I’ve been waiting with much anticipation for this week’s issue of whatzup Magazine so that I could share this recipe with my blog readers. Though time-intense, for me, this dish is more than worth the wait. A complex combination of fresh flavors drive this dish past Ah-mazing. I am so glad eggplants are finally blooming in the garden. I just can’t get enough.
Recipe and article on whatzup’s site.
Bravo, bravo, bravo. That about sums it up. Absolutely, bravo. Now, imagine a bunch of clapping and jumping up and down. You may start to get a glimpse of the picture.
This is the perfect dish for a hot summer night if you can stand the heat of the grill. Flavorful, fresh and healthy, the basil complements the turkey burger and tomatoes perfectly. A literal masterpiece! One taste of the basil mayonnaise and I was conjuring up dreams of additional applications- as a dipping sauce for veggies, slathered on steak, tucked into a falafel. Jon paired the burgers with a Celery and Potato salad that packs a punch. Mmm mmm mmm. Again, simply bravo.
Open Faced Turkey Burgers with Basil Mayonnaise
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Brush grill with oil; prepare barbecue (medium heat). Mix mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon pesto, dill pickle, brine, and onions in small bowl. Season basil mayonnaise with salt and pepper.
Mix turkey and 1/2 cup basil mayonnaise in large bowl. Using wet hands, shape chicken mixture into four 1/2-inch-thick patties. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Brush bread with oil.
Grill bread until crisp and golden, about 1 minute per side. Transfer bread to plates. Grill burgers until firm to touch and cooked through, about 5 minutes per side. *We grilled them on an open grill.
Spread bread slices thickly with basil mayonnaise. Top each bread slice with tomato, 2 basil leaves, burger, and dollop of basil mayonnaise. Garnish with remaining chopped basil.
Celery and Potato Salad
Ingredients:
Generously cover potatoes and eggs with cold water in a 4-quart pot with 1/2 tablespoon salt and bring to a boil, covered. Uncover and boil 10 minutes.
Transfer eggs with a slotted spoon to a bowl of cold water; continue to cook potatoes until tender, 5 minutes more.
While potatoes cook, whisk together 1/4 cup of vinegar and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a large bowl.
Drain potatoes and rinse with cold water until they have cooled to warm. Cut potatoes (skin on) into 1-inch pieces. Toss with vinegar mixture.
Peel eggs and coarsely chop, then add to potatoes along with remaining ingredients, including additional 2 tablespoons of vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. Toss well.
If the recipe has Vietnamese in its name, Jon and I are sure to like it. We love the flavor combinations in Vietnamese food and this dish certainly delivers. Easy, healthy, delicious. We were especially giddy to add fresh basil and mint from our garden.
Don’t forget to put the peanuts on top- I forgot before I started eating it, but they definitely add a much-needed texture and flavor to the dish.
Ingredients
For salad:
For dressing and topping:
Make chicken and vegetables for salad:
Stir together lime juice, garlic, ginger, chiles, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper, then rub all over chicken, inside and out. Marinate, covered, at room temperature while cooking vegetables.
Thinly slice cabbage. Cut carrots into thin matchsticks (1/8 inch) with a knife. Cook vegetables in a large pot of salted boiling water (2 tablespoons salt for 6 quarts water) until crisp-tender, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer to a large sieve or colander with a slotted spoon (return water to a boil) and rinse under cold water to stop cooking. Drain well.
Add sugar to boiling water, then add chicken with marinade and cook, covered, 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let chicken stand in cooking liquid, covered, 30 minutes. Carefully transfer chicken with tongs to a cutting board and let stand until cool enough to handle. Coarsely shred meat (and skin if desired), transferring to a large bowl.
Make dressing while chicken cools:
Bring fish sauce and brown sugar to a simmer in a small saucepan, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Blend mixture in a blender along with chiles, ginger, and garlic (use caution when blending hot liquids). Stir in lime juice.
Assemble salad:
Toss vegetables with half of dressing and chicken with remainder. Serve chicken over vegetables and sprinkle with peanuts, basil, and mint. Serve at room temperature or chilled.
One of our favorite restaurants in Fort Wayne is Saigon, an authentic Vietnamese restaurant located on S. Calhoun. Every summer, it closes for a month so the owners can travel to Vietnam to visit family. It never fails- at least once, we forget it’s closed, drive there, only to experience some major letdown when we realize our mistake at the sight of the darkened windows. How are we supposed to get our Pho fix now?
To tide us over, I did some searching and found a healthy Pho recipe. Though it is not authentic Pho (who has time to simmer beef or chicken bones for hours on end anyway?), it is easy to make and is super tasty. We especially love all of the fixin’s: fresh basil, cilantro, lime and scallions. And don’t forget the soy sauce and Sriracha.
Total prep time was less than an hour.
Ingredients:
Because the Tilapia Fillets just looked so good, Jon picked some up and came home to start cooking. And because we have more tomatoes from the garden than we know what to do with, he whipped up some tomato sauce to go with them.
Tilapia
2 Tilapia Fillets
Salt
Pepper
Flour
Wash fish, pat dry. Sprinkle and press in salt and pepper. Toss in flour. Pan fry in a thin layer of Canola oil.
Tomato Sauce
2.5 pints of garden grown grape tomatoes
6 cloves of garlic
½ large Vandalia onion, cut in half
Salt
Pepper
Oregano
Fresh Basil
1/3 jalapeno with seeds, cut off tip, quartered
¼ cup pine nuts
Roast the tomatoes, onions and garlic in the broiler till slightly charred. Place all ingredients in blender, blend until smooth.
*Note, Jon would do without the pine nuts next time
Yummy!
