Zen & Art of Cast Iron Maintenance, Pickling & Burgers

Todays the official end of Hair. The Broadway show. The tour. and now back to the drawing board. [happy day after Valentines day]. Lee's friend Ramsy recommended a good barber called Contesta Rock Hair that gives a good and fairly inexpensive haircut [$65]..at least for being a get-the-job-done, metro kinda place. Its a chain of salons around the world. check them out. They do good work.

Julie was my stylist. she was chopping my hair I'd grown for 2 years, since I started 'Hair', since I started blogging. not to get sentimental but its a kind of a big deal. I asked if she could make my hair have that classic buzz on the sides, longer on the top kind deal. But not as ballsy as the Williamsburg hipster type with that Michael Pitt haircut from Boardwalk Empire

speaking of...catch Lee in a nice cameo on Boardwalk Empire...as the scared shitless liquor warehouse robber who doesn't confess and he finds out the hard way not to fuck with Knuckles. I'll let you see for yourself in a few weeks..

the world of Lee, the Jew

'this is some of your past you're cutting off...Memories your letting go of', Julie said. and she went on chopping with precision. I literally felt like I stepped into a new person as she went on, as corny as that sounds:) and the vibe made it very comfortable in the salon. Very Zen :)

my history in the palm of her hand

As I'm delving into the menu for this truck, all I've been eating is burgers lately.  If your in nyc and ever in the mood to sample 3 BOMB tasting burgers, you can find it within about a 3 block radius. In the West Village. The White Horse Tavern, The Spotted Pig, and Corner Bistro who specialize in the brick oven burger.

I went to White Horse Tavern to meet Lee and Jen after my cut. Jen, who I did Hair with is still in previews for 'Carrie' down the street at the Lucille Lortel. Go check her out. but from what I hear don't go with the movie in mind for what you expect. I love their burger and fries for $7. Its one of those old taverns that you don't feel guilty about slowing down in a fast moving city like new york. dark walls, big windows with lots of natural light, imagining the spots here where Kerouac and Hunter Thompson wrote, and Bob Dylan  hung out.

Last night was burger recipe testing with Josh uptown at my apartment. To fill you in, I met Josh Terrill through Larkin who i did Hair with. He had the same idea I did about opening a burger truck so I pitched the idea to Josh, who's a social media/music manager for Warner Bro's at the time....about the possibility of a burger and fry truck. he was on board.  As we're putting together the logistics of what it takes to run and maintain a burger truck, in NJ, and a culinary venture we're fairly new to, we decided to run a weekly test kitchen to begin compiling our menu. Each Monday we'll feature a new burger and fries, and/or side items (mostly pickled), and play around with homemade spritzers. Maybe with ingredients bringing mint, lemongrass, ginger, seasonal ingredients into it...all that good stuff.

We started it off with the classic beef burger. It was an excuse for me to test out my first [ antique ] meat grinder. It was a gift from Jenny and Matt and the crew at the GreenHouse Tavern. Thanks again Tavern. It was truly a worthwhile and memorable experience.

GENERAL MANUAL MEAT GRINDER RULES

fyi Save yourself the time and, unless your making something similar to beef or tuna tar-tar, the meat grinders better kept as a kitchen decoration. unless your works better than mine.  Definitely invest in a good Hobart or Kitchen Aid brand. Its worth it.

cleaning try and stick to lemon juice or a natural cleaner. commercial cleaners/ non natural detergents will fuck it up.  I slice a lemon in half. grab the halves, one at a time, and squeeze a little juice onto the iron as you give the iron a thorough rub down. as the juice empties out,  you can invert it and use as a scrub that way.  now wipe it dry with a paper towel. [and have a cigarette] Now's the point when you treat you'r cookware like lifelong partners. LIFE partners....you ever lucky enough to witness a gay introduce their significant other as my partner or worse, my life partner ?? moments when you want to laugh but have to hold it.

seasoning cast iron. for manual meat grinders, disassemble all the parts and keep all parts but the handle,  submerged in lard or oil. when ready for use, wipe it off with paper towel and bobs your uncle!

for skillets, set your oven to 300F. once your pot is washed and dried, empty 1 TBSP of bacon grease, lard, or olive oil [ for you vegetarians] onto a paper towel and give the inside of the pan a good rub down. toss it in the oven for 25 minutes and repeat a few times. Now its ready. So high fat content food like beef and pork work the best when cooked in these pans and the fat flavors it.

the burger test kitchen. beef burger. we used equal parts brisket and short rib. The grinding turned into such a chore at one point because the gristle kept catching on the blade that we decided to just chop with the food processor, and works MUCH quicker.

I did a spin on the lamb burger at the greenhouse tavern and made fonduta cheese which is fontina [soft cows milk semi stinky] cheese whisked quickly over a double boiler with whole milk and a few yolks. I wiped the foduta on the top half of the bun. We added a simple spoonful of a mignonette to top the burger, which is a minced shallots and a dash of sugar in red wine vinegar. I used Chef Sawyers Rose Vinegar but red wine is similar. The taste was great. the shallots and fonduta with the beef and brioche. not quite as medium as I wanted. and the texture didn't totally gel in the grinder and left the meat tangled in a few spots.  all old cast iron grinders are not equal just because its parts were all made out of a mold. Some will work and some won't so don't get too frustrated when your meat is not grinded with more modern tools.

We formed just the beef patties into 1/3 lb nice hockey pucks without anything in, including salt which if added, sucks the fatty moisture out too early. So we salted generously just before dropping it on the flattop. next time I'm going to try a dash of worceshire and and pre salt the burger to see what happens with the moisture aspect. we also tried some thin feta slices over the burger. too salty. we didn't like it. Burger wise feta works better with lamb...we didn't play with ketchup. next we're gonna play with a tomato chutney or roasted fresno peppers or possibly a tomato pesto. we shall see.

I canned for the first time this morning. Something my mom raised my family on that mustve just rubbed off. At one point as a kid, my mom canned year round and Pop raised and butchered rabbits in the garage:) from their Mennonite days at Reba Place. My mom canned year round and they collected all their other food from co-ops and WIC and for a city as big as South Bend, they kinda lived off the land...and on the CHEAP.

Nicks Best Potted Pickles: daikon radish, kabocha squash, watermelon radish, chili, and fennel, and vidalia's with Sawyers Viogner Vinegar and Apricot Sake Vinegar. For pickling, try and stick to rice wine vinegar. not rice vinegar which is different.

fyi- this is quick pickling so theres no sterilization involved. also, look for kabocha squash this time of year. Its next to the butternut squash most markets but because people aren't familiar, they don't bother to try it out. Its actually better and cheaper than butternut squash. It looks like a cross btwn a circular squash and a dark green soccer ball thats partly flat.