Sliders anyone?

OK, before I get into this endeavor into redneck culinary art, I feel I must say something. I will get to the suggestions soon, but I have been wanting to make these for a while. Finally I said to myself, is said, "Self make them", so I did.

If you are like me and have self inflicted upon yourself a lack of small tasty burgers, some call them sliders, crystals, etc. I call them good eats, um my lawyer says I can't say that...so eats that are good. That'll do. You do know what I speak of don't you? Steamy little burgers, cooked in onions and served piping hot in little paper boxes?


Yeah that look real doesn't it? I bet it tastes as good as it looks.


Sometimes deliciousness isn't pretty, but sometimes pretty isn't delicious.

OK the basic ingredients, you will need some
Small buns, dinner rolls are perfect size, I got potato rolls, fitting for Idaho if I must say so myself.

Dehydrated onions, reconstituted

Cheese, american, I used white american, I'm racist like that

Pickle chips

Mustard

1 lb. Ground beef

Salt

Pepper

And anything else I mention along the way


Mix burger with salt and pepper to taste, I don't recommend you tasting the raw burger, but just what looks good.



Place about half on a piece of plastic wrap that is twice as long as it is wide, fold over. Roll out until it fits plastic wrap, it should be about 1/16th inch to 1/8th inch thick. Score meat so that is is 4 by 4 with something like a table knife, not sharp, you don't want to cut the plastic. With finger press five holes in each piece of the meat sheet.



Place on rack and put in freezer. Prepare the other half as you did with the first half and freeze too.

While waiting for that to harden up in the freeze, you can prep the rest of the ingredients.

Daddy, daddy take a picture of me!

(Like her shirt? I designed it, it says "ELF SIZED DEAL WITH IT")

Put dehydrated onions in bowl about 1/2 cup with 1 cup of cold water and lets set to rehydrate.
(Pictures were too blurry, but you get the picture. I crack myself up.)

If your buns aren't split you will need to do that too. Thanks God for electric knives.


Cut cheese slices in fourths.



*eats way too many pickles*

Place about 1/4 of the onions an some of the liquid on griddle, and electric on if you have it, I wish I had one. Anyway turn heat to about medium high.


Remove one meat sheet from freezer, hopefully it is frozen by now, if not you will need to wait on the griddle until it is. Remove plastic from meat, unless you favor the taste of burnt plastic with your burgers, in that case you can leave it on. Place on hot griddle. Put bottom of buns on meat, one bun per meat portion.



Place a lid on it to steam them, or in my case a large roasting pan.


While steaming place mustard, pickle and cheese on top bun portion.


When meat is done and before onions burn, remove from heat and place on bun tops.

A work of tummy rumbling art.



There isn't a White Castle around here, I miss them sorely. These are a suitable substitute, maybe even better.

OK what do you want?

I said I was holding off for a while on the cooking posts, but I can't stand it any longer. I must cook something delicious and share it, not the food that is all mine, but the pictures which while not nearly as tasty I enjoy sharing them.

So what will it be? I will pick a winner and they will win a "themaninthekitchen" tee shirt if there is ever such a thing.

Microwave cleaning tip

Well trying to get the house in selling condition takes up a lot of time, so probably no food posts up in the near future. So I decided to go with a tip that helps me a lot.

I don't know if everyone else's microwave gets as nasty as mine does, but it helps to have a method that makes cleaning it a breeze.

What I do is take your standard kitchen cleaner and throughly spray the interior of the microwave including the inside of the door until it is dripping. Then place a microwave safe bowl half filled with water inside. Set it for about 4 minutes on high and let it go. After the timer goes off let it sit for 5 minutes or so, then open and carefully remove the water bowl, it will be very hot.

Then just wipe the muck up with a rag, it comes off real easy, for me anyway.

Hope this helps, and until next time...

Mexican Spiced Steak with Chipotle con Queso Sauce

As I sit here eating my Big Mac and contemplating what I have just cooked, I realize I should have ate what I cooked. Oh well such is life.

Whew, this one took a while to prepare and get photographed, I hope you appreciate it and show that appreciation with many checks in the mail.

OK to start out I couldn't find the type of steak I needed anywhere, and after visiting 3 stores I settled on a chuck steak about 2 inches thick and weighing in at over 2 pounds, this was going to take some disassembling.







And now rub them babies down with the following dry rub.

2 TBS grill seasoning
Grated zest of two limes
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp chili powder



Yummy, but I will wait until it is cooked.

Melt 2 TSP of butter in a medium saucepan and them add 2 TSP of flour.




Make a paste a cook over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes stirring constantly, then add 1 1/2 cups of milk.



OK you have made a simple white sauce, yay! Now just cook over medium/high heat until it is thick and bubbly. Then add 1 1/2 cups of shredded smoked cheddar cheese 2 TBSP of finely chopped canned chipotle chiles in abodo sauce, salt to taste. Stir and put heat on lowest setting to just keep warm. This is your queso sauce.



OK now the meat, alright. *grunts and does manly things*

Preheat your oven to 500º F. Take you favorite cast iron skillet and coat it with extra virgin olive oil. Put it in the oven to heat up as the oven is preheating. Now 500º is as Alton Brown might say, "Rocket hot".




When oven lets you know it has reached approximately the temperature of the sun carefully remove the skillet from the oven and place on burner that has been set to high. Add seasoned meat.



And let cook for about 1 minute. When that minute has expired, flip over and repeat.



Then return pan with meat to rocket oven and set a timer for 4 minutes, flip and repeat 4 minute timer. At that time remove from oven and and transfer to cutting board. cut meat against the grain on the bias in strips as thin as you can. The thinner the better, since this meat isn't the most tender, the shorter the grain fibers the more tender it will seem.



And the scene of the crime. Isn't it lovely? I don't like my meat rare but I must admit I immediately partook of the bounty.


OK also by request I made another sauce to go along with this delicious meat. It is chimichurri, sound like the name of a song from some musical about a car that I saw a lifetime ago. It turned out lovely. It is a sauce from Argentina that is very good I was eating it just by itself all night long, yummy.

Alright so a quick rundown.

1/2 cup EVOO


1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup red wine vinegar


1 medium onion finely chopped.

You need one of these chopper babies. Very nice.



2 cloves of garlic finely chopped. (I cheat on this)


1/2 red peper finely chopped


1 small tomato seeded and finely chopped.


1 TBSP of dried oregano and 1 TBSP of dried paprika (for the love of God I don't know why but when I was making it I read parsley, which is what I used.)




1 tsp course salt


1 tsp ground black pepper and chili flakes to taste (used chili powder even though I specifically bought chili flakes for this recipe, GRRRR!)


Stir to bring together, and let sit for 30 minutes minimum.


And now let the mouthwatering commence. Steak with Queso sauce.


And with the Chimichurri sauce.


I suppose I should give credit where credit is due, this recipe was losely based upon Rachael Ray's Recipe found here.

OK kiddies I am pooped, this was a long one. And until next time...Good night.