INSIDE MY KITCHEN: GARLIC NOODLES

Everybody says that Beverly Hills restaurant, Crustacean, made "garlic noodles" famous!  Well I will have to disagree.  I grew up eating garlic noodles.  Im talking 25+ years of experience with these bad boys. My mom made these for us when she was pressed for time and had a limited pantry/fridge.

What kid does not like pasta with butter?!  I feel like "butter and noodles" is on every kids menu from here to Georgia...and I am not talking about the state within the United States!  

I have added baby bok choy for color and to get my vege fix, I replaced the salt with soy sauce, and the sugar (what kid doesnt like sugar, sugar???) with mirin or Japanese sweet rice wine.

You can make a big batch of these crowd pleasers for that late night addiction or a Sunday Funday brunch special...Garlic Noodles with Sunny side up egg and Bacon.  You know you want to try it.

RECIPE:

Noodles

1# Soba Noodles

2Qt  Water

2ea  Baby Bok Choy

Sauce

1/4# Butter, unsalted

3T  Garlic (minced)

4T Soy Sauce

4T Mirin

Bring 2qts of water in a stock pot to a boil.  Add a pinch of kosher salt to season the water.  Add the soba noodles in every direction into the water to keep them from sticking to one another.  Cook for 5 minutes and strain in a colander under cold running water reserving the cooking liquid for the bok choy.  If you do not cool the noodles down they will continue to cook and become very mushy and inedible.  Set aside and reserve until sauce is done.

In a large saute pan, over medium heat, saute garlic in the butter.  DO NOT LET THE BUTTER BURN.  You must be very careful with the heat of the stove when using a fat solid butter.  Clarified butter will not burn because the fat solids have been removed thru the process of clarification.

After 1 minute of cooking the garlic in the butter, add the mirin to the pan deglazing what food deliciousness has stuck to the pan.  Reduce the sweet rice wine half way...

Now add the soy sauce and the noodles.  Quickly toss to coat and reheat.

Using the same pasta water the soba noodles were cooked in...add two pinches of salt so it tastes like the Pacific Ocean.  Now add the quarted baby bok choy and cook for 30 seconds.  Strain the bok choy from the water and garnish around the noodles.

Using your tongs, scoop and twist the soba noodles into a pasta bowl and enjoy the simple decadence immediately.

INSIDE MY KITCHEN: BURGER.O

Like most of the World, I too am in search for the best burger.  For years I thought the simplicity behind In and Out's burger was the mecca to BURGER-LICIOUS.  The bun, the iceburg lettuce, tomato, the meat, the secret sauce seemed to work.  It followed my cooking philosophy of "Keeping It Simple and Sexy."  There is no need to overcomplicate dishes with 5 different sauces and 7 varying garnishes.  I feel like complexity takes away from the true nature of divine.  So continuing on my journey I decided to attempt a burger beyond the limits of tantalizing your tastebuds...

I used a blend of 90/10 (lean meat/fat) prime chuck from the market.  However, doing so you must make sure that you counterbalance the lean-ness in your burger with some sort of fat content.  Thats why I decided to add bacon to my burger.  Crispy, thick apple-wood smoked bacon was my front runner.  Unbelievable flavor and texture.

Next, I made the "secret sauce."  This is vital to any sandwich, not just burgers.  I decided to take out the fresh tomato and lettuce all together from the "in and out" burger and incorporate  sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, and fresh basil instead into the aioli.  What an amazing texture and flavor.  Talk about secret sauce...this is definitely one you can use on a variety of dishes.

You cannot go wrong with a brioche bun.  Get rid of the sesame bun.  Throw away the plain white hamburger buns.  Find yourself a bun made of butter.  If your going to eat a hamburger dont try to eat it healthy.  Your not doing the American classic justice and your starving yourself from an amazing meal.  I drizzled a little of my own olive oil on the bun before I toasted it off in a hot pan.  I only toasted the inside of the bun because I like the temperature and textures different.  You need to make love to your mouth when you eat.  Find what makes it happy and do whatever you can to please it.

You must have fries with a burger but, if you want to go healthy heres the chance...Kind of essential, isnt it?  I cut up a sweet potato into 5/16" and baked them off for 20 minutes in an oven of 425*F.

Smother the "secret sauce" onto both sides of the bun, layer with double creme brie cheese (triple creme for me would have been food coma), and crispy bacon.  One bite will erase all memories that you may have from eating burger's in the past.

Recipe:

8oz  Ground Beef (90/10 preferably; turkey/chicken can be substituted)

1ea  Brioche Bun (whole foods/bakeries)

2oz  Brie Cheese (double creme; 1/4" slices)

2T  Mayonnaise

1ea  Sun Dried Tomato (julienne; reconstituted in luke warm water/5 minutes)

1ea  Garlic (minced)

2ea  Basil Leaves (chiffonade/rolled then thinly sliced)

2ea  Thick Cut Bacon

Salt/Pepper

Form ground beef into a ball.  Using the palms of your hands flatten into and 1" round.  Season with salt and  pepper.

In a small mixing bowl, combine mayo, hydrated sundried tomatoes, garlic and basil together.  Reserve in fridge until ready to use.

Crisp bacon slices in a non-stick pan on medium heat (try to be careful of the grease splattering all over the place) until desired wellness.  I prefer it crispy.  (more crunch to an otherwise similar texture profile)

In 8" pan heat 1T of olive oil to medium high heat.  Place the ground beef pattie in the pan and cook 3.5 minutes on each side.  Remove from the pan and reserve on a paper towel.

In the same pan toast the insides of the brioch buns with a little olive oil until golden brown. 15 seconds at the most.  Remove pan from heat and turn off stove.

Spread sundried tomato, garlic-basil aioli over each half of the bun evenly.  Top with burger, sliced brie cheese, crispy bacon and the other half of the bun.  Serve with sweet potato fries and you are set with no regrets.