Burger Crawl

This is a very special Food Crawl, and one that Dave and I have been meaning to do for a while!  Boston has so many great restaurants, and so many great variations on the hamburger.  We hope that through many future Burger Crawls, we can taste all that our city has to offer when it comes to the hamburger!

First stop?  Eastern Standard.

We have eaten here once or twice for dinner and have loved their food, so it seemed like a good choice.  We met Theresa and Matt after Dave got off from work, and we found them chowing down on this ceviche with homemade potato chips.  We could only grab a pic when it was almost done!

As this was our first stop, we decided to go with a classic - their "Standard Burger" complete with Vermont cheddar on a brioche bun, and served with crispy fries.  We looked kind of funny...ordering one burger and cutting it into fourths. Ha!

This burger was juicy, meaty, and in my opinion- perfection!  It was my favorite burger of the night :)

Next, we hit up the Boston Burger Company.

I don't think it would be possible to have a burger crawl without stopping by a place called "Boston Burger Company."  We got a few fun drinks to start.....I had their Winter Sangria:

It had just the right amount of sweet and tang.  It wasn't the best sangria, but it fell right towards the middle and was still very satisfying and refreshing.

Theresa went with a chocolate milkshake:

"Theresa!  Act surprised!!"

awww

After our little photo session, the food came out!  I'm pretty sure that this first one was the Burger Bomb: grilled peppers, onions, and mushrooms topped with American cheese.

This next one is the Hot Mess: Sweet potato fries, American cheese, chopped pickles, jalapeños, bacon, red onion, shredded lettuce, and thousand island dressing.

Both of these burgers were good, but only if you put them on a scale with higher-end fast food burgers.  I'd say it's better than a 5 Guys burger, but on par with a Bobby's Burger Palace burger.  You can't beat the convenience, however, of a prime location in the city.  Dave and I are in the 'hood quite often, and will probably go back to sample other varieties.

Boston Burger Company was followed by a longish walk to our next (and final) destination.

Matt and Dave

Theresa and me

Our last stop on the crawl was The Gallows.

 

I have always heard really good things about this place, so it was fun to check it out.  I really love their logo (above) and the decor:

huge Ouija board on the wall

We started off with the homemade pickles.  These were good, but probably not worth the $4 we spent on them. 

When we ordered the burgers, the waiter made sure to "warn" us that the patties would be cooked through.  Usually that makes a burger purist run in the other direction, but who were we to judge?  We ordered the "Our Way" burger....

...and the "Southern Comfort"

The former is a traditional hamburger with American cheese, grilled onions, iceburg lettuce, and pickles.  The latter, however, is topped with American cheese, coleslaw, pickles, and North Carolina style pulled pork.

I definitely want to return to the Gallows.  There were some mighty fine looking food options such as poutine, tuna tacos, frito chili pie, and more.  Plus, they give you a cute little cone full of frozen yogurt when you leave!

....and just a few more random shots from the night:

Korean Beef Short Ribs

"Bow Chicka Bao Bao!!"
(yes...Dave and I kept saying that as we made this.  And yes...we think we are so clever)

Now, let me put this out there before anyone says anything.  I'm not sure what makes this meat "Korean," except for the fact that I adapted the recipe from an existing recipe that claimed it was.  Either way, it was one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten!!  When trying to figure out what to serve it with, I immediately thought of a steamed Bao bun.  What an amazing combination!

Ingredients:
for the beef:
2-3 cloves garlic
3/4 inches of ginger, peeled
1/3 cups soy sauce - we used low sodium
1/4 cups brown sugar
3 tbs rice vinegar
1 tbs sesame oil
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 1/5 pounds beef short ribs - we used boneless
a bit of cornstarch and water

for the steamed buns:
1 1/2 tsp yeast
1 cup warm water
2 tbsp oil
2 tbs sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour, plus about another half cup for kneading

for the cucumber slaw:
1 cucumber
1/2 carrot (or 1 small carrot)
4 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sugar
large pinch of salt
1 pinch red pepper flakes

Directions:
for the beef:

1. Finely mince garlic and ginger.  Mix with soy sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and red pepper flakes. 
2. Place short ribs into a crock pot and pour sauce over ribs. 
3. Cover, and cook on low for about 8 hours. 
4. When the meat is falling apart, turn off the heat, remove from the pot, and shred the beef.
5. Pour the juice from the crock pot into a container and place in the fridge to cool while you prepare the other components.

 this is how you know it's ready

once I removed the sauce they got a little dry. don't worry- they will be rejuicified  later!

for the steamed buns:

1. Place the yeast into the warm water, stir, and let sit for 5 minutes to activate.
2. Once bubbly, add the sugar and oil to the yeast mixture.
3. Combine 2 cups of flour with the baking powder, then add to the yeast mixture.
4. Mix the dough (it will be very sticky).  Knead and continue to add flour until smooth (for us, it took about a half cup of extra flour)
5. Cover dough, put it in a warm place, and let rise for 30 minutes.
6. Once risen, cut small pieces of dough and flatten into discs.
7. Place each disc onto a square of parchment paper, and steam for 10 minutes.

thanks, Dave, for doing the tough stuff! :)

 

 haha, that little disc got out of frame, and Dave wouldn't let me try a second photo!!

amazingly fluffy and delicious!

for the cucumber slaw:

1. Peel cucumber and carrot and chop into matchsticks. 
2. Combine the rice vinegar, sugar, salt and red pepper flakes. 
3. Add the dressing to the cucumber and carrot and mix well.

 
to finish:

1. Remove the sauce from the refrigerator- by now you should be able to skim off the excess fat.
2. Place in a sauce pan and simmer until thickened. I wanted it a bit thicker so I added some cornstarch mixed with water. 
3. Pour the sauce on top of the meat, and stir to combine 
4. Serve on buns with some of the slaw and enjoy!

Beef recipe adapted from Tasty Kitchen
Bun recipe from this video on YouTube

Beef and Celery Dumplings

SOOOO excited...my Lightscoop came in the mail a few days ago, and now I can finally take some decent pictures in my kitchen. There are no windows in the kitchen of our small apartment, so the 'scoop has saved my life!  This means that I can do process shots, and I don't need to put my dinner in the craft room light tent before eating it :)

Once again, this is a recipe that I threw together with no directions...dumplings are awesome because you can just make them to taste, and throw in whatever you'd like.

Ingredients:
1 lb of ground meat - we used all beef, but Dave wants to throw in some pork next time. (I'll allow it)
3 cloves of garlic
4 (ish) scallions
1 1/2 or 2 celery stalks (depending on how big they are)
ginger (not sure how much - we were out of fresh ginger so I tossed in a bit of ground. Buuuut you should use fresh)
6 tbs soy sauce
1/2 tbs sesame oil
Package of dumpling wrappers or wonton wrappers (we used wonton, which is why we have square dumplings)
1 egg, beaten (optional)


Directions:

1. Finely mince the garlic, celery, scallions and ginger.
2. Combine the minced garlic, celery, scallions and ginger with the ground meat.  
3. Add the soy sauce and sesame oil
4. Mix - by hand works best!
5. Place a small amount (see pic below) of the meat mixture onto one of the wrappers.
6. If using a round dumpling wrapper, fold in half and seal along the edges.  If using square wonton wrappers, bring all four corners to the center and seal the edges.  You can seal the edges with either water or a bit of beaten egg.
7. At this point, you can cook or freeze these to make later!  We did a bit of both :)
8. To Steam:  Place in a steaming basket over a bit of boiling water and steam until the meat is cooked through.  This took about 5 minutes for us, and will take a few extra minutes if your dumplings are frozen.
9. To Pan Sear, potsticker-style: Heat up a bit of oil in a skillet, and add a layer of dumplings.  Cook until the bottom is browned nicely, then add some water to the pan and cover.  Reduce the heat slightly and cook for about 4 minutes (again, it will take longer if your dumplings are frozen)

These were totally awesome!

I couldn't decide if I preferred the above pic or the one below...so you get both! :)

You can use about this much (or slightly more) filling in each dumpling

 Aww...check out these guys all ready to freeze!  I froze them on the sheet first, then put them all in a Ziploc bag (yep...we used the brand-name! hehe)

Steamy goodness.....

Yum yum yum!

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

 Ahhh...this is another one of those non-recipe recipes.  I kind of made it up as I went along (tasting and adding more of things along the way), so the measurements are not exact.  But you all are pretty smart- you can edit this however you'd like! (plus different sized potatoes will change things too)

I've had mashed sweet potatoes before, but everyone seems to want to make it like a dessert.  This does have sweetness, but potato flavor still rules.  I made this as a side the other night, and Dave fried up some fish.  A great meal!

Ingredients:
3 sweet potatoes
2 tbs butter
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tbs honey
1/2 tbs brown sugar
salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Peel sweet potatoes, and slice into thin discs.
2. Steam potatoes until nice and tender.  This took about 15 minutes.
3. Melt butter in a pot and add cooked potatoes, cinnamon, honey, and brown sugar.
4. Mash the potatoes. I used my trusty immersion blender!
5. Season with salt and pepper (and more sweetener/cinnamon if needed)

I garnished with some sliced apple because we had one laying around :)