How To Make Really Juicy Hamburgers

All I wanted for dinner last night was a juicy hamburger like you can really only get by going out, but we’re trying to stick to a budget so I spent the afternoon researching how to make a really good burger.  In the end, I combined a few tips and went with:

• Using 80/20 ground chuck.
• Keeping it really cold and not preparing until just before I was ready to cook.
• Mixing a couple tablespoons of crushed ice into the meat.
• Handling the meat as little as possible to form into patties.  I just tossed the meat with the ice and a little Worcestershire and made the discs.
• Putting an indent in the middle of each patty.
• Cooking the patties in a couple tablespoons of melted butter over medium high heat in a cast iron skillet.  I put the skillet on the grill outside to avoid the grease and smell in my house.
• Not salting the meat until it was on the grill.
• Cooking four minutes per side, then removing from heat and letting stand for another four minutes.

The result?  

I had really good, juicy burgers.  Seriously good.  Served on toasted buns of course because that increased the yumminess.

I want another one right now.

Rocky Mountain Beef Brisket with Barbecue Sauce

Adapted from Don’t Panic… It’s In The Freezer

Yield: 12-14 servings

Rub:

•  1 Tablespoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon pepper
• 2 teaspoons crushed bay leaves
• 1/4 cup Liquid Smoke
• 8 pounds beef brisket

 Barbecue Sauce:

• 6 Tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 - 14 ounce bottles catsup
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup Liquid Smoke
• 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 2 Tablespoons dry mustard
• 4 teaspoons celery seed
• 1 1/2 sticks butter
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1) Combine salt, pepper, chili powder and bay leaves.  Rub meat completely with Liquid Smoke.  Place meat, fat side up, in a large roasting pan.  Sprinkle dry seasoning mixture on top.  Cover tightly and refrigerate overnight.

2) Bake, covered, at 300 for about five hours.  Scrape seasoning and fat off meat and cut in very thin slices across the grain or shred with 2 forks.

3)  Combine all the sauce ingredients.  Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.  Cook for 10 minutes.  Pour sauce over meat and mix well to distribute sauce evenly.  

Serve sliced brisket by itself or on hamburger buns.  Leftovers freeze really well.

Suggested side dishes:  Chili Corn Bread Salad, Southwestern Black Bean and Rice Salad, or Roasted New Potato Salad.

Grilled Margarita Fajitas

The marinade for this fajita meat is a cinch to make and so, so good.

Also? 

It gives you an excuse to have tequila in your house.

• 1 1/2 pounds round steak or boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup fresh lime juice (2 limes)
• 1/4 cup tequila
• 3-4 minced garlic cloves
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper
• 1 small onion thinly sliced
• 1 green bell pepper seeded and sliced into strips.

1) Place meat in freezer bags with the marinade ingredients.  Close bag securely and let stand overnight OR you can stick it in the freezer for another day.

2) Remove meat from bag and discard marinade.  Grill over medium heat until beef has reached desired temp (I like medium - about 7 minutes on each side) or chicken is cooked through.  Remove from grill and let stand a few minutes.

3) Meanwhile, cook onion and peppers in a little oil in a skillet until soft and a little browned.

4) Slice meat against the grain into strips, and serve with grilled onions and peppers on flour tortillas.  Other toppings that are great: cheese, sour cream, avocado, tomato or salsa.

Marinade for Grilled Pork Chops

I found this recipe for baked pork chops, spiced it up and adapted it for the grill.  The results were so good but I think that was partly due to the cut of chop I used.  I recommend a bone in chop about an inch thick.  The boneless varieties just get too dry on the grill.

• 2 Tablespoons soy sauce
• 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons cider vinegar
• 4 Tablespoons brown sugar
• 4 Tablespoons ketchup
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 4 garlic cloves, minced

1) Mix marinade ingredients together and pour over four bone-in pork chops (about 1 inch thick) in a reasealable gallon size bag.  Marinate in refrigerator overnight, turning occasionally.

2) Preheat grill to about 300-350 degrees (medium heat).  Remove chops from bag and place on grill.  Close the cover and grill for 10 minutes.

3) Meanwhile, pour marinade into a small saucepan and bring to a boil.  Boil for five minutes.

4) Flip the pork shop and brush boiled marinade over the cooked side.  Close the cover and grill for 7-8 minutes or until chop is no longer pink in the middle.

5) Flip again and brush the other side with marinade.  Cook for 1-2 minutes then remove from grill.

Banana Rum Bundt Cake

The recipe for this cake is out of Richard Sax’s Classic Home Desserts.  In this age of online recipe sites, you may not be inclined to purchase an actual cook book (I’m not) but you will want to make an exception for this book.  It’s a treasure and everything in it is absolutely wonderful.  Sax recommends a chocolate frosting for this cake, but I dislike frosting bundt cakes and was out of baking chocolate so I made a butter rum glaze instead.  It was a good decision.

Cake:

• 2 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 generous cup very ripe mashed bananas (about 2)
• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sour cream or plain yogurt

 Glaze:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup rum

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray inside of 10 inch Bundt pan with baking spray.

2) Sift together dry ingredients.  Set aside.

3) Beat the butter with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until very light.  Gradually beat in the sugar and continue to beat until fluffy.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time; beat in the vanilla.

4) Lower the speed to very slow; add 1/2 the flour mixture in batches, alternating with the mashed bananas.  Add the remaining flour mixture on bathces, alternaing with the sour cream or yogurt.  Don’t over mix; finish folding the ingredients together by hand, with a few strokes of a large rubber spatula.  Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

5) Bake until a toothe pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 50-55 minutes.  

6) Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 10-15 minutes.  Invert onto a cooling rack to continue cooling.

7) While cake is cooling, combine 1/4 cup water, 1 cup sugar and a stick of butter in a small pan.  Cook over medium heat until boiling.  Reduce heat and boil for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in 1/2 cup rum.

8) Pour half of glaze into empty Bundt pan.  Put cake back in, upside down.  Pour about 1/2 of the rest of glaze over the exposed cake.  Wait a while and if all the glaze has been absorbed, pour on the rest.

9) When all glaze has been absorbed, invert cake onto serving plate.