National burger day
It’s national hamburger day and I’m reminded that as the day approached, from deep within my psyche, came the desire to eat burgers. Portland is a city where there are food wars, pizza wars, and burger wars. That is to say, if you like one kind of pizza, Ken’s or Nostrana, or Apizza Shoals, then you probably don’t want to talk to people who aren’t of the same opinion. It’s like religion. Or like Italian food. My friend Marietta, whose family is from Calabria says they used to have a saying, “If an Abruzzese shows up at your door with food, kill the Abruzzese but keep the food. They can cook, those Abruzzese.”
It seems there is a constant search for the perfect burger here, and everyone has an opinion at whatever price point. There’s a fast food chain in the Northwest called Burgerville. Their deal is that they use only local products, Oregon beef, Tillamook cheese, shakes made from seasonal berries, etc. They make a decent burger at the lower price range. How a burger gets to come with $15-ish ticket baffles me. My own top end burger comes from Paley’s Place, is made from hand chopped Kobe beef, and I’ll give them whatever they ask.
As is often the case, over the course of an 8-week session at the Studio, I pick up certain themes as I follow the market and the seasons in determining the menus that students focus on daily. Looking back from the perspective of the 4th of July, I see I’ve worked menus around ground patties in various forms – Polpettini, a veal and pork patty, the way they are done in Genoa; Fricandeau, a lamb patty that comes from the Savoie; and Crepinette, a forcemeat for sausage that is wrapped in caul fat. I wasn’t deliberate about planning them, it was more subconscious.
The polpettini were lovely in that you tasted every flavor that went into them. Ground meat, bound with a little bread crumbs, butter and cream, and flavored with an unusual mix of oregano, basil and parsley. Meant to be meat balls, but made to do service as a patty, they were served with a lemon sauce and morphed into a celebration of the joys of modesty.
I used to make Fricandeau as a special at the restaurant in San Francisco. You had to lie to people; they were not going to buy anything called a patty, even on a special plate of the day. So, I would just say Fricandeau, tell them the flavors of the dish, and the sources of the products. Now I blend Cattail Creek Farm lamb with a local ham made in the style of prosciutto and serve it with a fruit mustard made from local Parson’s prunes. I’d buy that. Once you’ve eaten it you’re ready to declare that it’s the best lamb burger you’ve ever had. I’ve built my reputation on it.
The third ground meat patty showed up during this week’s classes. It had been years since I made Crepinette with Cider sauce and I’d forgotten what it was like. It’s really a preparation of sausage meat, composed of lamb and pork, and wrapped in caul. It does call for egg but no other binders, so the cooking is different. I find it a little wet so toss in about ½ cup of breadcrumbs to get the meat to firm up a slightly. As with sausage, if you go too hot and too fast, you’ll wind up with dry texture. The sausage calls for a flavor profile composed of lemon, rosemary and coriander seed, but the thing that really moves this patty into the heavenly realms is the sauce made from reduced cider, added to stock, in turn reduced, and finished with butter and whole grain mustard.
* * * * *
We will be offering two 1-week cooking sessions in August, one on baking and pastry conducted by Robert Hammond, the other on cooking, with Robert Reynolds. Call if you are curious about summer school.
In September we will resume a schedule of offering day and evening versions of the 8-week cooking courses. One meets 9 to 3 daily, the other session meets 2 times a week, plus one Saturday a month. Both have the goal of making good cooks. While it’s not the goal to train everyone to go into business, it’s surprising the number of students who awaken during the course of their training here and realize they have enough skill to entertain a career change. It’s lovely to watch that awakening.
* * * * *
According to memory and notes, all three of these recipes came from my days with Madeleine Kamman. Like the Abruzzese, she knows how to cook.
POLPETTINA ALLA GENOVAISE
Veal or beef, remove all fat, chop meat by hand
Saute mushrooms dry
Add to chopped meat
Along with bread crumbs
Few tbsp butter and a little cream
Flavor with marjoram, basil, parsley
Bind with egg
Season with salt, pepper
Shape into cutlets
Dredge in flour (I use the breading technique from the Fricandeau)
Fry in 50-50 olive oil butter
Sear hot and fast to keep in one piece.
Then turn heat down to cook through.
Sauce:
Butter, lemon juice and parsley
FRICANDEAU – LAMB PATTIES
1 pound lamb stewing meat, or shoulder
2-3 ounces fine ham (Prosciutto)
2 thick slices of white bread
1/2 cup warm milk
2 ounces butter
Sea salt
Ground pepper
Anglaise:
flour
egg
breadcrumbs
Trim the lamb and hand chop it with the ham.
Soak the bread in the warm milk, wringing out excess moisture. Beat the butter in the bowl of the electric mixer with paddle. Add bread and beat to incorporate. Add the meat and beat to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Shape the patties.
Arrange three flat soup bowls, one containing flour, another egg and the third bread crumbs.
Dip each patty in flour and shake off the excess. Dip in egg and wipe off excess. Finish by dipping in bread crumbs and shake off the excess. Set breaded patties on a rack.
Cook the patties in butter, browning on each side over medium flame. Reduce the heat and cook through. I like to serve these with one of Kamman’s fruit mustards and a lovely Oregon Pinot Noir
From: When French Women Cook
LAMB SAUSAGE IN CAUL
1-1/2 tablespoons garlic, poached and minced
1-1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, ground
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3/4 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped
1/ teaspoon coriander, ground
1/2 pound pork shoulder, ground
1 pound lamb, ground
2 large eggs
Mix all ingredients. Wrap in caul fat to prepare crepinettes. As with other patties, sauce hot and fast to get a crust, then turn the heat down and cook slowly until they are done. With patties that incorporate pork, I used an instant read thermometer to verify that they are around 145oF. Pork is white meat, and white meat is cooked.
The crepinette are served with a sauce of reduced cider, added to stock and reduced again. Finish it with butter to get the texture desired, & add thyme and Calvados. Once the heat is off, whisk in whole grain mustard.
Other articles you might like;
Leave a Reply
The Chef Studio
