June 24, 2013 Grilled Hamburger steaks with Calabacitas and guacamole

June 24, 2013 Grilled Hamburger steaks with Calabacitas and guacamole

I bought 18 avocados last Thursday at Pro’s Ranch market because they were 6 for $.99, so on Friday I made guacamole and that was our dinner with corn chips.

Guacamole
½ onion minced

9 small avocados, peeled, cut and smashed until smooth/lumpy

1 large serrano pepper minced finely ( I usually use Cholulu Hot Sauce, but the serranos were lovely this week at Pro’s Ranch Market and only $.99/lb.)

2 Tbsp. fresh cilantro

Salt to taste

Juice of 4 limes.

3 cloves of garlic minced and chopped finely

I must mention my most memorable serrano chili flavored guacamole experience. When I was 21, I drove from Austin down the Pan American Highway to Mexico City for Easter/Spring Break with my then girlfriend, Val.  We took a side trip to Querétaro and to the Cemetery at San Juan de Santiago to see the mummies, which is a big deal during Holy Week.  The story we were told was that you could be buried in a niche inside the courtyard of the cemetery for twenty years but if your family could not pay for the burial, they removed your body and stacked it in the basement.  The dry climate in San Juan de Santiago allowed for bodies to become perfectly preserved.  So in 1968, during Holy Week lots of visitors could walk through the catacombs where the mummified bodies were stacked against the walls; a weird and surreal place.  I remember seeing a woman with a child cradled in her arms, who  probably both died in child birth.  What is even weirder is that I understand that they have had to block access the catacombs where the mummies are stacked because folks were stealing body parts from the mummies.  The cemetery ceased to be use actively in 1866, so is now Mexico's Museum of the Dead and I understand in disrepair.  

As I recall, Querétaro is an old Colonial city built on several hills and valleys connected by tunnels through the hills which made for some really exciting bus rides, sort of like a ride at Disneyland as the buses charged through the twisting tunnels at high speed.  We found a lovely restaurant in the old part of town overlooking a small square that looked nice, where we ordered lunch before going to San Juan to see the mummies.  I ordered guacamole and chicken molé; two of my favorite dishes.  When the guacamole was served, at least ½ of its volume was chopped Serrano peppers.  I ate one bite and was overwhelmed with an intensely picante chili flavor, so I pushed the guacamole aside, judging it the hottest guacamole I had ever tasted.  My hope for a reprieve from the mole was ill founded.  When it arrived it also turned out to be the hottest molé I have ever tasted.  My recollections of the slightly sweet mole I used to eat at Mac’s House in Fort Worth were immediately dispelled by this plate of fiery chicken molé.  I was able to surgically remove the sauce from the chicken in order to obtain a few bites of edible food with the help of several beers, but I count that day as one of the weirdest of my life between the surreal mummy museum and the surreal guacamole and molé.

Suzette called at around 6:00 p.m. as she usually does when she is entering the canyon on her way back from Santa Rosa to tell me she is about twenty minutes from home and to discuss dinner plans.

I mentioned that I bought 2 lbs. of ground beef (Pro’s Ranch Market $.99/lb.) that I wanted to use for dinner.  I suggested making beef stroganoff with the PPI Spaghetti, to which Suzette replied, “I had beef stroganoff for lunch.  What about grilling hamburgers?”  I diplomatically said, “OK”.  I took the PPI guacamole out of the fridge to let if warm to room temperature and began chopping onion and mushrooms to make a garnish/sauce for the hamburgers.

I was almost through slicing baby portabella and white mushrooms and a medium yellow onion and three small cloves of garlic from our garden, when Suzette.  Before I could suggest using the eggplant, Suzette said, “We have PPI Calabacitas we need to use”.  I said, “Do you want anything else?” Suzette said, “No.”  So the dinner menu was set.

I went to Costco today and bought several newly arrived wines, including a bottle of 2011 Kirtland Côtes du Rhône Villages ($6.99).  While the food was cooking, I opened it and let if breath for a few minutes.

Suzette made two large ½ lb. hamburgers and put them on the grill and fetched the calabacitas from the garage fridge and heated it, while I sautéed the onions, then the garlic and then the mushrooms in a skillet with some PPI bacon residue, olive oil and butter for about ten to fifteen minutes until they softened .  I asked Suzette what herb she wanted in the mushrooms and she replied, “Oregano.”  So I picked about four stalks of oregano from our flower pot in the house and stripped the leaves into the mushrooms and cut three stalks of chives in small pieces in also.  Then I added 2-3 Tbsps. of amontillado sherry to the mushroom/onion mixture and let it cook for another five minutes. 

Suzette went to the garden and picked several radishes and cleaned and sliced them into wedges. When the hamburgers were ready (they actually were burned on one side), Suzette placed a hamburger on each plate; then we each spooned the mushroom/onion sauce onto the hamburger and ladled spoonsful of calabacitas and a spoonful of guacamole onto each plate and garnished them with radish slices.

I poured glasses of wine and we ate a hardy and delicious dinner.  I tore apart the hamburger to reduce the concentration of the burned parts and combined them with the mushroom and onion sauce to make a kind of loose stew that was delicious.  Suzette liked the wine; I suspect because it was very clean tasting.  I think the wine lacked any semblance of character, but was clean and pleasant with the strong flavors of the meal. 

 

I wanted to try the wine with a strong cheese, so I fetched the package of Delice (French Triple cream brie style cheese made with a rather acidic rennet bought at Costco $10.99/lb.), that we like a lot and we toasted several pieces of bread (Paris Bakery Baguette, $3.99 at La Montanita coop for a double baguette) and spread the cheese on the bread and enjoyed it with the wine even more than with the hamburgers.

I ate a piece of the chocolate dessert from last Saturday’s dinner with a glass of Calvados and tea for an overly consumptive finish to a dinner that seemed to get better as it went along.

I am still burping along at around 5:30 a.m., jacked up on a food high from all the heavy food I ate last evening, as I write this menu description.  

Bon Appétit