Hey y’all!
I know it’s been pretty much radio silence over here for the past couple of years. If you’ve stuck with this blog since back in the day, you totally have my gratitude and thanks. (“Gratitude” and “thanks” are pretty much the same thing too, so consider me 2x appreciative!) I’m currently enrolled in an MFA program in creative writing, and I’d like to come back to this blog to write some more… chilled out kind of stuff, you know? Even a literary genius needs a break from her mind now and again. (Hehe.) Anyway, enough about me — what have I been eating?
This week marks my first week of summer break, and thus I’ve been super lazy about cooking. I just needed some time off, you know? Now that I’m all rested up, I’m ready to get back in the saddle. So this week, I made a huge batch of red bean burgers!
They’re basically Mark Bittman’s basic bean burger recipe (scroll down) with just the tiiiiniest bit of New Orleanian inspiration applied to it. Thus, instead of chili powder, Tony Chachere’s spice mix; instead of spinach, collard greens!
When I first moved down to NOLA, I thought it was kind of weird that everyone I knew had one of those green shakers on their kitchen tables. I think it was mostly because of the mascot — he’s kind of creepy. But look at him: he’s clearly extending his hand to you in a gesture of friendship and unity. He wants to share the glory of his spice mix with everyone and everything. And it’s a really great spice mix; it blows Lawry’s out of the fucking water. I don’t know why so many New Orleanians use heroin when they could have Tony’s Creole crack for way cheaper.
The burgers turned out pretty good. My double batch turned out 14 burgers (I like ‘em big) so I baked them all in one fell swoop and froze half of them. Ever since I saw the light of the 112 burger, I’ve gotten really into serving burgers on English muffins. So this particular red bean burger likes to hang out on a whole wheat English muffin with fresh avocado slices, mixed greens, a smidge of mayo, and some black pepper. On the side is a serving of seafood shack fries repurposed as truffle fries. So I guess this yuppie-style burger turned out a lot more local than I anticipated.
Tagged: burgers, new orleans, vegetarian
