Saturday morning La (you'll find out more about here later because she will be writing to you about her delightful creations, adventures, etc. soon. AKA after she finishes her midterm about a certain subject in biology that well even saying this much about it in a food blog is too much) and I went to the amazing Santa Barbara Farmer's Market. I was so excited to go! We hadn't been in a while because we've been getting a Community Supported Agriculture box with more than enough produce to sustain ourselves. But on this cold, wet, BEAUTIFUL morning we went. Though it wasn't as crowded as normal due to the wonderful, wet weather (and I don't say that at all sarcastically, I really was happy to have rain) the produce looked amazing-- plus cherimoya season is upon us and we found one that looked like a spiky heart! In fact, a lot of the produce we bought went into our dinner tonight...
Oh right, our dinner. That's what this post is about, so sorry I became distracted by the farmers market. So anyway, we usually look longingly at the meat but never actually buy any. However, on this fateful morning the beef gods beckoned to us to go to a certain meat stand. So we did and, to our delight, saw that a pound of good ground beef was only four dollars! SCORE! Thus, there was nothing we could do but buy the beef and make really really really good burgers. But as we walked back to my car, we read the little flyer that came with the beef. It said the cattle were finished on an all grass diet. Finished? So what... they started on an all corn diet? Well, actually I guess corn is still a tropical grass so it wasn't completely lying to us but still its a C4 plant as opposed to temperate grasses which are C3 plants (Sorry midterms on my brain). But so then the question was was it fed corn or corn dogs or Frito's or corn bread... we were getting pretty creative by this point but I won't bore you with the list...
As La diligently studied for her midterm, I spent the day preparing for our delicious burgers. (I'll have you know though I had my three midterms last week so I was allowed to be unproductive in the area of studying today) So here it goes, what makes a good a
n amazing burger (besides good meat)?Step 1. Good buns- not some store bought buns but homemade buns. I've been on a bread-making craze lately otherwise I will admit I would have used store bought. So I made challah buns... o so tasty! These buns can be eaten plain and still taste just as perfect.
Step 2. Good condiments- I sauteed onions with elephant garlic just to the point where they started to caramelize and get a little crunchy
Step 3. Infuse the meat with herbs, yum! I used fresh basil and then some parsley, oregano, salt, and pepper, and a good chunk of elephant garlic
Step 4. BBQ! well actually, that's a lie. I have a camping propane BBQ which conveniently ran out of propane (and in my tiny apartment another can was not found so then I called my mom certain I had another can of propane and she kindly reminded me that she told told me to bring another one and I refused) but that's okay. It worked to our advantage because we pan fried the patties instead which kept the meat juicy, moist, and flavorful.
Step 5. Add a delicious but light side. I made a roasted beet, fennel, arugula, and Cara Cara orange salad. So good!
Step 6. Enjoy! which we did... La said it was in the top 5 of burgers she's ever eaten. I think we did a good job!
-Caroline xx
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