Three Meals with Blue Apron- Part 2

Today we are making recipe number two from our Blue Apron meal box that was gifted to us by the girls at The Spoon and Pint. You might remember our first recipe, Kale and White Cheddar Quesadillas. Today we are making burgers- Shiitake Mushroom Burgers with Miso Mayonnaise and Roasted Sweet Potato to be exact. The Chef and I love a good burger and I'm super excited to try this Asian-influenced burger with garlic, shiitake mushrooms and hoisin sauce. I'm a little anxious about the miso mayo however. My prior experience with miso is limited to soup and I thought it tasted awful, but I'm approaching this with an open mind and willingness to try something new, so here we go......

The ingredients are-

10 ounces ground beef

2 potato buns

2 cloves garlic

1 scallion

1 sweet potato (1/2 lb)

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

2 teaspoons sweet white miso paste

1/4 ounce dried shiitake mushrooms

Prepare the ingredients and make the miso mayonnaise- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Wash and dry the fresh produce. In a bowl combine the mushrooms and 1 cup of HOT water; let stand for at least ten minutes. Halve the buns. Halve the sweet potato lengthwise, then slice thinly crosswise. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Cut off and discard the root end of the scallion; thinly slice, separating the white bottom and green top. In a bowl, combine the miso paste and mayonnaise; season with salt and pepper.

Roast the sweet potato- Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil. Place the sweet potato on the prepared sheet pan. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper; toss to thoroughly coat. Arrange in a single, even layer. Roast 16-18 minutes, or until browned and tender when pierced with a fork. Remove from oven, leaving the oven on, and transfer to a plate. Set aside in a warm place. Discard the foil.

Form the patties- While the sweet potato roasts, thoroughly drain the mushrooms (discarding the water) and transfer to a cutting board. Finely chop. Transfer to a large bowl. Add the ground beef, garlic, hoisin sauce and white part of the scallion, season with salt and pepper. Mix gently to combine. Using your hands, form the mixture into two 1/2 inch thick patties, transfer to a plate.

Cook the patties- While sweet potato continues to roast, in a medium skillet heat 2 teaspoons olive oil on medium high heat until hot. Add the patties and cook 3 to 5 minutes per side for medium rare, or until browned and cooked to your desired doneness, transfer to a plate and set aside in a warm place.

Toast the buns- Place the buns, cut side up, on the sheet pan and toast in the oven for  3 to 4 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned and crispy. Remove from oven and transfer to clean, dry work surface. 

Assemble burgers and plate your dish- Spread a layer of the miso mayonnaise onto the cut side of the toasted buns. Top the bun bottoms with the cooked patties. Complete the burgers with the bun tops. Divide the burgers and roasted sweet potatoes between two dishes. Garnish the sweet potato with the green top of the scallion.

So how was it? Delicious! The burger was so juicy from the added mushrooms. They really added a ton of moisture and flavor to the meat. The garlic, hoisin sauce and minced scallions (I minced the white part so they would mix into the burger more evenly) gave the juicy meat an Asian flavor. Remember how afraid I was of the miso? It was delicious!! It added a different level of flavor to boring mayo- lightly sweet, definitely savory. I think this might encourage me to try more miso recipes.

The only drawback was the one burger per person in the recipe. That's fine for me but The Chef is a growing boy- he usually eats a couple burgers. To make up for it we supplemented the sweet potato with an extra sweet potato and increased the olive oil accordingly. Also, after I took my picture I picked all the green scallion tops off the potatoes and put them on the burger as well- I highly recommend doing the same.

This meal was absolutely my favorite of the three and something I will make again, thanks to the enclosed recipe card!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free with no expectation that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe are of good quality and safe. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

The Gerwegian girl's braciole

I was so surprised the other day- at the grocery store they had the BIG pieces of round steak. The big ones- like I remember as a child, my mom slicing up and making pepper steak or stroganoff, or pounding the everloving life out of and smothering with cream-of-something soup and baking for a couple hours. Not the fanciest cut by any means, but certainly one of my favorite if for nothing but the memories. Anyway, there it was in the meat department beckoning to me to cook something really good.

If it was the right time of year, pepper steak would have been my first choice but in general I avoid certain kinds of grocery store produce in the winter, like tomatoes and peppers. It's just not the same as fresh from the garden or farmers market. Mushrooms, however, are available year round and pretty consistent PLUS they had a nice basket of fresh shiitakes begging to be taken home. Inspired by the recent picture a friend had shared with me, I decided a stuffed steak was in order.

What I ended up with is my own version of Braciole- without the Italian flavor profile. Mushrooms are a natural with steak and so easy to chop up and create a stuffing with. The shiitkes are a real treat to work with- once you pinch off and throw away the inedible stem they cut up into perfect firm little cubes of delicious. I chose cremini as my other mushroom (although I bought some of every kind they had in the store that day!), a little onion, garlic, some stale bread (do YOU keep your bread butts in the freezer for things like this?) and roll it up in some pounded out steak. Here is how I did it-

Mushroom Braciole

about 2 lb round steak (or similar- flat iron, flank steak, etc)

1 small onion

4 cloves garlic

4 slices stale bread

1 tsp chopped thyme

8 oz mushrooms- I used shiitake and cremini

salt and pepper

2 cups beef stock

1 tablespoon cornstarch

olive oil

2 tb butter

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Cut or tear the bread into small pieces and spread out to let it dry as much as possible, set aside for now.

Cut the meat into 6 equal portions. Pound using a meat mallet until flattened and even in thickness. Pounding out to the right shape is a little tricky but try to get the pieces as rectangular as possible. I was so busy pounding away The Chef finally asked me if I was ever going to be done or was I building a garage.......sigh...... Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Finely chop the onion and garlic and place in bowl. Clean the mushrooms, trim off the stem ends (remove tough shiitake stems) and chop into small dice and add to bowl. 

In a medium skillet heat 2 tablespoons olive oil and butter. Add the onions, garlic, mushrooms, thyme and season with salt and pepper. Cook for several minutes until onions are softened and mushrooms begin to brown. Meanwhile, crumble the bread as much as possible in a medium bowl. Pour the mushroom onion mixture over and mix well. It might be a little dry, not like stuffing you'd serve at the holidays- that's ok, it doesn't need to be super moist.

Grab a piece of steak and place a scoop of the stuffing on it. Pat it and spread it out over the meat surface evenly, leaving a little edge uncovered. 

Roll up and secure with picks, or tie with string if you're especially handy like that. I use picks because, well..... I'm not. Continue with all pieces of steak until done. 

You might have some leftover stuffing. I did because I could only get 5 portions from my steak, and Louie enjoyed it thoroughly.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in that skillet you cooked the mushrooms in and brown the rolls on the outside; place in dutch oven or covered roaster/braiser. 

Mix the cornstarch into the beef broth while browning the meat and when done, deglaze the skillet with the broth. Whisk over medium high heat until slightly thickened and bubbly. Ladle sauce over the braciole in the pot; cover and bake for one hour and 15 minutes.

When done, remove from oven and let rest a few minutes so the stuffing will firm up just a bit. Remove picks from rolls and slice. Serve with pasta, rice or potatoes and the sauce. I have been making this dish for years and years and it's one of my favorites. Not very "gourmet" but certainly delicious and an old family favorite. Oh, I almost forgot- the Gerwegian??  German and Norwegian of course!