What I’ve started doing recently is combining Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution with Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food, so that I feel like I’m pretty much doing the right thing if I make most, if not all of a dish from scratch, and I pay attention to the ingredients so that they are as fresh and local as possible.
So, what we made last night were what my son calls “Juicy Lucys” or what normal people would call cheeseburgers, though the twist in this recipe is that the cheese is mixed in with the hamburger. What this does is allows the burger to be really juicy and cheesy without being tough. The hardest part is to make sure that the burger is done because the normal press test doesn’t work at all. You have to pay attention to the time the burgers have been on, or be familiar with how they shrink and what juices are coming out.
My son made his by making two thin patties and putting cheese in between the two patties and smashing them together. I think that the better way is to actually mix grated cheese into the hamburger prior to making it into patties.
Traditional hamburger - yes, that's a tomato
Recipe:
1-2 lbs ground chuck – 80% fat if possible
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
Hamburger fixings:
sliced red onion
Iceberg lettuce
whole wheat buns
sauted mushrooms
Bacon
Condiments:
sour cream
BBQ sauce
Mayonnaise
Mustard
Ketchup
Process:
Mix the 2 cups of grated cheese with the hamburger using your hands.
Form into patties with the understanding that they will shrink.
Grill for 3-5 minutes per side, keeping an eye on flareups – these burgers tend to flare a lot. If you watch Alton Brown and Good Eats, you may have seen his technique when using a charcoal grill. He puts the tongs into the grill and rotates the entire grill, rather than moving the meat – genius!
I also like to toast my buns, and this time I sprayed a couple buns with some olive oil spray from Trader Joes because my butter was hard.
Toast the buns for 1-2 minutes
The burgers were great! Give ’em a try and add your own favorite toppings.
While this recipe does rely on commercial buns and some condiments, I think it pretty much consists of real food (maybe a bit too much meat), made at home, with real ingredients.
