America's Test Kitchen - Dish It Your Way Blogger Burger Challenge...Green Chile Cheeseburgers w/Bacon Ground Beef!

Green Chile Cheeseburgers

I had the best Green Chile Cheeseburger when we were in NM about two years ago.  It was at a small place called Bobcat Bite.  It just wasn't the best Green Chile Burger, but it was the BEST burger I've ever had.  I tried to make this one similar to their's, but Bobcat still wins...lol  

http://www.bobcatbite.com/

I heard that my favorite butcherettes, Lindy & Grundy, have a ground beef & bacon mix, but have never seen it, so I decided to make my own :o)  I love to grind my own meat!  Hubby got me a grinder a couple of Christmas' ago, but I don't use it nearly as much as I should!  For the burgers I ground a mix of...Beef Chuck, Beef Short Rib, Pork Butt & Bacon!!  I ground about a total of 3 lbs with maybe 1/8 pork, 2 slices of bacon (home cured at L&G) and the rest beef. I put the pork in for extra richness & fat, but the mixture gets too soft if I put in too much...the burger would have a meatloaf consistency then.  I pretty much use all parts of the hunks of meat!  I make cubes for stew, use scraps & bones for stock & render the fat.  It's kinda therapeutic cutting up the meat;o)

Pork Butt

I like to get it with bone-in, so I can make stock out of  it...

Beef Chuck

I like to use Chuck for ground beef and stews because it has a nice fattiness to it...

Cubed Chuck

I froze this for later use, maybe for stew or chili...

Beef Scraps & Bones

The round brown things are the bones from the Flanken Short Rib.  I also froze this to make stock later.

Cubed Pork

Also froze this for later use...

Rendering Fat...

Since there wasn't that much, I rendered the pork & beef fat together.  I really need to be more healthy, but I just can't resist rendering fat and using it for certain dishes;o)  I used this to fry up the burgers!

Chuck, Short Rib, Pork Butt & Bacon ready to be ground...

Grinding...

I like coarse texture...

Love Fresh Ground Meat!!

Formed into Patties

They are about 6 oz each.  I seasoned it with Magic Dust, salt & pepper right before cooking it for about 3 mins on each side and flipping it only once for med rare :o)  I made them in a cast iron skillet and I covered them while they  cooked and added the cheese the last couple of minutes...

Veggies...

w/Tater Tots!

No, I did not make the Tater Tots;o)  I did look up a recipe once and tried it, but it was a disaster!  It all just fell apart on me...lol  I love "tots", I love how they got resurrected in the movie NAPOLEON DYNAMITE!! It's much easier and consistent buying Ore Ida!  I used an Aged White Cheddar for the cheese.

Really Yummy!!

The Green Chile Mixture was leftover from the Hatch Green Chile Enchiladas I made a few weeks ago.  I just froze the mixture...I love freezing things;o)  I didn't add any mayo or ketchup or other condiments to the burger, the juicy meat and green chiles were enough!  The taste of the burger was delicious, adding just the little bit of bacon pumped it up.  You could really taste the bacon, but you may miss the crunch of it.  It saves on calories grinding the bacon into the meat because you usually would get two slices on one burger, but this had two slices in 3 lbs of meat!

http://myhomecookedmeals.blogspot.com/2011/05/dinner-tonighthatch-green-chile-chicken.html

Dinner the Other Night...Japanese Style Hamburg Steak Made w/Tofu :o)

Japanese Hamburg Steak Served w/Zucchini & Rice

I'm still trying to switch over to Wordpress, but it's just not happening yet ;o)  I'm not sure exactly why it's not working.  Maybe someone can enlighten me...  I registered the domain as a .com, but that's not showing up on my domain list.  The wordpress.com one does show up.  I got a receipt from Paypal saying that I registered the .com site. It's been a week since I registered it and I also contacted WP about it on Thurs, but haven't heard back from them. On their site it says it can take up to 72 hrs, but it's way over that type frame!    Ugggghhhhhh!

Ok, so about my Hamburg Steak :o)  It's another Japanese comfort food dish that I grew up with. I love how the Japanese come up with their own version of "western" stuff or they call it Yoshoku.  It's basically a meatloaf made into a burger patty. It's sort of like a Salisbury Steak.  My theory is that in Japan, people don't eat a lot of beef and a meatloaf would either just be too big for the family or it wouldn't fit in the oven to cook since their's are so small. Typically, it is made with just ground beef and the regular stuff you'd put in a meatloaf and then served with a plain brown sauce made with soy sauce, tonkatsu sauce & ketchup.  I mentioned that ketchup is used in unusual ways in Japan in my post of Roast Chicken stuffed with Ketchup Fried Rice.  Every family has their own recipe for Hamburg Steak. I kicked it up a bit by using the meat I ground for my Green Chile Cheeseburgers and adding tofu to it to lighten it up a bit.

Post about grinding meat...

http://myhomecookedmeals.blogspot.com/2011/06/dinner-last-night-green-chile.html

Post about ketchup being used in unusual ways...

http://myhomecookedmeals.blogspot.com/2011/06/dinner-other-nightroast-chicken-stuffed.html

Squeezing Moisture Out of Tofu...

When I add tofu to my meat mixture I squeeze out the water first.  I put it on a cutting board with paper towels then put more paper towels on top and then put something heavy on it like a saucepan filled with water and a pyrex measuring cup filled with water (I know, sounds complicated)  and  let it sit for about 30 mins.

Hamburg Steak Mixture...

I had ground my own meat when I made Green Chile Cheeseburgers the night before.  The blend was:  Beef Chuck, Beef Short Rib, Pork Butt & Bacon.  The bacon adds extra tastiness;o)  When I add tofu I don't use breadcrumbs in the mixture.  The mix was:  Ground Meat, Tofu, Eggs, Sauteed Onions & Garlic and seasonings including soy sauce, ajishio & Magic Dust.  I just noticed that I didn't put any milk in it...lol  I guess I really didn't need it since I didn't use breadcrumbs in it and I certainly did not miss it.

Blended...

Here in the US it seems like they always say not to handle your meat too much when you make meatloaf and meatballs, but in Japan they mix it up alot!  I made spaghetti & meatballs once and had my sister-in-law from Japan mix it up for me and she mixed it so much that it almost seemed like she put air into it, so the meatballs were super fluffy and light!  She mixes it by hand like I do, but I can't get it as airy as she can;o)  I like adding the tofu to make it a little healthy, I'm definitely not known for my healthy cooking, but I try a little sometimes...lol  You can't even tell that tofu is in it when it's done. It's about 50/50 tofu to meat...maybe just a tad more meat, so 60/40 :o)

Cooking in a Cast Iron Skillet...

I cook it about 3-4 mins on each side covered.  I don't want it over done because I put it back in the sauce to heat it through.

Mushroom Sauce...

After taking the "steaks" out of the pan, I sauted garlic, onion & mushrooms (I used Shimeji Mushrooms) then deglazed with a little bit of wine then added soy sauce, tonkatsu sauce, Japanese Worchestershire sauce,  ketchup & water.  You can add just about any flavoring that you like!  I then added a potato starch (Japanese use Potato Starch more than using Corn ) slurry to thicken it up and then added the "steaks" back in to warm them up.

Japanese Tonkatsu  & Worchestershire Sauce

Bulldog brand is the most common...  Love these sauces;o)

Japanese Version...

Hubby really enjoys this meal especially with the tofu added.  You can make the sauce a little bit more soupy if you like...

vs American Style Salisbury Steak ;o)

I made this about a year ago, see how similar it is to the Hamburg Steak...

Oct 2009 - Roast Chicken, Stroganoff, & Green Chile Burger

Simple Roast Chicken

Hubby helps sometimes with my food photos and this is one of the first ones we did, so it's not perfect!  I'm too lazy to truss the legs of the chicken, I figure it doesn't make that much of a difference in cooking and taste :o)  I like to roast chicken and then save the bones to make stock later, it gives it such a nice rich taste!

The veggies were:  Zucchini, Celery, Carrots & Mushrooms.  I'd never used mushrooms before, but they turned out pretty well!  I love that you can roast just about any type of veggie that you like.

 Beef Stroganoff

I don't remember the cut of beef I used for this Stroganoff.   I usually use Chuck for all my braised dishes, but  it could be one of the Omaha Steaks that my hubby gets for Xmas every year from one of his vendors :o)  So, it could be Sirloin.  Sorry that I'm not too helpful :o(

I love everything on rice...

He loves everything on noodles...

I served this with Corn Off The Cob and Zucchini.  When I was looking at Straganoff recipes, I found that some people put Tomato Paste or Brown Sugar in it.  It didn't sound that good to me, has anybody ever tried it that way?  I basically just use onion, garlic, butter,  flour, home made beef stock, beef, mushrooms and sour cream.  I add peas to it sometimes too.

Posting food on Facebook really helped me get out of my food rut at the time.  It made me be a little bit more creative and therefore, didn't make the same dish for about 2 months!    That's pretty good since I cook at least 5 times a week!

Green Chile Cheese Burgers

I like to grind my own meat for certain dishes.  I love my meat grinder that Hubby got for me one Xmas!!  For the burgers, I ground Chuck with a little bit of Pork Shoulder then saved the pork scraps to make stock later....I can be frugal;o)

The Green Chiles were Pasilla, Anaheim & Jalapenos which I roasted, peeled, chopped then sauteed with onions, garlic & seasonings.

I couldn't quite duplicate the delicious Green Chile Burgers that we had in Santa Fe, but these were pretty good.  Actually, the leftovers tasted great!  Sometimes eating a meal after all the time cooking doesn't taste as good as it should ;o)

I should have made it a little bit more rare...

The fries were just ok.  I can't make the perfect crispy fries yet.  I double fry them too.  Sometimes they turn out well if I freeze it after the first fry...