Grilled Pepper Jack Meat Loaf Burgers

Safeway had Nature's Pride multi-grain bread on sale this week for $2.50 per 24-ounce loaf and Jennie-O lean ground turkey patties for 99 cents per pound. They also had Lucerne cheese for $5.99 per 2-pound block, prompting me to create this recipe. If you prefer a vegan version, omit the egg and cheese and use a mixture of cooked lentils, chickpeas and black beans to make your burger.

1/4 cup fresh parsley
2 eggs (omit for vegan version)
2-quart mixing bowl
1 teaspoon hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup minced onion
2 cloves minced garlic
8 slices multi-grain bread
Food processor
1 pound ground beef or vegan substitute (see suggestions above)
4 ounces shredded pepper jack cheese
4 ounces tomato paste
1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
1 green bell pepper, cut into strips
Yellow pepper rings
Hamburger buns

Step 1: Chop the parsley as fine as you can.

Step 2: Use a fork to beat the eggs to an even, light-yellow froth in a 2-quart mixing bowl. Add the parsley, hot sauce, pepper, onion and garlic and stir until well-blended.

Step 3: Pulse the bread in your food processor until you get even-textured bread crumbs. Add the bread crumbs to the egg mixture and stir until well-blended. Omit the eggs when making a vegan version.

Step 4: Add the ground beef or vegan substitute. Mix just enough to distribute the bread crumb mixture throughout the ground beef or vegan substitute.

Step 5: Divide the mixture into 8 equal portions. Flatten four portions to 1/2-inch thickness.

Step 6: Make a slight depression in the center of each portion, using the back of a tablespoon.

Step 7: Fill the depression with 1 ounce of shredded pepper jack cheese, vegan cheese substitute or diced vegetables of your choice.

Step 8: Flatten the remaining four portions of ground beef or vegan substitute. Top each of the first four patties with one of the remaining four patties.

Step 9: Pinch and smooth the patties along the seam.

Step 10: Grill each patty for 4 minutes on each side. Top each grilled patty with 1 ounce of tomato paste and grill for one additional minute.

Step 11: Serve on hamburger buns, topped with grilled red and green bell pepper slices and yellow pepper rings.

Cacique: They Liked Me, They Really Liked Me

Every writer lives for the day when they receive professional recognition that what they produce is worth reading. Today was that day for me. I wrote an article in June 2011 called "Soy Chorizo Kitchen Tests" and published it at Triond.com on its Notecook site. I had kitchen-tested a new product: Cacique soy chorizo, detailing each step and all the results. Yesterday, I left a link to the article on Cacique USA's Facebook page. To my delight, Cacique USA sent me the following email message:

"Wow! Very educational, Jack. And it sounds like the Hawaiian-style sauce really tied it all together... But you left us on a cliffhanger -- how'd it TASTE?!"

 

 

Thank you, Cacique USA, for taking time to read my article!

Update, April 5, 2015: Due to page-loading issues at Triond, I have moved the article to Heritage and Home. You can find it here at Soy Chorizo Kitchen Tests.

B Is for Bread: Safflower Petal Bread Recipe

I made safflower-petal bread a few weeks ago and promised to post the recipe. I bought the dried safflower petals at the Mesa, Arizona Pro's Ranch Market. I found them in the Spanish-language spice section, and I thought that they were saffron strands, but I was incorrect. Safflower petals impart a slight citrus-floral note to the bread. The bright orange strands are easy to spot when you slice the loaf. Serve this bread with orange-blossom honey and homemade butter for a farmhouse treat that beats cake hollow.

Ingredients and Equipment:

8-quart mixing bowl
8 sifted cups enriched all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 tablespoons dried safflower petals
2 cups water or pan drippings
1 cup cola
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon canola oil
11- by 17-inch glass casserole dish or a no-stick baking pan


If you want a fat-free, gluten-free version, substitute 6 cups of besan (chickpea flour) and 2 cups of finely-ground cornmeal for the flour and add 1/2 cup of applesauce instead of using 1/4 cup of canola oil. You will still need a tablespoon of canola oil to grease the glass casserole dish, unless you have no-stick baking pans. Remember to raise the baking temperature by 25 degrees if you use a metal baking pan instead of a glass casserole dish.

Sift the flour into an 8-quart mixing bowl. If you do not have a sifter, simply sprinkle or shake the flour into the bowl rather than dumping it. This will result in lighter, airier loaves with more appealing texture.

Add the baking powder and the baking soda. Although it sounds like a large amount, you are not using eggs or yeast, so the loaf needs all the help it can get.

Stir in the dried safflower petals. Sift the mixture again to ensure even distribution of the two leavening agents throughout your dough.

Add the water or pan drippings. I prefer pan drippings, because I hate waste in the kitchen, and because they flavor the bread, but water works just as well if you need a vegan or vegetarian option. You can use vegetable broth, almond milk or rice milk in place of water for a more full-bodied vegan bread.

Add the cola, which should cause the dough to foam, then add all but 1 tablespoon of the oil. Mix the dough until all the dry ingredients and wet ingredients merge. There should be no leftover flour in the corners or "mushy" portions in the dough. The dough should feel stretchy and should not stick to your hands.

Grease the casserole dish. Divide the dough into two equal portions and place them in the casserole dish, at least two inches apart. Pat each portion of dough into an oval loaf and allow the dough to rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F if using the glass casserole dish, or 425 degrees F if using a metal, no-stick baking sheet. Bake the bread for 20 minutes, then turn the pans around and bake for another 20 minutes to ensure even baking.

Allow the bread to cool on the counter before slicing it into 1/2-inch thicknesses with a serrated knife.

Orange-Cardamom Pork Chops and Fried Potatoes

We've been buying a lot of pork recently, because we are making bone art for Wasteland Weekend, leaving me scrambling for different ways to prepare the meat. We use pork shoulder bones because they resemble skulls. We posted a few photos of two of the skulls in progress on Facebook. Once they are finished, we will post an article and photos on Tempe Frugal Life.

Once I removed the shoulder bone from the two roasts I bought at Ranch Market last week for 98 cents a pound, I sliced 15 pounds of the shoulder meat into chops. The other 5 pounds got chopped to make pulled pork in the slow cooker. Today I thawed 2 pounds of chops. While they thawed, I grated the zest from one whole navel orange, then squeezed the juice over the chops. I added the orange zest and 3 cloves of finely-minced fresh garlic, about 1/2 teaspoon of ground cardamom and about a tablespoon of Cajun seasoning. I rubbed the spices all over the meat, turning it repeatedly in the orange juice to ensure complete coverage. I let the meat marinate in the refrigerator in a 4-quart plastic storage container while I scrubbed three fist-sized potatoes. I trimmed away some bad-looking spots and pierced each potato, then microwaved them together for 6 minutes on high. I turned each potato over and microwaved them for another two minutes, quartered them and sliced them into 1/2-inch thicknesses.

I heated 1/2 cup of canola oil in a 12-inch diameter saute pan on medium-high for three minutes, then used the lid as a shield while I slid each chop into the pan to avoid splashing the hot oil. I pan-fried the chops for three minutes per side, turning them twice on each side, for a total of 6 minutes per side. I pulled the chops from the oil, holding them over the saute pan until the oil stopped dripping before transferring them to a serving platter.

I used the lid as a shield again when I slid the sliced potatoes off the cutting board and into the oil. I pan-fried the potatoes for about 10 minutes, until they were just past golden-brown, then removed them from the pan using a slotted spoon. I pulled the double-layered paper towels over them and patted the excess oil away before sliding the potatoes onto the serving platter with the pork chops.

I boiled the marinade and added it to the shrimp-infused gravy I had made to go with the river-raised catfish we cooked two nights ago. I'll post that recipe another day.

Ingredients and Equipment:

2 pounds sliced pork shoulder roast
4-quart plastic storage container
Grater
Juice and zest from 1 navel orange
3 large cloves garlic
Chef's knife
Cutting board
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
3 fist-sized potatoes
1/2 cup canola oil
12-inch saute pan with lid
Serving platter
Slotted spoon
Small glass casserole dish
1 pint shrimp-infused gravy (recipe to come tomorrow)

Tell Me About Yourself

I check my audience profile about once a week. I've been fascinated by the fact that people all over the world are reading my recipes. I love it when I see that people from places like Moldova (I had to look that one up) Latvia, Poland, South Africa and the Philippines apparently enjoy this blog.

I would love to hear from each of you. Tell me where you are located, what you enjoy about this blog and the recipes I have posted, and what you would like to see in the future. Post a photo of an ingredient you would like me to include in my next recipe.

Let me know whether you use a desktop or laptop computer, mobile phone or other device to access this page, and let me know what would make this blog more personally useful to you.

o zi bună! (Have a good day, moldoveni!)

ir laba nedēļa! (Have a good week, latvieši!)

mieć dobry tydzień! (Have a good week, Polacy!)

het 'n goeie week! (Have a good week, Suid-Afrikaners!)

Mayroon ang isang magandang linggo (Have a good week, Pilipinas!)

Roast Chicken with Apple Stuffing and Ginger-Saffron Rice

Fry's grocery store had whole frying chickens on sale for 77 cents a pound this week, so I bought two of them. I had a few apples, an orange and some celery that needed to be used before they went bad. Since I still had nearly 4 1/2 pounds of rice left from our last trip to Pro's Ranch Market, I decided to go Asian with this chicken. We've been making masala chai every day, so I had ginger, allspice and coriander on hand. I found a jar of saffron strands that I had forgotten in our pantry cabinet. I don't usually use an expensive spice like saffron, but the gentle, slightly floral flavor was perfect when combined with the apple slices and orange juice.

Ingredients and Equipment:
5 1/2-pound whole frying chicken
9 tbsp cooking oil
Salt
Dried basil
Roasting pan
3 to 4 stalks celery
Chef's knife
Cutting board
2 Red Delicious apples
1 seedless navel orange
12-inch diameter saute pan with tight-fitting lid
Wok spatula
1 teaspoon coriander seed
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
6 to 8 saffron strands or 1/2 teaspoon dried turmeric powder
Serving platter
1 cup uncooked rice
6 cups chicken stock
1 tablespoon dried ginger powder
1 teaspoon allspice powder
Chicken giblets (gizzard, heart, liver, neck)

Thaw the chicken overnight in the refrigerator or in a pot of cold water. Rub the entire chicken with oil, working it into all the folds and cavities of the wings and thighs.

Sprinkle the entire chicken with salt, including the neck and main body cavities. Repeat with dried basil. Place the chicken in the roasting pan and allow it to rest while you prepare the apples, rice and giblets.

Chop 1 cup of celery very fine. Quarter, core and thin-slice two Red Delicious apples and cut the orange in half.

Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a 12-inch diameter saute pan on medium high. Add 1 teaspoon each of coriander seed and red pepper flakes, plus 6 to 8 saffron strands, or you can substitute 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder for the saffron.

Stir-fry the spices for 1 minute to release all the flavors. Add the celery to the pan and stir-fry it for 3 minutes. Toss the sliced apples into the pan and stir-fry everything for another 3 minutes. Remove the apples and place them on a serving plate.

Add 1 cup of uncooked rice to the saute pan. Stir-fry the rice constantly until it turns golden-brown. Pour 6 cups of water or chicken stock and stir to ensure that none of the rice grains stick to the bottom of the pan.

Squeeze the juice from the orange halves into the pan. Tear the orange peel into four pieces and float it on top of the rice water. Stir in 1 tablespoon of powdered ginger and 1 teaspoon of allspice powder and cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid.

Simmer the rice on medium heat for 25 to 30 minutes.

Slice the gizzard and heart into 1/8-inch thicknesses. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a separate skillet for 1 minute. Carefully slide the sliced giblets into the oil to avoid spatter. Pan-fry them for 3 minutes, until they are browned on all sides.

Add the apple slices and stir-fry everything for 3 to 5 minutes. Remove the giblets to a separate plate. Stuff half the stir-fried apple slices into the chicken, followed by the pieces of orange peel.

Stuff the remaining half of the apple slices into the chicken. Spoon the rice around the chicken and over the body cavities. Press the wing tips against the chicken's body and cover them with rice.

Bake covered at 400 degrees F for 40 minutes. Turn the roasting pan around in the oven to ensure even cooking. Remove the cover and bake the chicken for another 20 minutes. Turn the oven to broil for 7 minutes to crisp the skin.

Allow the chicken to rest in the oven for 15 minutes before serving

Pork Chops in Lemon-Cola Marinade

I picked up another 20 pounds of pork shoulder roast at Pro's Ranch Market last week. After I cut the 3-pound arm-bone portions from each roast, I sliced the remainder into 3/4-inch thicknesses, resulting in 15 pork chops. Unlike the roast we bought three weeks ago at Ranch Market, these had the skin and most of the fat removed. I froze the chops in single portions for convenience, since we cook meals on the spur of the moment rather than on a set schedule, especially if we are working on a project.

Today, I marinated 3 of the pork chops in a mixture of 1/4-cup lemon juice; 5 cloves of fresh, minced garlic; 1/2-cup thin-sliced Vidalia onion; 1 tablespoon Hungarian paprika; 1 teaspoon ground black pepper; 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger; 1/2 teaspoon chili powder; 1 tablespoon of rehydrated, minced ginger root; 2 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil and 2 tablespoons of cola.

Marinated Pork Photo by Jack V. Sage, February 20, 2012

Marinated Pork Photo by Jack V. Sage, February 20, 2012

Garlic, Onion, and Dehydrated Ginger by Jack V. Sage, February 20, 2012

I thawed the pork in the refrigerator by placing it -- still wrapped in plastic -- in an 8-cup plastic storage container with a tight-fitting lid. After the chops thawed, I removed the plastic wrap and rinsed each one under cold running water.

I added the lemon juice to the container and rolled the pork around in it to ensure that the juice covered the entire surface of each chop. After five minutes, I added the ground spices, minced garlic, sliced onion and minced ginger. I turned the chops several times to ensure that the spices were evenly distributed over the meat. I waited another five minutes before adding the olive oil and turning the chops again. Next, I added the cola, turning the pork chops several more times.

After two hours, I pan-seared each pork chop. I heated a 12-inch skillet on medium-high heat for one minute before placing the pork chops in it, spaced 1/2-inch apart and 1 inch away from the sides of the pan.

Lemon-Cola Pork Chops by Jack V. Sage, February 20, 2012

I seared the chops for 5 minutes on each side before checking the internal temperature.The USDA recommends pan-searing for 7 minutes on a side, but here in Arizona, using a stainless steel saute pan, the chops only needed 5 minutes per side. The test chop I cooked was dark brown at 6 minutes and scorched black at 7.

The USDA recommends cooking pork roasts and chops to an internal temperature of 145 degrees F, as measured with a meat thermometer. To check the internal temperature, insert a meat thermometer horizontally into the side of the thickest portion of each pork chop without touching any bone or the sides of the pan.

I allowed the chops to rest for 3 minutes before serving. This gave the juices in the meat time to redistribute and resulted in a more tender, juicy pork chop.

Lemon-Cola Pork Chops by Jack V. Sage, February 20, 2012