Rene’s Restaurant

Rene’s Restaurant recently opened at the Days Inn in Richfield (the previous Mexican restaurant has closed). The new, conveniently-located restaurant serves delicious — and generous — steak and seafood dishes, along with a variety of large sandwiches, giant hamburgers (be sure to try the Ultimate Bad Boy Burger!), and much more — for lunch and throughout the day. Bring your family — kids meals are available for only $2. See for yourself by watching their new commercial here:

Food

FOOD

Valentines-on-a-stick: Valentines Heart Pops

You’ll surely win hearts with these confectionery valentines: sugar-cookie lollipops embedded with candy hearts or layered into frosted sandwiches.

Using a tiny cookie cutter, make heart-shaped cutouts into unbaked round cookies (bottom, left), and press lollipop sticks into the underside of the dough.

After baking, let the cookies cool on the pan. Then, fill the hearts with hot sugar syrup; the syrup will harden as it cools. (Use caution around sugar syrup when it’s hot.)

For sandwich cookies, position lollipop sticks between pairs of baked cookies, and join with filling. Meanwhile, bake the cut-out hearts; use frosting to glue them onto the sandwiches. Decorate with royal icing.

Also try our recipes for Valentine Heart Pops and Valentine Sandwich Cookie Pops (below).

These sugar cookie lollipops (seen above) are embedded with candy hearts to make the perfect edible Valentine.

Makes 32 pops (2 1/2 inches each)

• FOR THE SUGAR COOKIES
• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 32 white lollipop sticks (6 inches long)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• FOR THE CANDY CENTERS
• 1 cup light corn syrup
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon peppermint, cinnamon, or other flavored oil, optional
• Paste or gel food coloring in pink tones

1. In a large bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. In bowl of electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar on medium until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla until incorporated.
3. Gradually add flour mixture on low until combined. Wrap dough in plastic; chill 1 hour.
4. Heat oven to 325 degrees. On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 3/16 inch thick. Cut out 2 1/2-inch rounds. Use smaller cutters to cut hearts from rounds. (If desired, save and bake heart cutouts.) Transfer 8 cookies to an ungreased cookie sheet. Press 1 lollipop stick under each cookie. Place small hearts on same cookie sheet. Chill until firm, 15 to 30 minutes. Bake 8 to 12 minutes, until firm but not browned. Transfer cookies on pan to wire rack to cool, about 20 minutes. Repeat until all dough is used. Leave cooled heart pops on ungreased cookie sheet. Set aside.
5. Combine 1/2 cup corn syrup, 1 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup water in heavy 2-quart saucepan. Stir over medium heat, until sugar has dissolved. Increase heat to medium high; boil until mixture reaches 300 degrees on a candy thermometer, 25 to 35 minutes.
6. Remove from heat, and stir in flavored oil. Quickly pour mixture into 2 small heatproof bowls. Add food coloring to each; stir to combine. Pour into each empty heart. Make candy mixture again as in Step 5 with remaining ingredients and 1/2 cup water. Fill remaining cookies. Let set until hard, 10 to 20 minutes. Transfer in single layers to airtight containers. If humid, refrigerate.

NOTE: You may want to try adding a different colors of broken hard candy to the centers before baking, such as LifeSavers, to create a stained glass window effect.

For a variation without candy centers, try our valentine sandwich cookie pops.

Valentine Sandwich Cookie Pops

Makes 20 sandwich pops

• Sugar Cookies from Valentine Heart Pops
• Royal Icing, tinted pink with paste or gel food coloring
• Cookie Sandwich Filling
• 20 six-inch-long white lollipop sticks

1. Follow sugar cookie recipe, but in Step 4, make rounds 1 3/4 inches instead of 2 1/2 inches, and don’t cut out smaller hearts.
2. Turn over half the batch of baked cookies so bottoms are facing up. Spoon 1 scant teaspoon sandwich filling onto centers. Center lollipop stick in each. Cover with matching cookie rounds. Let dry. If desired, use royal icing to adhere small hearts reserved from Valentine Heart Pops onto pops. Let dry. Pipe royal icing through a pastry bag fitted with a 1/16-inch tip in decorative dots around cookies. When dry, store in an airtight container up to 5 days.

Royal Icing

Makes about 2 1/2 cups

• 2 large egg whites, or more to thin icing
• 4 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar, or more to thicken icing
• 1 lemon, juiced

1. Beat the whites until stiff but not dry. Add sugar and lemon juice; beat for 1 minute more. If icing is too thick, add more egg whites; if it is too thin, add more sugar. The icing may be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Courtesy of MarthaStewart.com.

Cinnamon Wreaths

Prep: 30 minutes 
Chill: 1 hour 
Bake: 10 minutes per batch 
Cool: 2 minutes 
Stand: 2 minutes 

I Scream Sand-Witches

Once upon a time, it seems, some wicked witches gathered around their hot cauldron and agreed upon a signature silhouette. So making instantly recognizable “sandwitches” is easy. Just use dark-and-dreary (chocolate) cookies and gruesome green (mint) ice cream. Then eat quickly. Wicked witches have a habit of melting — these ones, especially.

For neat rounds of ice cream, snip away the carton with scissors, cut ice cream into 3/4-inch-thick slices, and make shapes with a 2 1/2-inch cookie cutter. Freeze leftovers in an airtight container.

Ingredients

Makes 8 (16 circles, 8 half circles)

* 2 large egg whites
* 1 cup superfine sugar
* 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
* 2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
* Pinch of salt
* 2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
* 2 tablespoons heavy cream
* 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 2 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted
* Mini candy-coated chocolates, for hats
* Green mint-chocolate-chip ice cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put egg whites and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix 30 seconds. Mix in flour, cocoa, and salt. Mix in butter, cream, and vanilla; mix 30 seconds.

2. Bake cookies: Using plastic lids or heavy card stock, cut out 1 circle (2 3/4 inches in diameter) and 1 half circle (4 1/2 inches long). Using the outlines as stencils, spread dough on a Silpat baking mat with an offset spatula to make 4 circles and 2 half circles. Transfer mat to a baking sheet; bake cookies until starting to set, 6 to 7 minutes.

3.  Shape cones: Remove half circles with an offset spatula while still hot. With straight sides of cookies facing up, quickly bring edges together to form cones, holding until set. Repeat three more times with remaining dough.

4. Make sandwitches: Dip cones in melted chocolate to coat 1/4 inch of rims. Place cones on 8 whole cookies; press 1 candy onto band of each hat. Freeze until set, 10 to 20 minutes. Brush remaining 8 whole cookies on one side with melted chocolate. Freeze until set, 10 to 20 minutes. Cut ice cream using technique described above. Place on coated cookies; top with hats.

Courtesy of Martha Stewart Living.

Balsamic and Roasted Garlic Dipping Oil

From Grappa Italian Restaurant & Cafe in Park City, Utah.
Bon Appétit magazine, “R.S.V.P.,” November 1999

Ami Askins of San Diego, California tried a garlicky dipping oil at Grappa in Park City, Utah. And although bottles of the oil are sold at the restaurant, she’d like to be able to make it fresh at home.

Try this versatile dipping oil with bite-size pieces of your favorite breads — or drizzled over sliced tomatoes.

25 garlic cloves (unpeeled)
2 tablespoons plus 1 cup olive oil (preferably extra-virgin)
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place unpeeled garlic cloves in baking dish. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper; toss to coat. Cover dish tightly with foil and bake until garlic is golden brown and tender, about 45 minutes. Cool.

Squeeze garlic between fingertips to release cloves. Transfer garlic cloves to blender. Add vinegar and rosemary and puree herb mixture until smooth. With machine running, gradually add remaining 1 cup olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Dipping oil can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Let stand 15 minutes at room temperature and whisk before using.)

Makes about 2 cups.

Best. Brownies. Ever.

The highly-respected New York Times recently offered this article featuring the best brownie recipes – ever.

Below is an introductory article, followed by three special recipes: New Classic Brownies, French Chocolate Brownies, and Supernatural Brownies. Remember, the better the chocolate, the better the brownies. Enjoy!

Simple Pleasure, American Style
By Julia Muskin

CHOCOLATE has developed a peculiar aftertaste.

It isn’t the flavor I find odd; it’s the fetish. The “death by chocolate” desserts and “decadent” chocolate truffles, the “indulgent” chocolate-scented spa treatments and overly intense T-shirt slogans (“I am a woman of many moods — and all of them need chocolate”).

Chocolate, a perfectly delicious food, is now saddled with this heavy-breathing reputation. For the home cook, this means built-in performance anxiety. In search of chocolate desserts new and astonishing I have peeled hazelnuts, strained custards, whipped egg whites, and attacked innocent bars of chocolate with a chisel.

And then, a couple of years ago, for the first time since elementary school, I made a batch of brownies. I was thunderstruck by how easy they were — and how effectively the modest brownie showcased the quality of fine chocolate, high-fat butter and even artisanal sugar. “There isn’t much to them, is there?” said Dorie Greenspan, whose recent book, “Baking: From My Home to Yours,” includes 12 different brownie recipes. “But when they’re done right, you really can’t beat them.”

Since my epiphany, I have always had an elegant chocolate dessert to fall back on. Today’s brownies, from brilliant pastry minds like Ms. Greenspan, Nick Malgieri and Alice Medrich, bear little resemblance to the tough bake-sale squares of yore: they contain much more chocolate and less flour. Sheila Brass is a culinary historian who, with her sister, Marilynn, wrote “Heirloom Baking With the Brass Sisters” in 2006, which traces the evolution of American baking in the 20th century through their own family history.

“Our father loved the Bangor brownies,” Ms. Brass said. Some legends place the first brownies in Bangor, Me. The classic recipe, dating to the early 1900s, calls for just two ounces of chocolate. To a modern palate, that amount is practically imperceptible. Older recipes reflect the ingredients of their time, when chocolate for the masses was still new, exotic and relatively expensive. The first American chocolate factories were concentrated in New England, and it was there that the brownie first caught the public imagination, in the 1920s.

In later decades, the chocolate level in brownies climbed. The Brass sisters, whom Sheila describes collectively as “roundish and 60-ish,” learned to bake from their parents, who were married in 1934. “Then, when we were sweet young things out on our own in the ’60s and ’70s, we started adding more chocolate and more butter to the recipe,” she said.

The 1970s marked the beginning of the chocolate cult; the term “chocoholic” came into vogue, and the “Cathy” comic strip picked up the thread in the 1980s with endless jokes about chocolate cravings, feeding the image of women — especially lonely single women — with a weakness for the stuff. (I can think of plenty of ’80s trends that haven’t aged well — roasted garlic, for example — but chocolate is the only one that intersects so unpalatably with sexual politics.) The ’80s also brought culture-of-excess creations like the Barefoot Contessa’s Outrageous Brownie and the fudge-frosted Chocolate Orgasm at Rosie’s Bakery in Cambridge, Mass.

What is a brownie? Certainly it’s one of the few truly American baking creations to enter the canon — like the blueberry muffin and the chocolate chip cookie. Beyond that, there is no clear point of origin. Most brownie legends begin with an absentminded housewife: stripped down to its essence, a brownie is just a chocolate cake without the baking powder. Although some “cakey” recipes include it, a brownie with baking powder is not really a brownie. “Leavening is about as useful in brownies as it is in mashed potatoes,” Nick Malgieri said.

In my opinion, the charge of pointless excess also applies to marshmallows, peanut butter, chipotle powder, orange marmalade, cream cheese and most other frills and furbelows. If you feel compelled to tinker, consider upgrading your ingredients instead. I have had spectacular results with cultured butter, Callebaut chocolate and loamy muscovado sugar from the island of Mauritius. Walnuts are fine. Pecans are pushing it.

The ideal modern brownie is simple and unadorned, but rigorously designed (like a Diane Von Furstenberg wrap dress). Whether the brownie sits on the fudgy or the cakey side of the aisle, its character should come from the underlying structure of flour, sugar, butter, eggs and chocolate, not from shoveling in more fillings, or from deliberate underbaking. (Many recipes recommend this for a fudgy texture, but fudgy and wet are not the same thing.)

According to Shirley O. Corriher, the food scientist whose book “BakeWise” promises to end all baking arguments when it is published next year, brownie variations are mostly based on the proportions of fat and flour — and also, crucially, on how long the eggs are beaten. “It’s the little things that matter in baking,” she said. “Everyone is obsessed with that crackly, crinkly crust on the top of a brownie, and you can only get that if you don’t beat the eggs. But if you don’t beat the eggs, you have to get your lift from somewhere else, don’t you?”

Fortunately, civilian bakers do not have to master the technicalities. Good brownie recipes abound, and all you have to do is follow them. For a soft, light, buttery brownie, I like Dorie Greenspan’s French Chocolate Brownie; for a brownie almost as dark and dense as a chocolate truffle, there is Alice Medrich’s innovative method for New Classic Brownies: the pan goes directly from a high-heat oven to a bath of ice water, and the just-baked batter slumps, becoming concentrated and intense.

However, I would maintain that the best of both worlds is achieved only by the Supernatural Brownie, the one that made me a convert. It is an accidental creation by Mr. Malgieri, who (in a rare human moment for a pastry chef) once forgot to double the flour when baking his own fudge brownie recipe. He also adds a measure of brown sugar to the basic formula. The experts are divided as to whether the brown sugar actually contributes flavor or simply makes the brownie moister (molasses, which makes brown sugar brown, is powerfully hydrophilic). It’s my belief that the slightly bitter taste of molasses acts as an invisible enhancer to the chocolate. The result is as complex and sophisticated as any terrine or truffle I have ever produced.

Perhaps the surest sign of the elevated status of the brownie is that it is now taken seriously by French pastry chefs. “Hermé was quite determined to master the brownie,” said Ms. Greenspan, who lives part time in Paris and worked with the celebrated pastry chef Pierre Hermé on his book “Chocolate Desserts.” “It’s hip to make things that are considered ‘not French,’ although I would argue that the brownie actually has a French ancestor, a simple chocolate cake called fondant that is one of the few things the French actually bake at home.” (A magnificently dark chocolate fondant available in the United States is the Belgian brownie sold at Pain Quotidien bakeries.)

“American-style” coffee shops began showing up in Paris about a decade ago (finally making it possible to get a cup of coffee to go) and “les brownies,” along with “les coukies” and “le crumble,” became instantly fashionable.

However, it seems that there are certain cultural and culinary barricades to authenticity. “French brownies remain depressingly hard and dry, and too neat: no crumbly edges, no rough surfaces,” reported a Paris-based American friend I sent on a scouting trip. She found one brownie that almost passed muster, but decided that the hazelnuts — a very French addition — were excessively big and too rich. “As the French say,” she wrote, “C’est too much.”

New Classic Brownies

Adapted from “Alice Medrich’s Cookies and Brownies” (Warner Books, 1999)

Time: 40 minutes

8 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup lightly toasted walnuts or pecans (optional).

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line an 8-inch-square metal baking pan with foil. In top of a double boiler set over barely simmering water, or on low power in a microwave, melt butter and chocolate together. Stir often, and remove from heat when a few lumps remain. Stir until smooth.

2. Stir in sugar, vanilla and salt. Stir in eggs one at a time, followed by flour. Stir until very smooth, about 1 minute, until mixture pulls away from sides of bowl. Add nuts, if using. Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake 20 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, prepare a water bath: Pour ice water into a large roasting pan or kitchen sink to a depth of about 1 inch. Remove pan from oven and place in water bath, being careful not to splash water on brownies. Let cool completely, then lift out and cut into 1-inch squares or wrap in foil.

Yield: 16 brownies.

French Chocolate Brownies

Adapted from “Baking: From My Home to Yours,” by Dorie Greenspan (Houghton Mifflin, 2006)

Time: 1 1/4 hours

12 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces, plus 1 teaspoon melted butter for brushing pan
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, in pieces
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup lightly toasted walnuts or hazelnuts (optional).

1. Place a rack just below center of oven and preheat to 300 degrees. Line an 8-inch-square pan with foil and brush with melted butter.

2. In a bowl, whisk flour and salt together. In top of a double boiler set over barely simmering water, or on low power in a microwave, melt remaining butter and chocolate together. Stir often and remove from heat when a few lumps remain. Stir until smooth.

3. In a mixer, beat eggs and sugar together until thick and pale yellow. Add chocolate mixture and vanilla and mix at low speed until smooth. Add dry ingredients and mix 30 seconds, then finish mixing by hand, adding nuts if using. Pour into prepared pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes, until top is dry. Let cool in pan, then lift out and cut into bars or wrap in foil.

Yield: 12 to 16 brownies.

Supernatural Brownies

Adapted from “Chocolate: From Simple Cookies to Extravagant Showstoppers,” by Nick Malgieri (Morrow Cookbooks, 1998)

Time: About 1 hour

2 sticks (16 tablespoons) butter, more for pan and parchment paper
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup dark brown sugar, such as muscovado
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or 3/4 cup whole walnuts, optional.

1. Butter a 13-by-9-inch baking pan and line with buttered parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In top of a double boiler set over barely simmering water, or on low power in a microwave, melt butter and chocolate together. Cool slightly. In a large bowl or mixer, whisk eggs. Whisk in salt, sugars and vanilla.

2. Whisk in chocolate mixture. Fold in flour just until combined. If using chopped walnuts, stir them in. Pour batter into prepared pan. If using whole walnuts, arrange on top of batter. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until shiny and beginning to crack on top. Cool in pan on rack.

Yield: 15 large or 24 small brownies.

Note: For best flavor, bake 1 day before serving, let cool and store, tightly wrapped.

Savory Hamburger Recipes

The highly-respected New York Times recently offered this article about hamburgers:

I’m sure you know how to make a burger. But do you make a burger you love, one that people notice, one that draws raves?

In a world where “burger” most often means a thin piece of meat whose flavor is overwhelmed by ketchup, mustard, pickle or onion, it doesn’t take much effort to make a better one. In fact, it’s almost as easy to cook a really great burger as it is to cook a mediocre one…

The key is to avoid packaged ground meat. When you buy it, you may know the cut of the meat — chuck, for example — and the fat content.

But you have no way of knowing whether the meat came from high- or low-quality animals. It could come from dozens of animals…Massive batches of ground meat carry the highest risk of salmonella and E. coli contamination, and have caused many authorities to recommend cooking burgers to the well-done stage. Forgive my snobbishness, but well-done meat is dry and flavorless, which is why burgers should be rare, or at most medium rare.

The only sensible solution: Grind your own. You will know the cut, you can see the fat and you have some notion of its quality.

“Grinding” may sound ominous, conjuring visions of a big old hand-cranked piece of steel clamped to the kitchen counter, but in fact it’s not that difficult. As the grinder was an innovation in its day, the food processor has taken over. It does nearly as good a job — not perfect, I’ll admit — in a couple of minutes or less.

Take a nice-looking chuck roast, or well-marbled sirloin steaks or some pork or lamb shoulder. Cut the meat into one- to two-inch cubes, and pulse it with the regular steel blade until it’s chopped.

If you have a 12-cup food processor, you can do a pound or a little more at a time; with a smaller machine, you’ll need to work in batches. You can do a few pounds at a time and freeze what you won’t use immediately, or you can grind the meat as you need it.

There are a few rules here. One, buy relatively fatty meat. If you start with meat that’s 95 percent lean — that’s hardly any fat at all — you are going to get the filet mignon of burgers: tender, but not especially tasty. If you use chuck or sirloin, with 15 to 20 percent fat — still quite lean by fast-food standards, by the way — you’re going to get meat that is really flavorful, along with the good mouth-feel that a bit of fat brings.

The same holds true with pork and lamb, though the selections are in fact easier, because the shoulder cuts of both animals contain enough internal fat that they’ll remain moist unless you overcook them horribly.

Next, don’t overprocess. You want the equivalent of chopped meat, not a meat purée. The finer you grind the meat, the more likely you are to pack it together too tightly, which will make the burger tough.

The patties should weigh about 6 ounces each: not small, but not huge, either. Handle the meat gently. Make the patties with a light hand, and don’t press on them with a spatula, like a hurried short-order cook.

Finally, season with salt and pepper aggressively. I’d start with a large pinch of salt and a bit of pepper and work up from there…

A final word about seasoning: Remember that the burger is the cousin not only of the steak — which often takes no seasoning beyond salt and pepper — but also of the meatloaf and the meatball, both of which are highly seasoned. Think about adding minced garlic in small quantities… chopped onion, herbs (especially parsley), grated Parmesan, minced ginger, the old reliable Worcestershire, hot sauce, good chili powder and so on. It’s hard to go wrong here.

Then there’s the grilling: Burgers cook so fast that the heat source doesn’t matter much. You want a hot fire, but not a blazing hot one; that fat, as we all know, is quick to ignite. The rack, which should be very clean, should be three or four inches above it.

Turn the burger only after the first side releases its grip on the grill, after a few minutes; if you don’t press with the spatula, you’ll get less sticking, too. Cooking time depends on the size of the burger, of course, but mine take about 6 to 8 minutes total, for rare to medium-rare. Pork takes a little longer, but not much.

The grilling is the easy part. The more important steps are shopping and grinding. The difference they make, you will find, is astonishing, and will change your burger-cooking forever.

The Real Burger

• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds not-too-lean sirloin, in chunks
• 1/2 white onion, peeled and in chunks, optional
• Salt and pepper to taste.

1. Start a charcoal or wood fire or preheat a gas grill. Or, on stove top, heat a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat for 3 or 4 minutes.

2. Put meat and onion in a food processor, in batches if necessary, and pulse until coarsely ground: finer than chopped, but not much. Put it in a bowl and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Taste, then add more seasoning if necessary. (If desired, cook a teaspoon of meat in a pan before tasting.) Handling meat as little as possible to avoid compressing it, shape it lightly into 4 or more burgers.

3. Fire is hot enough when you can barely stand to hold your hand 3 or 4 inches over rack for a few seconds. Grill burgers about 3 minutes a side for very rare, and another minute a side for each increasing stage of doneness, but no more than 10 minutes total unless you like hockey pucks. (Timing on stove top is the same.)

4. Serve on buns, toast or hard rolls, garnished as you like.

Yield: 4 servings.

Garlicky Pork Burger

• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds fatty pork shoulder, in chunks
• 1 teaspoon salt, more to taste
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, more to taste
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon fennel seeds.

1. Start a charcoal or wood fire or preheat a gas grill. Or, on stove top, heat a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat for 3 or 4 minutes.

2. Put meat, salt, pepper, garlic and fennel in food processor, in batches if necessary, and pulse until coarsely ground: finer than chopped, but not much. Put it in a bowl and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Taste, then add more seasoning if necessary. (If desired, cook a teaspoon of meat in a pan before tasting.) Handling meat as little as possible to avoid compressing it, shape it lightly into 4 or more burgers.

3. Fire is hot enough when you can barely stand to hold your hand 3 or 4 inches over rack for a few seconds. Grill burgers about 5 minutes a side, or until medium. (Timing on stove top is the same.)

4. Serve on buns, toast or hard rolls, garnished as you like.

Yield: 4 servings.

Inside-Out Lamb Cheeseburgers

• 1 1/2 to 2 pounds boneless lamb shoulder, in chunks
• Salt and pepper to taste
• About 1/4 pound smoked mozzarella, in 4 pieces.

1. Start a charcoal or wood fire or preheat a gas grill. Or, on a stove top, heat a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat for 3 or 4 minutes.

2. Put meat and some salt and pepper in a food processor, in batches if necessary, and pulse until coarsely ground: finer than chopped, but not much. Taste and adjust seasoning. (If desired, cook a teaspoon of meat in a pan before tasting.) Divide meat into 4 sections and shape each one around a piece of cheese, enclosing it fully.

3. Cook over moderately hot fire: you will be able to hold your hand 3 or 4 inches over rack for a few seconds. Grill burgers about 4 minutes a side for medium-rare, and until cheese begins to melt. (Timing on stove top is the same.)

4. Serve on buns, toast or hard rolls, garnished as you like.

Yield: 4 servings.

Delicious Pancake Recipes

The highly-respected New York Times recently offered this article featuring the best pancake recipes – ever: superfast, Everyday Pancakes, hearty Polenta Pancakes, puffy, “Dutch Baby” Baked Pancakes, and the creamy ultimate: Light, Fluffy and Rich Pancakes (you may have seen Bobby Flay cook these as he won an Iron Chef America challenge). We’ve also included an incredibly delicious Buttermilk Syrup recipe. Enjoy!
Pancake batter can be made from scratch in about the same time it takes to make toast. Yet somehow, back in the “cooking-is-too-hard” ’50s, the food industry convinced most people that a mix was better and easier, despite the fact that a mix saves the cook perhaps 30 seconds.

The most time-consuming part of making pancakes, of course, is cooking them. But that time is so short you should consider pancakes an everyday convenience food. Unless you barely have time for cold cereal, you can make them for your children on school mornings without missing a beat.

You can modify them easily, too. Increasing the eggs and sugar ups the ante a bit; separate those eggs and beat the whites and you turn the ordinary pancake into something almost soufflé-like.

Add cottage cheese, sour cream or yogurt and you make the pancake rich and filling. Start with a small batch of polenta and you produce something very substantial.

Back, though, to the basic pancake, the simple batter of eggs, flour, milk and baking powder for leavening. You can switch the type of flour: whole wheat is good, a bit of buckwheat perhaps even better. You can also add fruit; I think ripe bananas are the best possible addition, though blueberries are a classic. Or if you like, incorporate peanut butter, chocolate chips or spices.

If you like thick pancakes, reduce the liquid; likewise add more liquid for thinner pancakes. For cakier cakes add more baking powder; for sweeter ones, more sugar.

Basic pancake batter can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of days. You can even mix just the dry ingredients together, to store indefinitely; this, essentially, is pancake mix. The sole caveat about mixing it is this: don’t overbeat. As with just about anything containing flour (except for bread), you don’t want the gluten — the protein in the flour — to over-develop, or the pancake will become chewy and tough.

An important thing to remember about the cooking part is this: you have to preheat the skillet or griddle, or the first batch will be nearly worthless.

Here’s a trick I learned from a box of pancake mix, circa 1960: to determine when the pan is hot enough to take the batter, heat it over medium heat until a few drops of water skid across the surface before evaporating; it’s pretty cool.

A well-seasoned cast iron pan will need little or no butter or oil. If you choose stainless steel or aluminum pans, use plenty of butter; the net result will be that the pancakes will taste better.

Nonstick pans are great for pancakes, but you may want to heed the health concerns that caution against putting an empty nonstick pan over very high heat. But that’s not necessary here, anyway.

When the pancake is ready to be flipped, bubbles will appear in the center. Serve immediately, if possible, with whatever toppings you like.

If you’re looking for maple syrup, keep in mind that Grade B is less refined and therefore more flavorful than Grade A. Also avoid so-called pancake syrup, which is just high-fructose corn syrup. Once you’ve started, you might as well stick with the real thing, no?

10-minute Everyday Pancakes

Time: 10 minutes

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar, optional
2 eggs
1½ to 2 cups milk
2 tablespoons melted and cooled butter (optional), plus unmelted butter for cooking, or use neutral oil.

1. Heat a griddle or large skillet over medium-low heat. In a bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Beat eggs into 1½ cups milk, then stir in 2 tablespoons melted cooled butter, if using it. Gently stir this mixture into dry ingredients, mixing only enough to moisten flour; don’t worry about a few lumps. If batter seems thick, add a little more milk.

2. Place a teaspoon or 2 of butter or oil on griddle or skillet. When butter foam subsides or oil shimmers, ladle batter onto griddle or skillet, making pancakes of any size you like. Adjust heat as necessary; usually, first batch will require higher heat than subsequent batches. Flip pancakes after bubbles rise to surface and bottoms brown, after 2 to 4 minutes.

3. Cook until second side is lightly browned. Serve, or hold on an ovenproof plate in a 200-degree oven for up to 15 minutes.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Blueberry or Banana Pancakes: Use fresh or frozen (not defrosted) blueberries; overripe bananas are great. Just before cooking, stir blueberries into batter. For bananas, slice them and press into surface of cooking pancakes. Cook pancakes a little more slowly than you would other pancakes as they burn more easily.

Whole-Grain Pancakes: Substitute whole wheat flour, cornmeal, rolled oats or a combination for up to 1 cup of flour and proceed with recipe.

Polenta Pancakes

Time: 30 minutes

½ cup cornmeal
Salt
1 tablespoon sugar, optional
1½ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1¼ cups milk, more as needed
Butter or olive oil as needed.

Combine cornmeal in a small saucepan with 1½ cups water and a pinch of salt. Whisk until smooth while bringing to a boil over medium heat, then continue to stir for about 10 minutes. Turn heat off and let cool.

Heat a griddle or large skillet over medium-low heat. In a bowl, mix sugar, flour, baking powder and a little salt. Beat eggs into cornmeal, then stir in milk. Add to flour mixture and stir to combine, adding milk if necessary to make a batter.

Add about 1 tablespoon butter or oil to griddle. When hot, add batter by large spoon. Cook until lightly browned on bottom, 3 to 5 minutes, then turn and brown second side. Repeat, using more butter or oil.

Yield: 4 servings.

Baked Pancakes

Time: 30 minutes

3 tablespoons butter
1 cup unbleached white flour
Pinch salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 large eggs
1 cup milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract, optional
Confectioners’ sugar
1 or 2 tablespoons lemon juice, optional
Stewed or macerated fresh or dried fruit, optional.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Put butter in a nonstick or well-seasoned 12-inch skillet and place in oven; when butter foams, remove skillet from oven.

In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients. In another bowl, beat eggs well, then add milk and vanilla, if you’re using it, to eggs. When oven is hot, whisk egg mixture into flour mixture and combine well, but do not overbeat. Pour into skillet.

Bake 20 minutes, or until pancake is puffy and lightly browned. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar, add lemon juice and fruit if you’re using them; serve immediately.

Yield: 4 servings.

Here they are, the best-of-the-best:

Light, Fluffy and Rich Pancakes

Time: 20 minutes

1 cup ricotta or cottage cheese
1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
3 eggs, separated
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup all-purpose flour
Dash salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lemon [or orange!] zest
Optional: 1 tablespoon melted butter Butter or grapeseed or other neutral oil as needed.

1. Beat together the ricotta or cottage cheese, sour cream or yogurt and egg yolks [plus melted butter, if desired]. Combine baking soda, flour, salt and sugar. Beat egg whites until fairly stiff but not dry.

2. Heat a griddle or large skillet over medium-low heat while you finish batter. Stir flour mixture into cheese mixture, blending well but not beating. Stir in lemon juice and zest, then gently fold in beaten egg whites; they should remain somewhat distinct in batter.

3. Add about 1 tablespoon butter or oil to griddle or skillet and coat surface. When it is hot, add batter by the heaping tablespoon, making sure to include some egg white in each spoonful. Cook until lightly browned on bottom, 3 to 5 minutes, then turn and cook second side. Serve immediately.

Yield: 4 servings.

Buttermilk Syrup

Time: 10 minutes

1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan, bring all ingredients to a boil – except for the vanilla extract. Allow to boil gently for at least five minutes. Remove from heat and immediately stir in the vanilla.

Serve warm over pancakes and waffles.

If storing it in your refrigerator, the syrup may separate, so just microwave it for a few seconds, stir it, repeating until it is warm and well-blended.

Alton Brown’s Brined Thanksgiving Turkey

Below are Food Network star, Alton Brown’s, general steps for the juiciest, most flavorful turkey you will ever enjoy. A complete recipe follows. Say good-bye to overcooked, dry turkey; you will never cook a turkey without brining again. Note the brine can be varied in any number of ways to suit your taste, including a popular option — adding a can of frozen apple juice/cider to the brine. Alton thaws his turkeys in the brine for a day or so in the brine (at least overnight). Although a dry skin is all you usually need for a nice, crispy skin, after brining it may be best to rub vegetable oil on the skin before cooking to ensure the skin browns and crisps even with the increased moisture content.

1. Brine the bird
Soaking the bird for 6-8 hours in brine will help season the meat throughout and keep it juicy while cooking. Alton makes a brine of vegetable broth, kosher salt, brown sugar and spices.

2. Stuff with herbs
Stuffing the turkey slows cooking time and has the potential for harmful bacteria growth. Alton perfumes the meat by filling the cavity with aromatics such as fresh rosemary, sage, half an onion, and a sliced apple.

3. Tuck the wings
Don’t truss a turkey. Tying it up tight will only lengthen cooking time. Alton prepares his bird for the oven by tucking the wingtips gently under themselves, to prevent them from burning.

4. Rub with oil
Alton’s method calls for cooking the bird 30 minutes at 500 degrees F. This ensures a crisp, evenly browned skin with no basting required. To help the bird brown, rub the exterior evenly with canola oil.

5. Cover the breast
After 30 minutes, reduce the heat to 350 degrees F and lay a triangle of aluminum foil (oiled on the inside) over the breast meat. This stops the breast from drying or burning during the rest of the cooking time.

6. Allow to rest
When the breast meat reaches 161 degrees, remove the bird from the oven and cover it while it rests for at least 15 minutes. You can use a foil tent, but Alton prefers to ward off turkey poachers with his grill cover.

Full recipe:

1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon allspice berries
1/2 tablespoon candied ginger
1 gallon iced water

For the aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.

A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.

Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine.

Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil.

Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.

Next Page »