Diablo Burger Doppelgänger

Kirsten Veng-Pedersen

The Doppelgänger I made. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the original.

There are burgers and then there are burgers. One of the tastiest I've had lately is the DB House burger at Diablo Burger in downtown Flagstaff. It's a moist medium-rare blackened beef patty on a toasted English muffin with mixed greens, fresh pesto, tomato and an over-easy egg on top. Nom nom. 

If it sounds a little fancy shmancy, it is but don't hold that against Diablo Burger. Sure DB makes only Belgian-style fries they call "frites," and uses condiments like Homemade Hatch Chile Mayo but seriously, the place is pretty chill. Locavores and animal lovers will applaud their largely local ingredients including free-range hormone-free beef. I applaud their stellar burgers. 

Until recently, my only must-have food on a trip to Flagstaff was the piping hot cobbler at Bigfoot BBQ and a brew or two at Beaver Street or the Lumberyard. Now I've got Diablo Burger. Unfortunately my grand plan for a weekend trip to Flagstaff (and the obvious concurrent plan to sink my teeth into another DB House Burger) was thwarted by a pesky snowstorm in the north country two weeks ago. 

I was disappointed but my hunger pangs along with a food craving that rivaled that of a pregnant woman spurred me into action. I decided to get to the meat of the issue and thus begin my copycat quest with research into crafting the perfect patty. Various resources including NPR and Bobby Flay yielded the following tips: 

The Meat 

Start with 70-80 percent lean ground beef. The extra fat keeps the patty moist and flavorful. Some people prefer to select a cut of well marbled beef chuck or a combination of chuck and brisket and have them ground by the butcher. A little Worcestershire sauce can be blended into the meat but the salt and other seasonings should be reserved for the outside of the patty rather than mixed in. This will prevent the patties from becoming tough and allow you to taste the seasonings better. When forming the patties, the meat should be handled as little as possible to prevent toughness and the patties should be made larger in diameter than you want to allow for shrinkage while cooking. Pressing down on a patty while it cooks to flatten it out is a no-no. This expels the moisture and leaves you with a dry, flavorless lump. To keep the patty flat, some people advocate making a small depression in the middle of it to counteract the shape-shifting as it cooks and shrinks. 

The Heat 

You want to seal in the juices and produce a slight crust on the burger. This can be done like searing a steak. It's best to use a heavy-duty pan like a cast iron pan for this. The pan should be preheated. The patties should only be flipped once. To enhance the searing/crust formation, the patties can be brushed with melted butter before being placed in the skillet. (For blackened burgers, blackening spices are sprinkled on after the butter brush and before the searing but watch out for the smoke!) 

Diablo Burger Doppelgänger

Ingredients (Makes 4)

• 1 pound 70-80 percent lean ground beef
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce 
• melted butter for basting
• Blackening Spice Mix (store bought or recipe below)
• spring greens or spinach
• tomato
• 4 eggs- cooked over-easy
• pesto (store bought or recipe below)

Directions

1.  Lightly mix ground beef with water and Worcestershire sauce
2.  Form into four patties.
3.  Refrigerate for 1 hour
4.  Baste patties with butter
5.  Sprinkle with Blackening Spice Mix to taste
6. Add to preheated cast iron pan on medium-high heat (pan is hot enough when a drop of water sizzles on the surface)
7. Cook for approximately 3 minutes per side. 
8. Toast English muffins and layer with spinach or greens, a slice of tomato, the patty, an over-easy egg and a dollop of pesto. 
9. Serve with a side of fries, fancy frites or veggie chips like I did.

Blackening Spice Mix

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon ground basil
• 1 teaspoon ground thyme
• 1 teaspoon garlic
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt (sea salt is better)
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon paprika

From Food.com

Basil Pesto

Ingredients

• 2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup pine nuts (I used toasted blanched almonds)
• 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Pecorino cheese (see Cook's Note)

Directions

1. Combine the basil, garlic, and pine nuts in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add 1/2 cup of the oil and process until fully incorporated and smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
2. If using immediately, add all the remaining oil and pulse until smooth. Transfer the pesto to a large serving bowl and mix in the cheese.
3. If freezing, transfer to an air-tight container and drizzle remaining oil over the top. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw and stir in cheese.

From foodnetwork.com

Parmesan-Roasted Broccoli, Barefoot-Style

I love to read reviews. Movie reviews, new product reviews and even the occasional music review (yes Martin, I really do read some.) I don't like wasting my time or money and I see reviews as a big help in that endeavor. That's why when I'm wading through a sea of recipes online, I listen to what people are saying, like with this recipe for Parmesan-Roasted Broccoli.

It wasn't so much the sheer number of reviews (151 at the time of this writing) as it was the rabid endorsements and judicious use of the exclamation point in them that made me take note. Here are a few:

• Made me fall back in love with broccoli. 
• Not one floret was left in the bowl. Delicious! 
• Every time it comes out of the oven, I have to slap off the hands that try to sample right from the baking sheet. 
• After trying this, you'll never want to eat anything else for breakfast, lunch or dinner ever again. 

Living up to such overwhelmingly positive feedback is a tall order. Yes, I did try The Barefoot Contessa's recipe for Parmesan-Roasted Broccoli and yes, there are still many other foods I'm interested in eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner rather than just this broccoli. That being said, it was good and I would definitely make it again. Lemon juice and lemon zest along with basil give it a bright, fresh flavor paired with the sharpness of parmesan cheese and the nuttiness and crunch of toasted sunflower seeds. (I included these in place of the pine nuts, which I adore, but couldn't bring myself to spend 10 dollars on for a tiny container.)

Parmesan-Roasted Broccoli

Ingredients

• 4 to 5 pounds broccoli 
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced 
• Good olive oil 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt 
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest 
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice 
• 3 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted (or sunflower seeds, toasted) 
• 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese 
• 2 tablespoons julienned fresh basil leaves (about 12 leaves)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. 
2. Cut the broccoli florets from the thick stalks, leaving an inch or two of stalk attached to the florets, discarding the rest of the stalks. Cut the larger pieces through the base of the head with a small knife, pulling the florets apart. You should have about 8 cups of florets. 
3. Place the broccoli florets on a sheet pan large enough to hold them in a single layer. 
4. Toss the garlic on the broccoli and drizzle with 5 tablespoons olive oil. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper.  
5. Roast for 20 to 25 minutes, until crisp-tender and the tips of some of the florets are browned. 
6. Remove the broccoli from the oven and immediately toss with 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, the lemon zest, lemon juice, pine nuts, Parmesan, and basil. Serve hot.

This recipe makes a very large amount. I quartered it when I made it for two. 

Bánh Chuối Nướng (Banana Bread Pudding)

Why is it so hard to keep the right number of bananas around in the right state of ripeness? It should be simple banana math, really. Somehow though, I invariably either end up bananaless or with a blackened fruit-fly attracting bunch. What's a girl to do?

Banana bread would seem to be the obvious answer for the overripe ones but lately, I've been craving dessert.

The Vietnamese restaurant a half-mile from my house makes an amazing banana bread pudding or bánh chuối nướng, which they hawk on a giant blackboard of specials. While I savor my pork spring rolls and delight in my mango chicken, it calls to me... and then, just before the check comes, I cave.

"Oh, could I get an order of the banana bread pudding in a to-go box, please?" I ask the server, fooling nobody. Never has this dessert made it out to the car in anything but my stomach.

I baked my own version today and was extremely satisfied with the results. It's a moist, delicious dessert comprised of bananas alternating with creamy coconut milk-soaked bread, a nod to it's eastern origins. After baking, a sprinkle of sugar and a couple minutes under the broiler yield a topping of caramelized banana bliss.

I served mine with a simple sauce made of coconut milk sweetened with powdered sugar thinned slightly with skim milk (not shown in my picture above.) This dessert can be served hot, cold or reheated. I got the recipe from Flavor Boulevard.

Bánh Chuối Nướng (Banana Bread Pudding)

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of banana
• Rum
• 1.5 loaves of old stale sandwich bread
• 2 cups milk
• 2 cups coconut milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• butter (to grease the pan)
• 1 tbs vanilla (optional)

The original recipe called for an 8-inch pan. I halved the above recipe and still used an 8x8 pan along with one mini loaf pan for the extra pieces of bread. Grease the pan(s).

Bananas
Slice the bananas at a slight angle and mix with rum if you like.

Bread
Trim off the crust, dip the bread slices into a mixture of milk, coconut milk, beaten eggs, sugar and vanilla. Squeeze the bread between your palms to remove some of the liquid they soaked up. This is an important step, the dessert will be dry if too much liquid is removed, and fall apart if it’s too wet.

Layering
Alternate 1 layer of bread, 1 layer of banana, another layer of bread, etc. until reaching the rim of the pan. End with bananas. Firmly and evenly press the layers down as you go so that the baked cake won’t be too spongy or crumbly.

Bake at 350F until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes. For caramelization, just after baking, sprinkle sugar over the top layer of bananas and place on the highest oven rack under the broiler for a couple minutes. Watch closely and remove when slightly browned.

Roasted Cauliflower and Red Pepper Soup

So this week I joined a food co-op called Bountiful Baskets. The upside is you get a bunch of fruits and veggies at a good price. The down side is you don't get to choose the fruits and veggies. I made peace with these two facts and accepted the latter as a sort of challenge and an opportunity for serendipitous discovery to take place. So far so good.


This week's challenging veggie? Cauliflower. Well, I'll see your cauliflower and raise you two red peppers! In my search for a suitable recipe, I looked for something hearty, comprising the bulk of a meal. I also wanted something fairly simple with the kind of ingredients I already had in the kitchen (luckily red bell peppers were on special for 99 cents earlier this week.) This delicious Roasted Cauliflower and Red Pepper Soup from Closet Cooking is what I found. It's relatively simple and very healthy.


The cauliflower thickens the soup without the need for an unhealthy roux. You don't have to compromise on taste either. The roasted veggies reward you with a surprising depth of flavor that far surpasses their uncooked counterparts. Add some onion, garlic and a bit of cayenne pepper to turn up the heat. What you have now is a flavor profile that reaches true perfection with a thick dollop of Greek yogurt on top. If you have some thyme on your hands, you can toss a sprig or two on top as a garnish as I did in the picture above. 

Roasted Cauliflower and Red Pepper Soup

Ingredients

• 1 head cauliflower (cut into florets)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon oil
• 1 onion (chopped)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 2 roasted red peppers
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
• 3 cups chicken stock

Directions

1. Toss the cauliflower florets in the olive oil with the salt and pepper.
2. Arrange the cauliflower florets in a single layer in a baking dish.
3. Roast the cauliflower in a preheated 400F oven until lightly golden brown, about 20-30 minutes.
4. Heat the oil in a pan.
5. Add the onions and saute until tender, about 5-7 minutes.
6. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
7. Add the cauliflower, roasted red peppers, cayenne and stock.
8. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer until the cauliflower is tender, about 20 minutes.
9. Puree with a hand blender or food processor.
10. Serve garnished with Greek yogurt.

Kale is hot (and in this case crunchy)

Whole Foods has always struck me as a barometer of food fashions. While casual, comfy stores like Sprouts and Sunflower Market satisfy with their straightforward offerings, Whole Foods dazzles with glitz and glam. 

Looking for fancy cheese? Whole Foods has it, even cave-aged cheese. Looking for local produce? Whole Foods has that covered too. How 'bout an apple from Wilcox, only 272 miles from the store, according to their sign. Looking for a hot dinner? Forget about that rotisserie chicken. At Whole Foods you can have beef brisket, smoked in-house. Yes, Whole Foods gives the foodies what they want. And what do they want? Well, in the deli anyway, the answer seems to be kale. 

While drooling over things like portobello mushroom lasagna and orzo salad  today, I spotted no less than four, that's right, four different types of kale salad! Ladies and gentlemen, we are apparently in the midst of a kale craze. I have no idea when or how it began. Maybe it's like how after buying a new car, you suddenly notice that everyone else is driving the same car. I don't know, all I know is that I bought my first ever bunch of kale earlier this week.

Why kale? Well, I've been trying to eat healthier lately and if you don't already know, Kale is a bit of a health nut's wet dream, a "superfood," if you will.  It's high in vitamins, a powerful antioxidant, and has both cancer-fighting and anti-inflammatory properties. Is there anything that this mighty cabbage can't do? Now that's one sexy veggie! But hey, it's still a veggie. That's why I was excited to find a recipe for kale chips. They're salty, wafer-thin, and have a satisfying crunch.


I made the bunch pictured above this morning and they were gone in no time. Just be sure to go easy on the salt. I didn't actually measure mine out and you can taste every grain on such a paper-thin chip. I got the recipe below from Allrecipes.


Baked Kale Chips


Ingredients

• 1 bunch kale
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. 
2. Remove thick stems from kale and then tear into bite-sized pieces. Wash and dry kale thoroughly. In a bowl, toss kale together with olive oil and salt. 
3. Spread in a single layer on the cookie sheet and bake until edges are brown but not burnt, about 10-15 minutes.

Additional Information
Yields 6 servings. 
Calories: 58  
Total Fat: 2.8 
Cholesterol: 0

The Birth of a Blog

With the holidays approaching and the oppressive heat of Phoenix finally just a scorching memory, cooks across the valley are heating up their ovens and rolling back their sleeves. I'm no exception but until recently, most of my oven heating and sleeve rolling was done in the context of peeling the cellophane off frozen pizzas.

While others gushed about family recipes, I was going through drive-throughs, chowing down at my neighborhood taqueria or frequenting the nearby Vietnamese restaurant. Don't get me wrong, those things are great but, well, I was getting tired of them.

I wasn't looking for a new hobby when I decided to learn to cook. In all actuality, I was probably looking for a new drive-through when the NPR interview with Amanda Hesser, author of The Essential New York Times Cookbook, came on the air. Hesser asked readers to send in their "most stained recipes" from the past 150 years of The New York Times and then spent six years cooking through them. Impressive in it's own right but not nearly as impressive to me as Hesser's description of the readers' most popular recipe submission, Purple Plum Torte:

One, it has Four steps. You look at it, you don't feel intimidated. Most of the ingredients, except for the plums, you probably have at home.... You can mix it up in any order and you can't screw it up. All you have to do is stir and you plop it into a pan and stick the plums on top and the plums sink into the batter and they look like these little inlaid jewels, so it's very beautiful when it comes out of the oven. So if you've never baked before, you think that you've done this masterful recipe.

It was as though she were speaking directly to me. Four steps? You can't screw it up? You'll think you've created a masterpiece? Now we're cooking! Where do I sign up? I googled the recipe and made the torte. It came out just as delicious as promised. Gooey sweet bits of plum punctuating a light, buttery cake moistened by dripping plum juice. The recipe, originally published in 1983, had stood the test of time. It was so worth the tiny effort set forth, it set me on a quest for more quick, easy, delicious recipes, not all of which have been as successful.

One endeavor was Jim Lahey's No Knead Bread, a wildly popular foodie fad that completely passed me by in 2006. Although my first attempt failed to yield an adequately risen loaf, it did leave me with a treasured new addition to my kitchen: my Le Creuset pot. This 3.5 quart enamel-coated cast iron workhorse can go "from the stove to the oven to the table," as they say. I initially started using it as a way to justify the expense to myself (even in the discontinued forest green shade I settled for, it was a lot to spend). Since then I have been browning and braising meats, making gravy and generally preparing the kind of home cooked goodness that a trip through the drive-through could never yield.

We're talking about everything from Classic Pot Roast to Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic to Pork Roast with Peppers. So what if they're not considered gourmet? So what if you can pronounce all the ingredients? These meals make me want to cook more. So, dear readers, thus began my blog.