Spinach Soup with Salmon Patties

Salmon patties on brown rice and dal. 

By Mango.

We've been away. Since April 2014, apparently. I would deny it, but the interwebs never lies. Several things happened to cause our absence. We've been traveling. We adopted the sweetest dog who has consumed our days in the best way possible. We also moved into a new home. In between all of these amazing moments, we just couldn't bring ourselves to blog. The motivation was dwindling because we were starting to take it too seriously.

We have been cooking a lot, promise. And the end results have often been amazing, but we'd forget a bunch of blogging requirements after the fact. Did I take a photo of the pre-seared scallop? No?? @!#$! Is the lighting right?? Does the amount of paprika that I scooped up with a butter knife - because I couldn't find a clean spoon - really translate into a tablespoon??? Because the last thing I want to do is give bogus measurements, and then a dish that you may want to try to make turns out to be horrible. It further complicates things when I keep switching back and forth between metric and US measurements in my head while cooking, especially when baking. I lean towards metric. Panda calls me a communist. This is okay. But I don't want to be an inaccurate communist. I at least want my propaganda to be tasty. So I try my best to recall what was done and with what, and now we have just resolved to relax about the blog. 

If you take away anything from our posts, it's simply that we love to cook. I personally get things wrong quite often. I don't know nuthin' 'bout no chef techniques. We just want you to enjoy our posts, and perhaps each of our dishes and combinations thereof will inspire you to mix and match foods that you didn't think were possible before. Korean ribs with biryani? Of course. Sorpotel on a hotdog? Yes. Spicy chicken curry with spaghetti? Definitely. So thank you for sticking around, and read on. 

Spinach soup.

Delicious and healthy.

This right here, is the bees knees. And credit goes to one of my best friends. It's the easiest, quickest, and most delicious soup to make. It's her go-to, and it is now mine. I tweaked it a bit, adding thyme and cumin. The following makes about 4 normal-sized servings.

Half a large onion, rough chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped or sliced.

2 Tbs light olive oil

1 Tbs butter

1/4 tsp dried thyme

1/4 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp fresh nutmeg, adjust as needed

10 oz pack of frozen packed spinach

1 pint of good unsalted chicken stock (I used Panda's homemade stock)

Salt and sugar to taste

Half a lemon

Fry the onions and garlic in the oil and butter on a low-medium heat until soft and translucent. Add the thyme, cumin, nutmeg. Stir, and then add the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, and then throw in the spinach. Add some salt and sugar to taste. Reduce the heat and let it simmer on low-medium heat for about 10 minutes to let the flavors come together. Then grab a hand blender and buzz it all up until smooth. Taste again and adjust seasoning with salt, sugar, nutmeg. Turn off the heat. I added a squeeze or two of lemon to brighten it up a bit - again, adjust according to your preference. You don't end up tasting the lemon, but it somehow lightened it just a touch, or maybe it's just in my head. You can add a quarter cup heavy cream to it but it already tastes pretty rich and satisfying without any. And that's it! You can also change things around, and just buzz up all the raw ingredients in a blender first, and then simmer the blended soup on the stove top. As with most soups, this tasted even better the next day.

Salmon patties.

We had the soup as a starter, followed by brown rice, dal (Indian spiced lentils), and salmon cakes. For the salmon cakes, I used the following ingredients:

Half a large onion, finely chopped

5-6 curry leaves, finely chopped

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Half a medium tomato, finely chopped

1 yellow squash, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon mild chilli powder 

A handful of fresh cilantro, chopped

3 Thai chillies, chopped (optional)

Light olive oil

1 large can (14.75 oz) of good pink salmon, any large bones removed (or use freshly cooked salmon. I used a can of wild Alaskan salmon.)

Salt to taste

1 lemon

Fry the onion, curry leaves, garlic and tomato in oil, until the onions start to turn translucent. Then add the yellow squash - I included squash for some sweetness. Season with salt. Once the squash looks nearly done, which will be fairly quickly, add the spices and stir fry for a further 2 minutes or so until fragrant, and then turn off the heat. Add the cilantro and Thai chillies into the mix. I prefer to add the chillies at the end so that they retain their fresh spicy flavor. Once cooled, I used my hands to mix and lightly mash in a can of salmon along with 1 egg. I also mixed in freshly grated lemon peel (about 1 lemon) and one squeeze of lemon juice. Salmon is quite rich, so lemon helps. Taste and season with more salt if necessary. 

Formed into patties, dunked in panko, and pan fried. I got 7 decently sized patties out of 1 can of salmon.
Pretty good!  

Mango: "I'm making soup. The weather is going to be awful all week. A high of -1 today."

Panda: "WHAT?!"

Mango: "Celsius."

Panda: "Oh. Communist."

   

Mid-week Munchies

Sausage and noodles in a light tomato sauce.

By Mango

No, not those kind of munchies. Panda and I have been MIA for several months now. We have no excuse. We've been lazy. And we got married! But that was back in November. So really, we've been lazy. But here's a short post to get back into the swing of things - Sausage and Pasta. We try to always keep "emergency sausage" on hand - fresh, frozen, smoked, or cured. Whatever floats your boat. It's one of the easiest things to turn into a meal - casserole, soup, pasta sauce...the possibilities are almost endless.

This is a quick meal, typical of what we usually cook during the week. Although I made the pasta from scratch (Anne Burrell's pasta dough recipe is amazing), the sausage dish itself takes about 30 minutes to cook. The pasta also doesn't take too long - 15 minutes to prepare the dough, 30 minutes rest time before it can be rolled out and noodle-ified. Of course, fresh pasta isn't necessary. We use the ready-made stuff too.

I made noodles of a larger width, so they were more like ribbons. 

This is my pasta holding station. The melon is key. 

These are the ingredients for the sausage sauce (some of these aren't pictured. Because, as usual, I forgot):

- Sausage, sliced thick. We had 2 fresh Italian pork sausages.

- Sliced onion (one half of a very large onion).

- 1 tomato, sliced.

- 1 large garlic clove, chopped.

- 1 tablespoon tomato paste.

- Half of a chicken bouillon cube, crumbled.

- Quarter cup white wine. I used pinot grigio.

- 1 tsp each of dried thyme, dried basil, herbes de provences.

- 1 1/2 tsp non-smokey paprika. I used Hungarian paprika.

- 1/2 to 1 tsp dried chili flakes (adjust to your spice level preference).

- 1 cup water.

- Salt and pepper to taste.

See how that reads sage? Yeah. I didn't use sage.
I used basil. I'm horrible at photo-documenting ingredients.  

First, brown the sausage in some olive oil on medium-high heat. Season with salt and pepper.

Remove the sausage. Add the onions to the pan first, season with salt and pepper, and stir fry until it starts to brown. Add the garlic, herbs, paprika, bouillon bits, chili flakes. Stir fry for a minute, then add the white wine and once it cooks off, add the tomatoes and tomato paste. Add the sausages back to the pot and stir fry for an additional 5 minutes or so. 

Add 1 cup of water, season with salt and pepper to taste,
and let the sauce reduce on a medium-high flame.

Once you're able to swipe a 'trail' through the sauce, it has thickened enough. In the mean time, cook the pasta until it's almost done.

Toss the noodles with the sausage sauce,
along with a quarter cup of pasta water (the water leftover from cooking the noodles). Panda says this helps the sauce to better coat to the noodles.

And there you have it. Sausage with noodles. We had this with a side of steamed broccoli.

Panda (walking to the kitchen after he's done eating): "You made it too good. Now I have to go and get more."

Adventures in Stupidity 1: Trinidad Scorpion Pepper Mixed Nuts

Product of Canada?  Really?

by Panda

Mango and I stopped by Buford Farmer's Market one day to pick up some groceries for the week.  As we walked through the produce section my gaze fell upon the little plastic container above.  Mango and I both gave each other a look, I shrugged, and I threw it into the basket.  Common sense would not prevail this day.

Cute huh?

The Trinidad Scorpion pepper is currently the world's hottest pepper, recently ousting the Bhut Jolokia (ghost pepper) as the world's hottest pepper.  The heat of chile peppers is rated using the Scoville Scale.  The Scoville Scale was originally based on the number of squirts of a water + sugar mixture needed to completely cool the mouth after eating a particular chile; nowadays, however, they use liquid chromatography to determine the capsaicin content of each type of chile, since a sugar liquid test was both subjective and impractical with hotter chiles.  A bell pepper has a rating of 0 on the Scoville Scale since it has no heat whatsoever.  Jalapenos have a rating of around 5000.  Habaneros have a rating of 300,000.  Ghost chiles come in at around 1,000,000.  The Trinidad Scorpion have a Scoville rating of 1.5 million, or the equivalent of 300 jalapenos.  If you're bored and enjoy the suffering of others you can find plenty of videos of people eating these things on YouTube.

I had to try a bit of one just to see what I was dealing with.  Yep.  They're spicy alright.

A Word on Chile Pepper Safety

Needless to say, you need to be careful with these things, or any of the really hot chile peppers.  I highly suggest working with rubber gloves when dealing with extremely hot chiles.  Even for something like serranos, which are "only" 10,000 - 25,000 on the Scoville scale, you really ought to use gloves.  This is not a matter of being a whimp - it's a matter of not getting capsaicin on your hands and then transferring it to your eyes* later on.

*Or, y'know... "down there".  Which I did once when I forgot to wash my hands before using the little panda's room.  Lesson learned.

Make sure you keep things very clean.  Wash everything off after you use it, and try to avoid touching things with your bare skin before you wash them.  I'd also suggest using a cutting board on top of your regular one that you don't mind getting chile juices on (this keeps you from getting capsaicin on your cutting board, which in turn can get on other foods you'll chop on it).  Also make sure you do this in a well ventilated room, as the fumes that are produced from extremely hot chiles can sometimes sting your nose/eyes a little; open a window if you can.

If the idea of using chile peppers that can be weaponized kind of freaks you out, or you're just not stupid into hot chiles like I am, feel free to use milder chiles in any of the recipes I'll be posting for the Trinidad Scorpions.  Jalapenos or serranos will provide a nice tingle and chile flavor without all the heat.  Also feel free to mix up your chiles for a variety of flavor and taste combinations.

In short - just use common sense and be careful.

On to the Nuts

Not too many seeds in this one

I often roast up mixed nuts to snack on using different spice blends.  It lets me control what fats go into the nuts, as well as the level of salt and other seasonings that go into them.

When putting a "wet" ingredient like a chile pepper into a dish like this, you want to make sure you get an even distribution, otherwise someone will eat a big chunk of pepper and blow their head off.  The best way I've found is to turn the ingredients into a paste, and then cook that paste in the oil you're going to coat the nuts with.

Simply mince your chile up on your cutting board, sprinkle on a good pinch of kosher salt, then use the flat side of your knife to grind the chile against your board.  This will turn it into a paste.  The same thing can be used with garlic (and garlic would be a mighty fine addition if you wanted to throw some of that in, too).

Put your oil(s) in a pan over medium heat and toss in your crushed chile.  Stir it up a bit and let it cook.  Keep your face pointed away from it if the fumes bothers you.  You're done when it stops foaming.

Pour the infused oil over your mixed nuts and toss to coat evenly.  I used cashews and almonds, but most any nut will do.  Just be sure to use raw (unroasted) nuts because we're going to be roasting these in the oven.

Put together your spice blend (recipe below) and buzz it up in your spice grinder or grind it up with your mortar and pestal.  Then sprinkle this over your nuts and toss to combine.

NOTE: It is actually pretty important to pulverize everything, especially the salt.  If the salt or anything else is too "chunky" (the grains are too big) it won't stick to the nuts.  It has to be pretty fine.

How much of the spice mixture you use entirely depends on how much you want.  Sprinkle on about a quarter of your mixture, taste a nut, then adjust from there.   Then just pop them in the oven and cook until fragrant!

The end product is actually not that spicy.  Spicy for sure, but not spicy enough to incapacitate you.  I brought them with me to a July 4th party and, while everyone did acknowledge that they were pretty spicy, they appeared to be a big hit.

I hope you enjoy putting my nuts in your mouth*.

* I had to work one of those jokes in somewhere.  I know, I'm 12.

Trinidad Scorpion Mixed Nuts

2lb unsalted mixed raw nuts (almond, cashews, walnuts, etc)
1/2tbsp coconut oil or butter
1/2tbsp olive oil
1 fresh Trinidad Scorpion pepper, or any other combination of chile peppers your like
Spice blend (to taste):

• 1 part whole pepper corns
• 1 part herbs de provence, rosemary, or any other dried herb you like
• 1 part chili powder
• 1 part kosher salt

Preheat oven to 300F.  Put mixed nuts in a large bowl and set aside.  Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil.

Mince the chile pepper, then crush using kosher salt and the flat side of your knife until you've made a paste. Add the oils to a small pot and place over medium low heat.  Add the chile paste to the oil and stir to combine.  Cook until the mixture no longer foams.  Pour the chile infused oil over the mixed nuts and stir to combine.  Add the spice blend incredients to a spice grinder and grind until fine.  Sprinkle spice mixture over the nuts, stirring to combine and tasting until you're happy with how they taste.

Pour the nuts onto the sheet pan, spread out evenly, then roast in the oven until fragrant, about 10-15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and a allow the nuts to cool thoroughly before putting them in a container.

Panda: Trinidad Scorpion pepper mixed nuts are in the oven.  Please say a prayer for my gastrointestinal tract.

Mango: *bringing home gas masks and gloves from work*

Chicken Stock for the Soul

By Mango

Today was a quiet, lazy Sunday. It was also clean-out-the-overflowing-what-in-the-world-is-in-here freezer day. We routinely save chicken bones, either from raw chicken that Panda cuts up, or from roast chickens that have been cooked whole. We also hang on to every and any veggie and mushroom bits left over from cooking preps, and everything goes into the freezer to make either chicken or veggie stock. The great thing about stock is that there is no fixed recipe, and it will taste just a little bit different every time. Home made chicken stock is so versatile, and can be used for soups, gravy, sauces, even for cooking rice. This time, I used our stock to make a simple chicken noodle soup.

For the chicken stock, this is basically what I started out with:

The chicken bones (backbones, leg bones, wing bits etc) are at the bottom of the stock pot.

The veggies this time around included leeks, cabbage leaves, fennel tops, carrot tops, asparagus ends, radish pods (hard to find, but we lucked out and had these left over) a large onion chopped in half, a whole garlic bulb sliced in half, and a bunch of fresh thyme.   You can throw in any herbs and veggies that you like. It doesn't matter if the onion and garlic peels/skins are still on. This will all be strained out later anyway.

Fill the stock pot with water and bring to a boil. Then lower the flame and simmer for 4 to 6 hours, with the lid on.

I simmered this batch of stock for 5 hours. This is what it looked like when done:

Isn't the color so beautiful?! 

The next step is to strain it.

The chicken parts and veggies are mush by now, and will taste like nothing. Throw this away. They have served their delicious purpose.

And here is the stock. Golden brown and rich in chicken and veggie flavors that have had 5 hours to mingle. 

Cool the stock and portion into pint sized containers. We usually keep this in the fridge overnight. The chicken fat floats to the top and solidifies, forming a distinct layer that can be scooped off and discarded, or saved separately for other cooking uses (Panda says it is called "schmaltz"). The containers are then put in the freezer, and can be stored for several months.

Panda: To cool the stock quickly, just do the following.  Put a stopper in the drain of your sink.  Set your pot in the sink and surround it with ice (the more the better).  Then fill the sink with water so that the pot is surrounded with water and ice.  The icy water will cool the pot down quickly.  The faster the stock cools down the better!

And there you have it, chicken stock! We got about 5 pints out of this batch. 3 are shown above. I used 2 pints to make chicken noodle soup.

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 peeled carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped (including celery leaves)
Half a tomato, chopped
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 teaspoon dried herbes de provence (you can use whatever herbs you like)
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
a handful of chopped flat leaf parsley
a dash of nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil
Egg noodles
Left over chicken breast, chopped (any chicken meat will do. We had leftover roast chicken breast.)

Sautée the onions, carrots, and celery in olive oil until softened. Season with salt and pepper. Add the tomato and garlic, cook for a couple of minutes. Add fennel seeds, herbes de provence, nutmeg, and bay leaves (cloves would be really good in this too). Cook for another 2-3 minutes, add 2 pints of chicken stock, chopped parlsey, and the Dijon mustard. Bring to a boil, them simmer for about a half hour. Add the egg noodles, cook for about 5-10 minutes or until done. Throw in chopped chicken breast, simmer for 5 minutes and then turn off the heat. Let the chicken soup sit for 30 minutes to an hour so that all the flavors can come together. The soup will taste even better the next day.

Spring Has Sprung: Ramp Pesto

By Panda

Spring is here, and with Spring comes spring veggies!  Peas, asparagus, artichokes, and... uh... whatever these are...

No, not the bananas.  I'm talking about the things with the green tops and purple-white bulbs.  They're ramps, and they're usually available between April and late June, depending on where you are.  They can be difficult to find, again, depending on where you are, and can be pricey, but if you can manage to find some they are well worth it.

They're also known as wild leeks, wild ramps, ramson, wood leek, and a few other names.  Why so many names? This is because they taste like a mix of every member of the allium family put together.  It's like the result of a spring onion, a leek and a garlic clove getting freaky together, except no one's sure who the mom is, and every one of them tests positive on the paternity test.

These little guys are pretty popular in restaurants and with chefs in the know, partly due to their scarcity, but also due to their great flavor.  They are absolutely fantastic grilled, but I decided on another use for them this day.

So one thing you need to do is to make sure you wash these well.  If you do find ramps, chances are they've been foraged and that they're probably pretty dirty.  Just rinse them under some cold water to knock the dirt off, and peel away any loose/slimy skin on the outside if there is any.

For the pesto you'll want to use the green leafy parts (cut the roots off of the bulbs and save the bulbs for another use, which I will get into in another blog post).  In addition to that you'll want about 2/3 as much sweet basil and 1/3 as much parsley by volume.  There's no need to sweat exact measurements here - just eyeball it and go with handfuls.

Add to that a good handful of pistachios, some lemon juice, a good pinch of salt, about 10 grinds of pepper, and a nice sized chunk of parmesan cheese (half a handful?) cut into small chunks.  Pour in a bit of extra virgin olive oil and get your food processor going.  Pop the top on and drizzle in your olive oil until you hit the right consistency: it should be the thickness of a loose paste.  Check it for seasoning and add additional salt and pepper if it needs it.  Ta-da, you will be rewarded with this!

Glorious! 

When you're done you'll have a beautiful bright green pesto that tastes of garlic and onions.  Ramps can be quite strong, but the basil and parsley do a wonderful job of toning it down just enough.

So what can you do with this stuff?  Well, there's the obvious:

Mango roasted up some chicken and made some fresh pasta for us, and when the pasta was done I tossed it with a good sized spoonful of the ramp pesto and a tiny bit of the pasta water.  No need to cook the pesto - the heat of the pasta was enough.  Some chopped pistachios mixed in would have been a great textural addition.  A little chile flake would be very nice also.

Here's another idea:

Goat cheese, ramp pesto and pistachios on toasted Italian bread, or what I like to call "garlic bread on steroids."  Be prepared to make grunty noises when eating these.

Other things you can do:

• Toss the pesto with new potatoes and roast them
• Mix the pesto with mayo and use it to make chicken, pasta or egg salad
• Mix the pesto with red wine vinegar or lemon juice to make a dressing or dipping sauce
• Spoon it into your mouth... don't worry, no one's judging you

If you have any left over you can put it into ice cube trays and freeze it.  Otherwise you'll want to use it within a week or so.

Mango: They cost how much?
Panda: Trust me, they're worth it!
Mango: But -
Panda: Trust me.

Later on...

Mango: *tasting the pesto* SO WORTH IT.

Ramp Pesto

1 large handful of ramp tops (green parts only)
2/3 as much sweet basil
1/3 as much parsley (Italian or curly)
Large chunk of parmesan cheese (half a handful or so) cut into small chunks
1 handful of pistachios
Juice of 1/2 lemon (throw in the zest if you want, too)
Large 3 finger pinch of salt
10 grinds of black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

Add all of the ingredients to your food processor with just a splash of olive oil at first (this helps to get things going).  Put the top on your food processor and turn it on.  Drizzle additional olive oil into the feed tube as it runs until it reaches the desired consistency (a loose paste).  Check for seasoning, add additional salt and pepper if needed and blend briefly to incorporate.

What if I can't find ramps?  What if they're too expensive?

These would be an unfortunate but completely understandable situations to find yourself in.  If you still want to make a pesto that's similar, substitute a large handful of chives or a bunch of green onion tops along with a large clove of garlic for the ramp tops.  It won't be quite the same, but it'll be reasonably close.  Another option is to buy a few ramps and use those along with some other allium - in this case I'd go with leeks and garlic since the ramps themselves will still be quite strong.

The food of my people: TACOS!!

Slow cooked pork tacos with fresh salsa and avocado

By Mango


People here sometimes mistake me for being Mexican or Hispanic. And not just any people. Mexicans and other Hispanics think I'm one of them. My Indian peeps, however, and most others, see me for what I am. A strange Indian person. Panda and I often joke that whenever we crave the food of my people, we go to our favorite taco place down the street. This would usually be the greeting from my always friendly Hispanic neighbors:

To Mango: Hola!!
To Panda, after pensive pause: H-E-L-L-O

So yesterday, I had the urge to make a crockpot dish, which is the best thing ever during the week, because you can make a big batch of food and you're set for a couple of days, if not longer. We had a giant pork chop in the freezer, a little smaller than the diameter of a dinner plate, and about 2 inches thick (Panda guestimates that it was about 2 pounds in weight). We also had one bunch of collard greens. Pork + collard greens = two things that are amazing when slow cooked. Perfect.

I apologize in advance, because this blog post doesn't have too many pictures except for the star of the dish - pork. I didn't plan on writing a blog but it turned out so delicious, that Panda said "FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY, WRITE A BLOG ABOUT THIS". Okay, not that dramatic, but close. The recipe I used is adapted from a "slow cooker Mexican pulled pork" recipe that I found online. I used their spice blend, but added the collards, a couple of other spices, and tweaked the quantities. This is what I used for the pork:

1 Tbsp chili powder (the type used to make American chili. Not the chile powder typically used in Indian dishes.)
1/4 Tbsp kosher salt
1/4 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 Tsp ground cumin
1/2 Tsp cayenne
1/2 Tsp smoked paprika
1 Tsp dried, crushed oregano
1/2 Tsp freshly ground pepper
A pinch of cinnamon

Note that any cut of pork will work so long as it has some fat to it - we just used a pork chop because we had it on hand.

Mix all of the above together in a bowl. Then rub and pat down the pork chop (make sure it is fairly dry first, use a paper towel to wipe off excess moisture) with a generous amount of this spice mix. You will end up with this:

Let the pork sit for at least an hour in the fridge or at a cool temperature. You will likely have some spice rub left over. Save this. In the mean time, slice a large yellow onion, smash 3 cloves of garlic, and wash and chop the collard greens. Also set aside 5 cloves.

After about an hour in the fridge, let the pork sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes. I honestly don't know if this matters much, given that it will slow cook overnight, but I did it anyway. Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet. Bring to high heat. Sear the pork on each side for about a minute, until you can smell the spices and see a nice brown on the seared pork. Once seared evenly, remove and place in the crockpot.

Add the sliced onions, collards, garlic, and a crumbled cube of chicken bouillon to the same pan that you just seared the pork in. Saute for about 5 minutes with the remaining spice rub. Add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and use this to deglaze any pork and spice bits and mix it all in with the onions, collards, and garlic. Transfer all of this to the crockpot. Throw in the 5 cloves, and add enough water to just barely cover the pork. Set the crockpot on low, and let it go overnight. The next morning, you will wake up to this:

LOOK.

LOOK AT IT.

The meat will fall apart easily with just a gentle tease of the fork. We had chunks of the pork on corn tortillas, topped with a simple tomato-red onion-thai chiles-cilantro salsa for a burst of freshness, and some sliced avocado for a little creaminess. The pork was magical. Melt-in-your-mouth, smokey, and a deep, gradual surge of warm flavor that can only come from low and slow cooking. I'm definitely saving this recipe and will use it again.

Panda: You do realize that this is just going to further convince people that you're really Mexican.
Mango: Si.  Uh, I mean, yes.
Panda: ......

Mmm Burgers: The General Muir

by Panda

The General Muir, a Jewish deli, opened at Emory Point not long ago, and I heard that they were serving a great burger.  Todd Ginsberg, chef at the General Muir, used to run the kitchen at Bocado.  Bocado is very well known for their double stack, and so it only makes sense that Chef Ginsberg would want to have a burger at his new establishment as well.  While the two burgers are very similar, the burger at the General Muir has few tweaks that make it a different experience.

Inside the General Muir.

My friend Justin and I were here for the burger, but the fact that we were sitting in a Jewish deli was not lost on me.  I love Jewish delis - the bagels, the pastrami, the "shmears" - but in particular I love the pickles.

I thought that the pickles might have all been pickled the same way, but boy was I wrong.  Each pickle had a very unique character to it.  The first one we tried, the big dill pickle in the middle, was fermentation pickled, and it was a great example of your standard pickle done remarkably well.  The green tomatoes were unexpectedly sweet and spiced with clove.  The carrot pickles were sweet, sour and spicy.  The cauliflower had a bit of curry flavor to them.  The radish pickles were refreshing and a bit tart, and I could taste some anise in the cabbage.  You have to try these, especially if you like pickles.

And now on to the main event:

Knowing how good the Bocado burger is, I was expecting this burger to be great as well, and I was not disappointed.  The burger patties had a great crust on them from being seared on the flat top, and the cheese and pickles were great.  The "tweaks" I mentioned earlier come in the form of special sauce *cough*thousandislanddressing*cough* and a Holeman and Finch onion roll.  I have a soft spot in my heart for Big Macs, having eaten many of them as a kid, and this burger was like a Big Mac that had been elevated to a grander, loftier place.  The fries were also great, as I expected them to be - every bit as good as Bocado's.  Maybe a bit crisper in fact?

We finished the meal off with some dessert.  Justin opted for the rice pudding, which was bruleed with sugar.  Very good and highly recommended.

Again, being in a Jewish deli, I felt compelled to get something Jewish for dessert:

Behold the noodle kugel.  If you're not familiar with this dessert, the best way I can describe it is that it's like rice pudding made with noodles.  This was quite tasty, although the top was not as crunchy as I was hoping it would be - but that happens when something's been sitting in the fridge.  I think something like this would be fantastic if served warm and crisped up on the top a bit.  There were chunks of cinnamon laced sugar throughout the kugel, which was quite tasty.

I will be making a trip back here to try their other delicacies, although it'll be hard to keep away from the burger on my return trip.

Panda: *after leaving* I have stuffs for you!

Mango: :)