Optimal Burger

The Ultimate Burger has the best of everything, a gourmet's delight; it has loving care and attention lavished on it and no time nor expense is spared in its production. This is not that burger. This is the
Optimal Burger™. You can prepare it from scratch in 15 minutes, eat it without any fuss and it will make you channel Jules Winnfield (just the quiet-enjoyment-of-the-burger part, not the kill-the-person-who-"gave"-you-the-burger part):

The Optimal Burger™ has to be easy to shop for. The Optimal Burger™ should not require visits to multiple vendors or have seasonal requirements because (a) no one has time for that and (b) who knows what time of year the urge for a good burger will strike? It requires no cooking devices beyond a standard gas grill and should not be expensive.

The Optimal Burger™ takes into account multiple factors, in the approximate order of importance:

- taste
- time of preparation
- ease of preparation
- structural integrity
- cost

You may have other factors to take into account. Healthiness. Sustainability. Calories. You will have a different Optimal Burger™ (you perhaps should focus instead on developing the Optimal Salad). I endeavor only to give you ideas while making my own case.

The recipe that follows includes crowd-sourced improvements based on recommendations from 18 burger aficionados at Pier 9.


Step 1: Buns and sauce



The buns are crucial to a good burger. They form the carapace; they need to be large enough to accommodate all your ingredients and to not disintegrate under a little pressure. The buns define the maximum achievable size your burger can attain, for a good burger is shorter than it is wide. Don't skimp here.

If you prefer, toast the buns before serving. They're easy to blacken on a hot grill though so be careful. Turn down the gas and warm with the lid down. Or just pop in the toaster.

Sliced tomatoes are a time-honored burger component but I think they're overrated. They tend to be heavy and watery and slippery, and you want none of those properties. Ketchup on the other hand is liquefied tomato, sugar, onion and salt, and it makes up layer 1 of my Optimal Burger™. You always have it on hand, it's cheap, it's a good glue, and whatever sort you like is bound to go well with the burger. I like a mix of Heinz and Sriracha. Other good options, depending on taste, are mustard or BBQ sauce.

Homemade Lemon Curd

Homemade lemon curd is great in desserts, on a slice of toast or as a pancake topping! Follow this easy & fast recipe to get creamy, sweet & sour perfection!

Lemon curd is something you don’t normally find in central Europe where I come from. My first interaction with lemon curd was in Ireland and I liked it from the beginning. First I thought it was something like lemon marmalade. Well, after tasting it I quickly realized that this could not be compared to marmalade. It was way tastier than I would have expected. Its creamy texture, citrusy flavor yet pleasantly sweet taste goes well with lots of desserts and is perfect on a slice of toast.

Step 1: Ingredients:

5 Medium Eggs

100g (3.5 oz) Unsalted Butter

90ml (3fl oz) Lemon Juice (Freshly Squeezed)

80g (2.8 oz) Caster Sugar

Step 2: Directions:


In a medium mixing bowl whisk the eggs, freshly squeezed lemon juice and sugar until combined.
Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water. Throw in the butter and whisk constantly until it has thickened. This will take about 10 minutes (on low-medium heat).
Cover the surface of the curd with cling film, let it cool down a bit before transferring to the fridge. Once chilled completely, pour/spoon into a glass jar and cover with a lid. Keep in the fridge.

Step 3: FOLLOW, COMMENT AND SUGGEST

Filled Meat Loaf With Bacon Jacket

This meat loaf is a good choice if you are really hungry: plenty to eat and very filling!
Also this is quite easy to make and nice looking if you have guests for dinner.
But let's see how it is done....

Step 1: Ingredients


First of all collect the following ingredients (this is what I used for mine but if you want bigger or smaller meat loaf use your own quantity):

• 700g Minced meat
• 2 Packages of bacon
• 4 eggs (1 raw, 3 boiled)
• Ham
• Salt
• Pepper
• Parmigiano Cheese

Step 2: Preparing the minced meat


Put the minced meat in a bowl and add salt, pepper, parmigiano and 1 egg. Mix well.

Step 3: Filling up




Once the meat is spiced put it on a oven paper and spread it evenly and try to give a square shape. Put on top of it some slices of ham and the boiled eggs. Make sure that there is some empty space on the edges.

Close the meat loaf by folding one side over the eggs and the second side on top of it. Close all the holes and make it tight.

Step 4: The wrapping






For the wrapping start with putting the slices of bacon close to each other vertically. Step by step lift up the slices of every second bacon strip and insert horizontal slices. Following horizontal slices will be put by lifting up the opposite vertical slices. Weave them tight until you have something like in the 3rd picture.

Roll the meat loaf in the bacon starting from top with the aid of the oven paper.

Step 5: Cooking and serving




Finally you can cook your meat loaf! Put it in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for about 45 minutes or until the bacon is crispy enough for you. Meat loaf must cook slowly.

Slice it when it has cool down a little because it is just easier to cut.

You can serve it with some fried vegetables but it goes well also with potatoes

Enjoy!

Live Off the Land : Survive With Edible Weeds

Whenever I go out I always look for edible weeds which grow naturally in the open land near water sources, under some trees like coconut and Banana and in the wild. Most of these edible weeds are
neglected and forgotten as our life style has changed and are being destroyed in the name of development.

Here I have gathered few edible weeds from our home garden and also from surrounding areas, which we used as green vegetables with lunch. Most of these weeds are also used by our ancestors as medicine to cure various ailments naturally. In case you are stranded in the wild, you can look for these kind of edible weeds for your survival.

Step 1: Indian Pennywort or Asiatic Pennywort





Indian Pennywort or Asiatic Pennywort grows in abundance in wetlands. Commonly known as Centella asiatica or simply centella is also a medicinal herb. You can easily recognise this plant by its kidney shaped leaves. They spread along the ground in wetlands.

This plant is indigenous to the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and wetland regions of the Southeastern US.

Step 2: Ceylon spinach or Surinam Purslane






Talinum fruticosum, also known by different names as Ceylon spinach, Surinam Purslane, Philippine spinach and Florida spinach, grows everywhere along river banks, paddy fields and wet lands. This plant can be easily identified with its fleshy leafs which look like spinach with small pink flowers.

Also known as Waterleaf plant, it is native to Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and South America. It grows in many parts of Asia also and used as a leafy vegetable.

Step 3: Green Amaranth






It is an edible weed growing everywhere. There are so many different species of these weed and most of them are edible.

You can find this weed in almost all the places.

Step 4: Black Nightshade or Green Nightshade






Solanum nigrum also known as Black Nightshade or Green Nightshade is commonly found in many wooded areas. The plant has tiny white flowers. The small berries are purple black in color.

Step 5: Asiatic Dayflower





Commelina communis, commonly known as Asiatic Dayflower is a weed with a beautiful looking tiny blue flowers. These flowers lost for a day only, so the name Dayflower.

As per wikipedia, the plant's native distribution includes East Asia and Southeast Asia. The species has been introduced to much of Europe and eastern North America. It is also present in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec in Canada, and in most of the eastern and central American states from Massachusetts and New York in the northeast, west to Minnesota and south through the Great Plains to Texas and east to extreme northern Florida in the United States.

Step 6: Asthma Plant






Euphorbia hirta, also known as Asthma Plant, grows in open grasslands, roadsides and river banks. If you break the stem, you will a find a white latex seeping out from the stem. The leaves are elliptical with flowers at each leaf node.

It is native to Asian countries and used in Ayurvedic Medicine in India.

Step 7: Thoodhuvalai, Solanum trilobatum






This plant grows in the wild and is full of thorns. Even the leaves have thorns on the underside. It is also a medicinal plant used widely in Ayurvedic medicine. While collecting the leaves, remove the thorns from the leaves before using it for cooking.

it is native to Asian countries

Step 8: Malabar Spinach






Basella alba, also known as Malabar Spinach, Climbing Spinach and Red Vine Spinach. It is a creeper with red stem.

As per wikipedia, this plant grows in tropical Asia, Africa,Brazil, Belize, Colombia, the West Indies, Fiji and French Polynesia

Step 9: Wash, Chop and Cook








I have gathered enough greens, washed them in clean water to remove any soil particles and then lightly chopped them into pieces. The chopped greens were boiled with little salt till the raw smell disappeared. A little tempering with oil, onions and red chillies makes the dish very tasty.

There are so many edible weeds growing in the wild. These weeds may differ from region to region. If you are not sure of which one is edible, seek advice from local people. These weeds will help us survive in case we are stranded in the wild.