Portobello Lamb burgers. Soooo Juicy. Soooo Delicious

Excited face! I went out with my father today taking pictures and even went on a small hike. But the awesome came at the end, when I found a butcher just a few miles from me, called the butcher shop cafe. I am over the moon about the special order situation. It seems that a lot of places near hear will do a tri tip roast, but this guy has no problem ordering kangaroo. In fact he has it on hand right now. Things are about to get far more interesting boys and girls.

This weekend I made portobello lamb burgers. Its a simple and delicious alternative to using using bread buns on your burgers, and will make this lamb burger extra juicy. One thing that makes me sad when I eat a burger, is sinking my teeth into it, and finding that someone decided the best option when making them was to not season their ground meat.  This burger will not disappoint in the flavor department. I promise.

8 portobello mushroom caps

1 pound ground lamb

1/2 cup feta cheese

1/2 purple onion

4 cloves of garlic

a few chopped sprigs of fresh thyme and a oregano

1 tsp salt

1 tsp curry

Juice of 1 lemon

Pepper to taste

Olive oil

Place the ground lamb in a bowl, and add the feta cheese, onion, garlic, herbs, curry, salt, and pepper. Mix those ingredients gently together, and  separate them into 4 patties. You can stick these lovely smashed balls of meat on the stove or on the grill and cook them for 8 minutes each side on medium high. Take the portobello mushroom caps, and  cover them in a light coat of oil and salt on both sides. Grill them, or stick them in the oven for 8 minutes each side as well until the tops turn a darker shade of brown.

Build up your burger in your most favorite way, with your favorite sauces and dig in. My suggestion is a nice garlic aioli, curried ketchup and maybe a few extra napkins.

The Great Salmon Grilled Cheese Experiment

Last week I made salmon. A few moments after tweeting about it, one of my favorite people in the whole world responded that she too was having salmon, but since it was leftovers, it was going into a grilled cheese. That really tickled my fancy. In the creepiest way “tickled my fancy” can be understood. I needed to know what was going on in her mouth right that second, and so, the salmon grilled cheese experiment was born. Plans were made, cheese, bread, and salmon were bought. Aspirin was taken for its blood thinning properties to prevent any possible episodes that were about to take place. I was about to take that heart healthy protein, and make it my culinary bitch.

The main thing she said was missing was a sauce. Tomato soup is quite traditional to go along with grilled cheese. However, there was a slight allergy issue that was hindering that. I spent the rest of the week pondering that. Tarter is too thick, its also a bit crude for a grilled cheese, I thought about various salad dressings, oil and vinegar dips, and aiolis. It was all too rich. Hollandaise would be perfect but it was a bit too thick. Beurre blanc would also be magical but it was a bit too thin. What to do…. Combine the greatness of hollandaise with phenomenal flavor of beurre blanc, that’s what. Holland blanc… beurredaise..

So here’s the details of our little experiment. Bread: Sour dough. Cheeses: Swiss or cheddah. Salmon: Chinook or lox. Sauce: Beurredaise. Yes, I know there are about 400 other combinations, but in the interest of not weighing 400 pounds, and the fact that  there were only two bellies to fill, we narrowed it down a bit.

What it came down to was Swiss on sour dough, my salmon recipe sans tomato, and the Beurredaise sauce. I took the left over herbed butter from the salmon and used it to fry up my sammich. The lox was ok with the swiss, but when we put it with the cheddar and the sauce it turned out to be really overwhelmingly flavorful. Swiss had the perfect mild flavor to go along with the oven roasted salmon.

Beurredaise recipe

1 cup of chablis

2 bay leafs

a few peppercorns

1 sprig of dill

1 sprig of thyme

1/2 a coarsly chopped shallot

1 clove of garlic

1 egg yoke

the juice of 1/2 a lemon

1/4 cup of butter.

salt and pepper to taste

Put your wine, lemon juice shallot, garlic, peppercorns and herbs into a sauce pan. Bring that to a boil and reduce it by half. Run that through a strainer and let it cool for a few minutes. Put it back on the stove on low. Whisk up an egg until it thickens, and add that to your wine. Continue to whisk with all of your might until the whole mixture thickens. Place it in a bowl and serve it up with your delicious salmon grilled cheese.

And that was that. Salmon grill cheese with a lovely hybrid sauce. Thanks Jeni, for the wonderful idea!

Tiliapia Fish Tacos with Pico de Gallo and chipotle Sour Cream

Summer weather means its time to pull out the recipes that don’t require much use of the oven or stove. Especially here in Washington where very few people have air conditioning. One of my favorite of these recipes is fish tacos. Believe it or not, you can really screw these up. I’ve done it several times while perfecting this recipe. Deviations are completely acceptable, but after several tries with different tortillas, various fish marinades, and a plethora of sauces, this is what I’ve come up with for my standard.

Marinade

1/2 lb tilapia

A dash of salt

1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Juice of 2 limes

A generous splash of White wine vinegar

Corn tortillas (for later)

Generously sprinkle the salt over your fish. Throw in the cumin, vinegar, lime chili powder and cayenne pepper, and let it sit for a half hour to an hour. While that is sitting make your pico, slaw, and chipotle sauce. One the time is up toss your fish into a pan on high with a touch of olive oil and fry it until its edges are just getting crispy. While that’s frying up you can start cooking your corn tortillas.

For the Pico

2 tomatoes

1 purple onion

4 cloves of garlic

1 jalapeno, seeds removed

1/2 cup chopped cilantro

The juice and zest of 1 lime

salt and pepper to taste

Mince up the the ingredients, and toss them into a bowl. Squeeze in your lime juice and throw in your zest. Add the salt and pepper. And give it a quick stir.

chipotle Cream sauce

2 tbs of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce

1 8oz container of sour cream

Juice of one lime

1/2 tsp garlic salt to taste

I’m certain there is a way to make this sauce from scratch or just buy the sauce only, but because I’m in the dark for both of those things, I just take 2 tbs of the sauce out of the can and toss it in my sour cream, with the lime juice and salt. Then I give it a quick stir until everything is well combined.

Slaw

1 small bag of shredded cabbage

1 tbs white wine vinegar

the juice of more lime

and salt

Add the white wine, lime juice, and salt to your shredded cabbage. Swirl it around a bit. Fin.

Combine all of these wonderful concoctions together on a tortilla shell and enjoy. It looks like a lot, but it really only takes about 5 minutes past the the marinade time. The fish cooks up in a flash, and they are always a hit. Enjoy!