St. Patrick's Bison Burgers

4 slices French bread, crusts removed
1 cup (250 mL) Guinness Draught, room temperature
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons (30 mL) ketchup
1 teaspoon (5 mL) salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 lb (1 kg) ground bison (I used extra-lean ground beef)
1 red onion, finely diced
1 teaspoon (5 mL) dried thyme
1 large egg
1/2 cup (125 mL) freshly chopped parsley (I used a handful of dried parsley)
kaiser buns
Cheddar cheese
bread crumbs (This is not part of the recipe but I added some in)

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Let's be honest, shall we? We're in Alberta. We eat meat. We eat beef. This burger has got beef, and it's got beer. Nothing spells "l-o-v-e" like homemade hamburgers. And this is good stuff. It's very, very moist. I was pretty impressed with the results today. I usually use a little less than 1 kg of beef, so it's a little too 'wet' and it will fall apart in the bar-b-q. Solution: a little bid of bread crumbs to stick it all together a little better. It's a sound investment.

Again, I obtained the recipe from the Edmonton Journal's bistro/food section - it was a St. Patrick's Day writeup. I'm guessing it's from about 5 years ago, because I have a note on it from October 17, 2007: "Made at Jeff's - more bread??". I think that day it was too wet or soggy that day, so I've been trying to up the bread quotient up or at least add some bread crumbs to keep things together a little better.

You can see the burger below. It's a little small, but I think they cook a little better. And I added some cheddar on top, of course. The burger is accompanied by one lovely yam (or is it a sweet potato? whatever, it's the same thing I used in the soup from a few days ago). Speaking of yams/sweet potato, I was watching foodtv before preparing the patties and there was this show "Spice Goddess" with an attractive Indian lady who was cooking - and she had some tasty, simple dishes that I need to try. One of them being a kidney bean stew (yes, it contains sweet potato).

Net result was a tasty meal. I'd give the burger an 8.5 out of 10.


Actually, I think this is the second best use of a Guinness. Hopefully I will be able to write about the best use of a Guinness relatively soon...

Hot and Honeyed Sweet Potato Soup with Lime

4 cups (2 L) water (Hey - I know that doesn't quite add up, but that's what the recipe says). I used 6 cups/1.5L water
2 lbs. (1 kg) sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed. I used Yams.
1 jalapeño pepper
juice and grated zest of 1 lime. I used 4 key limes.
1/4 cup (75ml) honey
1 teaspoon (5ml) curry powder
salt and pepper top taste (I know, it should be "to" not top - but that's what the recipe said. Poor editing on the Journal's part, that's for sure...). Actually, I forgot to add these!
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
sour cream, salsa, extra cilantro and lime wedges


***


Do you want to turn this:

into this?

I bet you do. That's what I did tonight.

This recipe was obtained from the Edmonton Journal food/bistro section about 7.5 years ago. It was on page 2, and on page 1, there's an article on Emeril, Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson with their photos. Have you ever watched Nigella's shows? The camera guy always, always pans in to her chest. No, no, I'm not complaining, as she has a very nice chest. She's very chesty. In fact, I quite like it. What's not to like? But you have to know your audience, don't you? How many guys actually watch her show? Besides me?

Hmm. What was I writing about? Chesty soup? Is there such a thing? Don't tell him...