February 3 – February 9, 2025

Note: I was unable to access the absolutely smashing photos from this week. After trying for some days, I’m just going to publish this post without photos. The Cheeseburgers were positively sumptuous, The Nicoise was captivating and there was a picture of chili fixings which included bottles of Cholula, Viuda and Tabasco hot sauces. I will meet with my technical advisers (Billy and Andrew) and solve this problem.

Tuesday:          Cast-Iron Cheeseburgers

Wednesday:    Chicken and Vermicelli Soup with Lime

Friday:              Pantry Niçoise Salad

Saturday:         Sausage and Pepperoni Pizza

Sunday:           Three Meat Chili, Smoked Salmon Dip with Pita Chips

Cheeseburger Paradise

This side of personal relations,* inheriting vast sums of money and your team winning the Super Bowl, is there anything better than a good cheeseburger?  Think of the best one you’ve ever had – the juicy meat, the clinging richness of the cheese, the pop of pickles and sauce, the sweet note of caramelized onion and the crowning perfection of a good bun.  If you are able to resist wanting that burger again, this blog is not for you, but I understand the Camaldolese hermits of Monte Corona have a few empty huts.

*Of the sort we do not mention on this blog which is read by children and young pets.

On the other hand, if you can picture that burger and you want that burger, and you now feel that you must have that burger, then you ought to read this post.  Michael Symon knows how to cook and, while he’s a great chef and can cook fancy enough to be an Iron Chef, he’s not high falutin’ and he likes and makes burgers.  And the burger recipe in his latest cookbook will help you to get close to, perhaps even surpass that burger of your imagination.

Now, typically, we cook burgers on the grill.  Frying meat is not the best perfume for the house during the cold winter months.  But there are times when the gloom, the snow, the ice and the chill get us down and we comfort ourselves with food.  Chili works, as does a good meaty ragu, roast chicken, the schnitzel (gesundheit) from last week’s post.  But you know what works even better? – a rich, juicy cheeseburger.

And, while we love the grilled burgers of spring, summer and autumn, there really is no better way to cook a burger than in a hot cast-iron frying pan on the stove top.  The taste of the burger which, let’s face it, relies on beef fat, gets magnified in a cast-iron pan and merges with the cheese in a deep, non-dietetic earthy way that makes my toes curl just thinking about it.

If you add pickles (dill chips, of course) and a good sauce – a mixture of ketchup, mayo, horseradish, Dijon and Worcestershire – and get this all onto a bun that can stand up to it, you are a benefactor to mankind.  And who doesn’t want to be a benefactor to mankind?  Well, come to think of it, Vladimir Putin, President Xi and . . . but that’s neither here nor there.  Forget Putin and Xi and go get a burger.

Cast-Iron Smash Burgers

(Adapted from Michael Symon:  Simply Symon Suppers)

Note:  You can cook this on a grill in the summer by simply putting a cast-iron skillet on the grill and getting it very hot.  In winter, just heat it on the stove-top.

Further note:  Symon tops each of his burgers with a crispy onion ring.  We did not because deep-frying indoors is something up with which SWMBO will not put.

Final note:  Symon does not toast his burger buns.  We toast ours very lightly.  You are in charge of your own burger buns – I mean, it’s a free country.

Timing:                                             

20 minutes for two burgers, add 10 minutes for another two and ten for another two, and so on.

Ingredients:                                     Serves 4

   For special burger sauce:

½ cup mayo, 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish, 2 tablespoons ketchup, 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce

  For the Burgers:

2 lbs. ground beef (0% lean)

2 small yellow onions, halved and thinly sliced (1 cup)

16 slices American cheese

Kosh salt and ground black pepper

For serving:  2 seeded potato rolls (we used Giant Eagle Kaiser rolls), 12 pickle slices.

Prep:

Make the sauce by whisking the ingredients together in a bowl and refrigerate until serving.

Set a large cast-iron skillet or grill pan on the stove over medium-high and get it hot!

Divide the beef into 8 portions and roll into balls, then season with salt and pepper.

Halve the onions and slice then thinly – you’re going to put a pile of these under each of the 8 meatballs

Separate cheese slices

Cook:

Add a drizzle of olive oil to the skillet.

Add half the onions in 4 even, separate piles to the skillet.

Place a meatball on each pile of onions and, using a heavy spatula, smash each ball down to a thin patty.  Now cook until the beef and onions are golden brown and crisp – 5 minutes – then flip each patty and top with 2 slices of cheese (if cheese is thick, use just 1 slice) and cook for 3 more minutes.

Now move the burgers to a plate and cook another 4 meatballs with onions as above.

Serve:

Spread special sauce on the tops and bottoms of the buns.  Place 2 pickle slices on the bottom halves, top with two burger patties each.  [Symon adds an onion ring at this point – we did not. See above.