recipe: burgers espagnole

Typically, when one makes hamburgers they simply slop together some ground meat and plop it on the grill. Mayhaps, they add some veggies and some seasoning to them and maybe then use what is called a filler to help bind it. However, there are some really deep flavors you can add to a burger recipe if you have people that enjoy rare to at best medium meat and don’t need ketchup as their primary topping.

This might seem like a lot but it builds on two principles of the typical mother sauces, the Espagnole and the delta cooking idea, I’ve blended the two and taken several liberties so you will have to accept it for what it is. Delta cooking, built upon a mixture of cultures and flavors is probably one of the truest forms of American cooking. The French influence in Cajun cooking is especially prominent and as all the Delta styles come together one of the most influential veins in it is Franco-American. Typically, this would be off a veal stock to be a real espagnole, but in this case, a solid beef stock or broth will do more than enough. If you are a really good meat worker you won’t need an egg to help in the emulsification nor will you use bread crumbs in the thickening process because a great roux and some really sweet cooking techniques for people that appreciate burgers done rare (do NOT try to serve these well done) you’ll enjoy.

the espagnole:
red wine, burgundy is good, merlot on the lighter end works ok too, the better “quality” wine the better it should turn out, never cook with something you wouldn’t first drink
stock (beef or veal)
bay leaf
crushed rosemary
onion, garlic flakes
dried celery leaves
black pepper
flour
butter

Combine the wine and stock (1:1), bay, rosemary, onion, garlic, celery, black pepper allow all of the above to cure for between 2 and 24 hours
Combine equal parts, by weight, of flour and butter. Begin to brown them over low heat, do not allow to burn. Continue to mix until the mixture becomes between a dark peanut butter and light brick color.
Add the wine/stock and seasoning combination, mix thoroughly, bring up to a boil and then back down to a simmer and reduce by at least half.
Allow to cool, reserve some of it for sauce for the burgers if you’d like. *remove the bay leaf!

the burgers:
garlic cloves
peppers either a poblano or large Anaheim
celery stalks
onion
cilantro
black pepper
ground beef
Andouille sausage (de-cased – or other ground or shredded similarly spiced pork)
the espagnole
large mixing bowl

Above mixed veggies all finely chopped (finer the better, use a food processor if you’d like)
Put the veggies with the ground beef, sausage, cilantro in a mixing bowl and slowly add the espagnole. Do Not over-mix / overwork the meat. Only add enough espagnole to gain a wet consistency where the meat still sticks together itself.
Spit the meat into fist sized balls and lightly press the balls between your palms to form burger patties. Do not press the patties to be too thin. Season both sides of the patties with black pepper (and house seasoning).

You can grill the burgers or sear them off on a cast iron skillet. I suggest, either way, cook the first side 2/3 of the way and flip only once to complete the cooking for the balance of the time. Do no press the burgers while cooking, allow them to cook and keep the juices in, pressing the juices out just dries the burger out, it doesn’t really reduce the fat content or anything. Before serving allow the burgers to rest a few minutes for the juices to redistribute. Reheat the remaining the espagnole while the burgers are cooking, add Crystal Hot Sauce while it reheats to give it a little extra kick.

recipe: chipotle queso pollo y tequila camarón aguacate

The last few years, my sister and treat our mommy to dinner and desert that we prepare for her. More times than not, we let her go shopping and whatever she picks up fresh is what we craft together into a meal. There seems to be a southwestern / Mexican flare running as yearly theme at this point, so, when my sister suggested this chipotle dish, I just couldn’t refuse. After all, the smoked halipeno is a personal favorite and since she just discovered it’s beauty she was all too eager to test it out. This is a slight variation on the recipe itself which includes the hor’dourves and the meal itself. My sister’s mastery of both art and baking produced a wonderful cake in the shape of a half a wine barrel sprouting with roses. Stunning, to say the least.

Shrimp
Shrimp
Olive Oil
Tequila
cilantro
cayenne pepper
shallot
avocado
lime
yogurt (Greek preferably, something thick, hearty and plain)

Combine equal parts olive oil and tequila
Zest the lime into the liquids
Shred the cilantro into the liquids
Add the shrimp and allow to marinade for 10-20 minutes (don’t go too long or it will begin to cook in the alcohol)
Very finely dice the shallot
Skin and de-pit the avocado and then mash
Combine the mashed avocado and shallt with the yogurt (about a 2:1 or 1.5:1 ratio would be good depending on your preference) and add a splash of tequila and the line juice
Season with cayenne pepper and fresh shredded cilantro
One a wooden skewer soaked in water, shift 4-5 shrimp separated by 1/8th’ed lime wedges (the ones you’ve already “zested and juiced”
Grill the shrimp, use the marinade to help keep the shrimp moist and from sticking, they will cook fast on a hot grill, do NOT overcook. Shrimp come with a “built in” thermometer – as they change color they are ready to turn, when they go to reddish-orange they are done!

To serve, take the avocado mixture and place it in a bowl in the center of a large platter, line the platter with chips, then place the skewers of shrimp along the edge of the platter over the chips with a few fresh sprigs of cilantro. People can dip the shrimp into the avocado, they can use the grilled lime if they’d like to drench the shrimp with an extra flavor level (esp. because once grilled they take on an extra flavor level) and of course the chips will finish up the dip.

Chicken
Chicken – thighs are better but breasts will work just fine*
Tequila
Lime (both zest and juice)
onion
garlic
montery jack cheese (shredded)
heavy cream
cilantro
chipotle peppers (they usually come packaged in an adobo sauce, which is tomato paste, onion and the pepper’s natural juices)
butter
flour

Marinade the chicken in the tequila and the zest and juice of the lime, you can shred a little fresh cilantro. Anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours would be a good start.
* Thighs come with a darker meat, usually a little bit more fat content and will grill much more evenly on the grill, but breasts will work just fine too. I would suggest, with thighs a bit lower heat and a longer more generous cook that includes a good hot burn right at the end to give texture, with the breasts, thttp://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/central/he fatter the breast the more I’d probably cook it like a thigh, but the smaller ones, super high heat on the first sear and then put them on the top rack and let them cook through. If you can get with skin, I would because it will protect the flesh, but you don’t need to eat it or serve it if you don’t want.

The topping you are creating is a derivative of the Béchamel mother sauce, which is a light roux combined with a dairy. In this case, you are augmenting the mother sauce with a few southwestern concepts to bring it together as a sauce, but it follows a very basic principle

Very finely dice the onion, garlic
Combine equal parts lipid and starch (oil and flour) in the pan over low heat and keep them moving until they combine and become a rich yellow color
Add the veggies to the mixture and continue to keep the mixture moving until the roux begins to turn a light brown and the veggies themselves go to browning
Add the finely diced chipolte and a adobo sauce (1 tbsp per pepper used, to taste)
Add the tequila and allow it to thin out the mixture
Add the heavy cream and allow to combine into the mixture
Bring up to a low boil and immediately back down to a simmer to allow the roux to take shape
Beginning mixing in slowly the shredded montery jack cheese to combine completely
Do not allow anything to burn and continue combining adding the lime as desired
Finish the sauce with the fresh cilantro

Remove the thighs to cooking preference
Serve with the sauce in a bowl or gravy boat that is warmed (with a tea candle or other small candle would be typical but any heater would work)
Allow guests to select their meat and drench in sauce as desired

A nice side is to include an additional lighter version, or as an undergarment to the original recipe is to take the flour and butter and put it in a fry pan and allow it to come to a blond roux, add the tequila and finely chopped garlic and onion and bring to a boil and reduce immediately add the lime juice and zest and some water or stock and reduce by half, add the cilantro bring back to a boil and then back to warm and serve

Veggies
Vidalia Onion
Multi-colored bell peppers, poblano pepper, anaheim pepper
Tomatoes
Squash (summer yellow, zucchini, etc)
olive oil
lime
black pepper
cayenne pepper
wood dowels

combine the olive oil, lime and both ground pepper into a vinaigrette
soak wood dowels in water min of 20 minutes
allow the veggies to soak in the vinaigrette for between 20 min and 2 hours
skewer the veggies on the dowels
sear over high heat on the grill until each veggie reaches desired tenderness

note the higher the heat the greater the char but the less done the veggies and this is a quick cook, the lower the heat the less carmalization but the more tender the veggies will be on a longer cook. use the vinaigrette / oil to keep the veggies from sticking and burning.

RECIPE: One, two, fisherman’s stews

Boiled on timbers and stirred with a broom”……So, The Doormouse and I have talked Paella recipe’s a few times, and he’s got a great grasp, ok a firm hold on the dish, as for me I’m a big fan of wingin’ things sometimes, this is by no means a paella, but it is what I call a “fisherman’s stew” it came out pretty tasty so I thought I’d share it with you all….I had a few smaller portions of various sea creatures leftover, so I decided to make one bigger portion out of them all, here’s what transpired….

FISHERMAN’S STEW

1 small yellow onion

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

6 stalks of celery

1lb baby carrots

3 medium tomatoes

1/4 cup chopped garlic

1 can okra (fresh is better & ideal)

1 small can baby clams

1lb 16/20 shrimp

2 4oz pollock loins

2 4oz white fish fillets(I used capensis)

white wine

dark roux*

Chop all your veggies with the exception of the baby carrots, saute in some olive oil with your garlic, now here’s where I get a little random, I just season with out thinking sometimes after years of doing it you learn to just add the shit you think something needs, so I give you this advice start with a little taste and re-add if needed…..anyhow, add some thyme, old bay seasoning, rosemary, sage, crushed red chilies, cracked black peper, and a couple bay leaves give your veggies a good few minutes in the oil, then deglaze with your white wine once your pan is deglazed drop your shrimp in, once they start to turn red, add a little veggie stock, bring to a boil and thicken slightly with the dark roux, then lay your fillets on top of the concoction, and cover and let them steam. Serve with some nice steamed rice or potatoes, some fresh bread and you got yourself some good grubbin’….

*dark roux — equal parts butter and flour cooked until just before the burning point, if you haven’t done this before cook over low to medium heat and pay attention once it starts to brown it goes quick, take it to the point that it smells like burnt popcorn and you’re good to go…

If you want the goods for fisherman’s stew hit up the Doormouse for his paella recipe……

And Big Rob, here’s “a” paella recipe I worked on over the summer. I actually call it casserole poisson a l’acadia because it’s not a true Iberian Paella

I love a lot of fish dishes and this is a mish-mosh of some of my faves, building off the traditional idea of the Portuguese Paella that I hold oh so dear to my heart. One note for those who only had thedish in Spanish-American resturants, the true dish is about the freshness of the seafood and the use of the pan and less necessarily about the dish itself. I have a very nice pan that only is used for a select few meals specifically given as a gift to make this recipe, of which today’s meal was done as a celebration.

Despite my remark earlier about the dish’s forte being in the freshness of the fish, several trips to several stores over the week did not provide all the preferences I would have hoped. I’m not going to give up the shortcuts, but I highly suggest you look for some fresh fish and match spices to them in a meal like this. It’ll be worth the effort.

This dish I named this way because I could. By strict definition creole is white French (of Canadian decent, usually Acadia, but also via modern Quebec) mixed with Iberian (predominantly Spanish although some Portuguese or, of course, French Iberian) -or- French (any origin) mixed with Carribean Islander (typically Haitian, but which, by traditional creole standard usually being mixed with an Iberian, usually Spanish in general, and originated as a French man with a Carribean woman of “color,” though, after the first generation the distinction becomes lost). White creole is rare form these days even among those who study creole heritage, yet oddly enough, by definition being French Canadian and Portuguese would make me, yes, creole. How’s that for a fun stretch??

The crux of the meal is built on the trinity. A throw to the underlying christian heritage holding the region’s will. Where traditional French cooking depends heavily on the mariquois the carrot is replaced as an aromatic in the early steps. The important part of finishing is the high heat on the rice, (it has a special name I cannot recall)

Vadalia Onion
Celery
Poblano pepper
Anaheim pepper
garlic
brown rice
olive oil
prawns (crayfish)
little neck clams
oysters
blue crab (backfin crab)
andouile sausage
bay leaf
rosemary
paprika
coriander
black pepper corns
bourbon
stock (fish, veggie or pork will work, I prefer veggie)
tarragon
kale leafs
extra large skillet, or paella pan

Char both the peppers under the broiler than sweat the charred skins off and dice the flesh
Dice the onion, garlic, celery
place all in the pan with a bit of oil along with the pepper corns and sweat them out
add the chicken brown the thighs and allow to begin to brown
if you prefer add the sausage and all to brown, but remove before adding rice
add the rice and saute until the kernels become translucent
add the bourbon and burn it off over a low flame
add the stock and bring it to a simmer
add the bay leaf, paprika, rosemary and coriander
allow rice to simmer to 25-30 minutes
add the fish based on cooking times, typically crustaceans in their native shells uncracked will take longer than mollusks, and any fish out of its shell (such as gulf shrimp or bay scallops) will take the least time
make sure the last bit of liquid is evaporated or absorbed
cover the last fish with tarragon and kale leaves and bring the heat up to high
allow the bottom rice to begin to crisp along the bottom of the pan and bring up some of the smokey charred flavor

serve family style with the casserole
or for single servings, line the bowl with the steamed kale, then, bring up the bottom of the pan in the serving bowl with rice and a balance of the fish and meat

RECIPE: crowded soup

When I (eric doormouse) was younger I always heard stories about the infamous crowded soup my grandmother used to make. She would collect the leftovers from the week (which is difficult to believe there would be any, considering my uncles and grandfather) and put them in a stock pot and make a big soup out of them so as to see nothing go to waste. It hardly requires a recipe when you think about it, so long as most of the leftovers make some kind of culinary sense with one another and could be construed as soup-worthy.

Although this is not exactly my grandmother’s recipe for a Crowded Sunday Soup, this is one of those recipes that changes a little bit every time I make it based on what veggies I have hanging around the place. In this case, it was time to use up a number of base veggies and the last bit of homemade stock I had left. This is the gist of what I used. The okra, a traditional African and later Mississippi Delta veggie that acts as a wonderful thickener for meals. Typically, I cook with the trinity (in Delta cooking the combo of onion, celery and bell pepper is a replacement for the more traditional miraquois of onion, celery and carrot) but in this case I combine a number of aeromatics to create the base flavor and build up from there. Once the base flavors are in and the stock is settled, the rest of the veggies are just a suggestion…

Also, I used leftover sugar ham in the dish, because pork typically makes everything better, however, eliminating it makes it a very nice vegitarian dish. I also actually made this in a crock pot on low after a quick saute of the base veggies, but the recipe is written the way I would do it over long cook in a heavy stock pot.

coarsly diced:
onion
bell pepper
anaheim pepper
celery
carrot
garlic
okra

sugar cured ham

shredded dark leafy greens (spinach, kale, mustard leaf, collard green, chicory, chard, etc.)
corn (frozen or cut fresh from the cob raw)
tomato (diced / sliced / crushed, fresh is best, though canned can work too)
squash (yellow summer, butternut, zucchini, etc.)
beans (red kidney, red pinto, black, black eyed pea, Cannellini, blue navy, etc. NOTE there is a difference in cooking using canned, frozen & dried!)
lentels (if you use ANY lentels you NEED to ensure there is enough extra liquid for the lentels since most are dried)

Stock (I prefer homemade veggie, but chicken or pork could work too)
water
olive oil
bay leaf
dried rosemary
tarragon
parsley
black pepper
paprika
Stock Pot

add a small amount of oil to the stock pot over medium heat
add the coarsly chopped veggies (peppers, onion, celery, carrot, garlic, okra) and simmer over medium heat so the veggies soften and the flavors begin to meld
add the dired rosemary and make sure to keep the veggies evenly cooking, do not allow them to over-carmalize as they saute

add the pork and allow it to meld with the rest of the flavors as you saute

add the stock and water, 2:1 ratio stock to water and allow to come to a simmer covered with the bay, black pepper, paprika and tarragon (dried, if fresh only add at the end or it’ll end up mushy grey leaves and taste like nothing)

after those flavors set, add the dark leafy greens, tomato, the lentils and re-season as necessary and allow to simmer

after those flavors set and the greens wilt and lentils become moist add the other veggies and allow to simmer, reseason (with the black pepper, paprika and tarragon etc) as neccessary. do not overcook the last group of veggies, as they will reduce to mush if you do

serve warm… sometimes, i like it with some flat leaf parsley and a hard cheese like parmeseano reggiano or pecorino romano grated on top

RECIPE: NYE Special … Bourbon Lime Chicken over Rice

Nearly every year over the last decade I’ve (Eric doormouse) cooked on New Year’s Eve. Sometimes it was a romantic dinner for two for the lady I was with, sometimes it was for a gathering of close friends, I’ve even cooked with family for it (or at least brought around some of the better leftovers from it). I really enjoy cooking, it’s such a creative and relaxing experience and with a nice glass of scotch or wine, some good music and good company there’s really few other ways I would rather spend time… and that’s exactly what inspired this meal. I made some adjustments in transcribing my notes from actually creating this recipe since it was mostly made up as I went along while looking at the ingredents that were brought along by friends. The ingreds were pretty straight forward, so this wasn’t nearly as big a challenge as say, trying to watch Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin Eve contemplating 1) where’s the rock and 2) is that really DC or is it a CGI to maintain the illusion of a once great broadcaster?

chicken (breasts or theighs about 1″ cubed)
onion
garlic
bell pepper
anaheim pepper
celery
limes (zested and juiced)
molassas
brown rice
stock (veggie or chicken)
coffee
bourbon
spinach
black pepper
house seasoning
bay leaf
dried rosemary
olive oil
fry pan
large skillet
medium pot

lightly coat the cubed chicken in black pepper and then marinade for no less than 20 minutes in equal parts lime juice and bourbon
rough chop the onion, both peppers, celery and garlic
in the medium pot place 1/4 of the diced veggies, the rice and a little bit of oil
allow the rice to begin to become translucent and the veggies to soften over medium heat
mix the stock, bourbon and coffee 2:1:1 at aprox 4:1 to the rice (ie: 1/4 cup of rice, 1 cup of liquid) and add the liquid to the rice
bring the rice up to a boil, add the bay leaf and rosemary, cover and allow to simmer until rice softens and is tender
while the rice is cooking, heat the skillet with a little bit of oil
remove the chicken from the marinade and sear it on all sides, do not cook through, remove from heat and set aside covered
in the skillet add the rest of the veggies and lightly saute them
carefully add bourbon to the pan, increase the heat to high, carefully light the alcohol and allow to quickly burn off
add the lime juice and zest, mollassas and the reserved chicken to the pan and allow to simmer over low heat until chicken is tender and cooked through and the sauce is reduced by about half (it should come out viscous, not overly thick)
while the meat is finishing cooking place the washed spinach in the fry pan very coated lightly with a bit of oil, the house seasoning (and the leftover parts of the zested & juiced limes)
lightly saute the spinach until the leaves begin to wilt (if you used the lime parts, remove and do not serve them)

I served the rice in the center of the plate with the spinach encircling it and the chicken and sauce spooned over the top.

(note from Jan 1) Because it is good luck to serve pork as part of your New Years festivities, when I reheated this the next day, I used some leftover ham to help set up the rice as I fried it and used some chorizo sausage along with the chicken because there wasn’t a lot of left over chicken and it made for a very nice meal as well, looking back again, a little pork in the rice to begin with and the combo of meats might have even made this even more bold, like a nice andouile sausage, mm mm good