Lamb and Beef Sliders with Beer Onions, Smoked Cheddar, and Horseradish Cream Sauce

Every man, woman, and child should be able to improvise a good burger recipe. Or you could make your friends think you're improvising by memorizing this powerhouse slider recipe. I literally surprised myself (and my roommate) with how good these were. Here's how to make it rain....

Ingredients:
1 lb each ground lamb and ground chuck
1 large sweet onion
3 tbls vegetable or grapeseed oil
2 tbls butter
2 tbls horseradish
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup Red Ale
8 thick slices of smoked cheddar cheese
kosher salt and black pepper
8 Slider Buns

For the onions:
1. Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet on medium high.
2. Slice the onion and add to the skillet after it heats up. Cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently so the onions don't burn.
3. Add the butter, some salt and pepper, and keep stirring. After another 5 minutes, add the beer and lower the heat to medium. Keep the onions cooking for another 10-15 minutes until they are brown and soft.

For the horseradish sauce:
1. Mix together the horseradish, sour cream, and some salt and pepper. Boom. Done.

For the burgers:
1. Preheat your grill to medium-high heat
2. In a mixing bowl, combine the ground lamb and chuck with a tablespoon of salt and some black pepper.
2. Form patties that are about a half-inch bigger than your slider buns - probably a quarter pound of meat for each burger.
3. Throw them on the grill, cooking each side for 3-5 minutes. In the last two minutes, put the smoked cheddar slices on each burger and close the lid of the grill.

Now you can form each burger. I leave it up to you how you want to stack the layers of flavor. We put burger, onions, then sauce, and stacked 'em nice and high. Let us know if you like this and any other variations you might ponder.

Baja Fish Tacos!

This is the moment where I wish I could go back and retake some pictures, or just eat more of that meal.  I'm not gunna lie...it was pretty good.

Let's start easy and get into the more difficult stuff after.

Rice:
Start with about 1 Tbsp of butter
Add about 2 Tbsp of Lime Juice
Add 1 cup of white basmati
Add 2 cups water
watch the magic happen for 15-20 minutes (just taste test)
Turn off the heat
Add as much cilantro and lime juice as you want on top, then stir
Of course, don't forget to add more butter.

Slaw:
1/2 head of Purple Cabbage (shredded)
1 large Carrot (shredded)
1 firm Mango (diced)
Cilantro (to your taste)
Lime Juice (one whole lime)
1.5 Tbsp of Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Tbsp white sugar
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Just mix everything together! So simple and so fresh and tasty!

Chipotle Cream:

obviously you can change the amounts and make half of this portion, but I love eating this with the rice too

1 cup sour cream
1/8-1/4th cup Heavy cream (depending on how thick or thin you want the sauce)
1 tsp PAPRIKA (we make a big deal out of this word when it's used in our blog)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp lime juice
2 Tbsp Chipotle Chile (I got canned adobo)
Stick this in the food processor..and process it.

Some people prefer just putting the Chipotle Chile sauce in there, vs. putting a few of the actual peppers.  I love spicy food, so I put a pepper or two in the food processor too.

Fish:
Get your frying oil to about 350, once you stick the fish in there it'll be 5-7 minutes to cook.

Batter-
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 cup beer (really any will do)
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Mix together and let sit for 10-20 minutes

I got a few fillets of Mahi Mahi, because it was on sale at the market, but any firm fish will work.

cut the fish into long but thin strips (about 1.5 inches wide) it'll make it easier to put in the tacos

coat the fish strips in batter
gently place in the hot oil, turning every so often
place cooked fish on paper towel to soak up extra oil.

Then simply arrange your tacos!  You can put rice in the tacos too, or just put it on the plate and eat it separately.



I wrote this post in class and I am way too tired to be witty right now.  But I hope you enjoy this meal.

Tandoori Beer Can Chicken

Holy Tandoori, Batman....

Now that we've gotten all the puns out of the way, let me tell how crazy easy and wonderful and crowd-pleasing this is. It's crazy easy and wonderful and super crowd-pleasing. Let's not waste any more time staring at the delicious pictures or laughing at my awful humor.

Here's what you need:

1 4-5 lb whole chicken
1 jar of tandoori marinade (I like Patak's)
2 cans of american lager beer (the first is for cooking, the second is for drinking)

If you think there are more ingredients that end up showing later, you're wrong. You only need 3 things, people.

1. Preheat your grill on high. If you're using charcoal grill, set it up for medium heat.

2. Remove and discard the fat just inside the body cavities of the chicken. Remove the package of giblets, and throw them at whoever you're cooking with. Rinse the chicken, inside and out, under cold running water, then drain and blot dry, inside and out, with paper towels.

3. As liberally as you can, spread 4-5 tablespoons of the marinade on the chicken. Get it in all the nooks and crannies.

4. Open a can of beer, drink or pour out about 1/3 of the beer. With a church key opener, make another few holes on the top of the beer. Put a spoonful of the marinade inside the can of beer.

5. Slide the chicken upright onto the can of beer so it looks like it's sitting on it.

6. When you're ready to grill, place the chicken beer-can-side down and spread out the legs to make a kind of tripod on the grate. For both kinds of grill, make sure you're using indirect heat so don't place the chicken directly over the flames or charcoals. (For gas grills, you can just use one of the burners instead of both)

7. Turn the grill down to a little above medium, and cook for 2 hours until the chicken is toasty and beautiful.

8. Invite your neighbors, neighbors' dogs, friends, ex-lovers, and the like and enjoy this awesome recipe.