Cilantro Burgers

I was experimenting and came up with this burger recipe because I just think that plain beef patty is plain boring. I want more!

3 lbs of ground beef

1 large bunch of cilantro

1/4 c of garlic cloves

1 large onion

1 tsp of cumin

1 tbsp kosher salt

1 tsp ground pepper

Start your food processor, and add a few sprigs of cilantro to it at a time, so it does not end up get caught in the machine but gets well chopped. Then add garlic and finally onion, that was cut in large pieces. You want the onion to be in the consistency of fine dice and not puree or liquid. In a large bowl combine ground beef, mix of cilantro, garlic and onions, cumin, salt and pepper. Form your burgers, and when you are think you are done make a little indentation in the middle of burger as if you are trying to make doughnut but not pierce the patty all the way through. This will help maintain the burgers uniformly flat and not bulging in the middle. I place formed patties in the freezer for about 1 hr before grilling. I'm always afraid that the burger will fall apart on the grill, so to prevent I apply a little oil with silicone brush on the side of the patty that will be facing the flame and repeat this step right before turning the burger.

Salt Cured Salmon, a.k.a Lox

I used to buy smoked salmon at Costco back when it was reasonable priced since my husband and younger kids love a bagel with cream cheese and lox for breakfast. But the price has risen from about $9/lb to $20 and I said: "wait a minute! I can do it myself!' So the large Keta Salmon fish that I got on sale was used in a third recipe - home made lox. The tale end of the fillet was used here. I make a smaller piece then this recipe calls for, so the amount of spices added was adjusted. This picture is of King (Chinook)Salmon.

about 2 lbs of salmon boneless and skinless

3 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp kosher salt
2-4 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp dry dill
2-3 tbsp brandy
dash of liquid smoke of smoke powder
Line a container with plastic wrap. Mix dry ingredients and smoke powder then place half of the mixture on the bottom of the container, spreading it out evenly. Place fillet on top on the mixture and cover with the rest of the mix. sprinkle with liquid ingredients. Cover with the plastic wrap by folding its edges onto the fish and place in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. The fish can be cured in one large piece or cut in a smaller slices before salting. It is easier to slice in thin portions after curing but sometimes it is easier if thicker slices are done before curing and are just ready to go. Either way, it is simple to make and impressive to serve.

Salmon Soup

I think that soup is just about the easiest thing to cook. Everything gets chopped up and tossed to cook in a liquid. It is only the about what to chop in there and what liquid to use. Like I was saying in my previous post, Keta Salmon was on sale and the large fish went a long way and was used in 3 different dishes.
The bones and skin were used in the stock, that was used as a base for the soup the next day. The head of the fish makes for a rich stock and in Asian supermarkets  it can often be purchased  by itself. The fish that I got was headless so it made for less stock in volume.
To the large pot I added the skin and bones of the salmon,
1 large onion
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 celery rib
1 carrot
1 bay leaf
10 pepper corns
salt
several sprigs of fresh baby dill and parsley
and enough water to cover the fish and the vegetables. Stock will feel richer if there is fish head and a lot of bones and somewhat lighter if there is more water added and not as many bones. The stock is brought to a boil and turned to low simmer immediately after. Watching the stock and not allowing it to over boil will insure clear and not cloudy soup. The stock is cooked for about an hour or longer if you forget to turn it off, it will only become richer. After turning it off add the dill and parsley and allow to cool.
There is still some fish flesh on the bones and if you feel like it you can pick through the bones and collect that for the soup if not, just drain the stock through a mesh colander to catch everything that you don't want in the soup. Depending on the amount of stock you have you will need

2-3 carrots shredded or thinly sliced

1-2 celery ribs thinly sliced

3-5 small red skin or 1 large russet potatoes cut in small cubes

1 large onion diced

2 garlic cloves sliced

2 tbsp of oil

1 bay leaf, salt and pepper

for garnish:

3-4 dill sprigs

2-3 green onion chopped

Start by sauteing onions in a large soup pot. Then add carrots and celery. Sauteing adds an extra layer of flavor to the soup but not a necessary step and can be skipped in case you are pressed for time. Add the rest of the ingredients and stock. Cook till the potatoes are done about 15 min. Turn off and add the chopped dill and green onions or it can be added to the bowl of soup directly. The soup is light and flavorful at the same time. If your kids are not into fish but do eat meatballs you can trick them into eating fish is you add it to this soup in the shape of balls. Instead of making burgers you can use this recipe and make little fish balls and drop them into the cooking soup. They cook fast in the boiling stock and make a rich soup that is a meal.
My husband like to add a small piece of butter and a slice of lemon into his bowl. I admit, it adds an extra level of flavor.

Salmon Burgers

For a couple of weeks now, my local supermarket had a sale on wild caught Keta Salmon. I know that we all should eat more fish and this one is the easiest to cook. There were several things that I made out of the huge fish that I bought. It could not be eaten in one meal and had to be enjoyed in several dishes. My kids generally do not like fish unless it is presented in a way they can take it - burgers! That  is the easiest way to get them to eat fish.

2 lbs fillet of salmon (bones removed)

1 large onion
2 garlic cloves

1/2 bunch Italian parsley
1/2 bunch baby dill
salt and pepper
1 egg

I remove the fillet, reserving skin and bones for stock. In a food processor I pulse one large onion, garlic and small bunch of each Italian parsley and baby dill with salt and pepper. Add an egg to the green mass and then the fillet of salmon. The salmon is cut in small pieces and food processor is pulsed with addition of each piece.It does need to be smooth and uniform, the ground Salmon is chunkier. It should not resemble ground beef and no worries if some small chunks are in there will work out well in the final product. After the mass is well incorporated patties can be formed. If the burgers are to be cooked in a frying pan, then I like giving them a coat of bread crumbs. Wet or oil your hands and shape patties to your preferred size.  It is best to line a container with plastic wrap, as the ground salmon may be sticky and not easy to handle. Another way to create a patty is to scoop enough into the plastic wrap and then twist it into a ball. After untwisting and laying the ball onto another parchment or plastic lined tray push it slightly to give it right burger shape. If they were to be grilled then I place the tray with ready burgers in the freezer for about an hour before the grilling time. The grill must be hot and ready before the burgers go in it. With silicon brush I apply a small amount of oil to the side of the burger that is going on the grill; just enough for them not to get stuck. I reduce the heat from high to medium high. I brush a little more oil in the raw side of the burger and flip them only once. Cooking time will take about 4-5 min on each side. 

Bun or no bun is up to you.

In other version of the salmon patty I substituted fresh herbs with 1 tblsp of Rub with Love , coated with bread crumbs and fried them in the pan.

This ground fish works well in the soup, too.

More on that in my next post.

Blueberry Muffins

I could not sleep well last night and woke up very tired at unusual (for me)time of 6 am on the dot. Alarm clock was set for 7 am and when I went to bed I was sure to miss it ringing. My body did not let me oversleep today. Wondering about what to do in the hour that is remaining I thought of what I will give for breakfast to the kids. Somehow blueberry muffins popped up in my head and I walked downstairs and made them. I had blueberries from my recent shopping trip, that were calling to be used. There are lots of recipes for blueberry muffins out there and I read many of them, they are very similar in nature. I guess my recipe is not drastically different from what is out there, however I use somewhat different technique. Most batters are done by whipping up softened butter and sugar, then adding eggs and dry ingredients. I do not think that is very important and I did not have butter at room temperature, mine was frozen solid.  Instead, I make it in the same way I would make a cake. In a food processor I mixed eggs with sugar, then added melted butter and milk and dry ingredients. Once everything is mixed I pull out the blade and with a spatula fold in berries in the same food processor bowl. I place  silicon cups to line the muffin pan, spray them and the flat top of the pan with nonstick spray, fill the cups with batter and bake at 380F for about 20-25 min. I had just enough time to make today's breakfast. To avoid scrambling the egg, melted butter should be cooled, which is accomplished by melting butter in a measuring cup in a microwave and adding cold milk to it once it is melted.

2 eggs
1 stick of unsalted butter = 1/2 cup
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup blueberries

Chicken Wings

I love chicken wings of all kinds. Today I stopped by Lucky supermarket and came across a fantastic sale of wings at ȼ99/lbs. I often buy cooked frozen chicken wings from Costco and the are ready to eat in about 20 min. I recently started cooking wings myself and they go from raw to cooked and ready in just about the same amount of time. Well, little more but definitely under an hour. I usually salt and peeper the wings and drizzle a little sumac and broil them, today however I made it even easier and simpler. I had about 6 lbs of wings. Unfortunately, I notice that they are plumped up with salt water, for as they cook they release a ton of water.  A large foil pan could be used to cook the wings but I make my own to maximize the cooking surface. I line the top of the wife rack of the oven with 2 large pieces of foil, covering the rack completely. Fold in the outer edges of the foil then pinch the corners, creating a very shallow pan then spray with cooking spray the surface of the foil . I use the 18 inch wide industrial size heavy duty foil to do this.
Wings are washed and lined on the foil covered rack. Add liberal amount of Grill Mates® Montreal Steak Seasoning and Sumac and place them in the upper part of the oven but not immediately under the broiler. After about 15-20 minutes of broiling wings are turned over and sprinkled with seasoning again to cover the other side. In about another 20-25 minutes they are done and perfectly seasoned just calling for a cold beer.
Approx 2 tblsp of Grill Mates® Montreal Steak Seasoning
Approx 2 tblsp of Sumac

Bagels

I have said in my other posts  that when I decide to make something new to me but common, like lemon bars, for example, I do not follow the recipe completely. I read a bunch of bagel recipes and did my own thing. My family loves bagels - our breakfast and lunch. I know there are so many bagels on the market and for the longest time I was happy with Noah's bagels and bought them in bulk at Costco.  Then I looked at the ingredient list and as I suspected I found High Fructose Corn Syrup.  In my case, I read labels and find it in so many things, so I can't completely avoid it, if it is in breads and most of the jams, and even in catchup. While it is nearly impossible to rid your diet completely of HFCS, unless you are planning on buying everything organic and make your own breakfast cereal, one can make baby steps and try. Making bagels at home is just one way, also I save money doing it. 

to make about 1 dozen
6 -6 1/2 c of flour
3 tblsp sugar
2 tblsp salt
3 tsp yeast
3 tbls oil
2 c warm water

My KitchenAid mixer does a fantastic job, I do not even get my hands sticky. The dough it really stiff and tough. Avoid the temptation of adding more water. Once the dough is formed, it is cut in pieces and rolled or formed into a ball, then into bagel. Arrange them on the baking sheet and let them rest for no more then one half hour or while the water is boiling. I boil water in my large shallow pan and couple of tbsp of sugar. Drop the bagels in to the water and boil about 1 minute on each side. Place on the baking sheet, and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds. alternately you may add the seeds to a small plate and dip the wet bagel in it. Arrange on the baking sheet and bake in the middle of the oven at 425F for 20 min.

My husband loves onion bagels and I had to figure out how to make those. To the list of ingredients for those bagels I add

1 small onion finely chopped and sauteed til golden brown
1/2 cup of sesame seeds
1/2 cup of poppy seeds
1/4 c of sunflower seeds
2 tblsp of caraway seeds
reserve about a 1 tbl sp of the mixture for topping the bagels.