Beef Burgers, Corn on the Cob and Spicy Broccoli Salad

… or how to smoke your neighbors out of their apartments and into yours…. Or how I discovered I need a new grill.

Good news everyone! (welcome back Futurama) We cooked again and it was delicious, and with a very nice feedback from our neighbors that, despite the smoke, asked us what we were cooking. This recipe feels like it should be cooked outside, but we managed to pull together nicely (sort of) with our trusty, old grill.

For the burgers: 

500 grams of minced beef meat, 

1 large egg, 

1 tbs of chopped fresh thyme, 

salt, pepper, 

spicy smoked paprika, 

1 tbs of mustard, 

4 tbs of bread crumbs. 

Mix all the ingredients together by hand, until they are all evenly distributed. Next, make some golf sized balls of the meat, that you flat into patties of about 2 cm thickness. Put them on a plate, sprinkle with olive oil and put in the fridge (this helps the ingredients bind). Cook the burgers of a very hot grill, medium heat, for 4-5 minutes on each side.

For the corn, drum roll please: you put it on a very hot grill and turn it when it starts to get some nice charred marks. For the corn, I mixed up some butter with some dried chipotle flakes, salt and dried garlic powder and topped the cob with this mix. 

The spicy kick and the also slightly sweet and smoky texture of the chilli went really well with the charred corn and the garlic taste, definitely something I will cook again.

For the salad: 

200 grams of broccoli flowers, 

200 grams of green beans (I used both yellow and green), 

half of a large, ripe tomato, 

lemon juice, 

olive oil, 

salt, pepper, 

dried chipotle flakes (or a fresh medium hot red chilli, finely diced), 

2-3 garlic cloves. 

Creating this may require some timing so, try and get everything to the finish line in about the same time. Boil the beans in salted water until they are just al dente, max 15 minutes, it takes considerably less if the beans are freshly picked or very young; remove from the water and set aside. 

For the broccoli, boil them in the green bean water for 2 minutes, leave them to dry out a bit, the coat them with oil and chipotle flakes and grill the broccoli flowers on the super hot grill until you get some nice marks. Cut the garlic into fine slices and fry them for 30 seconds in hot olive oil, quickly remove from the oil, the garlic will continue to cook even then and you want to make sure you get some nice (tiny) golden garlic chips. Cut the tomato, put the broccoli, beans and garlic on top and sprinkle some chopped sour weed (sheep's sorrel, red sorrel, field sorrel), after which pour some lemon juice and olive oil on the salad (don’t forget the salt and pepper and the red chilli, if you’re using that). 

The heat from the beans and broccoli will almost melt a very ripe tomato and sourness of the sorrel will bring a very nice kick to the dish.

Plate everything and grab yourself a nice, cold beer, you deserve it. After all you’ve made the neighbours notice you, and that can only be good…. Right?

Take care,

Mr. G.

Jam Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

I am sorry we have been M.I.A. from the blog lately, but we actually didn't do much cooking and this blog is about that basically. We had food from our parents, we ate out or just grabbed a salad in a hurry.

A couple of days ago I bought a new muffin tin and I had to try it. We lost out muffin tin when we moved, I have no idea how that could have happen, but I was excited to have one again. As a first bake, I chose the Martha Stewart's recipe for Jam Cupcakes. The recipe is on the site.

In case you are wondering, the muffin cup liners are from IKEA. I found them a little big for the quantities in the recipes. As you can see, my oven still cooks uneven, but all was good. Just to be on the safe side I put a tray with water in the oven, underneath the muffin tin, so that they stay fluffy, which they did.

I baked them for about 25 minutes. I let them cool, then made a little hole in the middle and added the jam. I used cranberry jam and fig jam. The jam inside is a nice surprise, but if you choose to keep the chocolate frosting, don't put too much as the frosting is kinda heavy. The frosting is a butter one, as I said, a bit heavy for my taste, but it works with the delicate muffins.

Overall, these were good, for sure I would try the recipe again, even without any frosting. It is a simple one, no special cooking skills required. The muffins were super good, so fluffy and soft, the jam is the nice touch and the frosting is perfect for chocolate lovers.

Enjoy!

Testing the Best Banana Bread Recipe

 I really like having homemade sweets and desserts in the house every week, but unfortunately, my oven is not the best one. We are stuck with an old one that was in the house when we bought the apartment. It is fine for many things like roasting, but when it comes to baked goods and pastry in tends to burn in the back of the oven.

With that in mind (kind of dissapointing, I know) I have tried lately to find or come up with simple recipes or ones that don't use the oven at all. For a long time I have been thinking of making Banana Bread. I am not American so it is not unusual that I never tried it, but it also means that I didn't have a family recipe and I didn't know what to expect.

So, I searched the Internet trying to find the best recipe from the thoundsands that are online. This one was very much praised so I decided to give it a try. It is the America's Test Kitchen show recipe and it goes like this:

Mix the following dry ingredients:

2 cups of flour

3/4 cups of sugar

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped and roasted

In another bowl mix the wet ones:

3 ripe bananas smashed with a fork

1/4 cup buttermilk

2 large eggs lightly beaten

6 tablespoons melted and cooled butter

1 tsp vanilla

Then, incorporate de wet ingredients in the dry ones slowly.Try not to smash the banana to much, the flavour is better when you find some bigger chunks.

Butter and then flour a bread tin. I read that it was really important to coat the tin really well in flour so that the bread would climb the sides of the tin.

After 55 minutes in the oven, I tested it with a toothpick, I let it for 5 minutes to cool in the tin then for another 10 to cool on a rack.

I must say, I liked the recipe, the bread is nice and moist on the inside, but it has a really nice crust on top. I can pretty much say I will try it again.

Enjoy!

Hot Dog Extravaganza

Do you know those evenings when you say "I really don't feel like cooking anything fancy tonight". We thought we would just put something simple together and hot dogs came to mind.

We grabbed all the essentials: we wanted onions and swiss cheese, then we thought about pickles and hot peppers, but what about some bacon and tomatoes....and we got carried away. We almost forgot about the buns and the meat.

After one and a half hours of work, mostly design, we were pretty happy with the results (tired, but happy).

In the end we had 3 types of hot dogs: a wannabe Chicago style dog (bun + dog + tomato wedges + pickles + mustard + diced onions + hot peppers), a cholesterol-filled one with added bacon and  swiss cheese, with the dog grilled, not boiled and finally what I like to call a virgin dog- just mustard and ketchup.

Seara de hot dog

Stiti serile alea cand spui ca nu prea ai chef sa gatesti nimic complicat? Ne-am gandit doar sa incropim ceva simplu si ne-a venit in minte sa facem hot dog. Am luat tot ce era esential: am vrut ceapa si branza, apoi ne-am gandit la muraturi si ardei iute, dar poate merge si niste bacon si rosii...si ne-a luat valul. Aproape uitasem de chifle si carnati. Dupa o ora si jumatate de truda, mai mult de aranjare si design, eram multumiti de rezultat (obositi, dar fericiti). Pana la urma am facut 3 tipuri de hot dog: un fel de Chicago dog (chifla + crenvurst + felii de rosii + muraturi + mustar + ceapa tocata + ardei iuti), unul cu mult colesterol cu extra bacon si cascaval si cu carnatul pe gratar si nu fiert si nu in ultimul rand unul simplu, doar cu ketchup si mustar. Sa aveti un weekend frumos!

Have a great weekend!

The Best Buttermilk Pancakes

Hope you are having a great weekend.
We started ours with an American-style breakfast, pancakes.

For us outside US eating these can be quite the experience. I used this amazing recipe and they turned out just perfect. We served them with honey and loads of butter and couldn't resist adding some strawberry jam in the end.

Clatite americane cu lapte batut

Sper ca aveti parte de un weekend minunat.

Nou ne-am inceput weekend-ul cu un mic dejun in stil american, clatite. Pentru cei din afara SUA, prima oara cand incerci sa le faci este o experienta frumoasa. Am folosit reteta din linkul de mai sus, au iesit perfecte. Le-am servit cu miere si muuult unt. Nu am rezistat nici de la niste gem de caspuni deasupra.

Have some fun today!

Buffalo Wings with Celery Sticks and Blue Cheese Dip

This weekend, we went all-american with some Buffalo Wings, served traditionally with celery sticks and  a blue cheese dip.
 I have to say it is a nice surprise, is something different, at least for someone that is not american.

Enjoy!