Cooking

Cooking has a lot of dimensions to it. So many that it's a skill truly difficult to master. It's kinda like math or physics or photography or playing infield. Anybody can do the basic stuff (though I sometimes struggle with thy pesky subtraction), but it takes real skill to make it on Baseball Tonight's Web Gems!

Take mushrooms for example. They're fungus. But..... if you melt a chunk of butter in a frying pan and toss in & stir a handful of these masters of decomposition, they turn into candy (well, at least for most adults)! I would go so far as to say that there's not a whole lot of stuff that tastes better straight from the frying pan...

That is until you add some bacon... And onions... And then toss in a nice beef tenderloin and pan-sear that sucker for 5-7 minutes a side...

You see what I did there? I just told you how to make the same steak that many steakhouses sell for $30! Granted, there is some technique to it all, but cooking doesn't have to be complex or intimidating to be great! Acutally, I've never done all of that cooking in the same pan, but I'm awfully tempted now!

So, my friend Samoan Mike and I were discussing pork recipes and I shared the following one with him:
- Throw some 1" thick pork chops, lightly breaded and seasoned with salt and pepper, in a frying pan w/ olive oil. 4-8 min/side.
- Then make a marsala sauce. Use same pan to sauté mushrooms, shallots & garlic, add beef broth, reduce, add red wine, reduce, add heavy cream, reduce. Thicken w/ flour if necessary.
- Serve w/ pasta, a salad, mashed potatoes, whatever....

The above description is really an over-simplification of this recipe (gotta give credit where credit's due).  I really don't like how that guy orders and mixes his recipe together with his commentary and stuff.  It makes it terribly difficult to follow and extrapolate from. 

That said, I can't criticize without offering a sample of my own work. 

If you've been to our house, whether in Maryland or Wisconsin, odds are it was for a party/bbq of some sort.  One thing I always get complements on is my cheeseburgers.  So, here it goes...

Ingredients:

•  2 lbs 85/15 beef
• 1 lb Bob Evans Hot Sausage
• A mixture of Lawry's season salt, black pepper, oregano, cayenne pepper & red pepper flakes.  I've honestly never measured the mixture and it changes each time depending on the tolerance for spicy food of my guests.
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup Lea & Perrin's Worcestershire Sauce
• 0-6 splats of Louisiana Hot Sauce (see above comment about spicy food)
  
• 1/3 cup bread crumbs 
• 1 egg (this & the bread crumbs act as the glue for the burger)

Process:

• Uh, well, throw all that stuff in a big mixing bowl and mix it all up with your hands.  Be careful not to overdo it and definitely don't use a potato masher or some other mechanical device.  It breaks up the meat too much and your burgers will fall apart.
• Grab a handful of your burger mixture and flatten it a good bit.  Remember, these things are going to shrivel up (and will more if you use fattier ground beef), so the flatter you get them, the better.
• There are two ways to cook burgers - on a charcoal grill or in a bigass hot cast iron skillet.  No, gas grills aren't an option.  It misses the point of both above options.  With a charcoal grill, you get the flavor of the smoke from the coals and with the skillet, you get the flavor of and crust from the burger drippings.  With a gas grill, you have no smoke and all the drippings fall through to the bottom of the grill.
• Charcoal Grill:  
• Get your grill good and hot.  I typically use Kingsford Competition Briquettes.  They burn hotter and longer than the standard stuff and really do provide a better flavor than the store brand.  And good god, man... don't use Match Light unless you're tailgating or like tasting lighter fluid in your meat.
• Throw the burgers on for 4-7 minutes a side, depending on how bloody you like 'em.  
• Towards the end of the 2nd side's time, drop some cheese on top and let it melt.  
• Sometimes, I'll grill an onion and put it on top of the burger underneath the cheese.  This just keeps the onion from falling off when you're eating it.
• I'll also usually put the buns around the outside of the grill to get a little toast on them.
• Bigass Hot Cast Iron Skillet (this is quickly becoming a favorite)
  
• Get out your bigass cast iron skillet.
• Get your bigass cast iron skillet good and hot.  I usually give it 5-10 minutes on medium-high on my gas stove.
• Throw in a couple of pats of butter and let them melt and start to bubble.
• Drop your burgers in the skillet and let them cook 3-5 minutes a side, again, depending on your love for a bloody burger.
• Lightly butter a bun and throw them in the skillet to get a decent toast.
• Place some cheese on top and let it melt.
• Garnish with whatever you like - lettuce, tomatoes, mayo, dijon mustard, whatever...
• These burgers go great with cole slaw.  Angie has a great recipe for the slaw... just ask her!

Comments or questions on the recipe?  Let us know!