Browsing Tag

sauces

Dinner, Lunch, Sandwiches/Paninis

Kat’s Version of the Ultimate Hamburger, featuring Bacon Sweet Onion Jam

Everyone has their own “perfect burger”. This is mine.

For starters, it has Bacon Onion Jam, which is in itself a reason for living. It is pretty amazing frankly. I am going to have to keep some of this in my fridge, made at regular interval, for the rest of my life. It is not so pretty to photograph, but take my word for it, it;s good. Really. Really. Good.

And then there is the burger meat, which I grind myself. Millions of times better than store bought. It is time consuming though. I also add porcini powder which no, does not make the burgers taste mushroom-y, just makes them taste more meaty, and thus more amazing. If you have the time and the inclination, give the full recipe a try (or you can use store bought ground beef, but it won’t be the same).
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Appetizers/Starters, Savory Snacks

Grilled Ramp and Lemons Hummus

Things to do with Ramps, Part 4: Make hummus. Yes, still stuck on my ramps (ransoms, Bärlauch) kick and here is a quick and simple recipe that pulls out some of the suble garlicy flavor of the ramps. The grilled lemons add both acidity and sweetness. Comes together in 2-30 minutes and is a great addition to the usual pia chips or veggies. Note: I grilled the whole ramps but then only used the bulbs in the hummus, eating the greens on the side. You can use the whole ramps (bulbs and greens) in the hummus, but when I made it like that the first time, I thought that the greens actually made the hummus too green.
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General Reference/Tutorial

Ramp Chimichurri

Things to do with Ramps, Part 1: Two thinks that I love are Chimichurri (Sauce) and Ramps (German: Bärlauch). If you don’t know what chimichurri is, the short answer is that it is a green sauce made of herbs, garlic, some acid (i.e. lemon or lime juice or vinegar), chiles (fresh or dried) and olive oil. Typically the herbs are parsley, and sometimes cilantro/coriander and sometimes oregano. It originates from Argentina, when it is traditionally put on steak, but it certainly can be put on other things. You’ll see a few examples of that in the next few days here.

My other love is ramps, which are also called wild garlic, ramsons, bear’s garlic, wild leeks, wild onions, bear’s weed, etc. In German, it is called Bärlauch and is one of those “must eat” things in the Spring (they are only available for a few short weeks). Anyway, given that I have a bunch of ramps, and it is Spring, I decided to add some of these to my latest batch of chimichurri. Huge success.
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Dinner, Lunch, Pasta

Vegetable Lasagna Rollup Casserole

I have leftover winter veggies from making my Tuscan Vegetable Tart that needed to be used up, and besides, it’s still cold and yucking here in the Northeast, which is always a good excuse to make comfort food. Note that this recipe can also be made as a regular lasagna (not the rollups) as it uses the exact same amount of ingredients, so if you don’t want to go through the effort of rolling, just assemble as you normally would a regular one.
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