Cookistry

Seems kind of crazy to have a recipe for salad, but I'd say that this is really more about the dressing. It's not like anything I've made before, that's for sure.

The recipe is adapted from The Better than Takeout Thai Cookbook by Danette St. Onge. I'll have to admit that I've never actually had Thai takeout, but there was a local Thai restaurant I used to go to - but that was mostly curries. I don't think I ever had a salad there.

This all started when I had half of a New York strip steak left over. I considered making steak tacos, which is pretty much what I do any time I have leftover steak.

But then I started thumbing through the cookbook that I just got from cookbook club I belong to (we all buy a different book, and then all the books get passed around so everyone gets a chance to cook from all the books) and I saw the steak salad. It seemed perfect.

I love salad. I really do. Sometimes I'll make salad as a snack.

I didn't have all of the ingredients this recipe called for, and I added a bit more tomato and scallion than the recipe called for, but don't we all fiddle with recipes? Anyway, the part that fascinated me was the dressing. I'd never thought of adding fish sauce. And there was no oil.

While this recipe is for a steak salad, I think it would be pretty amazing for a salad with shrimp or chicken or pretty much anything else you happen to put on salad.

One thing I really liked about this recipe was that it made a relatively small amount of dressing. I've seen recipes in cookbooks that made a quart ... that's good for a week. Since this is so simple, there's no reason to make a lot, unless you're feeding a lot of people.

When I made this, I cut back on the dressing, since I just had that little half-steak instead of a whole pound of beef, and it was just about perfect for a single salad. The dressing is so flavorful, you really don't need a lot.

Grilled Steak Salad (Yum Nuea Yang)
Adapted from The Better than Takeout Thai Cookbook by Danette St. Onge

For the dressing:
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon ground roasted chili powder (there's a recipe for this in the cookbook, but you could substitute your favorite chili powder, sharp paprika, or even a few drops of hot sauce, to taste)
1 teaspoon palm sugar or granulated sugar (or to taste)
(If your scallions and shallots are strong, I'd suggest tossing them into the dressing right away. The acid will take away some of the bite.)

For the salad:
1 pound thin flank steak, strip, hanger, or flap steak (I used a leftover piece of strip steak)
4 tablespoons thinly sliced shallot (I skipped this and added more scallion)
2 scallions, thinly sliced
4 tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
1 medium tomato, cut into wedges
4 tablespoons mint leaves, coarsely chopped

To make the dressing:
Stir all the ingredients together and set aside. I'd suggest giving it a little taste to make sure the lime isn't too strong, since limes can differ a lot. Add more sugar if you think it needs it.

To make the salad:
Grill the steak on a grill pan, outdoor grill, or in a hot cast iron skillet to get a nice crust and cook it to your preferred temperature. Let it rest for a few minutes before slicing across the grain into thin, bite-sized strips. (If you happen to have a leftover steak like I did, just toss it in a skillet to warm it. Leftover chicken, pre-cooked shrimp, or anything else you happen to like would work well, too.)

Toss the steak, dressing, and remaining ingredients in a small bowl. Serve this warm on a bed of your favorite lettuce.

Okay, let me admit this. You know those cooking competition shows on television, where a bunch of cooks are set loose to cook stuff in an unfamiliar kitchen? You know, like The Next Food Network Star? Or maybe Master Chef?

Those are my guilty pleasure. Except I'm not so guilty about it. I don't watch sports on television, so I think you can cut me some slack for watching people scramble to poach the perfect egg rather than watching them plopping a small ball into a hole in the ground.

So anyway, Sprouts Farmer's Market hosted a blogger event at the home of the Colorado Beef Council. I attended an event there in December that focused how to cook beef roasts. This being grilling season, we learned about steaks and grilling.

The had some great handouts about beef in general and a super-handy chart that listed different beef cuts and how to cook them. And about nutrition, storing, reheating, and more. And there was a pamphlet with some recipes, too.

We also learned that Sprout sells two types of beef. The first is grass fed beef that is 100 percent grass fed - never corn - and is raised with no antibiotics, ever. The second is natural beef, which is grass fed and grain finished. The cows do not receive antibiotics for the last 300 days, but it's possible they might have received them before that.

Someone asked if Sprouts carried organic beef, but it was explained that they used to buy organic beef from a trusted supplier, but there came a point where they sold so much beef that the supplier couldn't keep up with the demand. There just isn't enough organic beef out there.

In the kitchen, we learned about cooking beef and saw a demo of how to get proper grill marks on a steak ...




... and then the fun really started ...

We were told that we could pick from three different types of steak - ribeye, tenderloin, or strip. We could also choose where we wanted to cook - oven, grill, or stove (with different pans available). We could choose from a variety of different seasonings, and we could choose from a bunch of fresh vegetables and herbs, as well as some grains. There were also a few sauces including a red pepper coulis and a horseradish sauce.

Although they didn't say, "Ready, set, GO!" that's sort of what it was like as the teaching portion of the day was complete and we were set loose in a commercial kitchen to create and plate our own vision of what that evening's steak dinner.

And then bloggers scrambled in every direction. Some chose their steak first, while others claimed their work space. Still others went to the "pantry" where the vegetables and spices were waiting. Some chose their utensils, but that's the last thing I did, so I ended up cutting my vegetables with a fillet knife. It was super-sharp, so it didn't really matter that it wasn't a chef's knife.

Unlike the shows on television, however, there was no pushing and shoving. Everyone was polite, and waited their turn at the ingredients. No one yelled "medic!" The staff was awesome, answering questions and pointing toward ingredients and tools we needed. And they got stuck cleaning up the mess we made.

When it came to the vegetables, there was a limited amount of each: a small cauliflower cut in half, a bunch of asparagus, a small bag of baby potatoes, a few summer squash, a few types of mushrooms. No one went hungry, and no one hogged any of the ingredients, but it meant that everyone chose different combinations of sides. Which actually was kind of brilliant.

I would have been happy with the steak slathered with all of the mushrooms, but I took just a few mushrooms. And a zucchini. And some potatoes.

And then the prep and cooking began. Unlike competition cooking shows, we weren't given a time limit for our cooking, although it was suggested that we be finished by a certain time so we could all take photos of our plated food and then get down to the devouring.

I decided to cook my vegetables on a sheet pan in the oven. I seasoned them with salt, pepper, and thyme, then drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and popped them in 450 degree oven that would look really good in my kitchen. I think I was one of the few who used the oven, but I chose that method so I could pay more attention to my steak.

The area near the grill was really hot, but I wanted to give it a try. Ooooh, grill marks! Flames! Wheeeee!


The folks who didn't use the grill worked on one of the stoves. Here's a happy steak sharing space with the sides in a cast iron pan.


We were told that a 3/4 inch steak should take 6-7 minutes to cook, but I cooked mine slightly less because I knew that most of it would be coming home with me as leftovers. I wanted to be able to cook the leftover steak at home without overcooking it.

An area was set aside in the lobby with a nice light for photos, and the photographer who handles the Colorado Beef photos was on hand to document our successes. Because they were all successes. Of course they were, because we all cooked food that we liked!

Each blogger also took photos of their own steaks, and when were were all assembled and eating, we were treated to a slideshow of the photos that the photographer took. It was pretty amazing to see how different all the plates were (check out the collage at the bottom of this post!) We all started with the same meat and we chose from the same array of vegetables, but they all looked very different from each other.

Here's the photographer's version of my plate:


And here's my photos - slightly different angle, but still top-down. I really should have put a garnish on there, but I was pretty hungry and everything looked and smelled so darned good.


Beef. It's what we all had for dinner!

After I plated mine, I realized that I should have cooked something to add another color. While my beef and vegetables were nicely browned and looked darned tasty, the presentation could have been improved if I had chopped some herbs or piled some of the pickled onions on top of the steak. Or maybe a quick salad from the fresh corn on the cob and some red bell pepper.

But ... when I was choosing my pantry ingredients, I was thinking more about what I wanted to eat than what the plating should look like. I was thinking more like a hungry person than like a blogger!

I also should have chosen a larger plate or perhaps a different shape ... but when I went to grab a plate, I didn't realize how many choices there were. So ... basic round white plate for me. Other people were much more creative.

I did use the sauces to decorate my plate, however. And they were delicious.

Unlike competition shows, no one judged us, we didn't have to hold our hands in the air when we were done cooking, and no one else tasted our food. We sat down, chowed down, and then we had dessert, too, all provided by Sprouts. Handy to-go boxes helped us take our leftovers home (YUM!) and pretty soon we were on our way with full bellies and a better understanding of beef.

Collage photos courtesy of Colorado Beef Council

Thanks to Sprouts Farmers Market and Colorado Beef Council for sponsoring and hosting this event!

Click here for a line art version of this photo that you can color!

I've become quite enamored with sous vide cooking. It's foolproof (with a good recipe) and much of the cooking is hands-off. Just put the food in the bag (with or without seasonings or other stuff), seal it, and drop it in the pot. Set the and temperature, and you don't have to think about it until it's done.

Much of the time, I cook the food and then refrigerate it until the next day, when I sear or broil it to get some browning on the outside. And of course, this also heats it up to serving temperature.

This time, my sous vide cooking was inspired by a new cookbook, The Complete Sous Vide Cookbook by Chris McDonald. Since the recipes are soooo easy, you're getting both a beef roast and some dulce de leche.

I hadn't heard of the author before, so I was wasn't sure how reliable the recipes would be. Sous vide cooking isn't like any other method when it comes to temperature and timing, so that's why it's a good idea to start with a good recipe, before you wander off on your own.

In this case, I actually did do some wandering. The recipe was designed for a prime rib roast, but I cooked a New York strip roast instead. I figured it wouldn't be too terribly different, since it's a tender roast that could use the same kind of cooking. Turns out, I was right. It was just as tender as when I've done rib roasts.

The one thing that's a little different with this recipe is that you preheat the water to a hotter temperature, then lower the temperature for the cooking time. I've never done that before - I usually just put the food in the water bath and let it heat up to the cooking temperature before I start timing the cooking.

I don't know if this method made a difference in the final product, but it worked well, and it made sense. When the cool roast went into the hot water, the temperature dropped to close to the final cooking temperature, so it was ready to start the timing.

Sous Vide New York Strip Roast
Adapted from The Complete Sous Vide Cookbook by Chris McDonald

1 New York strip roast or boneless rib roast
Olive oil, as needed
Salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the water bath to 190 degrees.

Meanwhile, rub olive oil over the roast and season with salt and pepper. You could also use another spice mix or rub. I actually used a seasoning that's made by my local butcher shop.

Place the roast in the sous vide bag and vacuum seal. Put it in the water bath, reduce the temperature to 134 degrees, and cook for 9 hours.

Remove the pouch from the water and let it stand for 20-30 minutes, then remove it from the pouch, pat dry, and season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate fro 20-30 minutes.

Note: I just chucked mine in the refrigerator and seared it the next day. By the time it was browned, it was warmed to a decent serving temperature.

Preheat a grill to medium-high (I used a cast iron frying pan).

Put the roast on the grill and brown on all sides.

Transfer to a cutting board and slice against the grain.

Dulce de Leche

Click here for a line art version of this photo you can color!

If you've ever looked at recipes where you're supposed to put a whole can of condensed milk in a pot and cook it ... and you've wondered if that's a safe and sane thing to do, this method of making dulce de leche is pretty foolproof.

Just transfer one can of sweetened condensed milk (NOT evaporated milk!) to a sous vide bag and seal (don't vacuum it into your machine - just get most of the air out and then seal it).

I tried this method with plain sweetened condensed milk, and with chocolate sweetened condensed milk. Both worked fine.

Heat the sous vide bath to 200 degrees. Place the bag in the water and cook for 8-10 hours. I tried both 8 hours and 10 hours, and didn't see a difference. So cook it for however long is convenient for you.

Remove the bag from the bath and transfer the dulce de leche to a storage container.

I found the easiest way to get the dulce de leche out of the bag was to snip a corner and squeeze it out as soon as it was reasonable to handle. If you wait until it's room temperature, you can still squeeze it out, but it's pretty thick, so it's not as easy.

I received the book from the publisher at no cost to me.

It's been a while since I've posted a sous vide recipe, mostly because I've been making a lot of the same things.

This time, though ... I decided to make something totally different. Well, the meat isn't different for me, since I grew up eating oxtails. But the method is different. I've pressure-cooked oxtails and I've braised them and I've slow cooked them.

But then I thought ... why not sous vide? I loved the sous vide short ribs I've made, and oxtails are that same sort of tough meat. So I figured I'd use the same sort of cooking method. I upped the temperature just a little bit, but kept the looooooong cooking time.

I didn't add a lot of seasoning - just a little bit of commercial barbecue sauce. Then I sealed up the bag, chucked it in a big pot, and let the oxtails enjoy the hot tub experience.

I used my Anova Wifi Precision Cooker, which is actually pretty cool. I can set it all from my phone and monitor it from my phone and watch it from my phone. There are recipes included as well as suggested cooking times and temperatures.

Let me mention that one thing I like about this model is that the timing doesn't start until the temperature has been reached. If you're cooking for a long time, the extra time it takes water to come to a recipe probably doesn't matter much. But if you're cooking for a short time, it's nice that the timer doesn't start before temperature has been reached.

But of course I didn't use the included recipes because I was winging it. Or tailing it, maybe?

The great thing about this recipe is that you can pretty much cook more or less meat, and you can flavor it any way you like. I added that tiny squirt of barbecue sauce, but you could certainly add hot sauce, teriyaki, ginger, beer, wine ... pretty much anything you can think of. Or add nothing and serve the oxtails with a sauce.

There's one prefect word for these oxtails ... unctuous. They were tender and juicy and mmmm. Just mmmmm. Not soft and mushy, not dry or chewy. Perfectly cooked, but still pink inside. Not rare pink, but not brown or gray. They couldn't be better.

I'm definitely going to make these again. I'm not saying I'll never use my pressure cooker for oxtails when I want food fast. But I'm definitely going to try to plan ahead next time I want oxtails so I can cook them sous vide. It's well worth it.

Sous Vide Oxtails

3 pounds oxtails (or as many as will fit neatly in a bag in one layer)
Squirt of barbecue sauce or other flavoring (optional)

Put the oxtails and flavoring in a vacuum seal bag and seal it.

Place in a large pot with your sous vide attached. Cover the pot as best you can with foil or another type of cover. I use a silicone cover from GIR that has a V cut out. They don't come with that cut-out, but scissors or a sharp knife will do the trick.

Set the sous vide for 150 degrees for 72 hours.

When the time is up, you can serve the oxtails right away, or let them cool to room temperature, then refrigerate and reheat later.

The juice left in the bag is a pretty amazing stock. There's not much of it, but there's plenty to make a little bit of a sauce or gravy, or add it to the cooking water for rice, or add it to some soup to add a boost of flavor.

The Kentucky Derby is approaching, which means bourbon is the liquor of choice for those who like tradition. Of course, there are also foods that are typical, but I decided to something ... less traditional.

I suppose I could have made a Kentucky Hot Brown ... but I was in the mood for fajitas. And bourbon marinated beef sounded awfully good. I used Four Roses Bourbon, which was provided by this post's sponsor.

The longer you marinate, the more flavor the meat will soak up.

Meanwhile, the cocktail has the same flavors, which makes them the perfect pair. Or, you know, make one or the other.

Ginger beer is getting easier to find these days, so use it if you can find it. It's similar to ginger ale, but with a sharper, more ginger-forward flavor. A more adult soda, perhaps. If you can't find ginger beer, of course you can use your favorite ginger ale.

Bourbon-Lime Fajitas

1 pound skirt steak
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon Four Roses Bourbon
1 tablespoon lime juice
Salt, to taste
2 cups mixed sliced bell peppers and onions
Flour tortillas
Sour cream, yogurt, or crema
Sliced avocado

Combine the steak, olive oil, bourbon, lime juice, and salt in a zip-top bag. Massage the bag a bit to get the meat evenly coated. Let the meat sit at room temperature for an hour, or refrigerate up to 24 hours before cooking.

When you're ready to cook, heat a grill pan or cast iron pan on medium-high heat. Cook the skirt steak until done to your liking. Set aside to rest before slicing.

Meanwhile, cook the peppers and onions - you can cook in the same pan - until done to your liking - they're fine cooked crisp-tender, or until they're cooked through.

Serve the fajita ingredients separately, so people can assemble their own. Or serve the fajitas assembled on flour tortillas with meat, peppers and onions, sliced avocado, and a small dollop of sour cream.

Bourbon, Lime and Ginger Cocktail

1 ounce Four Roses Bourbon
1/2 ounce lime juice
Ginger beer, as needed
Mint sprig, to garnish

Fill a glass or mug with ice. Add the bourbon and lime juice. Fill the glass with ginger beer and garnish with a spring of fresh mint.

Thanks to Four Roses Bourbon for sponsoring this post.

I love short ribs. Lately, I've been obsessed with cooking them sous vide. The texture is totally different than what you get when you cook them any other way. But sous vide short ribs cook for a looong time. The recipe I use cooks for 72 hours.

As a Chicago-born gal, I have a special place in my heart for Chicago-style Italian Beef sandwiches. But making them can be quite a long process, starting with cooking a large hunk of meat, followed by slicing the meat really thinly.

For some folks, that's the hard part - the slicing. And and Italian beef sandwich just isn't right if the slices aren't thin. I have a meat slicer, but I'm weird. Most people would have to wield a knife.

The annoying part about making Italian beefs at home - for me - is that it ends up being a LOT of food, since it starts with that big hunk of beef. While I do love a good Italian Beef sandwich, don't want to make a month-long commitment to eating it. I want a few sandwiches, and that's it.

In Chicago, Italian Beef sandwiches were fast food. They were the thing you ran out to get if you didn't feel like cooking. They were the thing you stopped for on your way from here to there. They weren't fancy.

There are shortcuts, though, that make it a lot more convenient. Like using beef that's already cooked and sliced and all ready to meet the rest of the ingredients. This time, I used Oscar Mayer Natural slow roasted beef. They've sponsored this post, but I created the recipe based on what I like.

The classic Italian beef sandwich in Chicago has a few options. You can get them with sweet peppers, hot peppers, or both.

And you can get them dipped (or wet), which means the sandwich is dunked in the jus or that tasty beefy juice is ladled onto the finished sandwich gets the bread pretty soggy. It's messy, but that's what it's supposed to be.

I usually opted for sweet and hot meaning that I wanted both types of peppers, and of course I wanted the bread nice and wet. The sandwiches in Chicago use bread similar to French bread, and much of it is supplied by specific bakeries. The bread is pretty solid before it's dunked, so it holds up well to being soggy.

Obviously those specific breads aren't readily available outside Chicago, but you can still make a decent sandwich. The important thing is that the bread needs to be sturdy enough to handle the jus. Hot dog buns would dissolve. French bread or sturdy hoagie buns work well. If the bread is a little stale, it doesn't matter, so this is a great way to use up extra bread that's a tiny bit dry.

If you have leftovers, you can refrigerate the meat and peppers in the jus and just reheat gently the next day.

The beef isn't the only type of Oscar Mayer Selects Natural you can get - it is available in five flavorful varieties including Slow Roasted Turkey, Applewood Smoked Turkey, Rotisserie Seasoned Chicken, Applewood Smoked Ham and Slow Roasted Roast Beef.

If you're worried about what's in the cold cuts you buy, Oscar Mayer Selects Natural is made with no artificial ingredients, and is minimally processed. Selects Natural has no artificial preservatives (the back side of each package lists the ingredients used to preserve quality), no artificial flavors, no artificial colors, no gluten and no by-products.

Quick and Easy Chicago Style Beef Sandwiches
Makes 3-4 sandwiches

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 green bell pepper, seeded, cored, and sliced in strips
2 cups beef broth or stock (home-made or bought)
1 tablespoon dry oregano
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 7-ounce package Oscar Mayer Naturals slow roasted beef
1 hoagie roll per sandwich
Hot giardiniera peppers, optional

Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the bell pepper. Cook, stirring as needed, until the peppers are cooked through. These aren't supposed to be crisp-tender - they're fully cooked. Add the stock, oregano, and garlic powder. Bring to a simmer and let it cook for a few minutes so the flavors infuse the broth.

Add the beef and cook just to warm the meat - it's fully cooked, so there's no need to cook any longer.

Divide the beef among 3 or 4 hoagie rolls, depending on how full you want them. Add bell peppers to each sandwich, if desired. Ladle the jus onto each sandwich. Pass the hot giardiniera peppers at the table for people to add their own, as desired.

If you like, you can bring any remaining jus to the table for people to add more, or give them small bowls filled with jus to dunk the sandwiches.

You can learn more about Selects Natural and all the Oscar Mayer products on OscarMayer.com, Facebook at Facebook.com/OscarMayer, Twitter at @OscarMayer and on Tumblr at OscarMayer.Tumblr.com.
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

The Silver Platter is a Jewish cookbook, but it's not what you might think of as Jewish cuisine. By that, I mean that if you made any recipe from this book and served it to friends and family, no one would identify it as Jewish in particular.

They're just good, solid recipes that happen to follow the dietary rules.

There are recipes like vegetable soup with spaghetti squash noodles, roasted beets with a lemon-basil dressing, sweet and sour Chinese chicken, apple cranberry couscous, spiced cauliflower ... and of course there are desserts, like almond cookies, flourless fudgy-wudgy cookies, and chewy raspberry oatmeal bars.

Deciding on a recipe to publish was difficult - so many great choices.

The weather was cool, and brisket sounded like a pretty good idea, but read the recipe before you begin - you need to plan this one in advance.

The brisket marinates for at least an hour in the onion-tomato mixture - but hey, you might as well let it rest overnight. Then you cook it. Then you refrigerate several hours - or overnight again.

So, if you make this, you could do it in one long day, or you could make it over three easy days. I opted for the three easy days, which meant that the brisket had a lot of time to marinate.

The onions get very soft and the sauce gets almost jammy while the brisket is fork tender and the whole thing is insanely delicious. I served it with mashed potatoes and fried green tomatoes for a wonderful comfort food dinner.

Typical of me and comfort foods, the food was soooo much better than my photographs. But, hey, you get the idea, right?

Balsamic-Braised Brisket
Recipe from The Silver Platter by Daniella Silver with Norene Gilletz
Reprinted with permission from the copyright holders: ArtScroll/Mesorah Publications
meat | passover | gluten-free | freezes well | yields 8-10 servings

1 beef brisket (4-5 lb /1.8-2.3 kg)
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp onion powder
1 Tbsp garlic powder
2 Tbsp olive oil
3 large onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 can (6 oz/170 g) tomato paste
2 Tbsp honey
3 bay leaves
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
3/4 cup dry red wine or water

1. Coat a large roasting pan with nonstick cooking spray. Add brisket; sprinkle with salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. Rub brisket with spices to coat on all sides.

2. In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Sauté onions for 5 minutes, until softened. Stir in parsley, tomato paste, honey, bay leaves, vinegar, and wine. Simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Let cool.

3. Pour sauce over, around, and under the brisket. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour or overnight, turning occasionally.

4. Preheat oven to 325°F. Bake, covered, for 3-3½ hours or until meat is fork-tender. Calculate 45 minutes per pound to determine the cooking time. Discard bay leaves. Let cool.

5. Refrigerate several hours or overnight. Discard hardened fat from gravy. Trim excess fat from brisket. Slice against the grain to desired thickness.

6. Reheat, covered, in pan gravy at 350°F for 25-30 minutes.

Norene’'s Notes

• Slow Cooker Method: Season brisket and prepare sauce as above; add to slow cooker insert coated with nonstick cooking spray. Marinate overnight in the refrigerator. Place insert into slow cooker; cook on on low for 8-10 hours.
• Ask your butcher to cut a very large brisket (8 lb/3.6 kg) in half. Total cooking time will be the same as for one 4 lb/1.8 kg brisket.
• Brisket should be cooked “"low and slow,”" with lots of onions. The internal temperature should not rise above 180°F on a meat thermometer; after it reaches 200°F, the brisket will become dry.

Ground meat isn't unusual in a taco, but I decided to change things up by making half-moon shaped burgers that would fit neatly inside a tortilla.

I flavored them with peppers and chili powder, melted cheese on top, and served them in warm tortillas with guacamole and pepper.

The result was a really really really tasty burger that looked unique, nestled it its tortilla home.

The meat I used was a combination of beef and chicken from a company called Cluck 'n Moo that provided product for the blog group 37 Cooks that I belong to.

Because the meat includes chicken, it needs to be cooked to a safe temperature - no rare burgers with this stuff.

You can make these less spicy by using mild pepper and mild chile powder, or make it more spicy by using hotter peppers and chile powder. And of course, you can add extra spice with your choice of condiments, like peppers or salsa.

Half-Moon Taco Burgers

1 pound Cluck 'n Moo ground chicken and beef
1 4-ounce can diced Hatch chiles (hot or mild, your choice)
2 teaspoons chili powder (hot or mild, your choice)
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1 cup shredded cheese (I used a mix of cheeses, but any good-melting cheese will work)

In a medium bowl, combine the ground meat, chiles, and chili powder.

Divide the meat into four portions. Shape each portion into a half-mood shape that will fit into your tortilla. I used 6-inch tortillas and made the burgers slightly smaller that the tortillas - keep in mind that the tortillas need to wrap the meat.

Heat your grill. Sprinkle the burgers with salt as desired, and cook, flipping as needed, until just about done. Divide the cheese onto the tops of the four burgers, close the grill, and let them cook until the cheese is almost melted.

When the cheese is almost melted, place the tortillas on the grill (on a cooler part of the grill, if possible). Place the burgers on the tortillas and close the grill again. Cook until the cheese is melted and the tortillas are warmed.


Serve with your favorite taco toppings. I used guacamole and pickled jalapenos. Other options are shredded lettuce, salsa, cilantro, crema, or chopped fresh tomatoes.

A while back, I made a recipe from the cookbook Melissa's DYPs. At that time, I didn't happen to have any actual Dutch Yellow Potatoes (that's the DYPs in the book title), so I used regular potatoes. The recipe worked out well, so the cookbook is useful even if you can't find exactly those potatoes.

But after hearing about the Dutch Yellows, I wanted to try them, just because I was curious.

Wouldn't you know it - recently the folks at Melissa's sent me a little care package that included some Dutch Yellow Potatoes, among other things. So I started browsing through the cookbook again, and found a recipe for Picadillo that sounded good. It's a Mexican dish that's typically used to fill burritos or tacos or empanadas. Of you could serve it as is, if you like.

It's sort of like the mutant child of chili and Sloppy Joes. It's definitely comfort food.

Right about the time I decided I wanted to make picadillo, I realized that I didn't have the exact ingredients the recipe called for, so I made my own version.

Did I mention that care package from Melissa's? Well, along with edibles, they sent me another copy of the book. So, since I'm so nice, I'm giving it away to one of my lucky readers.

Picadillo Tacos

1 pound ground beef
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 4-ounce can diced Hatch chiles (hot or mild, your choice)
1 clove garlic, crushed or diced
1 14.5 ounce can petite diced tomatoes
1/2 pound Dutch Yellow Potatoes, diced
2 teaspoons adobo seasoning
Salt, to taste

For serving:
Tortillas
Sliced pickled jalapenos, for garnish
Guacamole, for garnish

Heat a saucepan or skillet on medium heat. Add the beef. Cook, stirring once in a while - and breaking it up as you do so - until it's mostly cooked through. Add the onion, peppers, and garlic. Cook until the onions are translucent. Add the tomatoes, potatoes, and adobo seasoning. If your adobo is salt-free, add 1/2 teaspoon of salt now.

Cover the pan and cook until the potatoes are cooked thorough - about 20 minutes. The mixture shouldn't be very saucy since this will be a taco filling, so if there's still a lot of juice from the tomatoes, continue cooking with the lid off until most of the moisture is gone. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.

Serve on warm tortillas. Garnish as desired. I served it with pickled sliced jalapenos and guacamole.


Melissa's sent me a copy of the Melissa's DYPs cookbook for my use; since I already had a copy, I'm giving one away and will ship to the winner. They also sent me a selection of produce.

While there are more and more cookbooks these days that deal with single ingredients, Melissa's DYPs: The Perfect Everyday Potato Cookbook is unique in that it focuses on one specific type of potato - the Dutch Yellow Potato. It's a waxy potato with an interior that's more yellow than your average spud.

Of course, that doesn't mean you're doomed if you don't happen to have that specific potato on the day you want to make a recipe from this book. Sure, it's nice to hunt down the right one. But you can still use this book if you need to make some substitutions.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I got this book from Melissa's. I thought it might be all potatoes, all the time. Multiple side dishes. Many potato-centric dishes.

But there were also a whole lot of recipes where potatoes were a component, but not necessarily the star of the dish. Since I'm a big fan of potatoes, I was happy with both options.

The first recipe I tried was the DYP Beef Pie, with a base of ground beef a filling of shredded potatoes, and a topping of shredded cheese. It was interesting, as it was, but it also opens the door for all sorts of customizations, like adding jalapenos and salsa, or adding shredded carrots and green beans. Or whatever makes sense to you.

DYP Beef Pie
Adapted from Melissa's DYPs

Cooking spray (I think you can do without this)
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
2 cups bread crumbs
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
2 cups chopped onion, divided (check my note before you chop*)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cups shredded Dutch Yellow Potatoes
8 ounces shredded cheese
1 tomato, chopped, for garnish

Heat the oven to 375 degrees.

The instructions suggested spraying a 9-inch springform pan with cooking spray, but I think you can skip this. But if you want insurance, spray.

Combine the beef, bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, 1 cup of chopped onions, eggs, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Mix well, then press onto the bottom and up the sides of the springform pan. Bake for 15 minutes - I put my springform pan on a baking sheet, just in case it decided to leak juices or fat during cooking. It turns out I didn't need to, but I'd do it again. Just in case.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large saute pan on medium heat and cook the potatoes and onions, stirring as needed to keep them from sticking, for 10 minutes. I added some salt and ground pepper to the potatoes, even though it wasn't called for in the recipe. Potatoes usually need a little salt.

Remove the pan from the oven - the beef will be partially cooked. Add the potatoes to the pan, then top with the cheese.

Return the pan to the oven - the instructions said to increase the heat to 375 degrees, but that was the initial temperature ... but I cooked it at 375 both times, with no trouble. Bake until the top is lightly browned - 20-25 minutes is suggested, but it took 35 minutes for me. Adjust cooking time as needed.

When you loosen the springform ring, a lot of fat will drip out, so that's another good reason to have the pan on a baking sheet. I used 2 spatulas to transfer the pie off of the springform base and onto a serving plate.

Slice in wedges to serve. Garnish with fresh chopped tomatoes, if desired.

*I suggest chopping 1 cup to mix with the meat, and cutting thin slices to mix with the potatoes.

I received the book from the publisher at no cost to me.