Showing posts with label Garlic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Garlic. Show all posts

Friday, July 18, 2014

1st Trip to the food market



Our first produce finds....delish!

We explored the Garak Market (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garak_Market) today on a typical balmy day as it is monsoon season right now. All I have to say is wow! The pictures we took do not do it justice, it was HUGE! We hopped on the subway(an adventure of it's own) five stops and one train change later we where at the market. As lost Americans we went the wrong way and wandered around the block(which was two downtown Denver blocks put together) and in the gate for restaurants or grocery stores, bought a flat of grapes. We dodged big trucks and stumbled our way to the smaller stalls. As a chef in a new setting, seeing all of the produce was overwhelming! Items I knew and somethings I had no clue, but what really caught my eye, were all the different mushrooms. We'd look at one stall and there would be 5-7 different mushrooms the next stall would have 3-4 different kinds,some I worked with (thanks to the big budget at Vi and the chefs there!) and others no clue. Karen, was impressed and excited about the garlic. 6-7 20lb bags of pealed garlic. The smell was intoxicating! We bought a 1-1/2lb bag then the ladies ground it for you. The prices where  cheap! In the above picture 3kg(1kg=2.2lb) of potatoes 2 dollars, 2kg mushrooms 2 dollars the garlic was 5 dollars and is going to be worth every penny. We spent 25 dollars on everything on the table(Murphy told me not to forget about the carrots), they are the size of my wrist and about 6-8 inches long and again 2kg 2 dollars. I will be going back there at least once a week for all our produce and we didn't even find the meat section! Below is a slide show of our adventure!









Saturday, March 8, 2014

Blue Cheese and Garlic Stuffed Burger



















Ok I don't like to brag but this was frickin' awesome. I'm not a fan of blue cheese but with the garlic and the fat from the meat it was sooooooo good! This is a burger where you want a good bun to go with it. I also made a truffle aioli (hmmmm fancy mayo) as a sauce to go with it, very  rich and so many layers of taste. This is a great burger for one of those non- counting calorie days. I will make this as many times as my arteries can take.

Ingredients-

1lb Ground Beef (80-20)
1lb Ground Pork
1/2lb Blue Cheese( Blue cheeses are typically aged in a temperature-controlled environment such as a cave)
2 Tbl Garlic minced
1Tbl Olive Oil

Directions-

1. Saute garlic in oil for 2-3 minutes, let cool and mix with cheese.
2. Mix meat together in a bowl. Make eight equal sized meat balls(if you have a scale 4oz), put meat in between two pieces of parchment paper and press down (with a mixing bowl or cutting board) until 1/2 inch thick.
3. Spoon equal amounts of cheese onto four of the patties, place one of the other four patties over the meat with cheese and pinch edges together to seal.
4. In a large saute pan over medium-high heat place two patties into pan add 1/4 cup of water and cover. Cook for six minutes and flip burgers over add 1/4 cup water and cover for six more minutes.
5. Take burgers out of pan put on buns( truffle aioli 1 cup mayo 1 and 1/2 Tbl truffle oil or to taste and whisk) top with what ever you like… enjoy!