Jason's Log

A really good burger...

As a result of Young working late tonight, I got a chance to grill myself some hamburgers. Based on the advice of Cook's Illustrated, I took the following apporach:

1. Broke up the ground beef into a mixing bowl. Added about 1 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of ground pepper. I then grated a bit of pepper-jack cheese directly into the mix. Finally, I added 2 tsp of worsterschire sauce, then combined the mixute with a large spoon.

2. Once all the ingredients were fully integrated, I formed the patties into the usual donut like shape.

3. I grilled the burgers 4 minutes, each side, covered, on high heat. They turned out to be just a bit rare of medium, which is perfect.

The resulting burgers were amazing flavorful. Definitely the right way to go!

Fauxtatoes Improvements

I've now served my fauxtatoes for dinner at least two dozen times, yet there is always room for improvement.

1. Do not overcook the cauliflower. It should only be fork tender. I achieve this by first bringing the water to a boil, then adding the cauliflower to it. I then only biol it until I have reached the point of fork tender (or just a bit less).

2. When the cauliflower is a bit more chunky because of the reduced cooking time, it means that you don't have to use as much guar gum to thicken things. I just sprinkle in the guar gum through the food processor's feed hole until I see things start to thicken. I then add salt/pepper to taste.

Quest for the perfect burrito

Young and I have been enjoying home-made chicken burritos for quite some time now. I think we could claim that our home-made burritos are better than the average restaurant burrito, especially from places like Chipolte, Baja Fresh, etc. However, we really didn't think our burritos were really in the same league as those from places like Pancho Villa in San Mateo, CA.

Recent experimentation has brought us closer though, and this is what we've learned...

1. The cheese matters- We have settled on a blend of shredded pepper jack and queso blanco. We get the pepper jack from the local cheese maker at the Sunnyvale farmer's market. The queso blanco comes from the local Safeway. We shred and mix euqal amounts of each, and the results are very good.

2. The salsa matters- I strongly suspect that Pancho Villa's superior burritos are largely a result of their award-winning salsas. The closest I've been able to come to those salsas are from Trader Joe's, especially their double roasted pepper salsa. Salsas like Pace and El Paso should only be used for chips when you have guests that can't take the heat and don't know what really good salsa tastes like :)

Shrimp Spice Rub Results

As per my prvious entry, the shrimp marinade really didn't turn out all that well. I think I'm just going to give up entirely on marindades and stick with dry/spice rubs instead.

So this evening, Young peeled 1.5 pounds of frozen fresh shrimp. I put together the following spice mixture:

3.0 tsp canadian mustard powerder
2.0 tsp garlic powder
1.0 tsp dried basil
1.0 tsp fresh ground black pepper
0.5 tsp fresh ground salt

I then tossed the shrimp in this spice mixture with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a 1 gallon ziploc bag. I then grill roasted the shrimp on medium high for 8 minutes.

The results: Totally tremendous. The shrimp were richly flavored, without being over-done. The next time around, Young suggested addin some lemon flavor to the spices, so I think I'll pick up a bit of lemon zest seasoning for the next batch.

Jerk Seasoning Results

In short, it totally rocked. It had a very authentic jerk flavor...not that I'm Jamaican, mind you, but when I bit into the chicken, I immediately thought that it tasted about right.

Young chopped up a whole bunch of broccoli, onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes that we tossed in the jerk seasoning and a little olive oil. I grilled them along with the chicken, and they turned out great.

All around, it is safe to say I now have a 'keeper' jerk seasoning recipe.

Jerk Seasoning Dry Rub

After a bit of research, I ended up with this:

4.0 tbsp ground allspice
4.0 tbsp Splenda
1.0 tbsp dried thyme
1.0 tbsp paprika
1.0 tsp ground red pepper
1.0 tsp garlic powder
1.0 tsp onion powder
1.0 tsp salt
1.0 tsp nutmeg
1.0 tsp cinnammon
0.25 teaspoon black pepper

This was applied to 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and grilled the usual way. We'll know in a few minutes how well it turned out.

About the shrimp

It was good, but not perfect. Young would have liked it with a bit more garlic, and we both agreed that it needed some salt and pepper.

So next time, I will add an additional teaspoon of minced garlic, along with 20 twists of salt and 30 twists of pepper.

New shrimp marinade

Going to try this one out tonight, modified from AllRecipes:

1.5 pounds fresh shrimp
2.5 tbsp olive oil
0.25 cup butter, melted
3.0 tbsp lomon juice
3.0 tbsp brown mustard
1.0 tbsp dried basil
2.0 tsp crushed garlic

I added the shrimp to half the marinade in a zip-loc bag and stuck it in the fridge for an hour or two. The rest of the marindate will be used for basting and dipping.

I'll log the results later this evening.

Green Bean Salad

We had a few friends over for a 4th of July BBQ last night, and we made the Green Bean salad recipe that Young found on FoodNetwork. We'd made it once before, but it didn't turn out as good this time. We're pretty sure the reason is that I didn't use enough salt and pepper.

Next time we make it, I'm going to use 20 twists of salt and 30 twists of pepper (using our Oxo grinders) and see how that goes.

Carb-Free Whipped Cream Take #2

This time, I used the following recipe:

3.0 pints of heavy cream (about 3.5 cups)
0.75 cups splenda
1.5 teaspoons vanilla

And I very, very gradually whipped it using the kitchenaid mixer at speed 4. Instead of trying to hurry the process, I just waited for the cream to gradually firm up to the consitency I wanted.

In the end, the outcome was much improved: It wasn't overly sweet or vainilla-y like the first batch, and the texture was perfect.