Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

These food lab articles are wonderful. I can't wait to try these turkey burgers. Keep 'em coming!

Twitter: peekandeat
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@SkinnyFatty

Yep - roast it whole in the skin, kinda like you'd do when making baba ganouj. The idea is that you want to retain some of the moisture in there. Modern eggplants are not bitter at all - especially the small one called for in this recipe, so you don't have to worry about salting and pressing them. If I wanted to give them a denser, meatier texture, then I'd do what you do: slice them, salt them, wash them, press them, then cook them.

That said - I didn't actually try it the second way. Perhaps it would work as well. If you give it a go, let me know!

Kenji

Anyone ever tried a "Fatburger" turkey burger? Really quite good! The chain is 50% owned by Magic Johnson and puts out some pretty good burgers.

The Haute Kitchen
Twitter: thehautekitchen
URL: TheHauteKitchen.com
Twitters about: family and budget-friendly food, wine, & recipes

Here is mine:

2 oz Vodka or Gin
Worchestershire Sauce to taste
A Few Dashes Celery Seed
Fresh Ground Horseradish to taste
A Few Dashes Salt and Pepper
Three Dashes Tobasco
A Few Dashes Ground Mustard
1/2 oz Guinness or other Stout
Lemon and Lime Juices From Muddling
Three Dashes Angostura Bitters
Tomato Juice

In the bottom of a mixing glass, put two lemon and two lime wedges, salt and pepper. Muddle to extract all the juice from the Citrus.
Add the remaining ingredients and fill with ice.

"Roll" the mixture back and forth from mixing glass to shaker tin and back again a few times.

Fill a tall glass or Collins glass with fresh ice and strain mixture from mixing glass into serving vessel.

Garnish how you see fit. I like a pickled green bean and Lemon wedge.

Many years ago, my husband asked his cousin for his personal recipe for a Bloody Mary because it was the best we had ever tasted. He sent us his recipe on the email and I've been making my version of it ever since.

His had key lime juice, Angostura Bloody Mary seasoning (a liquid like their bitters) and both V-8 juice and Clamato juice in it. I ran out of Clamata awhile back so I've been using V-8 and Sacramento Tomato Juice and they have been really good.

I switch off the hot sauces and try different ones each time. He uses a local one down in FL that we can't get up here without ordering through the internet so I use different favorite ones. I have a whole collection of hot sauces (over 80 bottles at this point) so I try a different one every time.

Absolut Peppar vodka and plain tomato juice. The vodka adds all the spice needed.

Thanx to all for the Bloody recipes. I haven't had a good one since I quit cruising! RCCL used to have the best ones ever (but I'm sure they came from a "mix"). I'll have to try each one here and find the best. Thanx again!

I, too like Svedka as a reasonably-priced but respectable vodka. The big one goes for $18 at the local Costco. (Or you can pay Jewel $25, if that makes you feel good.)

In this vein, did others see the article in the "Weekend" section of the WSJ that described how many of the makers of premium-priced, designer vodkas produced their pricey masterpieces? They start with a RR tank car or tank-truck load of industrial-grade beverage alcohol (97 proof) from Archer-Daniels-Midland and cut that with some kind of fancy water (melted iceberg ice, anyone?) an arty-farty label, a tricky name, and a price to impress the fashion-conscious.

You know who you are.

I'm gonna try some of the suggestions here, including the horseradish, the Sriracha, the aquavit, the cilantro, the celery salt, and the Clamato.

Maybe not all at once, though.

This is my favorite grilled sandwich!

I used to eat them at Astro's, in Los Angeles. (The one on Santa Monica Blvd.) They do not use Swiss cheese, but as I cannot eat it anyway, that was fine. I ordered them with their unbelievable onion rings...large, homemade, and served in a generous portion.

To make them at home, I'd go to Canter's deli on Fairfax, and get the rye bread from their bakery section, (It wasn't always easy to find a good rye, once upon a time, at least where I was.) and then pretty much make them as instructed above. Mmmmm! :)

For those who mentioned bison, I switched to it several years ago, and buy the meat from a local ranch. I don't care for the pre-ground, so have been grinding all of my own meat since the 80's, and don't find the bison we eat too dry to form into patties which hold together. I use sirloin steaks/roasts the most often, and use a heavy-duty food processor with the metal blade. Perhaps you would have better luck grinding your own, too?

Patty melts are on the menu for Friday....I can barely wait! :)

Bloody Mary's are my Saturday gameday staple. I follow a similar recipe, but I include dashes of both lemon and lime juice, go heavy on the horseradish, several dashes of Cholula (so not a Tobasco fan) and a few dashes of celery salt and cayenne, because I like mine extra super spicy. I garnish with a celery stalk, of course, but some olives as well. Oh, and heck no to using V-8 - gross. Real tomato juice all the way.