked in. There’s also a general cost inaccessibility to everything that happens in those places. Portland is the goddamned Fertile Crescent. If they can’t make it work, we’re all doomed.

3. Who is the most overrated chef cooking today?

Winner: David Chang. Many respondents declined to answer this question, but Chang scored the most votes from those who did.

Adam Platt: You'd have to say Chang, and I think he'd agree. His food is great, but there are all sorts of chefs around who are technically superior.

Regina Schrambling: I hate to pick on Mario Batali, but it seems as if he's where Emeril was ten years ago: The shtick has overtaken what kitchen brilliance he had. But then, American Italian is even less my favorite food than Italian Italian.

Gael Greene, Insatiable Critic: How can I say Ferran Adrià when I've not eaten his food, only the imitations? He's certainly the most toxic chef to date.

4. Which current trend is least deserving of the hype?

Michael Nagrant: Chalkboard menus. I’d rather you burn down a forest of trees printing menus instead of invoking cheap Parisian-brasserie- or Italian-trattoria-inspired lemminglike interior-design nostalgia and thus forcing me to crane my neck and squint to see the night’s specials.

Regina Schrambling: Burgers. It's out of control. It's like chefs are retreating to the nursery or the fallout shelter in scary times. The greatest burger in the world is never going to be the revelation a fully and artfully conceived dish would be.

Kate Krader: Pizza can’t go for one more minute, but I feel like we’ve gotten a lot of good pies out of it. Also, this isn’t necessarily a trend, but I wish people would stop applying the steakhouse label to every single restaurant that has steak on the menu. After the Minetta review, everyone is trying to get extra credit for having a good steak; it’s ridiculous.

Honorable Mentions: Cocktail "programs" (Bourdain). Cupcakes (Bourdain, Levine). Beer pairings (Bourdain). Restaurants with no phone numbers for reservations (Schrager). Lounge-restaurants (Gold). Air and foam (Greene). Rooms so dark you can't see your food (Greene). Faux speakeasies (Platt). Pork belly (Thorn).

5. What is the last restaurant to which you voluntarily returned?

Bret Thorn: Aquavit, partly because it’s across the street from my office, but also because, although more than twenty years old, it still has a distinct style and food that’s different from anyplace else that I’ve been to in New York.

Adam Platt: Num Pang Sandwich Shop, on 12th Street between University Place and Fifth, for the lunchtime five-spice glazed-pork-belly special (garnished with crunchy pickled rhubarb).

Michael Nagrant: The Bristol in Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood (which ironically has a chalkboard menu). I returned because I’d been super hard on it in an early review and felt a responsibility to see if anything had changed (God strike down any critic who relishes knocking a place down), and also out of a piqued curiosity spurred by one particular dish of pork liver, maybe the best thing I ate in 2008 that I had on one of those early visits. Doing so, I was rewarded with the finest hunk of tender grilled pork heart swimming in a smoky chili broth that was one of the best things I’ve eaten this year so far. Chris Pandel may be one of the best organ-meat cooks in the country right now, a Yankee Fergus Henderson on the rise.

Honorable Mentions: Per Se (Bourdain), Ssäm Bar (Krader), Locanda Verde(Krader, Greene), Spotted Pig (Krader), Pizzeria Veloce (Krader), Europane (Pasadena; Gold), Aquavit, Standard Grill (Greene), DBGB (Greene), Salumeria Rosi (Greene), Marea (Schrager), Gramercy Tavern (Levine), Bar Bao (Levine),West Branch (Levine), Bar Boulud (Levine), the New French (Schrambling).

6. When and how will fine dining rebound?

Adam Platt: A new, stripped-down version of "Fine Dining" was already emerging prior to the recession, in places like Blue Hill, Momo[fuku] Ko, Craft, and even Per Se. As the money comes back, this snooty, pared-down, back-to-nature style will continue to flourish, dominate, and then, like everything else under the sun, it will crash under its own weight.

Tony Bourdain: "I think some things will soon be gone forever. A certain style of service, abandoned during hard times, will be looked back on with incredulity and a sense of relief that it's not around anymore. You already see the direction the grand masters of fine dining are going — the smart ones, anyway: toward the type of food and types of places they themselves like to eat. It's also a function of a newly empowered chef class — they don't have to create a whole bogus, front-of-the-house stage set. People will trust them — and will pay what's needed for top-quality ingredients. They don't need the bullshit anymore. So why complicate their lives? I mean ... who likes dealing with expensive linens and crystal?

Ed Levine, Serious Eats: By the end of the year, fine dining will rebound thanks to an improving economy. But only those fine-dining establishments that understand that the price/value ratio is just as important in what they do as it is in fast-food joints will flourish.

Bret Thorn: Give it about two years. It will rebound in part because of economic recovery, and in part because fine-dining restaurants are responding to customers’ desire for flexibility, especially with regard to the amount of time it takes to enjoy a meal. Customers who have the money (and they will have it again someday) will spend it on food that they like, but many of them don’t want to spend three hours eating it.

7. What should be the next big ethnic food?

Bret Thorn: It should be Indian, which keeps emerging in fits and spurts just to vanish in the shadows again. I hope at some point soon it will achieve the critical mass of popularity that it needs to cross over to the mainstream. It’s varied and delicious and our country’s palates would benefit from further exposure to it. But I think the next big ethnic food just might be Korean.

Jonathan Gold: It's all ethnic food, from Le Bernardin to Babbo to Apple Pan. That being said, in my corner of the universe, extremely regional Mexican food seems to be coming into vogue.

Gael Greene: I'm perfectly content with Vietnamese as the ethnic food of the moment. Certainly I'm not panting for Croatian. I'd welcome a revival of classic French cooking à la Julia with lots of butter.

Honorable Mentions: Singaporan hawker food (Bourdain). Peruvian (Schrager). "Real goddamned" Chinese (Platt).

8. What's the best thing you've eaten this year for less than $10?

Michael Nagrant: For $8.23 (based on $140 for a seventeen-course meal), Curtis Duffy’s (of Avenues) King Crab, Steelhead Roe, Kalamansi, and Togaroshi. It was as revelatory and ultimately as fun and satisfying as Thomas Keller's Oysters and Pearls and Grant Achatz’s Black Truffle Explosion.

Jonathan Gold: So many of the best things cost less than $10. But I just got back from Umbria, so I'll say the hot torta al testo from Failero on the south shore of Lake Trasimeno, about twenty minutes west of Perugia. It’s a sandwich of flatbread baked to order over a roaring olivewood fire and stuffed with oozy stracchino cheese and a handful of lightly boiled greens. Ten bucks gets you both the torta and a half-liter of wine to go with it.

Sandwiches at Num Pang (Platt, Levine)
Signature baogette at Pho Sure (Platt)
Gray's Papaya Recession Special (Levine)
A slice of pizza bianco from Sullivan Street Bakery (Levine)
A slice at Sal & Carmine's (Levine)
A mini-bagel with scallion cream cheese at Absolute Bagels (Levine)
Hamburger at White Manna in Hackensack (Bourdain)
Greek spreads for two at Kefi (Schrambling)
Special bánh mì at Fatty Crab (Schrambling)
Clam pizza at Veloce Pizza (Schrager)
Macaroni and cheese at the Smith (Greene)
Coffee-caramel ice-cream sundae with brownies, candied pecans, and chocolate sauce at DBGB (Greene)
Sunflower shoots from Evolutionary Organics at the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket (Thorn)

9. What should Dave Chang do next?

Jonathan Gold: Perhaps take a stab at reinventing classic Korean cooking, like the Gaon tries to do in the Apujeong neighborhood of Seoul.

Regina Schrambling: Clone himself so the magazines/blogs/networks could obsess on someone else for a change.

Tony Bourdain: He should relax and rest on his laurels — somewhere warm where he can cook crabs, drink beer, and argue about the New England Transcendentalists with a good friend.

Adam Platt: Chang should do whatever he wants. Just don't open a burger bar.

10. Which foreign chef would you most like to see come to America?

Jonathan Gold: Albert Adrià, the brother of (and pastry chef for) his more famous brother, when he isn't at his fantastically wonderful Barcelona tapas bar Inopia. Ferran may aspire to be the best chef in the world, but Albert aspires to make the best sardine sandwich in the world. I know where my sympathies lie.

Martin Picard (Bourdain), Francis Mallmann (Bourdain), Andoni Aduriz (Bourdain), Ferran Adrià (Platt, Levine), Jamie Oliver (Schrambling), Heston Blumenthal (Levine), Fergus Henderson (Levine), David Thompson (Thorn), Even Thais (Thorn), Tetsuya Wakuda (Greene), Michel Guerard (Greene).

Sunday, August 30, 2009

10 Essential Steps to the Perfect Cheeseburger


Ran across this primer for making the perfect cheeseburger on the grill on a site called "Al Dente". and not a moment too soo, either, as we are quickly approaching Labor Day 2009. i think there are some good tips here. i'd ahere to some, ignore others, but all in all a good basic set of principles.

Thoughts?
Note: One of the items on the list that i would most definitely "igorne" is the nonsense about "ignoring the common advice to not overwork the meat" i'm a big believe in a "loosely packed" patty making for a much more juicy and tender burger. frankly i'd take #2 off this list completely (or re-write it).

also, though a 6oz patty is a nice size, so long as your weights are uniform and therefore cook at the same rate, i'd not be such a stickler for a specific size to the burger, though i definitely think it should be more than 5oz and no more than 8oz .
************************************************

The 10 Essential Steps to the Perfect Cheeseburger

Zachary-and-clark-hamburgerAfter years of grilling and experimenting, my friends Zachary and Clark finally figured out how to grill a perfect cheeseburger every time.

Take a look at their ten essential steps, then share your own tips and tricks with us!

The 10 Essential Steps to the Perfect Cheeseburger

1. Use 6 oz. of meat per patty, no more and no less. Don't guess; weigh it.

2. Shape it with your hands into patties. Ignore the common advice about not "overworking" the meat.

3. Liberally salt (use Kosher salt) and pepper both sides. Salt is the glory of red meat; don't stint.

4. Make a deep thumbprint in the middle of each patty (it evens out the burger when it cooks, don't ask why).

5. Refrigerate the patties until you're ready to grill. You can salt and pepper well ahead if you'd like.

6. Make a HOT charcoal fire.

7. Liberally oil both your grill and the meat before you start.

8. For medium-rare, grill the meat EXACTLY 3 minutes on one side (grill lid closed) and 2 minutes on the other.

9. Add the cheese, cover each patty with a burger cover, and cook for 1 minute more.

10. Remove the meat and quickly grill the buns (the only civilized way to eat hamburger buns).

--Tracy Schneider

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Best Juicy "Jucy" Lucy Burger in Minneapolis

big fan of the Jucy Lucy style of burger/cheeseburger, which is basically a burger that originated in Minneapolis, and is basically a burger with the cheese inside the patty that melts as the meat cooks... sort of a "burger-twinkie" (with meat being the cake and the cheese being the cream filling).
if you haven't had one, try making one at home... it's pretty easy. anyway... ran across the blog enty on the best jucy lucy's in Minneapolis and i hope to try them if my travels ever take me there...

Note: I believe the the authentic spelling is "jucy", not "juicy" as spelled in the blog entry below, but i could be mistaken...
****************************************************

Foodie Finds: Best Juicy Lucy Burger in Minneapolis

Best Juicy Lucy Burger in Minneapolis


My husband is a burger connoisseur. Wherever we travel, he scopes out the best burgers around. Of course, this means that on any given trip, we'll eat burgers a few times. But!! On a trip to Minnesota, a burger lover is rewarded by a Juicy Lucy.

Do you know the Juicy Lucy? It's a hamburger with molten cheese inside. YUM. A Juicy Lucy is a Minnesota Institution. It is a large hamburger, formed around a big chunk of cheese. As the hamburger cooks, the cheese melts. Be Careful! A Juicy Lucy tongue burn will leave you tasting nothing for a week. The molten cheese oozes out and, I have to say, is Incredibly Delicious.

We've previously eaten them at Matt's Bar (one creator of the Jucy Lucy) and loved them (Note the spelling - Matt's leaves out the I in juicy). A neighborhood bar, Matt's is a Minneapolis tradition. It's also a dive bar with spotty service. The Jucy Lucy? Delicious.

We've tried the Juicy Lucy at Adrian's Tavern, in Minneapolis. Also delicious (with an extra slice of cheese on top), but the atmosphere is a dive like Matt's, and not so family-friendly. We were looking for a Great Juicy Lucy, at a restaurant where we could take our 7yo daughter.
Let's see who has the best Juicy Lucy burger in Minneapolis...

Here are 2 Best Juicy Lucy Burgers in the Cities

Shamrock's Nook

They don't call it a Juicy Lucy, but it's still a burger with molten cheese at the core - theJuicy Nookie Burger. The Nook's Juicy Lucy was featured on Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. Barbra Streisand noted that "I had the best Juicy Lucjy I've ever had at Casper & Runyon's Nook on Hamline Ave in St. Paul."

This one was recommended to us by our friend Chuck, at Explore Minnesota. BOY he gets points for this one! Ed loved his burger, and the onion rings were thick and juicy. I ordered a fish sandwich because I was tired of burgers by this time. Also delicious. Go for the Paul Molitor Burger, a Juicy Nookie burger stuffed with Pepper Cheese.

Shamrock's Nook Juicy Lucy

Juicy Nookie Burger


Bar atmosphere with international decorations (but mostly Irish). Our daughter loved that the walls had huge murals - and some paint that glowed in blue lights. We went at lunch and it was perfectly family-friendly. There were plenty of office people at lunch, groups of older folks, and a few families.

Shamrock's Nook has won local awards - including from Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine, Minnesota Monthly, and City Pages.

Juicy Nookie Burger - $7.95

Casper & Runyon's Shamrock's Nook: A Small place with big burgers
419 Hamline Ave. S, in St. Paul, MN
651-698-4347

http://www.crnook.com/


The 5-8 Club

Another place that claims to have created the Juicy Lucy (along with Matt's Bar), the 5-8 Club is a family-friendly restaurant. Fresh-made coleslaw, fresh baked buns, fresh ground hamburger - and, of course, the Juicy Lucy. They also have a cousin to the half-pound Juicy Lucy, the Saucy Sally. The Saucy Sally is a half-pound burger stuffed with secret sauce, topped with cheese, lettuce, onions, and a smear of Thousand Island Dressing. Delicious!

the 5-8 Club Juicy Lucy/Saucy Sally

Saucy Sally


In addition, they had the best onion rings I've ever had. You get a HUGE basket (don't worry, no matter how hard you try, you won't be able to eat them all) of very thin and crispy onion straws. Magnifique!


This year is their 81st Anniversary. The 5-8 Club has been awarded Best Juicy Lucy in many contests, incluing Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine, AOL City Guide, City Pages, and Best of Citysearch Top 10. They have three locations in the Twin Cities Metropolitan area. We went to the main one on South Cedar.

Juicy Lucy burger - $4.95
Biggest basket of crazy good onion straws you've ever eaten: $5.25

The 5-8 Club
5800 Cedar Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55417

http://www.5-8club.com/

As always with a juicy lucy burger, wait a little bit before biting in! You don't want to burn your tongue on the molten cheese.

So, Who has the Best Juicy Lucy in Minneapolis?

Our factors? Taste! Menu. Family-friendly restaurant. Prompt service with a smile. And, Onion Rings.

The Best Juicy Lucy in the Twin Cities belongs to...the 5-8 Club...

with Shamrock's Nook coming in a close 2nd. If the service had been a bit better there, the contest would have been closer!

Congrats to both restaurants for serving GREAT meals! We can't wait to go back...

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Ultimate Umami Burger from "White on Rice Couple" blog

i found this interesting home made burger recipe on a very promising looking blog, White On Rice Couple.

i'm a big fan of "fish sauce" as an ingredient/condiment and i basically prefer it over worcestershire sauce as i feel fish sauce has more depth, richness, complexity, flavor and bite to it. This blog recipe uses fish sauce in their burger recipe and i'm now keen to try it the next time i make my own burgers.

find the recipe here.

Note: when i make my own burgers i would add more to the recipe than just the fish sauce and i might skip the garlic an replace with garlic powder as to not have the fresh garlic overpower the meat. particularly if you are a medium rare person, i fear that the uncooked garlic could be a bit too sharp... more on how i might tweak this basic recipe after i do my own little "test kitchen" experiments... : )
***************************************************

The Ultimate Umami Burger

by WHITE ON RICE COUPLE


For the longest time, we’ve been making the best darn hamburger on the face of this earth (insert personal bias.) We’ve never had a specific name for the recipe until someone tagged it as the “magic meat”, but not as in “mystery meat” or “I can’t tell if this is chicken or beef.” Rather, it was to describe the magical flavor sensations that everyone experienced when they bit into one of our patties. That “magic meat” term described the juicy, flavorful and savory burger patty that everyone fought over. Sometimes the buns were tossed to the side or forgotten because the meat was just so darn tasty.

It wasn’t until recently, with all the discussion on Umami (the rich, savory taste in foods)that our burger recipe was re-named as the hamburger loaded with Umami. Our hungry friends were always stumped to figure out the secret ingredient and could never, ever pinpoint that “magic” flavor that made our patties so unique. It’s the ultimate burger that is so satisfying and savory, no one can eat just one. Make it a double, please.

But this umami rich burger recipe isn’t a new invention, nor is it a trendy recipe to keep up with the popularity of umami rich foods. It’s a family recipe that started from a Vietnamese family back in the early 80’s, in a 2-bedroom apartment, in the middle of Southern California.


Diane-

That family is obviously mine. Growing up in a Vietnamese family of 6 kids who were always hungry and thirsty for more American foods, my parent had to figure out a way to feed their hungry pack of kids. Back then, hamburgers were the “American’s food”, “that sandwich with that big piece of meat in it, with the red and yellow sauces and the sour cucumber slices.” My siblings and I wanted to eat “Ham-buh-guh” all day long and we wanted it NOW.

My parents figured out that it was much more economical to make burgers at home and did exactly that by created their own recipe for the patties. Of course, being Vietnamese, they marinated the beef in the only way they knew how—splash fish sauce to it. Fish sauce is the golden elixir to us Vietnamese, take it away and you drain the blood out of our cuisine. Fish sauce is the fermented salvation from the food gods above, and it’s pure umami brings out the savory depth in all foods.

With their batch of beef, my parents splashed fish sauce as the one and only marinade into the burger recipe. With the addition of a little sugar for balance, garlic for more aromatic love and black pepper for bite, their simple recipe has evolved into what our friends call today as “The Ultimate Umami Burger.”

This recipe isn’t unique by any means, especially in a Vietnamese household. I’m certain there are many Vietnamese-American families who splashed their burger meat with fish sauce!

Todd-

I know what a lot of you white people are thinking, “Fish sauce? Um, hell no.” But wait, my dear skeptics, and listen to my confessional. For many years when I first joined up with this beautiful, crazy Asian, I avoided fish sauce. Let’s face it, it stinks like something most of us are not used to. It is, after all, fermented anchovies. Mmmm, tasty! Not. At least so I thought, but man, was I ever wrong.

One fine meal while dining on a grilled shrimp ball, I dipped it into the Vietnamese classic Nuoc Cham (Viet Fish Sauce Dip) and I suddenly saw the umami. There was no nasty wired fishiness, instead the fish sauce’s own flavor virtually disappeared and many of the other flavors within the grilled shrimp ball became heightened. Everything was good before, but after the addition of the the fish sauce everything was incredible. I was instantly converted.

Ever since I’ve never hesitated in grabbing for the bottle of fish sauce. It was my brother-in-law, a classic mid-west guy who isn’t normally overly adventurous in his culinary choices, who dubbed the fish sauce laden ground beef as the “Magic Meat.” It was that damn tasty. And now we had another believer in the umami.

Sure everything will be tasty without the umami adding fish sauce. However, it will be even better with the magic sauce.


The Ultimate Umami Burger Recipe

fish-sauce

Don’t be afraid of the fish sauce. Understand the crucial umami factor that fish sauce brings to food and it will become your best pantry friend. So often, the powerful, pungent punch of fish sauce can be intimidating to cooks who aren’t familiar with it’s marinading magic.

Fish sauce is essentially the salty liquid from the fermentation of small fish and salt. But when used in small quantities, fish sauce brings fabulous umami savoriness to the burgers. It won’t taste like a “fish sauce burger.” It just tastes like a darn great burger! You’ll be a fish sauce marinade convert very quickly.

2 lbs Ground Beef
1 1/2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce (for more daring, savory depth, use 2 tablespoons)
2 cloves Garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon Sugar
1 teaspoon fresh ground Black Pepper
Hamburger buns
condiments of your choice

1. In bowl, combine all ingredients together.

2. Allow to marinade for about 20 minutes.

3. Gently form meat into a balls, then flatten into a patties. Cook on a skillet or grill. (1/2 patties on a med./high grill take about 3 min. per side for med. rare burger. Heat temp., thickness, etc. all affect cooking times)

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Hubert Keller's Top Chef Mac & Chees with Prawns


more top chef masters... this take on mac and cheese looks really lucious (and relatively easy). you can play around with the kind of chese you use and seafood... looks like fun.
***********************************************

Creamy Mac and Cheese with Prawns, Mushrooms and Fresh Herbs

INGREDIENTS

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 3 large carrots, diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1/2 quart cream
• 4 ounces half and half
• 1 cup white mushroom, sliced
• 1 1/2 cup Swiss cheese
• 2 pounds prawns, diced
• 1 pounds cooked pasta
• 1 cup whipped cream
• 5 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 6 egg yolks
• Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

In a large pot, add butter, carrot, onion and sweat for 5 to 10 minutes. Add the cream, salt and pepper and simmer until it gets thicker (10 to 15 minutes). Add the mushroom and Swiss cheese, simmer for 5 minutes. Add the prawns and pasta and mix gently until very hot. Fold into the whipped cream the parsley and egg yolks. Season with salt.

Transfer Mac & Cheese into bowl and cover lip with the whip cream mix.

© 2009 HUBERT KELLER