01 May 2009

Dark Matter Dinner

Today was a day dedicated to the sole purpose of slogging through as much information about galaxy formation and dark matter as possible. It turns out that they are neither interesting nor relevant topics to my research (at least in the way that it was presented) so studying it is about as fun as, oh, watching Guy Fieri take a bite out of a deep fried sandwich twice the diameter of his beach ball sized head. Nevertheless, I had a study partner coming over with wifey in tow and a husband of my own to feed (he gets grumpy when I forget to feed him), so I decided to use that seven-dollar-a-pound-too-lean-free-range-ground beef that's been sitting in my freezer and make burgers. They turned out wonderfully and were much more delicious than n-body simulations of dark matter halos.

Green Chile Cheeseburgers
1 lb ground beef
1 can hatch green chiles (not sure what size, but it's an awfully small can)
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp parsley (because what the hell, why not?)
1/4 c shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 onion, sliced and caramelized
~3 tbs chevre

Drain the can of chiles to get some of the water out and then mix in with the granulated garlic, salt, pepper, parsley, and mozzarella until well combined. Make four patties that at least stick together, making sure not to over work them. Cook the patties in your preferred cooking machine. I have to pan-fry all my stupid burgers because it's apparently illegal to have a grill on a balcony in Austin. So. Not. Cool. Towards the end of cooking, add ~2 tsp or so of chevre to each burger and cover with caramelized onions. Cover for a few to get the cheese warm and gooey-ish. Nom nom.

I ate mine plain, Colby ate his with a ton of ketchup (because he's classy like that) and study parter covered his in spicy brown mustard (because we don't have no stinkin' yeller mustard in these parts because like... EW). These were also served with a large helping of nachos a la Crown&Anchor because we're nothing if not classy in this joint.

Tomorrow is a pizza party kind of night. I bet I'll be kicking myself for not starting the dough tonight, but the bit of evening that I managed to salvage was spent over a dutch oven deep frying things... but that's for another delectable post. :)

3 comments:

Johnny Banana said...

a) I prefer pan frying, because it keeps the burger juicier. Cast iron FTW.

b) Yellow mustard is designed for and essential to pretzels and bratwurst.

c) You have a dutch oven now too? Damn, my one culinary equipment win is gone now. :-P

d) Ick, green chiles.

Anonymous said...

Hm. Was that beef free range in the same sense that chickens/turkeys are free range?

julie k h aka jkru said...

It was grass fed from Whole Foods, so whatever that means. Although, I think that in order to be called "grass fed" by Whole Foods standards, it wasn't supposed to have any corn, what with cows having rumens with the purpose of eating grass. In all, grass fed is more telling than "free range", though if you want to be perfectly safe, you should get buffalo meat because they won't eat grains.