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Tag Archives: Jeff Mauro

You Say Potato, I Say Pan-Fried Honey Lemon Fingerling Potatoes and Leeks

Potatoes can be a really versatile side dish besides being great for mashed potatoes or your standard baked potato. There’s nothing wrong with using one of the old stand-by recipes or even just boiling up some potatoes for a really simple side dish but with so many different things you can do with potatoes I am always trying to come up with something just a little bit different to jazz up a meal. This is especially true if I am making a meal for a special occasion and want something different as a side dish that really stands out on its own. When I made the New York strip steaks for Valentine’s Day this past week, I knew I wanted to make potatoes with the steaks and mashed potatoes or even fries seemed like a good option, but I had seen this recipe just recently on Food Network for a pan-fried fingerling potato with leeks that looked like it would be perfect to go with a steak. They also had a nice honey-lemon coating on them that made them perfect and the recipe seemed really easy to make so I had to give them a try.

Pan-Fried Honey-Lemon Fingerling Potatoes and Leeks

Salt

2 pounds fingerling potatoes

2 tablespoons butter

1 leek, halved, thoroughly washed and sliced up to the pale green part

Freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon honey

1 tablespoons minced fresh Italian parsley

1 lemon, zested

Bring a medium saucepan of salted water to a boil over high heat. Gently add the fingerling potatoes and poach the potatoes for 5 to 7 minutes. Drain the potatoes, cut the potatoes in half and dry the potatoes thoroughly.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Melt the butter and add the leeks and season them with salt and pepper. Saute the leeks until they are softened, about 8 minutes. Remove the leeks to a separate bowl and set them aside.

In the now-empty skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Put the fingerling potatoes cut-side down in the pan and cook the potatoes until they are golden brown, about 5 to 6 minutes. Flip the potatoes and repeat the process on the skin side of the potatoes, cooking them for about 5 to 6 minutes to brown them nicely. Add the leeks back to the skillet, drizzle the vegetables with the honey and cook them for another 2 to 3 minutes.

Sprinkle the vegetables with the parsley and the lemon zest. Season the vegetables with additional salt and pepper to taste and serve.

It’s a very basic dish that gives you some great results. You do want to make sure the potatoes are completely dry before you put them in the skillet so you can brown them nicely and get that great crunch to them on the outside while they stay soft on the inside. The addition of the leeks is great for the dish to give it that subtle flavor that leeks have. Just remember leeks can be pretty gritty so you need to clean them thoroughly before you use them. The honey and lemon just added the final push to the dish to give that hint of sweetness that was perfect. I don’t often buy fingerling potatoes because they tend to be quite expensive compared to other potatoes for a small amount, but I did find them on sale so it was perfect timing for this dish. I think you could do this dish well with other potatoes as well as long as you cut them small enough so they poach nicely and fit well in the skillet. The potatoes went perfectly with the steak and they would be great for any beef, pork or poultry side dish.

That’s all I have for today. Check back next time for another recipe. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!

Never Mind the McRib! Try This Smoky BBQ Riburger on Cheesy Garlic Bread

02 Mar

I can honestly say that I have never had the McRib sandwich, as un-American as that may sound. The whole idea of it kind of grosses me out, so I have stayed away from it, however I do like the idea of having a rib sandwich. As much as I would like a rib sandwich, I don’t know if I want to go through all of the trouble of cooking boneless ribs for hours just for a sandwich either, saw when I saw this recipe from Jeff Mauro, the Sandwich King on Food Network, I thought it sounded good and was certainly worth a try. He calls it a smoky barbecued riburger that uses a homemade barbecue sauce and some ground pork to make a burger-type sandwich. Put it on some garlic bread and you seem to have something pretty irresistible to me.

Smoky BBQ Riburger on Cheesy Garlic Bread

For the Chipotle Pineapple BBQ Sauce:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, grated
1/2 medium onion, minced
2 cups ketchup
1/2 cup crushed pineapple with juice
3 tablespoons molasses
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 chipotle peppers in adobo
For the Ground Pork BBQ Riburger:
2 pounds ground pork
Kosher salt
For the Garlic Bread:
1 stick melted butter (1/2 cup)
2 tablespoons minced garlic
One 32-inch French loaf, split and halved
3 cups grated fresh mozzarella
Dill pickles, sliced on the bias or to your liking, for garnish

For the barbecue sauce: Heat the vegetable oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and the onions and saute until they are soft, about 4 minutes. Add the ketchup, crushed pineapple, molasses, vinegar, sugar, mustard, Worcestershire and the chipotles. Simmer uncovered, stirring often, until the mixture is thickened, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove the sauce from the heat and blend it with an immersion blender until it is mostly smooth. Reserve.

For the pork burgers: Preheat a grill pan or skillet to medium-high to high heat.

Form the ground pork into long and rectangular patties that fit the shape of the bread, keeping in mind that there will be 2 patties per half of bread. Sprinkle the exterior of the patties with salt and place them on a hot grill top for 3 minutes. Flip the patties and cook them for another 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and baste the patties generously with the barbecue sauce. Flip the patties and continue cooking for about 2 or 3 more minutes, continuously flipping and basting the burgers.

For the garlic bread: Place a rack in the middle of the oven and set the oven to broil. Mix the melted butter with the garlic and brush the mixture on the cut sides of the bread. Top with the mozzarella cheese and place the bread under the broiler just until the edges are lightly crisped, about 2 minutes.

For the sandwich build: After your garlic bread is done, place 2 burgers on each bottom half of bread. Top the burgers with some pickles and the top half of the garlic bread. Slice each portion in half, yielding 4 sandwiches. Serve with the remaining BBQ sauce on the side.

These burgers were very easy to make and tasted great. They offer a nice change from a traditional burger and the barbecue sauce had a nice flavor with the mix of pineapple, molasses, Worcestershire and chipotles. You could certainly skip making the barbecue sauce and use your own favorite bottled sauce instead if that is what you are going for. We all really enjoyed having the burgers on the garlic bread, which seemed to make them even better and I had enough sauce leftover that I can use it for other things like ribs. It’s definitely a recipe worth giving a try. I served the sandwiches with some German potato salad and a new coleslaw recipe I tried, which I will be sharing tomorrow.

That’s all I have for today. Check back tomorrow as I will be sharing a couple of side dishes I made with burgers this week – a buttermilk coleslaw with bacon and cornmeal crusted onion rings, both very tasty and easy to do. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day and enjoy your meal!