Endless Simmer - A Food Blog

Last week’s Who Cooked It Better aroused quite the display of passion in you folks, finally giving America’s pissed-off vegans a chance to vent their frustrations against that scourge of vegans everywhere, Anthony Bourdain. This was Endless Simmer’s most popular poll to date, and with 800 of you weighing in, Hezbollah Tofu crushed Anthony Bourdain, 83 to 17 percent. Many congrats to HT on a truly winning original recipe.

In a shameless ploy to hold on to our newly expanded vegan readership base, we’re continuing with the “hold the bacon” theme for this week’s Who Cooked It Better, a search for the ultimate veggie burger. But before you meat-lovers tune out, let’s remember that grillin’ season is just around the corner, and if you expect to keep your veggie friends around for the summer, you better have a good faux-burger recipe. And don’t say, “Oh, I already know about Boca Burgers,” because when your vegan friends respond “that’s so considerate of you to think of me,” what they really mean is “Great. I can’t wait to eat this same store-bought patty every weekend for the rest of the summer. By the way, I’m a vegan and this has cheese in it.”

Seeing as how veggie burgers are kind of an anti-establishment thing anyway, we decided to go all-blogger for this challenge. Our first cheftestant is Swell Vegan, whose tasty-looking seitan burger (top left) is accented with chopped sesame seeds, red pepper and carrots. In a twist that could have you choosing this over steak at your next BBQ, Swell Vegan mixes chimichurri sauce into the veggie patty, and tops it off with more of this savory green stuff, along with tomato, onion, and tofutti cheese. SV says the recipe is still a work in progress, but this one already looks like a winner.

Moving to the top right, Eat Air is hoping to take down yet another meat-worshiping TV star with their veganized version of Paula Deen’s Big Mike Burger. The Big V replaces Paula’s butter burger/pecan burger double patty with an amped up seitan burger that includes shittake mushrooms and vegan cheese, along with a tempeh-pecan patty complete with maple syrup and liquid smoke (!) Complete directions here.

On the bottom right corner is a beautiful pic from 101 Cookbooks, whose use of eggs may turn off you vegan voters, but these garbanzo bean-cilantro-sprout burgers are so tasty looking we had to include them. Most originally, 101 C loses the bread buns altogether and uses her two patties as the buns, filling the inside with avocado slices, cipollini onions, and more. Full recipe over at 101 Cookbooks.

In the bottom-left corner is a great-looking burger from The Accidental Vegetarian, which looks most like a real burger of anything we could find, even though instead of fake meat, the AV goes for a mix of eggplant, zucchini, onion and garlic, kicked up a notch with an inventive almond paste concoction. Full recipe here.

Your votes and thoughts please…

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ps - did we miss any of the best? Let us know!

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As you know, the reporting team here at Endless Simmer makes it our business to inform you of the presidential candidates’ food-related platforms and pitfalls. With the general election campaign just around the corner, the ES Editorial Board is still deadlocked on whether to endorse a candidate. While you might suppose our liberal, big-bacon tendencies have us gunning for an Obama-Clinton dream ticket, GOP-er John McCain isn’t letting us take anything for granted.

Despite several decades in the limelight, the 71-year-old senator’s views on foodie issues are still mostly unknown. Luckily, after a pizza-fueled swing through Brooklyn last week, the presumptive Republican nominee agreed to sit down for one of Endless Simmer’s signature g-chat interviews.

Our (imaginary) chat with Johnny Mac touches on his pizza preferences, Top Chef, the Capitol Hill eating scene, and of course, the secrets to a great passion fruit mousse.

BS@ES: Thanks for agreeing to g with us, Senator. Let’s get right down to business. In a visit to Brooklyn earlier this week, you made one of the toughest decisions facing any candidate visiting New York: where to eat pizza. Walk us through your thinking.

MacIsBack2k8: That’s a fair question and I should admit to some indiscretions in my past. Last time I was in New York, my young staffers took me to one of these new-fangled fairy places in Williamsburg. Supposed to be great or something.

BS@ES: Fornino?

MacIsBack2k8: Some crap like that. It’s hard to believe this is what passes for a pie in this day and age. Decent cheese and sauce, but you should see what these people put on their pizza. Truffle oil! Lamb! Pistachios, for crying out loud. In my day, people didn’t call that pizza.

BS@ES: You might say the variety of toppings was a little too liberal?

MacIsBack2k8: Here’s some straight talk for you, BS. When I visited New York in the 70’s, you could get a decent slice on any street corner in all five boroughs. Today, half of this fancy pants garbage they’re serving in Manhattan and Brooklyn doesn’t deserve to wipe my ass. But if you want a true old school pizza - quality sauce, plenty of mozz., and a stand-up crust that makes the perfect fold - you’ll still find it out here in Bay Ridge - which, I might add, also happens to be the most Republican neighborhood in all of Brooklyn. Not a coincidence, I don’t think.

BS@ES: Are you suggesting Republicans make better pizza than Democrats?

MacIsBack2k8: Look, unlike some of my liberal opponents, I don’t make any grandiose claims. All I’m saying is, you go to Soho, the Upper West Side, Park Slope, you get a a pussy little pie with flimsy crust and all kinds of high-falutin toppings. You go to Bay Ridge, Staten Island, even Long Island, you get a slice. That’s what I’m talking about.

BS@ES: What about toppings then, sir? I notice you opted for ‘ronis.

MacIsBack2k8: Brb.

MacIsBack2k8: After consulting with my press secretary, I want to be sure to state on the record that the tastiest pizza in America happens to come from my home state, the great state of Arizona. Spinato’s in Phoenix is a personal fav.

BS@ES: LOL - tasty pizza in Arizona - that’s a good one, Senator. But let’s be serious. I’m headed to D.C. later this month. Any power lunch spots you recommend?

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With the NCAA basketball tournament tipping off this afternoon, America’s brightest young minds are poised to spend the next month doing what they do best: getting drunk and yelling at television screens. When all the blood, sweat, tears - and beer - are swept off the court, the nation’s 18 million college students will be left in search of one thing: some grease to soak it all up.

While you were finalizing your bracket picks, Endless Simmer carefully evaluated the tournament field to compile this list of the tournament’s Top 10 Colleges - ranked by the drunk food they have to offer their hungry, hungry students. Eat that, U.S. News and World Report.

10. University of Wisconsin - Mac ‘n Cheese Pizza

Photo: J&J Blog

Oh maaaan, I need some pizza. Cheesy pizza. Mmmm, cheese. No, wait, I want mac and cheese. Oooh! Pizza with mac and cheese on top! That’s what I want.

If you have ever said or heard a statement like this, you are almost certainly a drunk college student. Also, you probably live in Wisconsin.

The Badgers may have been dissed by the selection committee (29-4 can’t get you a no #2 seed??) but Wisconsin never was as good at sports as they are at creative use of cheese. Madison drunks flock to Ian’s Pizza for this gooey, magnificent creation that just couldn’t come from any other state.

9. Rutgers - Fat Darell

Photo: AP

Don Imus’ not-so-favorite team is back in the women’s tourney as a Number 2 seed, while the Rutgers men were sent packing after a miserable season at the bottom of the Big East.

But don’t feel too bad for the Scarlet Knights - they can always console themselves back on campus with a Jersey summer full of Fat Darrells, a behemoth of a sandwich that solves the drunk’s eternal dilemma of “Do I want chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, or French fries?”

The answer: a resounding “all three,” piled high on a sub role and topped off with marinara sauce. I’d tell you more about it but I’m a little short of breath and I feel a painful shooting sensation in my arm.

8. Purdue - The Duane Purvis All-American

Photo: Flick User Horsepj

You can be forgiven if you didn’t know the name of Purdue’s All-American half-back/full-back from their undefeated 1932 football team. But you should damn well know the burger that bears his name.

The Triple XXX Family Restaurant in West Lafayette, Indiana serves up this decidedly unwholesome Boilermaker classic: 100% sirloin patty with lettuce, tomato, pickle, Spanish onions, and….wait for it…peanut butter. Only a drunk or Elvis - perhaps only a drunk Elvis - could fully appreciate this brilliance.

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My girlfriend makes a pretty cool roommate. So after we moved in together last Spring, I came to realize that the most difficult adjustment I’d have to make to our new digs had nothing to do with co-habitation. Because we chose an apartment, I’d have to learn to live without a grill. Even typing that out makes me want to punch and curse. I HATE not having a grill. In my previous life with grills, I had exalted them to the highest status. They’re like slutty angels on Earth. Easy, social, fun, delicious, smoky, drippy, dynamic, versatile, outdoor goodness.

Since I began cooking, the grill has always been my favorite medium. When I was in High School, my friends ruthless gang and I would grill all of the time - every week, sometimes every day. We cooked hot dogs, burgers, steak, brats, kielbasa, italian sausage, pork roasts, chicken, ham, bread, tricked out civics, books, virgins, christians, everything. For a while I used to carry one of those cheap gas Coleman hibachis in my trunk, just in case. We grilled in the summer, the winter, at midnight (Midnight Steak Team Represent), in the snow, in the rain, at the beach, at the pool, at Burke Lake, damn; everywhere that Sam’s buddy, that furry goose looking thing, wouldn’t eat Green eggs, we grilled. That was about 10 years ago, and I never lost it. Since then, I’ve always lived with people that shared the love. In college we got stoned to the bejesus belt and grilled pizzas in donuts in the front yard. And they were f*n good. I love grills.

So yeah, enough fecking background. All of that rant for one simple reason - the other night, I decided to grill Christmas in July, or whatever. Click below to keep reading, sucka.

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Much to Gansie’s chagrin I have not turned into a full-fledged Philadelphia Eagles fan. My theory is that I couldn’t possibly understand the pain and torment that constant losing brings; so I will root for them, but can’t call myself a fan. It wouldn’t be fair to real Bird’s fans. Plus, I’m a Duke basketball fan, I root for winners (just lost half of our readership).

A couple of Sunday’s ago, our movie star friend Matt (broadandpatterson) offered up 2 of his season tickets to me and Gansie. We jumped at the chance to spend 8 hours in 30 degree weather; who wouldn’t? This being football and all, we knew we had to tailgate. Unfortunately, Matt and Julie couldn’t leave DC until Sunday morning, so they missed most of the fun. But Gansie and I, along with Gansie’s brother and his extremely hungover friend, did make it out the lot by 10:30am (1 pm game).

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And I’m not talking about those boring potatoes, I’m talking about the much more fabulous and way more flavorful sweet potato. They are just as easy to cook, plus they are orange and more nutritious. Yet they are often ignored or associated with Thanksgiving. Adding marshmallows is definitely de-lish, but sweet potatoes are much more versatile - try this recipe and see how good Hot and Spicy Sweet Potatoes are!

Cut sweet potatoes into strips
Coat in olive oil
Shake a good amount of Chili Powder all over the strips
Bake in the oven, throw them on the grill, or even cook them in a skillet!
Every way is good!

Trivia: Are Sweet Potatoes and Yams the same thing?
See answer after the jump!

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Beef, it’s what’s for dinner…

At least usually when I’m cooking. I am a red meat monger and I sometimes wonder if I might be suffering from some kind of Iron deficiency. Anyway, had a tasty steak night this week. We used our newest favorite way to prep steaks that are going on the grill—olive oil and coarse sea salt. Type of steak—boneless short ribs, mmmmm. Sort of fattier than other cuts, but all the more juicy. Medium rare, of course. Along side the meat we grilled zucchini and yellow squash, sautéed up some red chard, and served it all with a side of rice. Isn’t it beautiful!

The power of coarse sea salt is really amazing, actually. While at the beach I used it on two 2lb tri-tips. Normally I rub the oil and salt on maybe 10 to 15 minutes before the meat hits the heat, but this time I did it an hour or so beforehand. The result—succulent but salty beef. But hey, I also love salty foods. We skewered yellow squash, zucchini, and baby bellas to go with. It was quick, easy, and tasty.

The “surf” portion after the jump.

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Editors Note: This blog wouldn’t be possible without the musings of El, who was at the core of our food obsession beginnings. Although she had shied away from the blog spotlight for a while, she eventually gave into our demands that we feature her glorious and knowledgeable take on food. Welcome, El.

As one of the founding members of CC 508, and long time food lover, my first post will no doubt be a disappointment to ES lovers (most particularly the ES founders). I fully admit that I have committed a sin against ES’ cardinal rules: the big C-word. But I feel I must baby-step back into the kitchen after being a slacker for way too long. Now, on with the story…

I was born and raised on homemade macaroni and cheese, turning my nose up at anything coming from a box–-the epitome of CHEATING. However, necessity drove me to discover Annie’s when I was in college. The “organic” label made me feel I was not straying far from the comfort I found in a bowl of mom’s classic. Post-college I find myself vacillating between 100% homemade, and the ease of boxed Alfredo. Last night I decided it was high time to merge these two loves.

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A lazy Friday night. It’s summer. It’s hot. You worked all day. You just want some friends, some easy, grilled food and some lots of wine. Oh, and to pass out at a decent hour so you can get up for the next morning’s farmer’s market. (Or maybe that’s just me.)

Next time you’re asked to bring something quick and effortless to a neighborhood grill session, follow these directions for a colorful summer time salad.

Grilled Three-Color Pepper Salad

Toss one red, one green and one yellow pepper with evoo, coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. When grill is ready, throw them on whole. Keep turning until all sides are slightly charred.

While peppers are on the grill, grab a bunch of whatever greens you have available (I used Romaine) chop, if necessary, and add to bowl.

Crumble cuajada fresca con rojo (a Latin-style soft cheese with some heat) on top of greens and mix in. You can also use feta and throw in some red pepper flakes.

When peppers are off the grill, coarsely chop into bite size pieces. Add to salad. You can season with a couple dashes rice wine vinegar and more evoo and s&p as desired.

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