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It is hard to take a picture of a stuffed cheese burger!

Tackling Bittman for wonderful real food recipes!

I am loving the Two for Tuesday Recipe Blog Hop because it has stretched my culinary boundaries and helped me to enjoy new flavor combinations. This group of bloggers and home cooks is completely innovative and in love with food! One such lady who I always look forward to visiting is Joanne of Eat’s Well With Others. Not only are her recipes divine, but her posts are extremely well written and usually hilarious! Yes, last week, she wrote about zucchinis using mind control on her! I guess I must have a similar intellect, because I can completely SEE that and found myself belly laughing at the computer screen long after everyone else was in bed.

What? What does this have to do with Bittman you are asking? Plenty! Joanne put up a recipe at the blog hop a few weeks back for stuffed turkey burgers and pretzel rolls. I was spellbound! The burgers reminded me of one of the pinnacle meals of my life! Our family did a trip to the pacific north west a few years back to see Yosemite, our wonderful friends in Washington State, a Red Sox game in Oakland, more friends near San Fran, a Rodeo and Blue Oyster Cult show in Oregon and finally Crater Lake. On the way there, we stopped in Roseburg and had dinner at a converted rail road station that housed a McMenamin’s Pub.  Back then, I thought this was the only one, but they have a ton of fun bars, restaurants and even hotels and other stuff. They really know how to have fun! I KNOW I have written about this place before, but it IS relevant to the story! Anyway, that was the place where I first had a stuffed burger. Oregon has great pastured beef and cheese, so my first cheddar stuffed burger was a little bit of heaven on earth!

Joanne’s recipe reminded me of that meal, and I went in search of a Bittman recipe to recreate it. Of course, Mark Bittman did not disappoint!  On page 721 he begins to describe his Favorite Burger, and discusses the benefits of grinding your own meat. I would highly agree with him on this one, especially if you have access to grass fed beef so you can be 100% in charge of what is in your burger, but all I had was preground grassfed meat. There, tucked away on page 723 was my treasure…Cheese-Stuffed Burgers!

But that wasn’t all that enticed me about Joanne’ s post! She had made the most delightful Pretzel Rolls for her burgers which I simply HAD to make! I will not reprint the recipe here, but ask you to visit her spot for the recipe! I will say that I made them with 1 cup of whole wheat flour and the rest all purpose and I make mine “everything” pretzel rolls for the burgers and did try cinnamon sugar for desert rolls! The cinnamon and sugar rolls came out really dark, Joanne, so you might want to cook them half way and then sprinkle on the sweet stuff. These came out AMAZING and they really do resemble pretzels in taste but WAY softer! Next time I think I will make them into bagels! They were very fun to make and the kids helped out, so it would make a lovely project for children with supervision.

I also had some local bicolor corn and wanted to try it Bittman Style! I found a great recipe for steaming corn in milk on page 289, and thought I would attempt it, as I had some raw whole milk in the fridge.

My Favorite Cheese Stuffed Burgers-Page 721-723

Serves 4

1-1/2 to 2 Pounds not too lean sirloin or chuck, cut into 1-inch chunks, or preground meat-I used ground grassfed beef.

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

4 Ounces firm cheese like cheddar or smoked mozzarella

**Bittman gives directions for cooking these on the grill or using the stove top, as well as how to grind the beef.  Since I cooked mine in a cast iron skillet and used preground meat, I will just give those directions and you can check out the other directions in How to Cook Everything if you are going to do otherwise.**

Place ground meat in a bowl and salt and pepper to taste. Mix together thoroughly. Cut the cheese into four equal sized chunks and with your hands form patties around the cheese, taking care not to press down too hard so as not to overly compact the meat. Make sure there are no gaps or holes in the meat or the cheese will seep through when cooking.

Heat cast iron skillet on medium high for about 3-4 minutes and scatter a small sprinkling of course sea salt onto the skillet. Place burgers into the skillet and cook on medium high or medium heat about 3 minutes per side for rare burgers, adding a minute per side for each degree of doneness. Because I was using grass fed meat, which was rather lean, I had to add a little bit of fat to prevent scorching. I had some beef tallow from broth I had made, so I used that, but bacon grease or butter would also work. If you find they are getting too crisp for your liking, turn the heat down a bit and flip a few more times to cook all the way to your likeness.  Because you are working with cheese in the center, you cannot press the burgers down as you would to test for clear juices the way you would a normal burger, so you will have to trust your judgement or insert a fork into the very edge to see if the juices are clear. Allow to rest for about a minute and then slide onto buns of your choice. I used the pretzel buns and they were amazing! The burgers were simply divine and the cheese was oohy gooey when you bit into them! I will certainly be making these again!

Milk Steamed Corn on the Cob-Page 289

Serves 4 to 8

8 Ears fresh corn shucked

3 cups milk

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Butter (optional)

In a large stock pot place cleaned corn and milk to cover about 1 or 2 inches of the bottom. If you need more liquid, you can combine more milk or add some filtered water. Add a bit of sea salt and then turn the burner to high. Bring the pot to a boil and then cook no longer than 3 more minutes. The corn will be steamed to perfection and very sweet. This recipe is good for not so perfect end of the season corn as the milk really adds a sweet and tender finish to the corn. Serve with butter and salt and pepper to taste. We really liked this version of steamed corn, as the milk does add something to the taste and I would make it again!

We had a wonderful meal that did bring back memories of a special time and roadtrip and that made it all the more wonderful! Joanne, thanks for the inspiration!

I highly recommend the book How to Cook Everything for ease of use and variety. Even the most traditional cook will get some amazing ideas from it. You can view more information on all Mark Bittman’s terrific cook books at my Stuff I Like on Amazon store, or by clicking the Amazon Banner at the bottom of this page. You can also find great information and more recipes from Mark at his website Mark Bittman, and of course, the New York Times.

These recipes have been a part of the I Heart Cooking Club What’s in your Lunchbox Potluck because it would make a terrific saturday afternoon luncheon or picnic at the beach!

IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY  SEEN MY REAL FOOD FOR ROOKIES GIVEAWAY, PLEASE CHECK IT OUT AND ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A FREE 12 PART REAL FOOD COURSE OFFERED BY KELLY THE KITCHEN KOP. IT IS GOING TO BE AWESOME!

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