Turkey Burgers and Roasted Cauliflower

Well I'm back. And I suppose you may be wondering, "What has Mark been cooking since his last blog?  Has he been cooking?  Has he been eating?  Is he hungry?   I hope he's not gone without food.  And what about his wife?  Is she starving?  Oh my, now I'm worried!!"

But fret not, we've been eating and I have been cooking.  Just nothing too interesting. I did some killer swordfish tacos that came out excellent but still needs some tuning.

I'm thinking for now, since I figured you're all worried about me eating and all, I'd go ahead and blog about last night's dinner just so you know everything's ok.

Last night was a typical "Mark" dinner.  Turkey burgers (still can't get my wife to eat beef), roasted cauliflower, and salad.  First a word about the salad.  And that word would be, "blech!!"  It was just a bunch-o-mixed-greens thrown into a serving bowl with grocery store bought dressing on the side.  Boring?  Definitely, no doubt about it.  To make matters worse, I even had da' kind home-made croutons from a previous day's drive to Gayle's in Capitola I could have thrown on top of the salad. But I didn't.  Those that know of Gayle's will approve, I'm sure, and those that don't know of Gayle's need to make a special trip to Capitola if for nothing else but to pay homage to this amazing coastal bakery.  I could have sliced a righteously ripe avocado which I also bought on that same drive to Gayle's and thrown that on top.  But I didn't.  I had a jar of roasted red peppers, I had carrots, I had celery, and well, you get the picture.  I could have thrown all those things in my salad. But I didn't.  I know, I failed "Intro to Salad 101" last night.  But in my excuse,  I wanted to concentrate on the roasted cauliflower and turkey burgers. Ya, that's the ticket, focus on the big picture and don't sweat the small stuff.

I admit that I'd rather have a nice juicy beef burger than a turkey burger. I mean, who wouldn't?  But given that beef is NOT on the menu tonight (and most other nights), I'm going to show you my approach to turkey resulting in a pretty awesome and somewhat healthier burger.  My hope is that you get the idea of how I make mine so that you can experiment on your own.  The roasted cauliflower on the other hand is just plain good and so easy to cook. It's a family favorite and if you have a proclivity towards cauliflower, I highly suggest you give this one a try. Special note: I have been asked by my oldest step-daughter to include a list of ingredients at the beginning of my blog and highlight them as they're used in the recipes. This tells me that my kids read my blog. Nice. Thank her if you like this approach. And if you don't, she's a Ph.D candidate in Physics and typically is always right. So there!!!

Turkey Burger Ingredients:

• 3/4 pound ground turkey breast
• 3/4 pound ground turkey thigh
• 1 egg
• 2 TBS Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup "dressing" 
• 1 cup Panko crumbs
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Cauliflower Ingredients:

• 1 head cauliflower
• Sesame Oil
• Everyday Seasoning (or salt and pepper)

Let's start with the cauliflower since it is the easiest.  We are basically going to season the florets and roast them in a 425 degree oven for 20 minutes. Simple?  Here's step by step:

1. Pre heat the oven to 425 degrees.
2. Prepare the cauliflower:  I like to cut off the florets from the main cauliflower and slice them in half before rinsing.  That way, when I roast them, there is more of the floret exposed to the spices.
3. Once rinsed, cover the entire area of a cookie pan with aluminum foil.  We will cook our florets on aluminum foil.  Why?  Because it makes clean up easy.  I mean really, could it BE any easier to crumble up and throw away, er...I mean, to recycle because after all, we are in California, right?
4. Spray the aluminum foil with Pam or a little olive oil.  This will help to brown the bottoms of the florets.
5. Place the florets on the aluminum foil.
6. Sprinkle sesame oil on top of the florets.  You don't have to oil down every part of the floret since a little goes a long way.  But don't be shy either.  Nothing says, "party" to a floret like sesame oil.
7. Once the florets are oiled up, time to season them.  I use Everyday Seasoning from Trader Joe's.  It contains sea salt, mustard seed, peppercorns, onion, garlic, paprika, and chili peppers.  It comes in a shaker with a built in grinder.  I have used the exact same seasonings individually as well when I didn't have the Everyday Seasoning available.  You can also just use salt and pepper if you have nothing.  You do need some seasoning along with the sesame oil so make sure to use something.

Here's what the cauliflower should look like before placing in the oven:

I like to throw the cauliflower in the oven as soon as I place the turkey burgers on the grill.  The burgers take about 10 minutes per side @ 350 degrees so by the time they are done, so is your cauliflower.  BOOM!  You are now a master of timing.

Next, the turkey burgers.

• Combine the breast and thigh meat and mix well.  I have used just breast meat or just thigh meat before but I like a 50/50 mixture.  Breast meat has very little fat and will require you to use more "dressing".  Thigh meat alone results in a burger that just doesn't feel like a burger in your mouth.  I know that sounds weird but give it a try sometime and you'll see what I mean.  Trust me on this one and use a 50/50 mixture.
• Add one egg and mix well

• Add 2 TBS Worcestershire sauce and mix well

• Add 1/2 cup "dressing" and mix well.  Ok, let talk about this so-called "dressing".  I use this ingredient to add flavor to the burger.  I have used all kinds of dressings such as "Drews Smoked Tomato" or "Ken's 1000 Island".   You can get as creative as you want at this point.  Ketchup?  Chili Sauce?  Minestrone soup?  Yup, I've tried the soup before as well.  Works great for meatloaf but not turkey burgers.  For this particular session, I used a Red Pepper sauce pictured below that I picked up from the farmers market.  There are bits of roasted red pepper in it which adds not only to the flavor but also provides some texture to the burger.

• Add 1 cup Panko crumbs and mix well.  I use Panko rather than regular bread crumbs because again, they provide a little more texture and I also find that they soak up the "dressing" more providing structure to the burger without taking away the "dressing" flavor.

I grill the turkey burgers on my gas grill at 350 degrees.  Ten minutes per side.  In the past, I have placed the burgers directly on the grill but I find that they "stick" to the grill and I don't get the "crust" on the burgers that I like.  I like my burgers to have a "crust", as if they were cooked on a flat top.  The crust on the flat top is the result of carmelization of the fats and the meat.  Since there is much less fat in turkey meat, I have to produce the "crust" artificially.  I do that by using seasoning and grilling them on aluminum foil.  So once the burgers are prepared as above, I ready the foil to cook them on by spraying the foil with Pam.  Go heavy on the Pam for this.  

Once the foil is Pam'd up, divide the ground turkey into 6 patties, place the patties on the aluminum foil and use the Everyday Seasoning or Salt and Pepper to season the patties.  I season the patty on one side and then spray that side with Pam in order to glue the seasoning to the patty.  I repeat the same process on the other side of the patty.

Now, you have the patties seasoned, well Pam'd, and on the foil ready for grilling.   Here's what they should look like: 

Place the foil with the patties on the grill.  Cover the burgers if the grill has a cover.  Then put the cauliflower in the oven.  Flip the patties after 10 minutes.  Enjoy the smell of sesame oil as it wafts through the kitchen and into your mind driving the pets crazy.  After another 10 minutes, take the patties off the grill and the cauliflower out of the oven.

Make yourself a little salad...or not!!  

We usually eat turkey burgers without buns (so very carb conscious these days).  But last night, I put a slice of sharp cheddar cheese on mine for a minute before removing from the grill.  Even more decadent, we put our burgers on pretzel buns that were also slightly toasted.   I smeared the bun with a sriracha mayo on one side and chili infused ketchup on the other.  I took a snapshot without the buns so that there was no evidence of malfeasance.  By the way, this was very close to a healthy 30 minute meal.

I encourage you to try these two recipes and experiment with your own dressings in the burgers and let me know how they turn out.