Coffee-Rubbed Cheeseburgers

I'm not sure I understand why, but during the heat of summer people love to fire up their grills. I think grilling is something that would work better in spring or fall when the weather is more fair. But there is something freeing and relaxing about cooking outside after life has slowed down for summer. And there's nothing that is better suited for the grill than burgers.

There are a near infinite number of ideas and flavors and permutations thereof when it comes to burgers. They can be big or small; beef, pork, turkey, veggie, or a combination; have cheese or not; bacon or not; lettuce, tomato, onion, or other toppings; mayo, mustard, ketchup, guacamole, chimichurri, tzatziki, satay, or any other sauce. From this myriad of flavors, I decided to go a smokey, earthy route using this recipe from Bon Appetit Magazine.

Barbecue sauce is very easy to make. In 20 minutes, you can have your own sauce fit to your tastes and needs. No more putting up with gritty, overtly sweet mixtures from the supermarket.

Texas Barbecue Sauce
Makes about 1.5 cups

Ingredients
1 tbsp butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup ketchup
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 chipotle, minced (from a can in adobo sauce)
1/4 tsp cayenne

Directions
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in garlic, cooking until it is fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer over medium-low heat. Reduce sauce until it is about 1.5 cups, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. If not using right away, put in a storage container and chill in the fridge.

Coffee-Rubbed Cheeseburgers
Makes 8 servings

Ingredients
Coffee Rub
1 tbsp ground coffee (not flavored)
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp salt

Burgers
8 bacon slices
1 lb ground chuck
1 lb ground sirloin
8 slices smoked provolone
8 hamburger buns
8 slices of red onion
8 slices of tomato

Directions
For the coffee rub, mix all the ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.

Cook bacon in a large skillet until crisp. Drain on paper towels and break in half. Set aside.

Mix ground meats in a large bowl. Form into 8 patties about 4 inches in diameter and 1/2 inch thick. Making an indentation (dimple) in the burger so that it cooks evenly.


Prepare barbecue with medium-high heat. Press in about 1 tsp of the coffee rub onto both sides of the burger, then place onto grill. Cook until desired doneness, flipping halfway through. Top each burger with 2 slices of bacon and 1 slice of provolone, cooking until the cheese melts. Place burgers on buns and top with onion, tomato and some barbecue sauce. Cover with top buns and serve with additional barbecue sauce on the side.


These burgers were quite amazing. When each portion of a dish is well-seasoned, then you end up with something simply sublime. Everything exuded a smokiness, from the coffee in the rub to the bacon to the cheese to the sauce to the grill-marks. The coffee deepened the flavor of the burger and accentuated the barbecue sauce. These were everything burgers should be. Bold flavors, hearty and messy. I was most intrigued to cook with coffee, but it really is just a minor part of a wonderful burger creation.

Pulled Pork Meal - 8/15/08

A lot of what I cook comes from random inspiration. The inspiration behind today was to make a spin on BBQ sauce. My first idea was to make a pineapple BBQ sauce, so after scouring Food Network's website, I found a recipe for a sauce using cola, so I thought that would be a pretty good base for me to replace the cola with pineapple juice. The end result was:

2 cloves garlic, mashed
1/8 tsp salt
1.75 cup pineapple juice
3/4 cup ketchup
1/8 cup cider vinegar
1T Worcestershire sauce
Pepper, to taste

All of this was combined in a saucepan and simmered for 45 minutes to make a ketchup/BBQ sauce consistency. The flavor is a toned down pineapple-tomato with some nice tang to it too.


Ever since I tasted an espresso BBQ sauce, I wanted to make some for myself. I found this recipe for it from Michael Chiarello. You cannot taste the coffee as a flavor, but it deepens and darkens the flavor of the sauce. Instead of the prescribed 10 minutes, I cooked it for 45 minutes to thicken it up.


What better vehicle for BBQ sauce than pulled pork sandwiches? Paula Dean has a good recipe pulled pork sandwiches, though I will admit I used chicken stock instead of the apple juice just because after 3 trips to the grocery store for this meal, I wasn't going back just for some juice. This pork turned out quite delicious by itself and was even better combined with the BBQ sauces. I will admit that I did cheat and buy some Bush's baked beans to serve on the side as well.


In the above picture, you can see I made some cole slaws. One is more classic - cider vinegar, honey, salt, pepper, a little mayo, and celery seed. The other is more Asian - mirin, sesame seeds, sesame oil, and seasoned rice vinegar. I ate the classic one by itself, but with the Asian one, I wanted to try something new. In North Carolina, it is common to eat a BBQ pork sandwich with cole slaw on it. In keeping with tradition, I put some of the Asian slaw on top of some of the pork that had been mixed with the pineapple BBQ sauce. The combination of these two items was quite good - soft yet crunchy, sweet yet tangy and nutty. It was a veritable East meets North (Carolina).


As another side, I made a salad inspired by one from my trip. It is a base of spinach leaves, heirloom tomatoes, purple bell pepper (yes, purple), and tangelo segments (membranes removed). The mimosa dressing is made with the juice of one tangelo, champagne vinegar and a little lemon-infused olive oil. I wish the tangelos were a little sweeter right now, but the dressing still had enough of the mimosa taste to it to make me happy.

Turkey Burgers and Baked Beans - 1/16/2008

I have been cooking, but I have just been lazy about making blog posts. Earlier in the week I made turkey burgers and some baked beans.


Turkey burgers can be good if you make them right and do not overcook them, but the same is true for almost any food. Usually, you have to flavor up the burgers pretty well to get some good results. To the meat I added, soy sauce, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and a vegetable dip mix (one of the packets you add to sour cream to make a dip). I grilled them on the stove using my new grill pan (shown in the picture) I received for Christmas. They turned out nicely moist and delicious, though I probably should have made them a little smaller so they cooked faster.


Also for Christmas, I received this nice oven-safe pot. I used it to make some BBQ baked beans with tofu. After softening some onion, you mix together the beans, BBQ sauce, tofu, brown sugar, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. I baked it until it was bubbly. I like my beans to be softer than these turned out, but it was pretty good anyways. The tofu added a different texture to it all.