So here are some quick snaps, just for the memories... working on perfecting our version of paella, which will be its own post if we can pull it off. And unbelievably, Thanksgiving is just around the corner...
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Nothing quite hits the spot like a great burger. Back in the late 90's, J and I were on a quest to find the best burger in San Francisco, sampling a new spot every week. We eventually had to stop because the magnitude of the calorie consumption was beginning to have a palpable effect... but not before our dedication to the journey was rewarded with some truly fantastic bites.
As great as it is to hit up your favorite burger joint for their best, making your own burgers can be just as good. With all of the great weather lately in Seattle, we've been grilling like maniacs. When grilling your own burgers, here are a couple of simple tips to ensure the right texture, juiciness and flavor:
1. Get great meat, freshly ground if you can. I prefer grass-fed ground chuck for a robust but clean flavor.
2. Season the meat well. Really well. As in lots of salt and pepper, particularly if you're making thick patties. You'll need to season thoroughly to make sure the flavor expression permeates throughout each mouthwatering bite.
3. Avoid ultra-lean ground beef. You don't want anything leaner than 15% fat, otherwise there won't be sufficient fat to render while cooking, keeping the patty super juicy and flavorful.
4. Don't over-handle the meat. Form the patties gently and somewhat loosely, with just a slight indentation in the middle to end up with a nice, level patty after grilling. Handling the meat too much or packing it together too tight will result in a tough patty.
Other than that, grilling the burger is super simple. For a 7 ounce patty, you can grill over medium high heat for 5-6 minutes per side for medium doneness. For this burger, I went with a brioche bun, caramelized onions, bleu cheese, a slice of a brandywine heirloom tomato, bacon and arugula. Add a nice pile of fresh cut, piping hot, crispy fries and a glass of Washington syrah... and I'm having a hard time thinking of anything more deeply satisfying.
crab
Delicately sweet flesh, tender and flaky, with a focused, purity of flavor. One of Lav's favorites of the meal.
oysters and sea foam
Grilled oysters? You bet. Sea foam? Yep---an emulsion of the juices released by the oyster upon shucking. This was another one of the dishes that expressed the absolute precision of Chef Victor's grilling technique. Somehow, by gently grilling the flesh of the oyster, it was able to simultaneously express a heightened flavor of warmed oyster flesh while maintaining the plump, crisp texture of just-shucked raw oysters. Mind-boggling.caviar
This seemed somewhat controversial... grilled caviar? Believe it. The gentle heat and smoke elevated two primary flavor notes: buttery goodness accented with wafty ocean scents. Surprising.
baby octopus
One of my favorite things to eat while we were in Spain. Tender, sweet and succulent, this dish also had the perfect caramelization of the flesh for just the faintest crisp exterior.spring peas
Despite the magnificence of everything we were eating, this simple dish stuck out in my mind as one of the more profound successes. A study in the perfection of the sweetness of truly fresh peas. Three perfectly unified flavor notes: sweet pea (warm enough to extrude some juices, still fresh enough to have some crispy snap), gentle smoke, and a beautifully rich sliver of pork lardo.
purple potato, mountain mushroom, farm egg
At first, I didn't understand this dish at all. a lightly smokey mash of sweet purple potato with paper-thin shavings of local mountain mushroom which, served raw, tasted somewhat dry and quite woody (like balsa wood). Not a great combination of flavor or texture... that is, until we realized there was a gently warmed egg yolk hiding under all of the mushroom shavings. We stirred the three ingredients together, then tried another bite. The result was a remarkable synergy between the smooth, sweet texture of the potato marrying with the now earthy (rather than woody) flavors of the mushroom, moistened/enriched/flavored by the elemental creaminess of the egg yolk. Really surprising.clams
Probably the most ordinariy of the dishes we had, these grilled clams still had an outrageous sparkle of freshness with slivers of crisp, sweet garlic. Again, just the backdrop of smoke to accent the flesh of the clams.
baby squid
Served in a compote of caramelized onions reduced in squid ink, I believe these tender squid were grilled with a different type of charcoal than the octopus. The smoke flavor was less sweet, but equally gentle. The combination of the squid ink into the onion "jam" was masterful---sweet, briny, earthy... perfectly integrated.
galician beef
Back in 1999, I had my first steak at Peter Luger. Renowned for the quality of its house-aged steaks (each side of cattle personally inspected and selected by the daughter of the founder), I'll be the first to admit that Peter Luger has off days as well as days when they're on their "A" game. That first bite of thick-sliced porterhouse still sizzling on the plate and dressed with melted butter was an instantaneous "moment." It became the steak against which all others would be compared, but which none would quite match...
This steak kicked Peter Luger's ass.
The approach to steak in many of the asadors of Spain is completely antithetical to the American approach. Here in the U.S., we slaughter our cattle young (no older than three years of age). For the majority of their short lives, our cattle get relatively little exercise as well... both are done to keep the meat tender. In Spain, the most prized beef comes from the Galician Blonde cattle. These cattle are most often put to work for the majority of their lives, developing tough, lean muscle fibers. At 9-12 years of age, the cattle are "retired" from their labor and given a couple of years of leisure, during which time they are fattened significantly. At the time of slaughter, therefore, the cows are actually quite old. The combination of work early in life and leisure later in life results in beef that is intensely flavored, but still well-marbled with fat. The tenderizing comes from 90 days of dry aging, during which time a significant amount of beef is trimmed off. Whatever it is that they're doing, I'm a believer. I've never had a steak (cooked absolutely rare, but with a beautiful crust nonetheless, and with no blood extruding from the slices) so incredibly flavorful, so impossibly tender. And I have no expectation of ever having a superior steak.
Some additional thoughts.
This meal was where I realized that many restauarants in Spain do not mark up their wines at all... zero, nada... the price on the list is the same as, or extremely close to, retail. Fantastic.We were lucky enough to have a brief chat with Chef Victor. We tried in earnest to express our effusive praise for the unbelievable meal and our incredulity that everything had been prepared essentially with the same cooking method. He smiled and humbly said "It's just meat and fire..." (a rough translation), asked us where we were visiting from, and bought us a digestif to wrap up our meal as we savored our fleeting moments in this spectacular temple of gastronomy.
I can honestly say that I still ponder this meal from time to time, that my perspective and appreciation of what can be done to food has been dramatically expanded, and that I wonder on a regular basis how this crazy magician is able to do what he does in his workshop... what a treasure.