Hello everyone and good morning. Today in the second last post of my free basic cooking course we are going to focus on ground beef. Specifically, we are going to look at a handful of uncomplicated and delicious meals that can be made with ground beef. These are meals that in my opinion, everyone should know how to make some version of. We are going to look at how to make meatloaf, shepherd’s pie, chili, and more. Let’s get to it.
This is…
I honestly believe that there are few things better in this world than a delicious hamburger. Luckily, making a truly delicious burger is much easier than it seems like it should be. I say this because generally, the big mistake that people make when making hamburgers is that they try to overcomplicate it. There is a tendency to add a pile of ingredients into the burger mix. All these ingredients often overpower the taste of the beef itself. What’s more, is that more often than not, all these flavours just get muddled together and end up tasting like a confusing mess. For this reason, for me, a simple burger is a good burger.
In all of my time cooking professionally the most important lesson I’ve learned, and this was a hard lesson to learn, is when to stop adding ingredients. Cooking is not about adding and adding until something tastes good. It’s about adding as few ingredients as you can to highlight the main ingredients. When I’m creating a recipe I will often list every ingredient that I think should go in it, then I started taking things away that aren’t adding anything to the final dish. Compliment the main ingredient, don’t overpower it. If you take one lesson from this whole series, this should be it. Recite it every time you cook, “Compliment, don’t overpower.” Every time you pick up a knife in the kitchen “Compliment, don’t overpower.” Every time you open your spice cupboard, “Compliment, don’t overpower.” This and this alone will take your cooking further than anything else.
Looking at the recipe below you will notice that the burger mix only has four ingredients in it; salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. That’s all. I know people who put ten or more ingredients in their burgers. Why? In cases like this, the ground beef is more a vessel for all the other flavours rather than being the start of the show. This to me, defeats the whole purpose of the burger.
While there are some people out there that prefer a really thick burger, my feet are firmly planted in the opposite camp. I like thin burgers, then if you want more meat you can just add a second patty. The reason for this is pretty simple. The sear on a burger, the browning from the cooking process, adds loads of flavour to the meat and the final burger. When you have one thick patty you only have this sear on two sides. However, when using thinner patties, and doubling them up, you get the same amount of meat but double the seared surface meaning more flavour.
The other bonus to thin burgers is that they cook much quicker than thick burgers. This means that the risk of burning the outside of the burger is greatly reduced and the burger will shrink less, and dry out less. All this leads to a more flavorful and juicy burger.
In the recipe below I suggest cooking the burgers on an electric griddle. However, you can cook them in a skillet, or on a grill as well. This to me is actually the least important part of making burgers. Just make sure that whatever you are using to cook the burgers is nice and hot, and that you get a nice sear on the meat.
When I was a kid meatloaf was a weekly staple on our dinner table. I hated it. My mom was a great cook, and I loved most of her food, but I could not stand her meatloaf. To be fair, it wasn’t just hers. For whatever reason, I hated all meatloaf. Someone could have served me the best meatloaf in the world and I still would have turned my nose up at it.
This hatred of meatloaf lasted until I was in my mid 20’s and was tasked with making staff meal in the restaurant I was working in at the time. I was given a pile of ground beef and told to make something. I have no idea why I chose to make meatloaf, but I did, and it was delicious. It was the only meatloaf I’d ever had that I liked up until that point. Now, I wouldn’t say that I developed a love for meatloaf after that, but I did develop more of an appreciation for it.
If you find yourself with a few pounds of ground beef and you are unsure of what to do with it, meatloaf is a great option…for those of us that like meatloaf at least.
One big problem I’ve always had with meatloaf is that they will have big chunks of onion and garlic that didn’t fully cook. This makes the meatloaf especially unenjoyable to eat. The obvious solution then is to pre-cook the onions and garlic and that is what I do in the recipe below. This is what I do in the recipe below. The added bonus is that the cooked onions and garlic add a mild sweetness to the mix adding more balance to the overall flavour of the meatloaf.
It will come as no surprise, that like my burgers (and just about everything else I cook) I prefer a more simplistic approach to my meatloaf. Not everything in the spice cupboard has to go into everything you cook. Add only what is needed and if you are going to add herbs use fresh ones whenever possible.
Who doesn’t love a good pot of Chili? The keyword there being good. In truth Chili is a bit like pizza, even bad pizza is still pizza. I think what I’m trying to say is that it is difficult to mess up Chili, it is a very forgiving dish. The recipe below is not a basis Chili recipe by any means. However, it is not at all difficult to make. What you notice right away when looking at the below recipe is that there are a lot of ingredients. Yes, it’s true. My simplistic view of cooking goes right out the window when it comes to Chili and for good reason, Chili benefits from complexity. Of course, there is nothing that says that you can’t make a delicious simply Chili, I just didn’t do that here.
The real benefit to the recipe below is more in the technique. Pay attention to when I added the spices and vegetables. They are timed so that the maximum amount of flavour is in the Chili at the time of eating. As a bit of an aside, don’t listen to people who say that Chili needs to be simmered for hours and hours, they are wrong. Doing this will destroy the flavour. The essential oils in the spices, which is where the flavour comes from are volatile and heat soluble. Cooking them for long periods literally cooks the flavour out of them.
I just posted about these on Monday so I’m not going to say too much about them here. I suggest checking out the full post at the link below if you haven’t already done so.
Check out the full Spaghetti and Meatballs post here.
One of my absolute favourite things to do with ground beef is to make Shepherd’s Pie. (It is technically Cottage Pie becasue it is made with beef rather than lamb but where I come from we call it Shepherd’s Pie). Not only is this one of my all time favourite foods form when I was a child, but it is also one of the first things I ever learend to cook. And it is so stragight forward that I’m not even going to give you a recipe. I will hoever give you a quick walk through.
Shepherd’s Pie is made by sauteéing ground beef with onions, and sometimes garlic. Once these are cooked other vegetables like diced carrots, peas, corn, and green beans are added to the mix. Then one large can of creamed corn and some salt and pepper. Some people prefer to use gravy, but in my family, it was always creamed corn. This mix is topped with mashed potatoes and baked on 350°f until the potatoes are golden brown. Amazing!
This concludes the Basic Things Everyone Should Be Able To Cook position of my free basic cooking course. If you missed the first two parts of this section you can check out the first two parts of this section here and here. Next week we will be wrapping up the cooking course with a final post to tie everything together and review all the things that we have covered. I’ll see you then!
I hope that you have enjoyed this post. If you have please remember to like and share it. And of course, remember to subscribe to the blog so you never miss a post again.
This recipe for Chipotle corn salsa unlocks the secrets of Chipotle Corn Salsa and ensures…
Sourdough baking has witnessed a remarkable resurgence, captivating the hearts of culinary enthusiasts worldwide. Amid…
Diving into the world of tacos, there's one variation that stands out for its bold…
In the world of appetizers, where complexity often reigns supreme, there exists a timeless classic…
In this post, we will look at how to make the best Caesar rimmer recipe,…
Pasta Con Broccoli is a simple pasta dish made with broccoli, lemon, crushed red pepper,…
This website uses cookies.