Pork Burgers with Fried Brussels Sprouts

So, I graduated.  Officially graduated from culinary school.  I now have a degree in Culinary Arts.  Pretty freakin' awesome.

How did we celebrate?  Well, thanks to a fantastic gift card from my parents, we now are the proud owners of a meat grinder attachment to our KitchenAid (as well as a pretty awesome juicer - Andy's been on this homemade juice kick - and I gotta tell ya, I'm loving the fresh juice combos he's coming up with!).

So the first thing I did?  Went out and bought some pork sausage casings and ground up some sweet pork sausages.  Let me tell you - without an actual sausage stuffer attachment for our KitchenAid or an actual manual sausage stuffer - it's pretty time consuming to stuff some sausages.  I ended up MacGuyver-ing my way through with a pastry bag fitted with a large tip and ended up with decent results - although I'd much rather dish out the $12 for the sausage stuffer attachment for next time.

Anyway, as I got tired of manually stuffing sausages, I didn't end up going through all of the ground pork I had.  With the rest of it, I made these pretty sweet burgers.  So good.  And yeah, I definitely don't plan on buying ground meat ever again (well, let's keep it real, maybe once in a blue moon... or if Andy goes grocery shopping and ends up bringing it home).  But seriously, freshly ground meat is definitely more superior than the grocery stuff!

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground pork (I had about a 70/30 ratio of meat to fat)
salt and pepper, to taste
Mayo, optional
pepperjack cheese, optional
fried egg, optional
burger buns, or sandwich bread in my case

Fried Brussels Sprouts:

1 lb. brussels sprouts, quartered and blanched
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon oregano
oil, for frying

You of course could season your ground meat with whatever you fancy, but I like to keep it simple with just a bit of salt and pepper.  I like dressing up a burger as a whole, rather than trying to really flavor the meat.  Because well... the meat speaks for itself.  Right?  Right.

Anyway, form the meat into thin 4 ounce patties.  Think Steak N' Shake burger style. 

Heat a large saute pan under medium high heat and add a little bit of oil to coat the pan.  Place two patties in the pan and cook until starting to brown.  Flip over and place cheese (if using) on top of each patty.  Continue to cook until the patty is cooked through and the cheese is melted.  Place one patty on top of the other and transfer to a plate to rest.  At this point, you can assemble all of your burger toppings, and you can really be as creative as you want here.   But I had some extra brussels sprouts in the fridge and needed to use them up, so why not fry them, right?

Heat oil or deep fryer to 325 F.

Combine the flour, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, cayenne pepper, and oregano.  Mix well.  Dredge the brussels sprouts in the seasoned flour and dust off any excess.

Place in deep fryer and cook until golden brown and crisp, about 2-4 minutes.  Drain on paper towel-lined plate and season with salt and pepper, to taste.

To assemble this awesome burger, toast some burger buns lightly (or use sandwich bread like I did - I had everything else on hand and I was too lazy to leave the house to get some burger buns).  Get a good smear of mayo on both pieces of bread.  Top the bottom bun with the two burger patties.  Then place a good amount of the fried brussels sprouts on top of the burger and top with a fried egg - good and yolky!  Then close is on up with the top of the bun.

And there you have a pretty darn good burger.  Different, but oh so delicious.

What's your favorite burger combo?!

Banana Fritters

Phew!  It has been a day, let me tell you!  I worked until 4:30.  Picked up our CSA share.  Rushed home to take pictures of the haul and split it among it's recipients (we share our share with 2 other people).  And barely made it to my volleyball game at 6! 

Now it's nearly 9 and I still haven't finished today's post!  But don't you worry - I just couldn't resist sharing these fritters with you! 

Andy had a night class on Monday night and I was left bored and alone at home.  But I spotted some over-ripe bananas on the counter that begged to be used.  So perusing through one of my vintage cookbooks, I found the perfect fritter recipe that could satisfy my craving!


Ingredients:
Adapted from the 1947 edition of The Boston Cooking School Cook Book

3 over-ripe bananas
juice from 1 lemon
1 cup flour
1/2 traspoon salt
2/3 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
vegetable oil, for frying
powdered sugar, optional

In a heavy-bottomed pan, add about an inch tall worth of vegetable oil.  Heat under medium high heat, until temperature is around 370 F.

In a medium bowl, combine the eggs, milk, butter.  Stir in the flour and salt until batter is just combined.

Peel bananas and push through a metal sieve to rid of seeds.  If you don't care about the seeds, you could just go right ahead and mash the bananas if you wanted.  Stir mashed bananas with the lemon juice and mix well.

Add the mashed bananas to the batter and mix well.

Working in batches, spoon about 2 tablespoons of batter into the hot vegetable oil to make each fritter.  I did about 4 fritters per batch.  Fry for about 2-3 minutes per side, or until golden brown.

Top fritters with powdered sugar, if desired.

These were so good.  I could have taken the easy route and just sliced the bananas, dipped them in the batter, and fried them that way, but I didn't.  I love how the banana flavor is incorporated throughout the dough and it lends to a custard-like filling.  Andy came home that night and made work of a few of them too!

Shredded Chicken Gorditas

Louisville is definitely not known for it's streetfood like other cities. We're still experimenting with that area of food. I mean, I've seen various hot dog vendors on street corners downtown, and there's the Nathan's Hot Dog stand on Bardstown Rd. next to the bars. But if you go to Fern Creek, there's this hidden gem of a street food stand, that we like to call "The Taco Truck." I'm sure it has a real name, but there is no sign, there is no advertising. There's just a blue tent in front of a trailer pulled by a big F-150 Ford truck. And it sit in front of a Mexican grocery, so it must be authentic, right? The quesadillas were phenomenal, especially for about $2 a pop. A steal, right? One thing Andy did get, that he didn't like was their gorditas. Stuffed beef pockets that he said "tasted like a boot." I said that was a little harsh, and when I took a bite... he was right. So maybe Taco Bell has something on a good ol' fashioned Mexican gordita eh? I'd hope not. That is not even close. Actually, a gordita can be stuffed or topped. A common misconception among us Americanized Taco Bell loving beings. So when I saw this recipe for homemade gorditas in November's Food & Wine I knew I had to do the Taco Truck justice.


Ingredients:
From Nov. 2009 Food & Wine - "Gorditas"

2 cups masa harina
1 & 1/4 cups water (or a little more if your mixture is too dry)
1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus more for frying
shredded chicken (recipe follows)
salsa
sour cream
cheese blend


Ingredients for shredded chicken:
(I sort of just winged this one and put it whatever I thought would taste good)

4-5 chicken breasts
1/4 cup tequila
3 tablespoons honey
1 jalapeno, chopped (leave as many seeds as you see fit in there, if you don't like it spicy, either leave out or deseed)
1 onion, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 cup chicken broth

You definitely need to start the chicken first. I put all the ingredients in my slow cooker (love that thing!) and let sit on the high setting for a few hours. As the chicken cooks, start to shred it and let it simmer in the juices. WARNING: it's going to make your house smell AWESOME!

Ok, when the chicken is at or near done, you can start making your gorditas. In a large bowl, mix the masa harina, water, and 1/4 cup of oil. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and roll into a thick log. How thick? Well that just depends on how big you want your gorditas to be. Mine were about 3-4 inches in diameter (after flattening, so about 2-3 inch thick log). Divide the log into 1 inch slices. I got about 12 gorditas with this, and this was plenty for 3 people.

Flatten each gordita either with a rolling pin, or you could be more rustic and use your hands like I did. Be careful though, the dough will be VERY fragile so you kind of have to be gentle and loving with it.

Heat a large skillet or griddle under high heat and cook gorditas in batches (I found that 3 at a time fit in the pan nicely) for about 2 minutes per side. Set aside on plate as each one is done. When all gorditas are cooked, either wait until skillet gets cool or get out new skillet if you can't wait. Place enough oil in the skillet to bring it about 1/4 inch up the pan. If you do this with the hot skillet, you'll probably burn yourself, so that's why I said to either get a new skillet or wait until the other one cools. It's all about safety first, right? Right.

When oil is hot enough for frying, add the gorditas, in batches again, and fry for about 2 minutes per side, when they're nice and golden. When each is done, press the center with a spoon to kind of make a little indentation. Dry on paper towel-lined plate.

Top the indentations with the shredded chicken, sour cream, salsa, cheese, and whatever else you'd like to top it with. The toppings are really endless.


The verdict? I'm pretty sure I could sell these on the street. It's a compact little bite that can even be served as an appetizer, depending on how small or big you make the gorditas. They were crispy, and you could taste the corn in the flour, which for some reason, always reminds me of truly authentic Mexican food. I'd definitely recommend these for anyone! Enjoy!