Queso Fundido Burger

  

    
Queso Fundido just means melted cheese in Spanish.  So, what would a Mexican cheeseburger look like?  Rick Bayless, chef and author extraordinaire on mexican food, gives us this recipe, which I tried last week.  He suggests adding Mexican chorizo to the meat mixture, which I did and is a great idea.  So much so, that it covers for the turkey I substituted for the beef.  You can use beef if you want, but I am always looking for a way to substitute lower fat turkey, chicken or pork into burgers in a way that still tastes great.  This recipe also includes adobo in the meat for a spicy, smokey kick.  Topped with Monterrey Jack cheese and slices of roasted poblano and caramelized onion, the burger is great on its own.  Get even more luscious with the avocado aioli from the Mexican shrimp burger recipe a couple of weeks ago and you'll rise to an even higher level.  Have fun and keep that summer grill going.  Serves 4.
    
Ingredients:
2  poblano chiles
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 yellow onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic
1 1/2 lb ground turkey
8 oz chorizo
2 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, seeded and minced
1 1/2 tsp salt
8 slices Monterey Jack cheese
4 hamburger buns
    
Over the grill or under a broiler, char the outer skins of the poblano chiles, turning frequently until all sides are just blackened.  Put the chiles in a bag or under a cloth to let the steam separate the skin from the chile.  After a few minutes, scrape off the skin with a knife, seed the chiles and slice the walls into strips.  In a medium skillet over medium heat, warm the oil and cook the onions until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and poblano chile slices and stir while cooking another 2 minutes.  Remove to a plate.  In the same pan, cook the chorizo, breaking it up until crumbled and browned, about 5 minutes.  Remove to a bowl.  Add to the bowl the ground turkey, chipotle and salt.  Mix together and form 4 equal-sized patties.  Grill the patties until cooked through, turning once, about 6 minutes.  Lay a slice a slice of cheese on top of each patty, top with the onion and poblano chile mixture and another slice of cheese.  Cook another minute covered to melt the cheese.  Serve on the toasted buns.
    

Grilled Steak and Papaya Salad

  

    
Papaya, along with mango, for me evoke images of summer, tropical fun.  Grilling a steak is always a summer activity, and a new marinade is always welcome.  Bobby Flay provides this recipe for gilled steak and papaya salad.  However, Bobby takes his papaya salad in a Thai direction that I changed.  Thai papaya salads use green papaya, the less sweet variety.  It is julienned, and sometimes mixed with carrots or other crunchy components to give it a cole-slaw consistency.  However, when I thought of trying this recipe I wanted to go in a sweet direction, like a mango salsa.  So, I chose orange papaya instead.  I do like the way Bobby added greens to give this more of a salad feel and a good pairing with steak.  However, I subtracted the watercress he suggests, both because I am not a big fan of peppery tastes, and I wanted to stick with a sweeter theme.  Feel free to add that back in if you like.  I also broke another cardinal rule of serving this with a white wine instead of red.  I chose a Picpoul de Pinet from Languedoc, France.  We have a local distributor who favors it so we can get it plentifully and cheaply, but any fresh light white would fit the midsummer heat.  Many times with fish I will serve an Orvieto, another clean, light, Italian, lesser-known white that works well with fish.  On the marinade, I highly recommend you add this to your retinue.  The base is peanut oil instead of olive oil.  There is some peanut taste, but the overall effect is a savory richness, which is nicely balanced with the soy, lime juice and honey.  So, try this recipe for your next summertime grilling event!  Serves 4.
     
Ingredients:
4 cloves garlic, diced
2 thai bird chile, chopped, or 2 pinches of red pepper flakes
2 tbsp soy sauce
juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup peanut oil
1 london broil, hanger or other similar flank type steak
salt and pepper
1 shallot, diced
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp fish sauce
8 large red romaine lettuce leaves, chopped
1/2 an orange papaya, peeled and julienned or shredded
1 carrot, peeled and julienned or shredded
1/4 cup chopped roasted peanuts
cilantro, chopped for garnish
     
Directions:
In a food processor, mix the garlic, 1 chopped chile, soy sauce, lime juice, honey and oil until smooth.  Pour into a large ziploc bag and add the steak, turning to coat.  Marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour.  In a small bowl, whisk together the shallot, 2 chopped chiles, vinegar, sugar and fish sauce.  Set aside.  Remove the meat from the marinade and season with salt and pepper.  Over a medium-high grill, grill the meat until the desired doneness, about 10 to 12 minutes for medium-rare.  Remove the meat and while it rests, toss the the lettuce, papaya, carrot and dressing.  Slice the meat into 1/4 inch strips and serve with the salad.  Garnish with peanuts and cilantro.  
     

Plantain Crusted Mahi-Mahi with a Mango Wine Sauce

  

  
Mahi-mahi is my go-to fish.  I enjoy its flavor, which is not too fishy, but still has character.  It also has great texture, like halibut.  I think it pairs well with summer dishes that play on tropical fruits.  But, like chicken or other favorites, we must constantly search for ways to make it new and interesting again.  A plantain crust is both fun and easy.  Easy because, well, it's basically just ground up store bought plantain chips, and fun because it evokes a tropical flair.  Last week, I picked this recipe from Chef Michael Young, not because he unnecessarily made his plantain chips from scratch which I have omitted, but because of the mango wine sauce.  Like a new coating, a new sauce is always welcome in the repertoire.  Mango sauces come in many different versions.  Those with fish include butter.  Many include citrus juice, such as lime with sugar to balance. Some include spices spices like allspice, cardamon, or coriander, even cumin, although many don't.  Others go for a southwestern flair with adobo sauce or habanero.  This sauce includes orange juice, anise and cardamon.  It's intended for the plantain crust, so try it first.  But then branch out if you like, with a simpler version for ice cream or cake, or a southwestern or BBQ take for another grilled meat.  Serves 2.
    
Ingredients:
1 cup white wine
juice of 2 oranges or 1/2 cup orange juice
1 star anise pod (if available and desired)
1/4 tsp ground cardamon
1 shallot, diced
4 tbsp butter
1 mango, peeled, pitted and diced
2 tbsp canola oil
1/4 cup flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup crumbled plantain chips
2 mahi-mahi filets (or other fish of choice such as halibut or cod)
     
Description:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.  In a sauce pan over medium-high heat, add the wine, orange juice, star anise, cardamon and shallot.  Cook down until reduced to 1/4 cup.  While the sauce is reducing, puree the mango in a blender.  Remove the reduced sauce from the heat, remove the star anise pod and whisk in the butter in pieces, then mix in the mango puree.  Season with salt and pepper to taste Set aside.   Preheat the oil in a nonstick saute pan over medium-high heat.  Place the flour, egg and plantain in separate bowls.  Dredge the fish in the floor, shaking off the excess, egg and plantain chips.  Ensure the fish is fully coated and then place in the pan.  Cook 1 minute and then turn.  Place in the oven and roast for 8 minutes, or until the fish is just cooked through.  Serve with the sauce.
     

Seared Scallops with Cauliflower Puree

  

  
Sometimes I can picture myself walking through the Campo de Fiori, the open-air food market in the heart of Rome known as the "Campo" to the locals.  The market highlights the bounty of the surrounding countryside: brilliant tomatoes, artichokes that will blow your mind, and greens of every variety from the radicchio and arugula we know to varieties we in the States may not see like puntarelle.  A slow wandering through the stalls and daily offerings will inspire all the passions of Rome, including what to have for dinner.  Alas, today I was not in the city of seven hills living the beautiful life, but instead struggling across the blazing hot asphalt parking lot, through a maze of shopping carts and parked cars at my local Giant market.  My role, nonetheless, was the same.  See what new they had in the produce section and make a meal around it.  There, I found cauliflower heads fresh for the taking.  I have a Spanish cauliflower dish that roasts the cauliflower with garlic and almonds.  I also like to make scallops with puree, many times a pea puree.  So, I decided on scallops with a cauliflower puree.  The recipe below is simple and easy, and produces a savory base that both meets the vegetable need and fills the starch craving.  Seared scallops too offer the lightness and freshness of seafood and the caramelized goodness I seek.  That and a glass of Chardonnay of course.  Serves 2.
    
Ingredients:
half a head of fresh cauliflower, florets cut from the stem and separated into 1/2" pieces
2 cups of chicken stock
3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves of garlic
salt/pepper
8 scallops
     
Directions:
Bring the chicken stock to a soft boil and add the cauliflower.  Cook for 10 minutes or until soft.  Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp of oil in a saute pan over medium low heat and add the onions.  Cook the onions gently to caramelize, but not burn.  When the cauliflower is done, drain reserving the stock and put most all of the florets in a food processor.  Retain some of the florets for later as a garnish.  Remove the onions from the saute pan to the food processor, leaving the oil behind.  Add the garlic to the saute pan and cook for 30 seconds to release the flavor.  Spoon the garlic and oil into the food processor and puree until smooth.  Add portions of the cooking stock as desired if needed to loosen the puree.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Turn the heat up under the saute pan to medium high and heat the remaining oil.  Season the scallops with salt and pepper and add to the pan, searing without moving, about 2 to 3 minutes per side.  Spoon out the puree onto plates.  Place the seared scallops on top and add the retained cauliflower pieces.  Serve.
     

Mexican Shrimp Burgers

  

  
I'm scared of peppers.  Perhaps scared isn't the best word, because I like peppers.  I like bell peppers, and I like spicy foods, which require peppers.  Probably the better word is daunted.  While I like spicy food, I don't like my food too spicy.  It's especially annoying to spend so much time preparing a meal and then have it inedible because it's too spicy.  Similarly, there are so many peppers that look relatively the same.  I can't really keep them all straight.  So, I've always been tentative about Mexican recipes.  However, one morning last weekend I caught the Food Network show Mexican Made Easy.  There we were in Marcela Vallodolid's kitchen making a seafood grill.  As pretty as Marcela is, I'm truly a sucker for kitchens with a view, in this case a panoramic view of rolling hills and the ocean.  And so I tuned in and saw this recipe.  This also occurred as I have just moved next to a Fresh Fields grocery story.  This isn't a plug for that store necessarily, but having a convenient source of ethnic ingredients is essential.  So, I took the plunge with this recipe for shrimp burgers and avocado aioli.  Of course, the best plans laid plans often go immediately awry.  They didn't have poblano chilis.  They had something else, that I don't even now remember it's name, but it kind of looked the same.  See how a little confidence can encourage you down the path?  Anyway, I picked out a couple of that looked similar and the serranos they did have.  All of the other ingredients are common and the assembly was easy.  I urge you to try this recipe at your next summer grilling experience.  Grilling is always fun, and a recipe with some spice will make it that much better.  Serves 6
     
Ingredients:
1 lb medium shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 egg
2 tbsp chopped cilantro leaves
3/4 cup plain gread crumbs
1 poblano chili roasted, peeled, stemmed, seeded and diced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 avocado halved, pitted, and peeled
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tbsp lime juice
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 serrano chile, stemmed, halved and seeded
2 tbsp chopped cilantro leaves
hamburger buns, lettuce and tomato slices as desired
     
Directions:
In a food processor combine the shrimp, egg, cilantro, garlic, bread crumbs, poblano chili, salt and pepper.  Process until the mixture is a rough puree.  Form into patties, adding more bread crumbs if the mixture is too wet to mold.  Brush the patties with oil and grill over medium-high heat until golden, approximately 3 minutes per side.
In a food processor combine the avocado, mayonnaise, lime juice, garlic, serrano chili and cilantro.  Process until smooth.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Assemble the burgers on buns, topped with a dollop of aioli, lettuce and tomato slices.
     

Pork Medallions with Grapes in Sauce

    

  
I couldn't decide if this recipe was more appropriate for the fall or not, but it appeared in my local newspaper's food section last week and I decided to give it a try.  Perhaps the brandy and fruit made me think of apples and apple brandy recipes of early fall.  Pork can be an alternative to menus overpopulated by chicken, but in time raises the same issues of how to prepare it in an interesting new way.  Having a new pork recipe made me try it and I was rewarded.  This recipe is extremely quick, which makes it a good mid-week item as it was advertised.  The sauce is also very tasty.  Last night, I didn't have brandy on hand, so I just added some apple juice.  Similarly, out of brown sugar, but it was still very good.  Just goes to show that recipes are flexible and can be made your own.  Another note, I buy my pork in the form of pork tenderloins, not least because my local market frequently offers them 2 for 1.  They are also very flexible, in that you can roast, or in the summer grill the whole thing, or cut it into medallions, as I did for this recipe, or into cubes for other recipes.  Whether you like tenderloin, pork chops, or boneless pork loin chops, they will all be good!  Serves 4.
    
Ingredients:
4 thick pork chops or boneless pork loin chops, or 2 tenderloins cut into 3/4" medallions
1/4 cup flour (if desired for breading)
salt/pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 large shallots, diced
1 cup seedless green grapes, halved lengthwise
2 tsp brandy or apple juice
1 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 tsp dark brown sugar
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
    
Directions:
Lay out the chops or medallions and season both sides with salt and pepper.  In a large saute pan heat the oil over medium-high heat.  If breading the pork, dredge in the flour, shaking off any excess.  When hot, add the pork and cook, 4 minutes per side until lightly browned.  Remove the pork to a plate and turn down the heat in the pan to medium.  Add the shallots and grapes and cook 4 minutes to soften the shallots.  Deglaze the pan by adding the wine and brandy (or apple juice) and scraping up the cooked bits with a wooden spoon.  Increase heat to high and boil down the wine until almost evaporated.  Add the chicken broth and brown sugar and cook a few minutes to reduce by half.  Return the pork to the pan and turn and coat a couple of minutes to reheat the pork.  Place the pork on individual plates.  Whisk the mustard into the remaining liquid and pour equal portions over the pork on each plate.  Serve.