I've always loved McDonalds Big Mac burger. It's the sauce - that combo of sharpness and the crunch.. yeah. It's definitely my favorite hamburger dressing. Apparently they've kept the exact recipe a secret for many years but now decided to release it - I was asked by their PR agency to try it out and I was eager to do so!
Is my version exactly the same? Well, I'm not sure. I think it's more yellow, even though I actually toned down the mustard. But it tastes pretty darn close! Give it a try - it's really perfect for those summer barbecues.
Big Mac-Sauce
100 ml mayonnaise 2 tbsp finely chopped pickled cucumber (bostongurka in Sweden) 2 tbsp yellow mustard (I used a little bit less) 1,5 tsp white wine vinegar 1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp onion powder 1 tsp paprika
Not only does adding sweet potatoes to a burger bun make it more nutritious, delicious, and significantly more beautiful, but it also presents the perfect opportunity to get pass your flour amount phobia, and finally be able to make dough by feel.
Every once in a while, I’ll get an email from someone whose dough was way too wet, or dry, and I always think the same thing; why would you stop? Some actually tell me they had to throw out the whole batch, which is insane. Your dough’s too wet? Add some flour. Too dry? Add some water.
No matter how exact a recipe is written, you simply can’t go by measurements, volume or weight, and expect perfection. There are too many variables that effect how much flour is needed – like a cup of mashed sweet potatoes, for example.
The best strategy is to not add all the flour at once, and only add enough to achieve the soft, slightly tacky dough seen herein. One of the great advantages of video is being able to see what the dough should look and feel like.
Once you get comfortable with not worrying about exact amounts, but rather exact results, the world of bread opens up to you and your new-found powers. Now, you just need to practice, so with that in mind, I really hope you give these amazing sweet potato buns a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 8 large, 16 medium, or 32 slider-sized rolls:
For sponge:
1 package (2 1/2 tsp) dry active yeast (I used Fleischmann's “RapidRise” Yeast)
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup AP flour
Then add:
1 cup mashed orange sweet potato (also sold as yams)
2 tsp honey
1 1/4 teaspoons fine salt
1 large egg
3 tablespoons melted butter
3 to 3 1/2 cups flour AP flour, as needed to form the right texture dough (see blog post)
- Bake at 400 F. for 15 minutes, or until browned. Large buns may take an extra few minutes, and the sliders-sized may take a minute or two less.
There's nothing more frustrating than the dinnertime rut... that familiar tug and pull between making the same old thing, trying something new (but what??) and calling the delivery guy. This is the main reason I've been dying to try Blue Apron,they take the guessing game out of your nightly routine! If you don't know about Blue Apron, it's a pretty fabulous service that sends out weekly recipes with pre-portioned, fresh ingredients in one convenient box. The meals are simple, yet unique, so you'll most likely try something you hadn't thought of making! You still get to do the cooking, but they make your prep very easy, and the recipes are extremely easy to follow with step-by-step photos as you go along. Carson and I tried out the 2-person meal plan for one week, and the other night I made the Miso Roasted Chicken with Spring Peas and Jasmine Rice.
As a fan of miso, I LOVED this. The chicken was roasted perfectly in the oven, and the spring peas brightened everything up. I had never worked with pea shoots before, so that was fun to try, and the chopped nuts sprinkled on top gave the meal a wonderful texture. Some comments on the site say the dish is too salty, but I didn't really think so (I should mention, however, that I LOVE salt). I give this dish a two thumbs up, and I give Blue Apron three thumbs up! (I have three thumbs, it's amazing the things you learn about me on this site.)
Your classic teriyaki burger is usually nothing more than a plain patty, which has been glazed in teriyaki sauce; and by “teriyaki sauce,” I mean a thick, one-dimensional syrup made from sugar, soy, and MSG. If you’re enjoying your third pint at a sports bar, these work out just fine, but good luck adapting them for your next cookout.
Here we’re using a different, drier approach, and adding the key teriyaki flavorings to the ground meat. This gives us a burger or slider with the taste of teriyaki, without having to deal with a sauce. This recipe should work no matter the cooking method, although a medium-hot charcoal grill would be my preference, weather permitting.
No matter how you grill these, I highly recommend they end up on a homemade sweet potato slider bun. Besides another way to tweak the humble hamburger, this clip was intended to be a sneak preview for some rather amazing buns. We’ll post that sometime Monday, just in case you want to add it to your 4th of July menu. So stay tuned, and as always, enjoy!
I am just back from the 34th annual Kapalua Wine & Food Festival which is the longest running food and wine festival of its kind not just in Maui, but in the country.
It started out as a wine only event but morphed over the years. Today food is a big part of it with celebrity chefs, classes and tasting events. I got a chance to attend a lunch cooking demo class with Chef and restaurateur Michael Mina and was pleased to see RN74 Executive Chef Adam Sobel acting as right hand man.
Michael Mina and Adam Sobel
Here are some learnings from the event--
- Mina said the biggest mistake home cooks make is not tasting or not knowing what you’re tasting for. Following a recipe is not enough, you must taste. Ingredients are not consistent, they are different all the time and you need to adjust your recipes.
- The four elements he considers most important? Acidity, spice, sweetness and richness, but not all dishes have all four.
- When plating he said, put the pot down! You are going for control. If the pot is on the counter you will have more control of the spoon in your hand.
Chilled Thai spicy lime vinaigrette with purple basil
- When it comes to cooking squid, he recommends that you cut squid then poach it for more tenderness than poaching whole.
- When making a vinaigrette, he lets it sit for a day before using, so the flavors meld better.
Tomato and cocoa powder dusted seared ahi with fried cauliflower, uni aioli and calabrian chiles.
- This dish had caponata an Italian vegetable dish that Mina said goes with everything--fish, chicken, seafood, etc.
- When crusting fish or chicken, be sure to season on all sides before crusting, and season the crusting too.
Brioche banana custard brûlée
- For the French toast style dessert, the brioche was soaked a minimum of 30 minutes to an hour to allow the custard to fully hydrate the bread, then cooked in plenty of butter.
- Toasted flavors of caramel, nuts and brûlée banana complement the richness of the custard.
Thanks for the tips chef!
Disclaimer: My thanks to the Outrigger Kapalua for hosting me at this wonderful event. I was not compensated monetarily for this or any other post on Cooking with Amy.
Yesterday was a humbling, overwhelming and surreal day. It was announced that I will be joining the Today Show family as a Today Food Contributor! Every time I'm there, I feel like making a bedazzled poster and joining the energetic plaza crowd... and then someone comes to put a microphone on me and I'm like, oh, you want me to be on TV? Are you sure????? Pinch me.
What I'm even more excited about (if that's possible) is the launch of the new TODAY Food (check out this video if you haven't already). It's a redesigned website with easy-to-follow recipes, tips, meal plans and videos... it's real, healthy, affordable and SIMPLE meals... it's finding your comfort-zone in the kitchen... it's Today.com/food. HA! I'm a commercial! But seriously - no SIRIiously - my goal all along with this blog has been to make cooking FUN. If a recipe freaks you out, change it, if you can't find a weird ingredient, skip it. Cooking does not have to be intimidating!
To answer one big question I got yesterday... NO, this new gig does not mean I will give up blogging. In fact, I'll probably blog more! I seem to be more productive when I'm busier, is that weird? This blog is my happy place, and you virtual people are my virtual family.
So in case you didn't see my segments yesterday, you can view them (and find the recipes) here:
I love how sometimes seemingly random ingredients come together. This dish of roasted cauliflower and chorizo with fresh tomatoes and greens and tahini sauce was created based on what I had on hand. But it was really tasty and something I would make again.
A lot of times when I interview chefs and cookbook authors, I ask how they come up with recipes. I have to admit, I don't usually get very satisfying answers. But recently I met cookbook author Anna Jones. Her book, A Modern Way to Eat has a really cool graphic to explain how she puts together dishes. It goes something like this:
Hero Ingredient + How Shall I Cook it? + Supporting Role? + Add an Accent + Add a Flavor + Add an Herb + Add some Crunch + Season and Finish
Her formula has a lot of components and is designed to add layers of flavor and texture to a dish. Do you have a formula that you use or can you deconstruct a dish according to elements? It's a fun exercise and can lead to some interesting new combinations. My formula for this dish was was hero ingredient+salty+green+acid+creamy.
Cauliflower with Chorizo, Tomatoes and Tahini Sauce Serves 2 - 4
Ingredients
1 Mexican chorizo sausage, about 1/3 cup sausage meat 3 cups cauliflower florets, any color you like (I used golden) 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil Salt 1 cup cherry tomatoes, cut in half Greens (I used spinach but you could use anything you like)
Tahini sauce 2 Tablespoons tahini 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice Pinch granulated garlic Water Salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a large skillet crumble the chorizo and cook until beginning to brown. Add the cauliflower and the olive oil and continue to cook until the meat is thoroughly cooked.
Transfer the cauliflower and chorizo to a lined baking pan and sprinkle with salt. Roast until cauliflower begins to turn brown, about 40 minutes. Arrange the cauliflower and chorizo on a platter with the tomatoes and as much greens as you like.
Make the tahini sauce by stirring together the tahini, lemon juice and granulated garlic. Stir in enough water to make a thick creamy sauce, about 2 tablespoons. Season with salt and drizzle the sauce over the salad.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: This post includes an affiliate link. I was not paid to write this or any other post on Cooking with Amy
As promised, this is the puff pastry-like dough I used in the apple roses video, and while not exactly “ quick and easy,” this was definitely quicker and easier. Just don’t try and make strawberry shortcake with this stuff.
I wanted to use this dough as the centerpiece of our strawberry shortcake video, but unfortunately the cold pastry was way too hard to cut with a spoon, and so I ended up using a much more traditional, and user-friendly biscuit.
That aside, as a puff pastry substitute, I think this was a huge success. Hopefully, you saw this in action in the apple roses video, which, by the way, was done with scraps. Besides fruit tarts, I’d love to try this for things like ham and cheese turnovers, and chocolate croissants.
With that in mind, I hope any and all successful experiments with this dough will be shared on social media; mostly so I can copy your ideas. By the way, there seems to a little controversy on YouTube as to the exact number of layers we got, so what say you? I hope you give this butter puff biscuit dough a try soon. Enjoy!
Ingredients:
2 cups self-rising flour (You can make you own by sifting together 2 cups of all-purpose flour with 1 tablespoon baking powder, and 1 teaspoon fine salt)
3/4 cup cold water (add enough water to make a soft, but not sticky dough)
*7 tablespoons frozen unsalted butter (a stick is 8 tablespoons)
*I grated on about 4 tablespoons for the first application, and about 3 tablespoons for the second.
- I generally bake this stuff at 400 F. Time will depend on what it’s being used for.
Don't worry, no tuscan beans or rice were harmed in the baking of this cake. Or used at all. That photo is just for reference, because I baked this cake in a soup can! (Which I've done before here and here.) I mean, is there anything cuter than a tin can cake?? Not if you're a woman, because then you love mini things (don't get me started on the tiny tabasco bottles you get at hotels).
This cake is baked with Biscoff, and is topped with a cookie butter buttercream. If you're a fan of the stuff, you will LOVE this tiny treat! And you might do what Carson and I did, which is dip each bite in tequila. Or rum. Because that's a totally normal and logical thing to do.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an empty, cleaned soup can with baking spray. In a bowl, whisk together the egg white and sugar until combined. Add melted butter, cookie spread and vanilla, and continue to whisk until creamy. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Finally, whisk in milk until everything is combined. Pour into soup can, and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let cake cool before applying frosting.
For frosting, vigorously stir together the butter and cookie butter spread. Add the powdered sugar and milk, and stir until combined and creamy. Spread onto cooled cake.
Oh you guys, this sauce is SO delicious! It has the perfect balance between salty and sweet, tangy and briny.. you have to try it! It's perfect to go with pickled salmon, which in itself sounds strange but I promise you that it's not. I used my old recipe for that, but omitted the pink peppercorns this time. Great results!
1 tbsp capers, finely chopped
1 tbsp fresh dill, finely chopped
1 tbsp chives, finely chopped
2 tbsp mayonnaise
3 tbsp sour cream
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp sugar
Stir everything together, and let it sit for at least an hour in the fridge. Serve!
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