One track mind: Patty Melts

Not that I particularly believe in astrology, at least when it says something bad is going to happen to me, but I often "blame" my quirkiest behaviour on the fact that I am a cancer (ascendant cancer, because I never do things by half) and I really think we are the most adorable weirdos in the whole zodiac!
I believe we are very constant in our affections, once we love something or someone, it's there to stay (unless they run away -fearing the crazy- obviously). This works for TV shows, clothes, leisures... or music and bands for instance, because seeing the same band 15 times in 6 months is borderline insane (and I'm not even exagerating for dramatical purpose, this is really happening).

Food is no different, I love trying new things, experiencing ingredients, new spices...etc. But some recipes will just always do, no matter how many time you ate them. My mum's lamb is one of those for instance or anything including good dark chocolate.
My latest craving is the patty melt. I love a good burger, but I often don't plan soon enough to make the buns, so when I read about this recipe using rye bread on David Lebovitz's page, I knew I had to try it out. This was about a month ago, ever since I kept trying this in so many different ways: with different cheese or bread, vegetarian, with sausages... and I liked them all.

Here's the more classic version of the recipe, with a lot of butter. I have to say that it's nice, every once in a while, to cook with butter, I'm an olive oil kinda of girl, but this is just the way to go for this recipe. Don't bother to make fries with that one, it's rich enough, even a salad seems too much to add to this lovely rich burger. I would just advice to go for a walk afterwards!

Patty Melt (from the Pioneer Woman)

Serves 1

2 Slices of Rye Bread
2-3 Small Onions
150-200gr of Ground Beef
2 Slices of Cheese (I used Gouda)
Butter (about 75gr)
Salt, Pepper
Worchester Sauce

Peel and cut the onions in half moons, put a bit of butter in a non-sticky frying pan and add the onions. Add salt and pepper and cook on a medium heat for about 15 minutes, stiring often so it doesn't attach, they should be soft and golden.

Season you ground beef with salt, pepper and some worchester sauce, form a patty that is bout the size of the slice of bread you are using.
In a non-sticky frying pan, heat up some butter and cook your patty the way you like it.

In an other pan, heat up some butter and place one slice of bread in it and top it with one slice of cheese. When the cheese starts to melt a little, add half the onions on the cheese, place your burger on top and add the remaining onions. Now place the second slice of cheese on the onions, aswell as the second slice of bread on top of all that.
Press down a little on your burger, than carefull flip in to color the other slice of bread to a nice golden brown.

Slice in half and enjoy!

Retro cooking: Curried Egg Sandwiches

Some strange thing happened to me the over day: as you may already know, I'm a bit of a TV show junkie and have many DVD (never enough to my taste though) that I enjoy to watch. I tend to wait for a serie to come to it's end, so that I can buy the boxset and marathon myself thru it. Yes, I'm strange in many ways.

So, I just went thru the absolutely brilliant second season of Sherlock, thinking what to watch next? A rerun of the Gilmore Girls or Buffy, a few Big Bang Theory or Friends episods... Than I just sat down to have lunch instead. And all the sudden there's a song in my head:

"I've been down this road.

Walking the line that's painted by pride.

And i have made mistakes in my life that i just can't hide."

It took me a few seconds to realise that's the theme song from Ally McBeal! Which is weird, I do have the DVDs, but I haven't watched it in so long, it wasn't even in my thought process of the moment.
Maybe our brains and body try to tell us stuff sometimes, and we just don't listen to them, or are too busy doing something else on top of something else. Or maybe I'm just crazy, and my brain goes coucou from all the things that are stored in it. Either way, I'm enjoying Ally McBeal, and it's great fun.

This recipe is long overdue, or at least the use of the book it came in. One of the good thing about having real friends, is that they still like you, even when they really know you and also that they know you well enough to get you cool gift, like this awesome cookbooks.
The retro cookbook has been on my shelves for almost a year now, and I pick it up quite often to get ideas, but today I finally channeled the 50's housewife in me (that took a lot of effort, believe me) to make this easy and summerish recipe.

Curried Egg Sandwich (based on the Retro Cookbook)

Serves 2

1 Egg Yolk
1/2 a Tablespoon of Mustard
Salt, Pepper
1/2 a Tablespoon Whine Honey Vinegar (such as Melfor)
3-4 Tablespoon Sunflower Oil
2 Teaspoon of Curry powder
4 Eggs, boiled
A Handfull of Salad
2 small Pickled Cucumber
Bread

Let's start with the mayonnaise, using a whip (if you have one like the picture, they work very well for mayonnaise) combine in a small bowl, the egg yolk, the mustard, the salt and pepper. Than start adding slowly the oil until you have the consistency you wish. Add the vinegar and the curry powder, whip it a bit more and taste to check the seasoning, correct if necessary. Place in the fridge.

Boil the eggs and leave them in cold water once they are cooked. Peel them and chop them up with a knife. Using a fork, mash the eggs and mayonnaise together, add the pickled cucumber that you have thinly chopped. Set in the fridge for a few minutes, it's better cold.

In the meantime, cut your bread (this should do for 2 to 3 big sandwiches) and shred your salad. On the bread, place a bit of salad, than the curried egg mixture, than a bit more salad and the other slice of bread. Cut the sandwich in two and add a toothpick so it holds better.