Chef Daniel Angerer's Blog

CONSCIOUS DOUBLE BURGER - the blog

Eating more vegetables is not so much an experiment as it is more of a life style change, and it just feels great on my system.

Worth mentioning is that along with all that came more education of animal husbandry and no-cruelty animal clothing or no-animal-fabric textile products. A recently viewed animal cruelty video that was filmed by undercover PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) agents sent shivers down my spine and made me wonder how those desensitized "humans" can possible do such awful things to any other living creature. 

For now, if there is dairy in my house it is organic or purchased at the close-by farmers market and predominantly consumed by my 6-year-old daughter. It’s not that her little body needs it, but I want her to have her own experiences and make her own decisions about eating.

Sweet Potato Burger

The reality is that it's quite amazing what's been going on with food inventions. You can get your necessary proteins through insects or have totally plant-based, meat-like burgers or steaks that behave just like the real thing—including "meat" juices juices.
Also chicken-like mixtures are on the vegan forefront. I read about mixtures that get extruded. It is being done just like pasta making with a machine where pasta is squeezed through dial – virtually any shape is possible and even Mark Bittman got excited.

Personally, I love vegetable burgers like those you can get in NYC joints like Blossoms and By Chloe. (In full disclosure, I work on this concept daily.) But occasionally my friends head over to burger places like Five Guys or Shake Shack and it made me think about how to diversify their meat cravings a bit, which leads me back to the title of this blog post—how to double up burgers consciously. Want that double burger experience? I suggest mixing up a potato or vegetable patty.

Double Burger with Veg Patty and Meat Patty

The Double...Conscious Burger 
(recipe makes two burgers)

Potato patty

1 cup or 5 ounces sweet potatoes, skin removed
1/4 teaspoon sea salt 
5 grindings black pepper from the mill
1/4 cup canned beans, drained and rinsed (I prefer kidney or black beans )
1/4 cup panko bread crumbs, finely ground in a kitchen processor  
1 teaspoon Sriracha sauce 
1/2 onion and 1 garlic clove, chopped and cooked slowly in 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and gently toss together with a table fork.
2. With your hands, gently shape and press the mixture into two 4-inch wide patties. Place the patties on a plate and transfer into a freezer for an hour. 
3. In a very hot skillet, cook the patties in vegetable oil for 4 minutes on each side. They should have a brown-roasted color; if not, cook for another minute. 

The rest of the ingredients
(6) 1/8-inch thick slices red onion rings, center removed 
(2) 1/8-inch thick cut steak tomatoes 
(2) butter lettuce leaves 
(2) 4-ounce beef burger, cooked (I suggest a grass-feed, 80:20 meat to fat ratio)
2 tablespoons of your favorite burger sauce (or see below)
2 potato buns, about 5 1/2" diameter 
I find the following burger spread addictive.

Burger Sauce
(yields enough for two burgers)

2 tablespoons vegenaise
1 tablespoon ketchup 
2 teaspoons yellow mustard 
2 teaspoons Sriracha sauce
1 teaspoon agave syrup
1/4 teaspoon sea salt 
1/4 teaspoon chipotle spice powder 

1. Combine the ingredients in a small bowl and mix with a tablespoon. 

Burger assembly

I suggest drizzling the cut-in-half burger buns with vegetable oil. Brown them in a medium-hot pan for 2 minutes or until they're brown-toasted. Spread the burger sauce onto the bottom and lid pieces of the bread, then layer as following:

Bottom bun 
Potato patty 
Lettuce 
Tomato
Onion rings 
Beef patty 
Top bun 

HASH BROWNS THE ALPINE WAY - the blog

HASH BROWNS THE ALPINE WAY.

Hash browns is a simple dish in which potatoes are shredded, diced or crushed and then griddled or fried. Certainly, they’re a staple on American breakfast menus.

To my astonishment, there are a myriad of ways to prepare them. I realized that when I looked hash brown recipes up online. Indeed, an endless number of cooks claim their preparation to be the best. While the obvious potatoes are a must, how those spuds are cut varies widely. Cooks shred either raw or cooked potatoes on a box grater, others swear on cutting them into strips, a.k.a., julienne with a knife. Others simply crush baked potatoes and give them shape by pressing them into cool-looking molds. I came across raw hash brown preparations that instruct the cook to rinse off the starch from the shredded potatoes before they’re cooked in a skillet. In my experience it made a rather light hash brown that fell apart easily.

perfectly crisped potatoes

Let’s hash brown
Indeed, I have had my share of trying different methods for hash browns. Currently, my vote goes to the following preparation. I bake russet potatoes on a bed of salt, then chill and peel them. Later, I shred the potatoes on the largest hole of my box grater and season them with salt, pepper and a small amount of garlic powder. I used to shy away from using garlic powder versus fresh chopped garlic, but in case of hash browns I like to use it since it distributes perfectly in the recipe.

When it is time to do the cooking I prefer to use a cast iron skillet. I leave on the stove for 2 minutes first so I can be sure it’s really hot and then I add vegetable oil and the potatoes. I’m looking for a crunchy-fried outside and a pillowy steaming hot interior.

Making hash browns in this way puts me right back to my apprentice years, high up in the Austrian Alps where we young cooks were given the task of making rösti.

Many Swiss people consider rösti to be a national dish. Indeed, its preparation is similar to hash browns. Rather than considering it to be a breakfast dish, it is often eaten in Central Europe as a vegetarian main course, usually served with pureed spinach and a fried egg. Making rösti still evokes the mental imprint of me adding nut-sized pieces of butter into the skillet back in the day. For sure, it made for a delectable potato dish. Often, people add a generous grating of alpine cheese, such as Appenzeller, just before serving. It added cheesy nuttiness and a heart-warming aroma.

For my part, I love a serving of golden-browned, crispy potatoes with that steaming inside. I recommend cooking a rösti up for your next steak dinner instead of French fries.

Hashbrowns the alpine way

Rösti – Swiss-style hash browns
(recipe yields four servings)

1 pound russet or Idaho potatoes
¼ cup Kosher salt (used for baking)
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1 clove finely chopped garlic can be substituted
8 gratings of black pepper
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons butter

1. Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Spread salt evenly over a cookie-sheet pan. Arrange potatoes over the salt and bake in the hot oven for 45 minutes. The potatoes should be undercooked—you’re looking for a firm center.
2. Put potatoes on the kitchen counter to cool off. After 30 minutes, peel the potatoes and chill in the refrigerator.
3. After 2 hours, grate potatoes on the largest hole of a box grater.
4. In a bowl, gently toss potatoes with the sea salt, garlic and black pepper.
5. Heat a 10-inch cast iron pan for 2 minutes on the highest heat setting.
6. Add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and carefully distribute the potatoes over the skillet.
7. Cook potatoes for 2 minutes, then continue to cook on medium heat. With a spatula, shape the potato into an even circle by pressing the edges gently to the middle. Continue to cook the potato for 15 minutes longer.
8. With the spatula, carefully release the potato cake from the skillet by gently scraping it off the bottom of the pan.
9. Slide the potato cake onto a plate. Cover potato cake with a second plate and flip them by pressing the two plates together. Slide the potato cake, cooked-side facing up, into the hot skillet and add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil. Continue to cook potato cake on medium heat for 15 minutes.
10. Add butter around the edges of the potato cake, cook for 2 more minutes, then slide the potato cake onto a plate.
11. Add a sprinkle of salt just before serving.