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Quick Side Dishes and Chimichurri Beer Burgers

April 13, 2010

I’ve been on a mission to find quick side dishes lately. I haven’t tired of cooking, but with longer days and more time spent outside in the evenings I haven’t wanted to spend a lot of time cooking at night.

On a related note, I think I also lose my spark of excitement for evening cooking because I know after the sun goes down the pictures won’t be blog worthy. Why bother, right? This little fact that my blog and photo quality determine what time of day I’m motivated to cook may be indication of an issue that needs attention, but we’ll save that for another day.

So back to the quick sides.

Lately, I’ve found myself tossing broccoli in to steam, sautéing mushrooms and onions to toss in with couscous. You know; nothing exciting, but still relatively tasty and healthy.

Last night when we needed something to go with our grilled chicken I decided to make some pasta salad; something I haven’t made in a really long time. I had a few more exciting ingredients to use in the dish, so this one I thought I would share.

I don’t make pasta salads much anymore mainly because I lack ideas for non-bottled dressings. However, with using the cheese and olives in this, it only needed a drizzle of olive oil and a shake of black ground pepper to be complete.

Gorgonzola, Olive & Spinach Pasta Salad

½ cup fresh spinach, finely chopped, firmly packed
15 pimento stuffed green olives, halved
1 – 2 oz Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
2 tbsp olive oil
3 cups dry, whole wheat pasta, cooked and rinsed to cool
Black pepper to taste

In a medium-sized bowl combine the spinach, olives, cheese and olive oil. Stir to break up the cheese so it is evenly distributed.

Add the drained pasta to bowl and toss to coat. Sprinkle with black pepper. You can add salt too if you wish, but I found the olives and cheese added enough salty flavor for my tastes. Serves 4.

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I also said yesterday that I would tell you a little more about the burgers we grilled on Sunday. If you are at all familiar with Argentinean cuisine, then you know about chimichurri. It is a sauce made of herbs, oil and vinegar that is served with meat or it is sometimes used as a marinade.

Before we left Brazil, my husband took a work trip to Argentina and his colleagues gave him some chimichurri. It is in the dry form and you simply add the oil to make the sauce. I’m sure similar products can be found at Latin markets around the States, or you could make a version of your own like this one from Simply Recipes.

Seeing it in the cabinet the other night I decided to season the burgers with it. The result was fantastic! They were full of flavor and had a slight spiciness that went wonderfully with the grass-fed beef I used.

I finished off the burger-making process by using the Soft Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread from Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day to make buns. I was worried they would be too heavy and sweet for the burgers, but they ended up pairing nicely.

Chimichurri Beer Burgers

1 lb grass-fed beef
¼ cup beer (I used a light ale)
¼ cup panko bread crumbs
1 tsp chimichurri seasoning mix
½ tsp sea salt
¼ tsp black pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well to incorporate the spices. Form into 4 equal patties. Grill or pan fry based on your preferences. It took about 8 minutes on our new grill to cook them through.

I topped mine with some Chive and Onion Jack Cheese, and sautéed onions and mushrooms!

I’m submitting the pasta salad to the April Side Dish Showdown at Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice.

A Boy, His Grill, and a Spatchcocked Chicken

April 12, 2010

Over the past few months I’ve regularly documented all of the things I am thrilled to have returned to since our move back to the States. In fact, I wouldn’t blame you for thinking me annoying because I tend to express my excitement with an over abundance of irritating happiness.

There was the real winter with snow which necessitated the wearing of boots not just for fashion, but for functionality. A full size oven with a temperature setting that goes low enough to prevent burning all my baked goods to a crisp. A washer and dryer that take fewer than 90 minutes for each cycle. My KitchenAid mixer with all its powerful capabilities.

Ahhh, I smile just thinking about it all.

Despite my glowing excitement, I was getting a little bit worried that my husband hadn’t yet experienced such bliss. Sure, he had some of his favorite electronics back, and we now have a nice size garage with a yard to tend to, but something was missing.

Over Easter weekend I learned what it was. This:

Yes, a grill. As much as we enjoyed the food and culture of the Brazilian barbeque, let’s just say, there is no place like home. We talked about it often during our time abroad — grilling different kinds of meats from chicken to pork tenderloin, burgers, hot dogs and even fruits and vegetables; the array of side dishes, and sitting outside all afternoon with a beer in hand.

He had his heart set on a Big Green Egg for a long time, even before we moved back to the US. However, after some research he learned that there are the same style of grills out there (a ceramic pod grill that cooks by charcoal) without the same price tag.

We couldn’t find any sources around here, but some stores in our hometown occasionally carried them. When he learned that two had come in the day we got to Indiana for our Easter visit, off he went with my Dad to grab one before it was gone.

He’s been anxiously awaiting the opportunity to get cooking so this weekend we decided to break out the new grill and see what this baby can do.

First we tried chicken. Until this weekend I had seen the process of spatchcocking a chicken on the web and on tv, but had no idea that “spatchcocking” was the appropriate term. I gave it a try last night. To be honest, I did get a flat chicken out of the process which was the goal, but I really have no idea if I did it exactly as it should be done. In fact, I already discovered a step I accidentally skipped. Shhhh! I’m not telling.

Therefore, you really shouldn’t listen to me about how to spatchcock a chicken when there are much more knowledgeable people out there to tell you. Check out A Good Appetite or this YouTube video for some help.

I can, however, tell you the rub I used on the bird which turned out nicely. My husband wanted something a little more spicy/Cajun in nature since I typically do Italian-style herb rubs. I coated the chicken with the spices below and then rubbed it generously with olive oil.

First Chicken of the Season Spicy Rub

1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
¼ tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 ½ tsp sea salt
¾ tsp ground black pepper

Combine in a small dish and mix with your fingers to crust of the red pepper with the other spices. Rub over the chicken including under the skin.

After an hour on the grill, the chicken was perfect. Nice and juice with a crispy skin just as was predicted by all the recipes I’d read prior to our attempt. There will be lots of grilled chicken in our near future, especially once Pike Valley has some available again later in the month. They should process 32,000 chickens this year. Not bad for a farm using humane, sustainable practices. The word is really getting out about them.

In addition to the chicken we decided to grill up some burgers for later in the week, as well as some asparagus as a side for our chicken. Grilled asparagus is about the easiest thing you can cook on a grill. I drizzled it with olive oil and sprinkled on some of the herb seasoning I told you about a few days ago. About five to eight minutes on the grill and it’s all done.

Tomorrow I’ll tell you more about the burgers and a new pasta salad I tried out.

Have the grill out yet? What’s on the menu?

Grilling

Quick Side Dishes and Chimichurri Beer Burgers

A Boy, His Grill, and a Spatchcocked Chicken

Thanks so much for reading!

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