Restaurant Recreation: Big Mac Pizza

Posted on August 8, 2012 by admin

I was sad to miss out on the Mac Daddy pizza at the Pizza Rumble so I knew I’d have to recreate it ASAP at home! I can’t eat red meat so I couldn’t partake in the beef one so I made it Emily-friendly at home. It was such a winner and one I’ll totally make again!

Ingredients:

Pizza dough
¾ pound ground turkey/chicken/pork
1 white onion, chopped
8 oz shredded yellow cheddar
2 tbs sesame seeds
3 tbs ketchup
2 tbs mayo
1 tsp relish
1 cup shredded lettuce

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425-degrees and precook pizza dough until starting to get puffed and the bottom is getting crisp (about 15 minutes).
While dough is cooking, brown the ground meat and add onion after about 7 minutes of cooking. Continue cooking until meat is cooked through and onions are translucent.
Remove crust when semi-cooked and top with cheese. Add the onion and meat mixture on top of cheese. Sprinkle with ½ the sesame seeds and return pizza to the oven for about 10 more minutes.

Mix mayo, relish, and ketchup together to make special sauce.

Remove pizza and top with lettuce, special sauce, and the remaining sesame seeds.

This was really a fun pizza. The flavors went together really well and although I can’t say I’ve ever eaten a Big Mac, there’s a reason everyone knows the jingle and why the burger has been popular for 40+ years. The special sauce really makes this.

I found a cheddar blend of shredded cheese intending for melting, aka, it had some processed American cheese which was perfect.

I actually didn’t want to buy iceburg lettuce just for this so I used spinach. Choose your green, you’re in charge! I only topped the pieces we’d be eating that night so we weren’t reheating lettuce on top of pizza the next day. I forgot pickles on mine. Oops. There will definitely be a next-time so I can right this wrong in the future.

This would be a really fun one to make as mini ones as apps or to a potluck. How come nobody brings pizzas to potlucks anyway?

Bacon Wrapped Burgers

Posted on June 18, 2012 by admin

I was really excited for my menu for Mr. J’s birthday. My guy loooves a good burger so I thought about a bacon wrapped burger. I guess Birthday Burgers are a tradition now since I made stuffed burgers for his birthday last year.

I googled and saw a few that put bacon around the edge. That’s not good enough. I was thinking of weaving it to make a little bacon wrapping.

It seemed like it would cook ok, it just might need to be secured with toothpicks (I recommend counting them to be sure they all come out). We strategized that getting the bacon crisped on the first side might help keep it all together before flipping.

Ingredients
2 burgers
strips of bacon (4-6 strips per burger)

Directions
Lay 3 strips of bacon and interlace 3 other strips in the opposite direction to form an L.

Place burger on the bacon intersection. Fold the flaps over and weave them together.
Mr. J’s was a beef burger. I did ground pork. Though I didn’t eat Mr. J’s burger, I have to say I think the 4 strips of bacon is plenty (versus the 6 on his).

I served it with a cucumber ribbon salad. It was plain greek yogurt, dill, garlic, and pepper.

I sliced the cucumber with a mandolin but was afraid to make them too thin. I figured not slicing my hand off was a good birthday present too.

The burgers were reallllly good. I topped mine with swiss and Mr. J’s with American cheese. I think it was a fun meal.
bacon_burger_cut_590_390

Now what kind of burger am I going to make for his bday next year??

Cheeseburger Pizza

Posted on May 31, 2012 by admin

Sometimes when I have a good thing going I don’t know why I change it up. I have pizza dough I love (Portland Pie Co) that I get at the grocery store. It comes in regular, beer, and basil but I especially love the garlic.

I’m not sure why I haaaad to try making biscuit dough crust. It was terrible. It tasted OK but looked quite sad. It was crumbly and never molded together. I made Cheeseburger Pizza which was phenomenal despite the crust being not so great.

Ingredients:

Pizza dough
1/3 pound ground meat (I used ground pork)
1/3 cup tomato sauce
1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese (or cheddar and mozzarella mixed)
1 tomato, chopped
1 onion, chopped
pickles, chopped
lettuce
ketchup and mayo to drizzle

Directions:

Prepare pizza dough and prebake until crisp at 400 degrees.

Cook the ground pork until cooked through and drain. Return to the pan and add onions for a few minutes until softened.
Assemble the pizza by topping the dough with sauce, meat, onions, and cheese.
Bake 20 minutes or until heated through and the cheese melts.
Top with pickles, lettuce, tomato, and drizzle with ketchup and mayo.

This was a really good pizza. I liked the flavors and it was a great use of some basic ingredients. I had the pork leftover and frozen from another dinner so it was also a great use of frozen meat. Frozen ground meat isn’t great as a burger but as taco meat, or pizza toppings the lack of freshness isn’t apparent.

I’ll make it again I’m sure. Pizza is such a regular weeknight dinner because the leftovers are so good too. I ate leftovers even though the “biscuit” crust wasn’t great. Here’s the biscuit recipe if you want to give it a go but I recommend sticking to regular dough.

I have another pizza to post soon and I have an idea I haven’t tried yet so stay tuned!

Salmon Burger

Posted on March 14, 2012 by admin

I’m posting out of sequence so it might look like I’m eating bugers non-stop. Mr. J had some venison so I bought myself some fish. Salmon was on sale so that sealed the deal. If I’d been coordinated, I’d have made a pie for pi day so, happy 3.14!

I’m talking $2.68 for a POUND of salmon. That’s several servings. Whoa!

I was doing to cook it in the oven with butter, lemon, & dill but then I had this strange hankering for a salmon burger. It came out of nowhere. I’ve never even EATEN a salmon burger before, but this was wicked good.

Ingredients:

½ cup panko breadcrumbs
¾ cup breadcrumbs
1 pound salmon
1 tsp dried dill
1 tsp lemon juice
1 egg½ tsp garlic

Directions:

Cut salmon off the skin
Add breadcrumbs, salmon, dill, and lemon juice to a food processor and pulse a few times until combined. (I was out of breadcrumbs so these are some homemade croutons becoming breadcrumbs).

Mix in an egg and garlic by hand.
Form into patties & grill

I served these with spinach, some tzatziki, and mustard on a grilled wheat roll. I liked the creamy component and thought the cukes, garlic, and dill of the tzatziki were really good with the salmon.

I made 3 burgers out of it and really enjoyed this as something different. The other 2 are frozen and I’m sure will be a great surprise some night when I feel like there’s nothing for dinner.

It stayed together much better than I expected, but I did arm Mr. J with some super duty aluminum foil for the burger on the grill.

I wouldn’t ever order a salmon burger at a restaurant so I think this was a fun/easy one to make at home. I think if a restaurant is cooking my fish I’ll have them taking the tougher method.

Cost Breakdown:

1 pound of salmon: $2.68
breadcrumbs: ~$0.55
lemon for juice: $0.89
roll: $1.59
tzatziki: $0.41
total: $6.12 (for 3 burgers) or $2.04 each!

Greek Stuffed Burgers

Posted on March 9, 2012 by admin

Way back when I made stuffed burgers. These were themed for Mr. J (blue cheese & bacon) but I had all sorts of plans for other fillings.

It’s been quite awhile, but I made them again! This time I made a Greek inspired one and grilled it. Ohh my burger goodness. I filled them with feta and topped them with spinach, red onions, and cucumber. These burgers are delicious and great for something different.

Hmmm. Sky’s the limit for burger toppings/stuffings. Maybe a cowboy caramelized onions/bbq sauce/cheddar stuffed burger will be next. Or maybe a Southwestern with Pepperjack cheese and salsa.