Mix up the meat mix and get a steamer started. Form into small patties in the steamer and cover. Steam for a total of 8-10 minutes, flipping and pressing down with the spatula once. A minute or two before they're done, top the patties with one cheese slice each.
Cut hot dog buns into thirds. Each third is one hamburger bun, put hamburger in bun and add desired condiments.
I got a yield of 32 patties out of about 1-1/3 pounds of ground beef. The beef was "lean", no more than 20% fat. I'll generally get leaner ground beef than that, but this was on sale for 99 cents a pound.
I'd normally put cumin, mustard seed, and soy sauce into the meat mix, but I'm out of all three. Time to restock.
Next time I'll add more condiments. I'd like to try cherry tomato slices, and maybe shallot slices. I also thought it might be fun to top them with fried quail's egg.
I plan to work on baking my own tiny buns, but for now, the hot dog buns work really well.
I've been wanting to make tiny hamburgers for a long time, and never got around to it. Now that I finally have, they turned out great! Even cjo (not normally a hamburger fan) liked them. And they're fun!
First, start frying the peanuts in the peanut oil in a non-stick skillet for maybe a minute, and then add the sugar. Keep stirring and frying between medium and medium high, until the sugar turns into slightly golden crystals about 1/8" diameter. During that process, you can see the sugar liquefying on the bottom of the pan, and then crystallizing as it's lifted back towards the top of the mix. Once it's to that stage, turn the heat to low and stir in the chocolate chips and peanut butter. Once it's all melted and mixed together, drop chunks of it onto wax paper on a cookie sheet, and then put the cookie sheet in the freezer for about an hour until it's fully cooled and hardened.
This is a quick and easy chocolate candy. It's crunchy from both the peanuts and the sugar crystals.
Because of the peanut butter, it doesn't get really firm unless you put it in the fridge or freezer. I cool it in the freezer just so that it'll be ready quicker, and then I put it into a container in the fridge, separating layers with wax paper.
I usually measure the chocolate, peanuts, and sugar, and do the peanut butter and peanut oil by eye.
You can drop them onto the wax paper in whatever shapes you like, I tend to prefer thin bars about 3 inches long.
This started as a mistake, but it turned into quite a treat.
First, I started frying the peanuts in little bit of peanut oil in a small cast-iron skillet. Then I added it a bunch of sugar, mixing it the whole time. Then I added in the cocoa powder and kept cooking and stirring.
When I thought the sugar had caramelized enough, I stirred in some sherry and let it reduce a bit. Then I poured in the heavy cream, cooked it until it thickened a bit, and then poured it over vanilla ice cream.
I had a particular idea in mind, and it didn't go as planned, so I kept working on it and adding stuff to try to salvage it, and eventually it turned into an ice cream sauce. And a great ice cream sauce it made, too! There are crunchy chunks of crystallized sugar, and the chocolate sauce itself is fairly crystallized, as well. And the peanuts, freshly roasted in the pan and coated with sugar and chocolate, are delicious.
The leftover sauce, still full of peanuts, I put in the fridge, where I ended up nibbling at it by itself for the next week or so. Quite a treat!
Just another stir fry I did tonight.
First, of course, I prepped all the ingredients. Then, I started by caramelizing the onion in peanut oil, in the cast iron skillet. I also continued adding peanut oil as necessary during cooking, and stirred frequently and vigorously during the whole process.
Added in the garlic, fried for a short bit then added the peanuts, ginger, and celery. Fried for a couple of minutes, then added the broccoli stalk and green bell pepper. Fried for another minute or two then added the spice mix, then dumped the sugar in an open part of the pan and let it start caramelizing, then mixed it in. Added the beef, fried it until it browned, then added the sherry. Let it reduce a bit, then added the tamari sauce and the broccoli floweretts. Added some flour to thicken it, cooked it until it thickened slightly, and then removed it from the heat and served
Ate it over brown rice. Not as good as some of my dishes, but better than the food we've been eating out lately. I haven't been cooking because of getting sick and then being tired.
My opinion of cauliflower was forever altered when I read a comment describing its taste as "slightly nutty." Before then, I had never noticed the nuttiness. Most of my experiences with cauliflower involved cheese, which overpowered its subtle flavor. After that comment, I tried cheese-free cauliflower. To my amazement, I discovered that I preferred it that way. Here I always thought that cheese improved everything, but so far, cauliflower appears to be an exception.
This hearty soup is my all-time favorite to make. The recipe was inspired by the Colophon Cafe's African Peanut Soup. I loved the original but wanted a vegetarian version to share with non-meat-eating friends.
If you don't have a blender, just leave the peanuts intact.
Ingredients:
4 cans tomatoes 2 cloves garlic 2 dried red peppers 1 inch ginger 1 vegetarian boullion cube (optional) 2 small cauliflowers 1 small onion 1 1/2 cup peanuts, roasted, with no extra flavorings 1/4 cup butter (for roux) 1/4 cup flour (for roux) 4 cups water butter or olive oil (for frying the onions, optional) black pepper (to taste)
Directions: Coarsely chop the peanuts in the blender. Use the lowest setting and just pulse it a few times. Many will remain intact, some will be cut into small chunks, and a few will be ground fine enough to slightly thicken the soup. If you don't have a blender or food processor, just leave them intact.
Peel and thinly slice the ginger. Chop the garlic and peppers.
I like a mix of crushed tomatoes and chunkier ones. My method is to puree two cans of diced tomatoes in the blender, and leave the other two as is. Alternately, use two cans of crushed tomatoes and two of diced. (We only bother stocking one kind of tomatoes, and I already have the blender out for the peanuts, or I'd mix tomato types myself.) Or, just use crushed tomatoes for the entire amount... Really, it's just a matter of how chunky you like the tomatoes, so do as you will.
Dice the onion. Fry in olive oil with the ginger, and garlic until soft and slightly carmelized. This will give a sweeter taste. However, if you're lazy you can skip this step. I usually skip it; the onions will soften and cook if you heat the soup long enough, and the spices are enough to tame the sharpness you get from not having carmelized them.
Chop the cauliflower into bite-sized pieces and set it aside.
Add everything except the cauliflower to the pot, and bring it to a boil. Reduce heat, and cook for at least 20 minutes.
Add the cauliflower, and simmer for an additional 15 minutes.
Prepare and add the roux. (Here's another step you can skip if you are lazy. This soup is actually quite thick just from the volume of cauliflower.)
Enjoy!
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