The Veggie Burgers (With Yum Veggie Burger)

It's no secret that Yum Veggie Burger and I are best mates. In fact, I came up with the name of that blog in an intense 15 second instant messenger conversation many months ago. It taxed my meager mental capabilities. Having had veggie burgers with Ali, all I could think was "Yum, veggie burgers."

Don't get me wrong. You've seen the mountains of meat sacrificed in the course of making this blog a reality. But as Ali points out over at YVB, this is an omnivore blog. In fact, I enjoy vegetarian and vegan cooking quite a bit.

Naturally there is a synergy somewhere between our two blogs and I'm hoping our experiment this week becomes somewhat regular as we explore veggie burger recipes. Earlier this week we made a Roasted Pepper Veggie Burger.

At any rate, Ali and I have been scheduling this shindig off and on for a couple of months. Between my travel and all of her excellent set design work, it just hasn't happened. Until Monday, when Ali IMed me this. They weren't the only thing what caught my eye, but jalapenos draw my eye every time.

One of the funny parts of the evening was that I was late to my own house. Rushing home from work, I wanted to hit the gymnasium before Ali came over. Which of course ended up delaying things a half hour. Then in my rush I forgot basically half the ingredients. Ali picked up some stuff I forgot on her way over, but I embarrassingly ran out after a quick shower to get two cans of chick peas. 

Above, Ali prepares to try to grind the flax seeds. This did not work out at all. Later I added them to the food processor. This also did not work out at all. You know what? Add the damn things to your veggie burgers whole. The texture and flavour will impress you. 

As Ms. Yum Veggie Burger says, this recipe could have used twice the peppers and somewhat less on the chick peas. After a few days' thought, I'd substitute all of the peppers here for two, maybe three poblanos. 

Zesting the lemons. 

Mixing up all of our mixes. The smell drove me nicely nuts. 

I substituted panko for plain bread crumbs. Not only is panko becoming popular and I wish to remain trendy, it also tends to hold together in a lighter way than regular bread crumbs in egg. Essentially this recipe relies upon bread and egg to bind the veggies. 

That's the handy skillet making its first veggie-onlies. 

And finishing the veggie-onlies. 

We were famished at this point, even having baked and eaten steak fries. Still, Ali took the time to photograph deliciousness and it appears over at Yum Veggie Burger. 

This is my delicious. I felt like Gollum about veggie burgers. 

Okay, got my own shot of Ali's burgers. 

But I seriously love this shot. Doesn't that burger look amazing?

It does!

Your soundtrack for this entry: Bad Salad - Crowded Sky

The Chipotle Chicken

After the success of Ingredient Chili, I was left with a hankering for spicy, but not too spicy. Don't get me wrong, I've gone toe-to-toe with Adam D. from Killswitch Engage in a contest to eat the world's hottest curry. My mother once put me forward to eat Texas' hottest habanero salsa as a boast to one of her friends. But, I wanted to dial it back a bit.

My go-to ingredient when I want spice and flavour without the face-melting experience of Jamaican hot peppers or the staid fresh jalapeño, is the chipotle jalapeño. Some peppers have that smoky flavour naturally, but I'm a big fan of the smoky flavour that gets there using smoke.

For this meal I had some extra canned chipotles from a previous meal and wanted a way to get them used up before they went bad. This recipe takes a cue from my Rushed Roast Chicken Breast, which I make due to the inexpensive cost of chicken breasts with the bone in and the recipe's ability to cook during my gymnasium time after work.

Ingredients:
3 canned chipotle jalapeño peppers
5 garlic cloves, peeled
1/2 stick of butter or 4 tablespoons of margarine (I use the Yum Veggie Burger and Circadian Sift-approved Smart Balance Organic)
1 small whole chicken
2 potatoes
2 yellow onions
2 cups of chicken stock

Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees F. 

This is a fairly-simple recipe. It's best to let the butter sit at room temperature for a bit to soften it up, much as the Thrifty Sifter tells me you need to do when baking. Place the chipotles, garlic cloves, and butter or margarine in a food processor and blend on pulse a few times.

Put the whole chicken on a plate and loosen the skin from the body. I often tend to tear the skin over the breasts because I haven't practiced doing this enough, so be gentle. Once loosened, spread the chipotle-butter mixture under the skin all over the meat. Then spread the mixture over the skin and inside the chicken's body cavity.

Cut the potatoes and onions into eighths and put in the bottom of a stoneware baker. There's a fancy French term for these I'm not remembering, so I'll keep calling it a baker until someone tells me otherwise. Cover the vegetables with the chicken stock, then place the chicken on top and cover.

Place the baker in the oven and cook at 450 degrees F for an hour to an hour and a half.

The Thrifty Sifter gave it a thumb's up and cleaned her plate. By the way, if you dig the vase in the background, it was created by the über-talented Rosemary Forrest of Forrest Pottery. I may be biased; her daughter is one of my closest friends.

Your soundtrack for this entry is: Best Coast - Boyfriend (Ghostwaves Remix)