I'm currently on the plane back to Baltimore, feeling like Zenon (minus the neon and metallic outfit) because I can text people using iMessage while soaring through the sky. I also learned that an iPad can't tell the difference between a plastic cup of wine and your finger. So don't even think about using your iPad as a table.
Once I picked up my wine and my iPad calmed down, I looked through my pictures and realized that I forgot to blog about the only awesome thing I made before I left for my trip. After everyone abandoned me in Baltimore, I got pretty lazy with cooking and a little too free with the take-out. It's pretty hard to convince myself to cook a healthy meal when there's an iPhone app for sushi delivery. So last Monday, I had two boxes of food from my CSA and a flight booked to Austin on Wednesday. I had to do some serious eating. My first thought was to make a bunch of stuff and try to eat as much as possible before passing the leftovers off to my coworkers. But that seemed like a lot of work.
My next idea was to make one meal that used as many CSA ingredients as possible. I'm sure there is some website where I can enter all the random food I have in my kitchen, and it will give me recipes based on those items, but I didn't feel like searching for it. So I did what I always do when I have no idea what I am doing, I turned to the grill. I wanted to make some sort of burger, so I had to get off the couch, turn off Bravo, and drive 0.5 miles to the nearest grocery store. Once I got to the meat section of the store, I found out that they only package beef burgers in sets of 3 patties. I can eat, but three burgers in one night was a little intimidating. I asked the guy behind the counter if they had any burger is packs of 2. He said not for beef, but he could check if they had patties made of any other type of meat. He went to look in the back, and the wonderful man returned with two even more wonderful lamb patties.
I had spring onions, cilantro, beets, garlic scapes, and asparagus left in my CSA boxes and was determined to use all of it in one meal.
Luckily the lamb was the perfect patty for this!
For the burger:
1 small spring onion, diced
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
2 (lamb) patties
For the toppings:
3 or 4 small to medium beets
Salt
Goat cheese
For the sides:
Any leftover spring onions
Asparagus
Garlic scapes
Balsamic vinegar Jar
PREPARATION
Start by placing a pot of water and salt over high heat.
While you are waiting for the water to boil, peel and slice the beets into 1/4-1/2 inch thick disks. Put them aside, when the water reaches a rolling boil, add the beets, cover the pot, and reduce the heat to medium. Your beets will be done when they are soft and can be easily penetrated (not a good enough reason to use the word penetrated) poked by a fork. Once they are done, set them aside and cover with tin foil.
The beets take a little bit, so you want to work on one of the sides before moving on to the burgers. While the water is heating/the beets are cooking, clean your jar; you will be pouring the balsamic in it. Clean and trim the garlic scapes. Next, use the back of a knife (Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince style) or a rolling pin to gently crush the garlic scapes. This will allow more of the flavor to be released. Place the crushed garlic scapes in the jar and pour the vinegar over the contents of the jar. Seal and let sit in a cool, dark place.
Now back to the burgers.. Combine the onions and ginger in a pan over medium-high heat. Cook the onions until they are soft/golden brown. While the onions are cooking, chop the parsley, trim and wash the asparagus, and wash and cut any leftover onions in half. Set the asparagus and onions to the side. Combine the lamb patties and parsley in a medium bowl. When the onions are soft, add them to the bowl with the meat and parsley. Mix the contents together until the parsley and onions are evenly distributed throughout the meat. Divide the now seasoned meat and form two patties.
Take the asparagus, onions, and patties out to the grill. Place the patties over medium heat and the veggies over medium-high heat.
I cooked my patties for 5 minutes on each side, but the time will vary based on the power of your grill and the size of your patties. The same goes for your veggies.
Once everything is done cooking, top the patties with goat cheese and the beets. Pour the garlic vinegar over the veggies. Eat and be happy!
