Ingredients

Summer has officially begun. Yes, I know, the solstice isn't until next week. But we received our first CSA box this week. It was a small box, befitting the start of the produce season in zone 4: some lettuces, fennel, spinach, and rhubarb. When trying to cook as locally and as seasonally as possible, the winter can get a little depressing. That first CSA box is such a welcome sight.

I also have a new toy to play with: the grinder attachment for the Kitchenaid stand mixer. I picked up the grinder so that I could try my hand at sausage making (of which you'll read much more about). And why not use it to grind my own hamburger? Why not, indeed.

So while I was in Clancey's picking up the CSA box, I bought some chuck and some terrific looking flank. For the burgers, I'll use a ratio of 3:1 chuck to flank.

I cut the meat into smallish chunks and seasoned with salt and pepper. Just salt and pepper. The meat then went into the freezer for two hours until it was just short of frozen. I've discovered during my initial experiments with the Kitchenaid grinder that it is best to grind while the meat is nearly frozen. Otherwise, the fat heats up and clogs grinder. Then you spend a lot of time disassembling and scraping the blades clean.



Two things struck me while I was grinding. One, just how red the meat looked. The picture doesn't do it justice, but the meat was a vibrant red color. And two, how "beefy" it smelled. We are certainly miles away from the plastic wrapped ground beef of the supermarket.

I gently shaped the patties (~ 6 ounces each) and stuck them in the fridge to "set" while I worked on the rest of the dinner.

Sweet desserts are typically not much of a priority for me, but I wanted to use the rhubarb, and B practically pleaded with me to make a pie. So I found a recipe that had a sort of dropped biscuit crust. The only changes I made to the recipe were to add more rhubarb and less sugar.



One of the varieties of lettuce in the CSA box was a speckled Oak leaf (an heirloom variety related to butter lettuce). I whirred together some salt packed anchovies, garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil in the blender for the dressing, tossing it all with grated parmesan. Delicious.

I built a very hot hardwood charcoal fire for the burgers. Perhaps too hot. I cooked the burgers a bit beyond where I like them, as they cooked very fast. I need to pull them sooner next time. Here you can see mine topped with a fried egg.



A bad picture, but you get the idea. Next time, I need to make the burgers larger for more bun coverage, and get them off the grill quicker. But all in all, a very tasty summer meal, the ending of which couldn't have been better.

A Lazy Sunday

First up lunch. A couple of great pates from Erik at Clancey's: one with morels and scallions and one made with rabbit livers. Cow's milk gouda from the Netherlands and a washed rind sheep's milk cheese from Vermont, little baby dill pickles, and a sweet mustard.

Well fortified, it was time to make a brine for the pork chops. This one had kosher salt, brown sugar, rosemary (from the greenhouse), garlic, and lemon peel.

The Niman Ranch bone-in chops were in the brine for two hours. Then they were rinsed and dried on a rack (in the fridge) for two more hours.

Beautiful, aren't they?

I picked up some new charcoals over the weekend. I've been growing frustrated with the amount of additives in the big K. Sure, it gives a consistent, clean burn, but at the expense of petroleum by-products and filler. I had experimented with natural lump charcoal in the past, but I wasn't very successful at controlling the burn. With some research, I realized that I might not be using the best lump charcoal. I found some Big Green Egg lump at a local True Value hardware store. It's great stuff, much better than what I had tried in the past. Easy to light, it burns great. I'm most definitely a convert.

I put a small piece of apple wood in the charcoal when I cooked the chops on the Weber kettle. They spent some time over a direct fire, and some time over indirect. I tossed some sliced summer squash with S&P, olive oil, dried oregano, and grilled those over the hot part of the fire while the chops were cooking indirectly. Tossed the squash with grated Parmesan and made a quick mustard sauce while the chops rested.


The sauce came out a little thick, which I guess is what happens when you use a roux and heavy cream. It was, however, a delicious end to a wonderful weekend.