my boyfriend cooks for me: burger with mexican-inspired condiments

Sunday, January 24, 2010

burger with mexican-inspired condiments

Yesterday while grocery shopping we randomly decided that this would be the week we try jicama. I would describe jicama as being light in flavor with a really nice crunch; my boyfriend would describe it as "a clear watery carrot with a note of apple".

Consulting our food reference books, On Food and Cooking informed us that jicama's "main virtue is its sturdy crispness", and The Flavor Bible explicitly listed Mexican cuisine as a flavor profile that jicama pairs well with. Combined with some of the specific ingredients listed there (avocado, radishes and cilantro), a vision for tonight's dinner began to come together. The final piece of the puzzle was deciding that, since we keep getting burger patties from our CSA, we need to be more adventurous and creative with burger toppings.

The final product was hamburgers with Mexican-inspired condiments. My boyfriend made the guacamole, and I created a jicama & radish slaw.

Hamburger patties

Guacamole

Jicama & Radish slaw - jicama, radish, sour cream, lemon juice, cilantro and salsa verde

Parsnip "fries" (aka roasted parsnips with horseradish-herb butter)

4 comments:

meganJanuary 24, 2010 at 7:32 PM
I have a copy of the flavor bible, but I never seem to use it. i'm always using somebody else's recipe instead of creating my own...that needs to change :) these look great!
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MrsLavendulaJanuary 25, 2010 at 9:44 AM
im now craving for burger with good slaw! yumm!
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Sippity SupJanuary 25, 2010 at 8:31 PM
You BF hit another homerun1 'specially with that slaw. So right on the money. GREG
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my boyfriend cooks for meJanuary 26, 2010 at 8:00 PM
Greg -- let's give credit where it is due: that slaw was all me! (With my boyfriend's input and knife-skills...no way I could cut radishes that well....)
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About Us

My boyfriend loves to cook and is very creative in the kitchen. Although the internet is often consulted, he doesn't use recipes. He does most (ok, just about all) of the "heavy lifting" documented here. He also happens to be an amazing artist - which may contribute to his excellent food plating and presentation - so check out his art store on Etsy (and see some samples at the bottom of the page).

I perform important tasks (mainly peeling and chopping onions) and provide ideas gleaned from hours of reading food blogs, recipes and menus online, as well as gentle suggestions (i.e. "Isn't the [ingredient] going to go bad soon? Maybe we should use [ingredient] tonight..."). I am also Head Photographer and Blogmaster.

About Our Blog

In an article in the New York Times Michael Pollan said that we spend more time watching "sport" cooking shows than we do actually cooking. And he said this like it is a bad thing. We hope that this blog proves that these shows, while not explicitly instructive, can be a wonderful inspiration.

Of course no one has the time or resources to cook like an Iron Chef all the time. Sometimes we decide to be adventurous and try more elaborate dishes, but generally we want to show that it isn't difficult to put together interesting, creative, and healthy meals any night of the week. We don't make a weekly plan, we don't decide what to make and then go get ingredients. We buy random fun and interesting things that catch our eye at the grocery store, and then figure out how we can use them.

So don't look here for recipes (for the most part the description of what we ate is all there is to it - "mashed turnip with horseradish" is mashed turnip with horseradish!), look here for everyday ideas and inspiration.

Aphorisms from the Professor: Brillat-Savarin

Sunday, January 24, 2010

burger with mexican-inspired condiments

4 comments: