The Secret to Moist Burgers

Continuing on the quest to lower triglyceride levels, Mr Minx and I picked up some ground chicken at the supermarket as a substitute for ground beef. I was in the mood for burgers. Maybe not chicken burgers, but hey, how bad could they be?

I wasn't going to find out.

A few days later, I came home from work to find Mr Minx had ground up some chia seeds with a mortar and pestle and was soaking them in water. His intention was to mix them with the ground chicken to add moisture to the burgers. And I, Miss Know-It-All, thought he was going about it the wrong way, that he should have merely added the dry seeds to the chicken. But I let him do his thing, first draining out the few drops of water that didn't get completely absorbed by the now-swollen particles of chia. As he combined the chicken and chia, he decided that the mixture was a bit too soft, so I sprinkled in about a tablespoon of dry bread crumbs.

The result? The moistest burgers I've ever eaten, seriously! with a hint of garlic/onion flavor. We ate them on whole grain bread with a bit of mayonnaise and some sautéed onions, and they were just terrific. So much so that I had to try them again the next week, this time using the dreaded ground turkey.

They turned out just as well.

I fancied them up a bit by doing a riff on Buffalo wings, adding hot sauce to the onions and some bleu cheese sauce on top. Oh, and served them on Thomas' 12 Grain English Muffins.

Moist Poultry Burgers, Buffalo-style

2 teaspoons chia seeds
1/4 cup water
2 lbs ground chicken or turkey
dashes of garlic powder, onion powder, and smoked paprika
plain dry bread crumbs
salt and pepper to taste

Grind the chia seeds to a powder with a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle. Soak the powder in the water for at least an hour. When ready to use, sieve the excess water from the seeds. Do not push on the seeds in the sieve - you only want to remove the excess, which may well be only a teaspoonful or so - it's important to keep the jelly-like consistency.

Mix the chia seeds with the ground chicken or turkey, making sure there are no obvious blobs of seeds. Season with smoked paprika and garlic and onion powders. If the mixture seems too moist, add some dry bread crumbs, a teaspoonful at a time. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Form 6 patties with the meat. Heat a saute pan and add 1 tablespoon olive or canola oil. Cook patties over medium heat about 10 minutes, turning once halfway through. Serve with spicy onions and bleu cheese dressing.

Spicy Onions

1/2 cup sliced onion
olive oil
salt
3 tablespoons Frank's Red Hot sauce

Saute onion in a bit of olive oil and a pinch of salt until soft and beginning to brown. Stir in hot sauce.
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You want proof of moistness? Check out the juicy droplets on my plate.

I dare say this technique would also work to add much-needed moisture to extra lean beef burgers, particularly for those folks (like my Dad) who insist on eating their meat well-done. And meatballs!

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Meatless Monday - Veggie Burgers

I never thought, when I started Minxeats, that I would end up posting very many vegetarian recipes. But now that meat has necessarily become an endangered species in our house, I've had to resort to making veggies and non-animal proteins the focus at dinnertime.

Veggie burgers are one of those things I think of as a vegetarian staple, but I haven't eaten very many. Once in a while we'd buy a box of Boca Burgers, but eventually the fake grill flavor started to remind me of the loathed Burger King, and I gave up on them. Then, sometime last year, I was asked by Baltimore Magazine to write a blurb on Banksy's Café on Falls Road. Their veggie burger is apparently based on a famous burger once served at Ratner's, a Kosher deli in New York, and was extremely soft, rather mashed-potatoey, but also very good. That made me realize that a veggie burger need only be burger-shaped and not really bear any other resemblance to something served up by clowns by the millions every day.

I did a little research on veggie burgers and found that a lot of them involve beans. Over the years, I've discovered that beans and I have a mutual dislike for each other, but occasionally black beans have found their way into my gullet without too much of a struggle. I thought I'd give them a try in burger form, bolstered by mushrooms for texture. Not too much texture though - instead of merely chopping the 'shrooms to allow them to lend their squeaky chew, I minced them in the food processor with some onion, essentially making a duxelles. When mixed with the beans (which also took a trip through the foodpro - hey, it was already dirty and taking up precious counter space), the mushrooms didn't exactly provide the texture I was seeking. However, the mixture, seasoned with a bit of garlic, smoked paprika, and green onion was darn tasty.

And wow - it kinda looked like a big ol' juicy burger, too.

I made my own rolls, using the soft sandwich bread recipe in Artisan Baking in Five Minutes a Day. They tasted fine, but were too crisp for the burgers, which were quite soft and squooshed out the sides at every bite. Mushroom Black Bean Burgers also seemed a bit too exotic for mere ketchup, mustard, or mayo, so I made a bit of basil mayo and some Cambodian lemongrass curry mayo, and a bit of corn relish.

I dare say I will make these again, perhaps adding some chia seed to help with the texture.

Mushroom and Black Bean Burgers

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup onion, finely minced
1 cup mushrooms, finely minced
pinch salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 13oz can black beans
2 tablespoons chopped green onion
1/2 - 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
salt and pepper to taste
plain dry bread crumbs
olive oil for frying

Sauté onions and mushrooms in olive oil over medium heat until most of their moisture has evaporated and they become pasty. about 15-20 minutes. Add garlic and cook another 2-3 minutes. Allow to cool.

I never said it would be pretty.

Puree beans in food processor. Place in bowl and add cooked mushrooms, green onion, paprika, and salt and pepper to taste. Form into cakes. Roll in bread crumbs.

Heat some canola or olive oil in a saute pan over high heat. Add burgers and cook until crisp and browned on bottom. Carefully turn burgers and brown on the other side.

Serve on soft buns with your favorite condiments. Makes 6 burgers.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Ch-ch-ch-chia!

Remember the Chia Pet? While the fad of growing "hair" on clay vessels shaped like animals or human heads was amusing, chia seeds are much more beneficial to humans than one might think. For one thing, they are good for dieters because they absorb many times their own weight in water, forming a bulky gel that gives one a full feeling after eating. And, perhaps more importantly, they contain a high level of Omega 3 fatty acids, even more than that other touted source: salmon.

Studies show that consuming lots of Omega 3s = lower triglyceride levels, so we've incorporated them into our diet. I bought mine at Nuts Online.

So what does one do with Chia seeds? You can sprinkle them over cereal or salads, and stir them into muffin or cupcake batters. I used them as a topping for rye bread, along with caraway seeds. If you stir them into a liquid and allow them to sit for a while, they will form a gelatinous capsule around themselves, thickening the liquid. In this form, they can be used to thicken salad dressings or sauces. With a little milk and flavoring (and a couple of hours) they can make a tasty no-cook pudding.

Chocochia Pudding
4 tablespoons chia seeds
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons honey, or to taste
1 cup milk (Vegans can use almond, soy, or rice milk)

Mix chia, cocoa, vanilla, and honey together into a paste. Slowly stir in almond milk and continue to stir until everything is well incorporated. Allow to sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes to make a thin pudding. Place in refrigerator for a few hours if you want a thicker pudding. The longer it sits, the thicker it will get, so you may need to add more almond milk to thin it.

Makes a scant 2 cups.
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The pudding was quite chocolaty, but since we used almond milk, wasn't as creamy as the chocolate puddings of our youth. I made a parfait with a bit of Fage Greek yogurt, which added some creamy texture, but hell, if you're not watching your cholesterol, whipped cream would be much better!

Keep in mind that chia seeds are, well, seeds. They will not dissolve in liquid, and even though they form a gel, they'll still be crunchy. But they are teeny tiny, so the effect is rather like eating strawberries. Apparently the crunch is lessened if one crushes the seeds, but again, they are tiny, so I'm thinking it's a job for a mortar and pestle and some elbow grease. As for the taste, I've read that they are "nutty." To me they taste kinda "green," but really have little or no flavor. But hey - lots of Omega 3s and no fish burps! That's got to be worth something!

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Meatless Monday - Tofu Tacos

In an attempt to eat less meat, we're upping our tofu quotient. Honestly, we like tofu just fine, but sometimes it's hard to stomach yet another stir fry. The other day, realizing we had two perfectly ripe avocados on hand and a brand new package of flour tortillas in the fridge, I thought it might be interesting to try tofu as a taco filling.

Of course, I'd try pretty much anything as a taco filling.

Mashed tofu ain't pretty, but if it's nicely spiced, tastes just dandy. In addition to fresh guacamole, Mr Minx whipped up some peanut butter crema. Because crema, guac, and tofu are all soft, you might want to use some crunchy lettuce or shredded cabbage as garnish. Julienned carrot would be nice, too.

Tofu Taco Filling

2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons ketchup
3 tablespoons enchilada sauce (I used Trader Joe's)
1 chipotle in adobo, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 package firm tofu (14oz), cut into cubes and smashed roughly with a fork
salt and pepper to taste

Sauté onions in olive oil until they are very soft and beginning to caramelize, 10-15 minutes. Stir in ketchup, enchilada sauce, chipotle, and spices and stir until everything is well-mixed. Cook over medium heat until warmed through. Add salt and pepper to taste, if necessary.

Guacamole

2 ripe Haas avocados
1 small tomato, chopped
juice of half a lime
1 scallion, green and white parts, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Scoop avocado flesh into a bowl and mash with a fork until you're pleased with the consistency (I like a few chunks). Add tomato and lime juice, stir well, and season to taste.

Avocados have been shown to lower serum cholesterol and triglycerides, so pile it on!

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Ghost Meatballs

Somebody in the Minx household has high triglycerides, so we're cutting back on red meat a bit and trying to eat more lean protein, like tofu and turkey. And you all know how much I love turkey. [gag] The things one does for love, huh?

Because this person is a pasta fiend, and spaghetti and meatballs can NOT be removed from the dinner repertoire, I thought it would be healthier to make turkey meatballs instead of using the usual triumvirate of beef, pork, and veal. To keep them moist, we employed a technique learned from watching America's Test Kitchen: mashing bread and milk together to create a mushy substance known as a panade. This both moisturizes the meat and coats the proteins so they don't bind together tightly, acting rather like the fat in other types of meat. Fat also acts to enhance flavor, so turkey meatballs need to be seasoned well.

A turkey meatball will never be as tender and juicy as one made from other animal proteins; increasing the amount of panade might help a bit, but as with a crab cake, you don't want to notice the breading. This recipe makes about 10-12 balls with a nice meaty flavor (ok, they taste like turkey), but that are scarily white on the insides, like ghost meatballs. If you like, you can add some chopped herbs to the meat mixture - basil and parsley would be nice - but then they might look like moldy ghosts. :)

Simple Turkey Meatballs

2 slices white or wheat bread
2 tablespoons milk
1.5 lb ground turkey breast
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large egg
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

Moisten bread with milk, mashing with a fork to create a homogeneous paste. Mix with turkey, garlic, egg, and Parmesan, plus salt and pepper to taste. Form into balls, about 1.5" in diameter (mixture will be quite moist) and brown on all sides in a bit of canola or olive oil.

Serve with pasta and your favorite sauce. Serves 4.

Note: these actually taste better - and seem moister - after sitting in the fridge a few days.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.