Burger Envy

Although I'm a big fan of most food (clearly) burgers have a special place in my heart.  So it's no wonder I was easily swayed in their direction.  With All About Eve, I wanted to make something with apples.  Apple Crumble, Apple Pie, Apple Strudel...but I decided to go a little crazy.  I found a recipe for Portobello Burgers with Apple-Celery Slaw and then decided to finish it off with fabulous baked Sweet Potato Fries.  Jealous?

Apple Slaw and Envious Burgers (with Sensational Sweet Potato Fries)
(Adapted from Epicurious.com)

You'll Need:

For burgers:
1 medium onion, chopped
10 ounces portobello mushrooms, trimmed and quartered
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons olive oil, divided
1 pound ground beef
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese
4 hamburger buns, toasted

For slaw:
2 celery ribs
1/2 Granny Smith apple, cored (left unpeeled)
1 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon whole-grain mustard
Rounded 1/4 teaspoon sugar

Sides:  Sweet Potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper.

 Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

1. Slice the sweet potato into french fry like strips.  Drizzle with oil and top with salt and pepper.
2. Bake for about a half hour, until cooked through and crispy.  Remove from head and 
3. Meanwhile, finely chop mushrooms and onion, or pulse in a food processor.  
4. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over medium heat until it shimmers. Add mushroom and onion mixture, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables begin to brown and liquid has evaporated, 8 to 10 minutes. 
5. Transfer to a bowl and cool to warm, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes.




Cut celery and apple into 2-inch-long thin julienne strips.
Whisk together mayonnaise, vinegar, oil, mustard, sugar, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper in a medium bowl. Add celery and apple, tossing to coat. Let stand 15 minutes to develop flavors.
Mix ground beef into cooled mushroom mixture with your hands until well combined. Add in 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese.  Form into 4 (4-inch) patties.
Heat remaining 2 teaspoons oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Cook burgers, turning once, about 8 minutes total for medium-rare.  Add the remained cheese to top of burgers, if desired.
Serve burgers, topped with slaw, on buns with a side of fries.  Enjoy!

These burgers were incredible---but a little mushy.  The moisture from the mushrooms made the patties difficult to form, and hard to cook, with the end result that the burgers tasted more like meatballs than burgers.  Even the brand new fabulous burger press we used didn't help!

Adjustable Nonstick Burger Press

But the slaw was fantastic, with the apple giving a great sweetness and crunch.  And if you've read my blog you know how I feel about homemade french fries.  All in all I'd probably skip the mushrooms and do regular burgers---but keep the slaw and definitely the fries!

Frying things is fun...

Since Cavalcade is possibly the most  British film I've EVER seen (and that includes Austin Powers in a Union Jack speedo), I thought Fish and Chips would be appropriate.  I actually can't take all the credit, it was my friends that suggested it.

French Fries go under my original category of things-you-don't-make-from-scratch (see my popcorn post).  I actually even bought back-up frozen fries so that we wouldn't go without should mine prove inedible.  Much to my surprise, there are both easy and delicious.  And deep frying something without a fryer, while a little treacherous, was not as difficult as I thought.  Which brings me back to my original point...frying things is fun!

For the Fish...

You'll need:
2 cups Guinness beer
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 egg
At least 3 cups of All-Purpose flour
8 3-oz cutlets of boneless, skinless cod
At least 2 cups canola oil

1. Pour and measure the Guinness, waiting for the foam to settle.
2. Whisk together Guinness, baking soda, salt, pepper and egg.
3. Continuously whisking, add flour in 1/2 cup increments, until the batter thickens and sticks to whisk.  
4. Put about 1 1/2 cups of flour in separate bowl.
5. If they are not already, cut the fish into manageable pieces (about what you would expect your slice of fish to be).  Heat on high about 3/4 cup oil in a large (4-quart) saucepan.  Wait at least 10 minutes, until the oil is definitely hot.
6. Take the fish and dredge in flour, shaking off excess.  Next dredge in Guinness batter, completely covering fish. set aside on a plate.
7. Slice off a small part of the fish and drop it in the oil, to test heat level.  If the oil bubbles and makes the frying noise, you're all set!
8. Fry each piece of fish, about 5 minutes for each side.  When the fish is golden brown, it's finished.  Add more oil as needed.
9. Garnish with lemon and tartar sauce and serve.  Yum!

For the Chips...
You'll need:
Approximately 5 large Russet potatoes
2-4 tbsps Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Garlic Salt
Old Bay Seasoning

1. Preheat the oven 435 degrees.
2. Wash and dry the potatoes.  Slice them lengthwise into circles, and across again into fry sticks.
3. Place the potatoes on a nonstick baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil.  Add garlic salt and Old Bay Seasoning to taste.
4. Bake the fries until golden brown, squishy on the inside and crispy on the outside, about 45 minutes.  Sprinkle salt over the top and serve with ketchup!

*I like this option because it is slightly healthier than frying the fries.  You can fry them as well, which I did with the oil right before I fried the fish.  The taste wasn't that different, but try both and see which works for you!

When you start frying, it's hard to stop.  My friends wanted to fry more things, and we ending up dipping red onions in the batter and frying them as well!  I suddenly understood what I had never before: what makes a frying machine so popular.  We were turning into a mob, shooting quick glances around the kitchen, trying to find other things we could fry.  But in the end the fish and chips were a huge success.  We ate them with malt vinegar, tartar sauce, and ketchup.

In addition, I'll definitely be making my own fries from now on.  They were so easy and I knew exactly what went into them.  I made the freezer fries, and was frightened to see that no matter how long I left them in the oven, they stayed the same color.  Next to my homemade fries, these fries glowed a sickly highlighter yellow. Scary.