Kimchi Burgers

As seems to be a common occurrence on Saturdays we didn't eat lunch since we'd had a large breakfast then mid afternoon we're wondering about supper.  I'd been gifted some kimchi made by the mother-in-law of one of the Soldiers at the office so we were looking for someway to use it.  We settled on kimchi burgers since we hadn't fixed those in a long time.  That necessitated making hamburger buns and cutting french fries.  Oh the sacrifices for good eating.

The kimchi I was given is not as hot as the kimchi I make but it is very flavorful and has a bit more of the fermented sour bite than mine does.  This was done old school as the Nappa cabbage was quartered and the seasoning mix was applied between the leaves then allowed to ferment.  I tend to chop mine first since I'd need to cut it anyway.  The reason most Koreans don't chop it until serving is that unchopped kimchi shows that it is fresh from the jar rather than serving leftovers.

The buns are made from the recipe I got here, http://www.shemakesandbakes.com/home/homemade-hamburger-buns.  I use this recipe for both hamburger and hot dog/sub buns.  I've done it  mixing everything manually but this time I used her instructions for the KitchenAid mixer.

The first rise is an hour which I did in the oven with the light on.  Doing it that way gets it to rise very well.   After shaping they got another 40 minute rise.  Two of them got sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds to add to the Asian influence after the egg wash was put on.

Fresh from the oven and on the cooling rack.  Yes, I need to work on my portioning to get these the same size.














The fries were cut using one of the julienne settings on our new mandoline.  When making fries, it seems to make them turn out better if they get rinsed well to get rid of the starch and then dried.  I really like this mandoline and will doing a review of it during a kitchen gadget post.  If you want to look into it your self it is a PL8 Professional Mandoline.

The hamburgers were my standard 5 oz patties that I pulled out of the freezer.  They got cooked in the cast iron skillet because it was raining and I didn't feel like fighting the rain to grill them.  The burgers were seasoned with Uncle T's seasoning salt, Worcestershire sauce, and a splash of whiskey and allowed to sit and absorb the flavors while the oil was heating for the fries.

Here is the fully assembled meal.  A kimchi cheese burger on a fresh made bun and home made french fries.  The french fries also had Uncle T's seasoning salt on them.





 













So, no recipes this time other than the one on the other blog.  Give them a try.  After all, yeast is nothing to be scared of.  Try the kimchi burger for a burst of flavor and a new adventure in eating.

Uncle T

Smoked Bacon Onion Rings with Roasted Parmesan Brussels Sprouts

With Spring here and Summer approaching, I thought I'd bring back something I made last summer.  Mainly I'm talking about the Smoked Bacon Onion Rings.

I've seen variations of this online so I did them to suit us, as usual.

This only requires two or three ingredients.

White onion(s)
Bacon, of your choice
Sriracha sauce, optional

To start, peel the onion(s) and cut in 1/2 to 3/4 inch slices.  Take the slices apart but leave 2 layers per ring.  You want to have plenty of onion in there.

Once you have your onion rings, start wrapping bacon around the ring.  Use as many slices as you need to get full coverage.  If you want to spice things up, dip the onion ring in Sriracha sauce before you wrap the bacon.

Once you are done with that, into the smoker they go.  I smoked these for about an hour and a half at 190 - 210 degrees.  Halfway through I rotated positions of the rings so they'd get equal smoke and heat.  They were done on the Weber using a 2 zone smoking set up.  The grill I have is what has evolved into the Weber Performer Premium. 

They don't look  bad if I do say so myself.  The ones on the right, in both pictures, are the ones with Sriracha sauce.

So, what to have with them?  We decided on Brussels Sprouts, since the good wife really likes them.

Roasted Parmesan Brussels Sprouts

Ingredients:
1 lb Brussels Sprouts
olive oil
salt
pepper
Parmesan cheese, grated, about 1/2 cup

Trim the sprouts and cut them in half.  To make things go faster, steam them until tender.  Once they are tender transfer them to a bowl.  Pour olive oil over them and season with salt and pepper.  Gently toss or stir to get the oil and seasoning evenly distributed.  Put them on a baking sheet and sprinkle with the grated Parmesan cheese.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 - 25 minutes until the cheese is melted and starting to brown.  Take out of the oven and serve.

This is not a fast meal by any means, but it is wonderful for the weekend.  I'd also point out that any left over Smoked Bacon Onion Rings reheat well so make plenty.

I hope you give these a try this summer.

Uncle T

 

The Pasta Experiment

We'd thought about trying to make fresh pasta for years.  My sister got a pasta maker and making pasta turned into a family affair to judge by the pictures.  One of the factors against it for us was that I was in the Army and when you are moving weight matters.  Due to weight limits we'd get rid of things we hadn't used much in the past year or things that the weight to benefit wasn't high enough.  I had not seen anything about cutting noodles by hand at that time.

All that has changed.  I retired from the Army in 2011 and we don't plan to move again and the interest in fresh pasta grew.  Unfortunately, the only pasta makers we could find had plastic bodies and didn't seem very sturdy.  Then we took a trip for our 30th anniversary last year.  We were visiting Smokey Mountain Knife Works one day, an amazing store by the way, and in the basement with the kitchen items we found our pasta maker.  It is all metal and the price was equal to or better than some of the others we'd seen.  We now have a Fante's Great Aunt Gina's Pasta Machine.  It came with a cutter for spaghetti and fettuccine noodles.

We were blown away by the difference in taste and quality of fresh pasta over boxed.  Now comes the experimental part.  We used to get flavored pastas from a vendor at a market day in TX so we got to thinking about doing something like that.  We also though about different grains for the flour to get different flavor and texture profiles.  The result of the first experimental recipe was Spelt spaghetti.

My basic pasta recipe is:

2 cups flour
3 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp olive oil

Mix the dry ingredients.  Make a hole in the middle and add the eggs and olive oil.  Mix the eggs and slowly start incorporating the flour mixture.  Once it comes together knead it until it is smooth.  Shape it in a ball and wrap with plastic wrap.  Let it rest for 20 - 30 minutes.  Divide it into 4 parts and proceed to make pasta.

One thing I do different with my pasta, I use a bowl.  I know all the videos want you to make a mound of flour on your counter top but it is not necessary.

For the Spelt pasta I used 1 cup of Spelt flour and 1 cup of AP flour.  After cooking in well salted water the Spelt spaghetti was good enough to eat as it was.

The Spelt spaghetti was used to make a shrimp and mushroom dish for supper.

Ingredients for supper:

1 lb baby Bella mushrooms, sliced
1 lb shrimp
4 slices cooked pepper bacon, minced
salt
pepper
1 Tbs lemon juice
1/4 cup white wine

Heat some olive oil in a skillet and sautee' the mushrooms, season with a good pinch of salt and pepper.  Take out of the skillet while they still have a slight firmness.  Add about 1 Tbs of bacon grease to the olive oil remaining in the skillet.  Add the bacon and stir to warm and crisp then add the shrimp.  If you need to cook your bacon then mince it prior to cooking and put it in the olive oil and skip adding the bacon grease.  Season the shrimp with a good pinch of salt and pepper.  When the shrimp is just about done take it out of the skillet.  Start cooking the pasta.  When the pasta is almost done put the shrimp and mushrooms back in the skillet and start heating them up.  When the oil starts to sizzle add the lemon juice and the white wine and stir to coat all the ingredients.  When the pasta is done take it out of the water and add to the skillet.  Once all the pasta is in the skillet start turning it, tongs work best, to get the shrimp, mushrooms, pasta, and sauce all mixed together.  The pasta water will thicken the juices in the skillet into a nice light sauce.  Make sure to save some pasta water if you have to drain the pasta instead of using tongs to take it out of the pot.  Plate it up and enjoy.  We topped it with a blend of Italian cheeses.

I may up the amount of Spelt flour in the future to see how it does.  Feel free to make this recipe with the spaghetti noodle of your choice.  I think you'll be pleased.

Uncle T

Glorious Pork

I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but we love pork.  We'd rather eat pork than beef most any time.  That's not to say we don't like a good steak time to time but most times I'll reach for pork.  Commercially produced pork is an excellent vehicle for carrying whatever flavors you want it to whether it be via a dry rub, a marinade, or a sauce.  Pasture raised and wild pork has a more distinct pork flavor that can over power some of the more subtle flavor profiles.  Unfortunately, pasture raised pork brings a high premium and is not readily available and I don't have access to wild pigs since we left TX.  So, I have to use commercially produced pork.

A few months ago, I was given access to Restaurant Depot by a member through one of their key ring tags.  As the name suggests, this is where restaurants shop.  Because of their clientele, they have many things that aren't available in regular stores.  Enter today's  topic, Pork Belly.

Pork Belly is a wonderful cut that lends itself to so many preparations.  I've done Pork Belly confit, Asian style fried Pork Belly,  Uncle T's fried Pork Belly, and so on.  The most recent belly I procured was made into 4 products.  One piece was cured, rolled and tied, then hung to age to become Pancetta.  Another piece was cured and smoked to make Pepper Bacon.  The skin was peeled off, boiled, dried, and then deep fried to make Pork Rinds.  The last  product was a couple of packages of trim that was cut up for stir fry or stew meat.

The Pancetta was cured following the directions in the book Charcuterie, by Ruhlman and Polcyn.  http://www.amazon.com/Charcuterie-Craft-Salting-Smoking-Curing/dp/0393058298  I do mine a bit different as far as holding the meat in the cure.  They have you put it in a zip lock bag in a pan to contain leakage and turn it and massage it each day.  I vacuum seal my meat.  That ensures the cure is held tight to the meat.  I turn it each day and after the 4th day I start squeezing the meat to determine if the cure has reached all the way through.  The Pancetta cured for 7 days before I took it out.

The Pepper Bacon basic recipe came from the same book.  I just heavily coat each side with coarse ground black pepper after the cure is rubbed on and vacuum seal it.  The Pepper Bacon cured for 10 days before pulling it out and smoking.  It smoked for 4.5 hours or so until it reached 150 degrees internal temperature.  It was smoked with apple wood.  The finished product yielded 8 packages for breakfast and 3 packages of ends and pieces to use with pasta dishes.

Pork Rinds are simple to make.  Cut the skin into strips.  Boil the strips until tender.  Cut any fat off the strips.  Let the boiled strips dry until hard.  Deep fry the strips and season while hot.  Enjoy!



See, I told you I loved pork.  I have some more flavor profiles I want to experiment on for different bacons so stay tuned.

Uncle T

Producing Peppers

I'll say up front, we like hot foods.  Our garden is a great place to grow hot peppers.  As a result we produce an abundance of whatever variety we grow.  I always have Jalapeno peppers and add some hotter varieties if possible.  We have a great nursery close by that has a good selection of peppers and other fruits and vegetables for the garden.  This year I am only growing Jalapenos because we have so many of the others dried and stored from last year.  I've given away both fresh and dried peppers to friends both locally and across the country and still have plenty.

This basket holds a light harvest of a variety of peppers.  There are 8 varieties of hot peppers here.  They are Jalapeno, Kung Pao, Serrano, Thai Dragon, Super Chili, Caribbean Red, Trinidad Scorpion, and Bhut Jalokia (Ghost pepper).  The Super Chili is a hybrid that I've only seen at McDonald's nursery but it is flavorful and has good heat.

 Given the large supply of fresh peppers and liking to experiment in the kitchen it was only natural that I play around with hot sauces.   I have come up with 3 good recipes, Habanero Sauce, Mean Green Sauce, and Devil Sauce.  I know I said we like hot foods but heat for heat's sake seems wasteful to us.  There needs to be flavor to go with the heat.  These three sauces have heat but also let the flavor of the fruit come through.  They've gotten good reviews from all who have tried them.  The plan is for them to serve as the basis for a small business so I'll not be giving out my recipes.

If things go as planned, expect to see  Uncle T's Mean Green, Uncle T's Habanero, and Uncle T's Devil Sauce available here locally and via mail order in the next couple of years.  Who knows, I may have additional varieties by then.  If so, you'll have heard about it already.