Spiral Dogs

MNDeb and I had a bit of a cook-out on Sunday.  Pretty funny looking dogs and it took a little practice to get them nicely spiraled.  Got the idea from Chow.com.  Lots of other fun stuff there as well.  I love the waffle iron ideas!

Soup in August?

It sounds crazy but it's because I had fresh corn to use up.  Sadly, my tomatoes are still green so I had to buy these:

The container is empty because the tomatoes are roasting.  I had some issues getting the green top off. I remembered that in Terry's kitchen there was a container of these tomatoes on the counter and I was pretty sure the green part was the bottom.  It didn't make any sense to me but I did finally get the green top removed and got the tomatoes in the oven.  I put the plastic parts in the recycle bin but kept the label to the side so I could take a picture of it.

Why did I want a picture of the label?  Because on the inside of the label it says "Why are other tomatoes only good in August?  Don't they know you cook all year long?"  That made me laugh.  When I turned the label over, to the top side, I noticed other words..."Open Here".  That really made me laugh.

The soup turned out well but I didn't think the tomato flavor was quite strong enough. That could be because the tomatoes I used had traveled from Mexico.  Also I would leave some of the roasted corn to be stirred into the soup.

The recipe, Roasted Sweet Corn and Tomato Soup, came from Our Best Bites right here.
 
3 cups fresh corn kernels (about 4 cobs)
10 ounces cherry tomatoes (about 2 cups)
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil, divided
1 medium onion, any color, diced
8 ounce jar roasted red bell peppers, drained
32 ounces chicken broth (4 cups)
3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon seasoned salt
fresh cracked black pepper
Kosher salt

Place corn, tomatoes, and garlic on a foil-lined baking sheet.  Drizzle with 2 teaspoons olive oil and sprinkle lightly with Kosher salt and pepper.  Gently toss with hands and then arrange in an even, flat layer.  Bake for 15-20 minutes at 400º or until tomatoes are crinkled and burst.

While vegetables are roasting, heat a stock pot to medium high heat on stove top.  Add remaining one teaspoon olive oil and diced onion.  Saute about 5 minutes, or until tender.  Add roasted bell peppers, chicken broth, smoked paprika and chili powder.  Add  seasoned kosher salt and black pepper
When corn and tomatoes are done roasting, add them to the pot, making sure to scrape off all of the bits on the pan.  (If desired, reserve a couple spoonfuls of roasted corn for garnish.)  Bring soup to a low simmer and cover.  Simmer for 20 minutes.

Transfer soup to a blender and puree until smooth.   Add additional salt and pepper (I added cayenne).  Yields about 6 cups of soup.

Nutritional info for 4, 1 1/2 cup servings:
Calories: 168
Carbs: 24 g
Protein: 8 g
Fat: 7 g

This is my version, pretty much the same but since I had no chipolte chili powder I had to adjust.

Too Hot to Grill Outside

...but I had a pound of hamburger that I wanted to make into burgers.  My attempts at pan frying burgers have been disappointing so I googled it.  Score!  I found the recipe here.  I made mine this way:

1 lb.  80/20 ground beef
2 tablespoons minced onion
1 garlic clove, minced or pressed
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper, or to taste
Fine sea salt*

Sprinkle a scant teaspoon of fine sea salt into a large, heavy frying pan on medium high heat.  While pan is heating mix ground beef, onion, garlic and pepper together.  Shape into four patties.

When pan is hot, shake to disburse salt evenly on bottom.  Place patties in pan.  After 3 minutes, remove patties from pan, shake pan to redistribute salt and return patties to pan, uncooked side down.  Cook another 3 minutes or until desired doneness.

This worked perfectly for me.  I used heat setting 5 on my cook top (on a scale of 10-1) and to really test this I was using a heavy stainless steel frying pan.  No oil.  There was almost no sticking because of the science involved and the burger has a lovely crust on it.

Ha!  The science is that the salt draws the moisture out of the meat but because the pan is hot the burger is immediately seared, trapping the distributed moisture inside the burger.  My burger had just a tiny bit of pink in the middle, just how I like it. And I had sourdough bread for a bun.  Fabulous.

* I cooked two burgers in a large pan.  Next time I will try it in a smaller non-stick pan just to test it to see if the outside will get crusty but with a smaller pan I will reduce the salt to 1/2 teaspoon.

Hooray, again, for Science!  I'm calling these Burgers Supreme!

***edited 08/14/12*** I made a burger in the nonstick pan and it didn't get as crispy and tasted saltier.