Bacon Green Chile Cheeseburgers

I have been working on making the perfect burger for months now. There has to be a suitable balance between toppings and meat. The patty has to be thin enough to bite into, but thick enough to be a mouthful. The outside has to be browned, but the inside needs to be juicy and not overcooked. Despite the fact that I can make a mean salmon with beurre blanc and that my Caesar salad is out of this world, burgers are still a challenge for me.

For my bacon green chile cheeseburger, I chopped the green chile into the patty itself. I have found that this helps keep the flavor evenly throughout.  I also mixed a small amount of Cholula, kosher salt, and pepper. Delicious! For once I cooked it perfectly, but I was somewhat lacking in condiments. In the end the burger was excellent, but I will have to do some more planning before I make this the next time. 

Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness

Sometimes when I am feeling frustrated with my life, I watch My Little Pony. Definitely not kidding here! It is a wonderfully uplifting show, even if I am almost twenty years older than the target audience. Quite a few of the episodes have little food vignettes, but my favorite episode centers on the Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness. In the show it is described as “All that rich creamy goodness of the marzipan combined with the tart tanginess of the mascarpone blended perfectly with the smooth silky sweetness of the meringue.” My friend Laura and I set out to recreate the cake with our own special touch.

Clearly neither of us is a professional baker, but I used my culinary training to make some delicious marzipan and Laura’s artistic ability went a long way in the coloring and shaping of the fruits and leaves. Since I am not a huge fan of normal cake, we decided to make a delectable creamy mascarpone cheesecake as the base.  The meringue did not turn out very well, but I decided it was somewhat superfluous anyway. In the end the cake as a whole was delicious. Well worth the cavities.

Green Chile Tempura Trial 1.0

This past weekend I continued my green chile adventures and made green chile tempura and arroz verde. There is an amazing sushi restaurant in Santa Fe called Shohko Café which I highly recommend to any visitors of the city. My green chile tempura is not nearly as impressive as theirs, and for that reason I will not be sharing the recipe.  I still have one fresh green chile left and I might use it to perfect this recipe.  The key to amazing tempura is a light and fluffy batter and mine left a lot to be desired. Up next is bacon green chile cheeseburgers!