Black & Bleu Bacon Burgers- and a couple notes on friendly meat eating

I LOVE burgers, with a passion that is only surpassed in the food world by my love of steak. I don't want to offend my Vegan and Vegeterian friends- but I have always thought a nicely cooked piece of beef is heaven on a plate.  Because I love beef, and meat in general, I try to purchase humanely raised and farmed beef, pork and poultry.  I have a great butcher- Shameless Plug Here-- Giuntas, in Reading Terminal Market- he gets his product locally and naturally raised whenever possible.  I trust him, I trust he sources as he says he does, and I get awesome meat and poultry from him.  He is the only butcher I go to here in Philly- I have a fish guy- but that's another story for another day.
Back to friendly meat- whenever possible, I think you should source your meat from safe, reliable sources, local and natural, whenever possible. Netflix "Food, Inc"  or read Kingslovers "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and you will see why. It's good for the planet, it's good for the economy, it's good for your wallet, and it will keep you healthier.

Getting off my soap box now (should probably find a graphic for that)

Tonight I made Black and Bleu Bacon Burgers for dinner, and they were soooooooooo insanely good. Beef, bacon, Bleu Cheese, onions, I was in heaven, and the Dude was pretty happy too!! I have a vegetarian option for this in the notes that follow- yes, a veg version of a bacon cheese burger...  Rod (aka The Dude) and I are watching our carbs, so we skip the buns, but this would be really good with toasted potato rolls or an onion kaiser roll spread with a spicy horseradish-mayo blend. without further ado, here is the recipe.

Black & Bleu Bacon Burgers

Ingredients:

• 1 lb Ground Sirloin
• 1/4 cup Steak Sauce (I use A-1)
• 2 Tbsp Olive oil
• 1 Tbsp onion powder
• Salt and Pepper
• 8 slices bacon
• 4 oz crumbled bleu cheese
• 1 large onion- thinly sliced
• 1 Tbsp Butter

Directions

• Move oven rack to top 
• Place a cast iron grill or griddle pan on the top rack
• turn oven to highest temp possible or broil
• While oven is heating, melt butter in a skillet on low
• Add onions to the skillet, stir, and leave them alone- on low (you can stir every 5-10 minutes , but seriously, you want these done LOW and slow) should take 30-40 minutes- they should be transparent but not brown or black when done
• Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, mix ground beef, olive oil, steak sauce, salt, pepper and garlic- use your hands
• Form meat mix into 4 equal patties- set aside
• on the grill pan, place 2-3 slices of bacon, cook until desired crispness, for me- about 3 minutes each side, 
•  drain cooked bacon on a plate lined with a few sheets of paper towel
• repeat with remaining bacon
• When all the bacon is cooked, place the ground beef patties on the griddle- in the bacon drippings
• For Med Rare burgers- cook for two to three minutes on each side
• After you flip the burgers the first time- place 1 ounce of bleu cheese on each burger- cook for an additional 2-3 minutes
• Remove the burgers from the griddle pan- let rest for at least 5 minutes
• Turn onions off
• To Serve: put burgers on plates, put 2 slice of bacon on each burger, pile onions on and serve

Variattions

• for Vegetarian burgers:
• Use Portabello Mushroom caps
• Marinate Mushroom caps in steak sauce, olive oil, salt, pepper and on tbsp cumin for 20 minutes
• grill mushrooms as desired, adding bleu cheese on the flip side 
• If desired, use veg bacon to sub for the real stuff
• Other-
• you can make this on a real grill- ie BBQ- just get your coals or grill hot and make the bacon in a pan on your stove
• You can make this stove top- pan fry your bacon, then fry your burgers in the bacon fat
•  MMMM Bacon

I will get pictures up soon

Carne Adovada--- Whole lot of lovely yummienss

 OK- First recipe- and it won the FB poll- Hope you enjoy.   Whenever possible, If I post a meat based recipe and there is a way to make a vegetarian option, I'll post that in the variations section.

This is a classic New Mexican stew. It's particularly good with home made tortillas. This makes a lot- and the leftovers are really good- it's one of those dishes that gets better the longer it sits. Your house will smell amazing while this is in the oven.

I know- I know- it's ninety billion degrees out there- why would you want to make a stew?? Think of it this way- you cook once and eat for a few days. 

 

Carne Adovada

Ingredients

• 1/2 Cup Olive Oil- divided
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons New Mexico red chile powder
• 4 cups warm water or chicken broth
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 3 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 large onion diced
• 2 teaspoons chile flakes
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 3 pounds cubed pork stew meat
• 1 large onion, chopped in large chunks
• 1 head garlic, peeled
• 1 -12 ounce bottle of beer- whatever kind you have on hand

Directions

1. In a skillet or frying pan, heat half of the oil over medium heat. Stir in flour and brown until light golden brown. Blend in chile powder and flakes. Slowly add water or broth, stirring until lumps are removed. Add diced onion, pressed garlic, oregano, cumin, honey and salt. Simmer on medium heat for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and  set aside
2. In another large skillet, heat the other half of the oil over medium high heat.  Add pork and brown. You may need to do this in batches.
3. Place pork in a large baking pan or casserole pan.  Add onion, garlic and beer. Add chile mixture to pork and mix until pork is covered with chile.  Marinate pork for at least 12 hours or overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
5. Bake pork in preheated oven for at least 4 1/2 hours, or until meat is well cooked, tender and falls apart.

Variations:

Stew beef works well if you do not want to use pork.

Rendering fat from smoked bacon and browning the meat in the rendered bacon fat will add another layer of flavor to the stew

You can make a vegetarian version by subbing out the pork with hearty, hard squashes, such as butter nut, or zucchini, fingerling or "baby" potato's will work too.   The veggie version doesn't need to cook for 4 hours- just until the veggies are cooked through.

Welcome!!!

Welcome to my attempt at blogging.  I am glad you are here.  I plan on blogging mostly about food, what I am eating, what I am cooking, recipes I am loving. I may throw in some politics or news about my family. I hope you enjoy this and will offer your feed back.

So- why is it this Blog called Not So Timid Cook?  Mostly because food, and the making of food can intimidate people.  I fully get that there are lots of books and shows and blogs about the right way to make a recipe. It can be intimidating to be surrounded by all these people doing and telling you to do things in a certain way. Here's a little secret, there are no recipe cops.  No one will come and arrest you if you opt to change something in a recipe.  Once I figured this out, I  became fearless in the kitchen. I have become the Not So Timid Cook.