SUBMISSION Thread for Ground Meat Challenge - Oct. 26, 2021

Stuffed Onion Bombs



(As per usual, I forgot some ingredients for the pic. Butter, parm that was added to the meat mixture before stuffing, and shredded cheddar and Monterey Jack for the topping.)























Much to my regret, I didn’t take pics along the way, but after an hour in the oven at 300, I basted with a combo of barbecue sauce and butter. Basted again 45 minutes later, and this pic is after 2 hours, still in the oven.




I also regret not taking the tray completely out of the oven for another pic before topping with cheese, or at least leaving one cheeseless for the sake of photos.



I actually moved some of the cheese around for a better view of the final product.




Cut open to see the layers.

Black Drum Benedict

Before we get started, I know some will say fish isn't meat...yall are probably the same ones that say a hotdog isn't a samich

I wasn’t sure I was going to have time for this one. I was going out of town for a week to the beach and had a lot of stuff to get ready before as well as homecoming and stuff to catch up on after. I fished the whole time there and one of the catch’s was a nice black drum. I decided if I have time that might be a good fit for a ground meat challenge by making some fish cakes. I have made fish cakes in the past, but tried something a little different on these…so I leaned some things






Got it back to the condo and cleaned it up for storage for a week in the freezer until it was time to cook.








Got back home and carved out some time to play. First thing was to cut the fish into strips to fit the grinder and freeze them some to get a clean grind. I had about 1.5lbs after the process.










For veggie seasoning I used was the usual onion bell pepper celery and garlic. Other than that i used a shaker can of some Ragin Blaze. I picked this up from one of the other cooking challenge baws GOT BLAZE, cuz he makes dat. Solid can of seasoning and lite on the salt, thanks bud

Used one onion, one bell pepper, two sticks of celery, and a handful of garlic cloves. Browned them down with a stick of butter and let it cool off. Once cooled I mixed into the ground fish some panko, 2 eggs, veggies, and some of the Blaze.










I fried up a little test patty and it was good to go, now it’s time to form the patties and batter them. I been using just egg whites and a little milk for the wash lately, it seems to stick better. Once they were coated in panko I put them in the freezer until I was cooking them the next day.










This is also where I started to veer off my usual path with fish cakes and where I learned some things.

I usually make them ½ as thick as these, coat in bread crumbs, and pan fry in some olive oil. I wanted to try making them thick and deep fry them, but I was worried about them falling apart in the fryer (had it happen to a crab patty in the past) so that’s why I froze them.

What I learned is that even frying them at 325 the outside was a darker than I like before the inside was cooked. My 4gal fryer needs a cleaning so I used my little electric fryer, not sure if that had an effect on the outcome.

Also I had Italian panko on hand so used that and I think some of that exposed seasoning along with any exposed veggie seasoning got blackened some. Next time I’ll try a different batter if I deep fry.

Time to make the dish.

Simple hollandaise sauce….the yum. If you haven’t made it before it’s pretty easy. I did 3 egg yolks, 10tbs of melted butter (½ cup), ¾ tbs lemon juice, little salt and cayenne to taste. Blend the egg and lemon for 30s and add in the melted butter on a slow mix with a steady little stream.






I tried SV for some “poached” eggs. Outcome was ok. I did 167 for 13 min.




Fry time, and the biggest struggle of the evening lol. I tried one first at 350deg and it held together perfectly…however the center was still frozen more or less when my color was good on the outside. So I dropped to 325 and it helped but still wasn’t perfect, but will work for now.

The wife was getting hangry so once her and the daughters was done I plated them up while frying mine…mine went a little longer than I would have liked because of it






I skipped any kind of bread because the cake is already breaded. For plating I put the cake on top of some sliced advacado, topped with the egg, drizzle on some sauce, too with some green onion.




No I don’t have a cut open pic even tho No8 said I should have :lol:

While it didn’t come out as I envisioned it was still pretty good and I wanted to share the things I learned along the way. I just have to work on the cake cooking part. Next time I’ll use plane panko (or flour/fish fry) and try them ½ as thick but still frozen.

Thanks for watching

Been a while since I've been able to submit something, but the kitchen remodel is mostly done so time to get back in the game. Very simple, but flavorful, dish this time.

Bun Cha (Vietnamese Meatballs)

Pickle some carrots.



Sauce for the noodles and dipping. That 1 thai pepper went a long way.


Mix up and saute the meatballs. More like small burger patties.



Rice noodles


Plated with fresh cilantro, pickled carrots, rice noodles,and red/green jalapenos from the garden. Spoon the sauce over everything to taste.

I love smoked meatloaf....and onion bombs....and meat balls

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That is a beautiful fish cake!

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Tank ya I do salmon cakes often with the slabz from costco.

I'm just going to call this one... The Burger.



From top to bottom:
Top bun, toasted
Bourbon berry compote
Havarti cheese
Bacon slices
Havarti cheese
Best Stop boudin patty
Havarti cheese
Elk & bacon burger patty
Bottom bun, toast

The compote was simple... bourbon, berries, sugar... boil down until it starts to thicken, mash the berries up a bit, then into the fridge to cool.







Next up, the burger patties... I also used some egg, bread crumb, worcestershire, and seasonings.







Elk is very lean, so I cooked some bacon and crumbled it into the ground elk along with the bacon grease to add some fat and some crunch.







And, time to cook... I was worried about the boudin patties staying together, but once they got a good crust on the bottom they held together very well.







And the burger assembly... I just channeled my inner Port of Call and did a baked red potato on the side. This burger was huge and didn't really need a side anyway.

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Bourbon

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Imagine that...

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berry compote

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Interesting...

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Can't stop, won't stop, don't want to stop.

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Samesies

This was my 10:30am sip while fishing for that drum

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Bobotie – South African dish of curried beef

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that looks awesome brother .... I debated between 2 different food entries including a South African meat pie with pastry puff dough. I chose a different dish as I'll post pics soon. Years ago a professor at USL (Louisiana @ Lafayette) who was from SA opened a restaurant that served pies from his homeland. Sadly the restaurant closed and I truly miss those pies. They looked like this.

Jax, where did you grow up that bobotie would be comfort food for you?

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What makes it different from other meat pies?

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the Natchitoches meat pie (pictured below) is deep fried and is a good pie. The dough had little bubbly dimples from frying. I eat at Lasyone's in Natchitoches whenever I'm passing through. It's cooked down ground meat with a little S&P, and flour or corn starch to help thicken it. The SA meat pie was flaky like a pastry and baked with an egg wash. The SA pie definitely had more flavor from the exotic seasonings used. Both are very good, as the SA pie was better IMO.