International Burger Banquet

There isn't much that conjures up culinary sadness quite like the words "burger banquet." It just reminds me of the worst of mid-90's food trend when everyone was doing things like that. That and baked potato bars. Oh, baked potato bars.

The only thing that could be more 90's would be opening an Asian fusion restaurant with a name like "Green Ginger" or simply "Galangal."

Sometimes, however, I feel compelled to recall these terrible moments of American food trend history with a thematic meal. Last night was such a night. Unfortunately because of the rain I had to postpone this stupid idea until tonight. I wasn't really in any mood to do it tonight, actually, but given the fact that the ingredients were on hand I did it anyway.



The theme of the night: fake American ethnic foods! What better way than to start with a trio of salads representing different ethnic cuisines? Well, that is to say the American version of different ethnic cuisines. I like to call this "Applebee's Ethnic."

No dinner is complete without a Mexican or Southwestern, or Spanish themed item. It's hard to tell which it is at this point. Maybe it's even Tex Mex. All I know is that for this first salad I combined tomato, avocado, red onion, cilantro, smoked paprika, cumin, salt, pepper, olive oil, lime juice, and tequila. Because you can't have a Spanitexmexicasouthwestern meal with tequila and lime!

For the second salad a Greek theme! That's right, that means spinach and feta are featured prominently. I also served this salad with lemon, olive oil, and honey drizzled over the top.

The third salad was American style so that means bacon, blue cheese, and ranch dressing over mixed spring greens.



The burgers were made to match the salads. I started off with a salsa burger with cotija cheese and lime. The second burger was a spinach feta burger with sliced green olives on top. The third was a bacon blue cheese burger.

I'd have made matching desserts but I was already tired of this concept by the time I was done making the salads. Besides I didn't feel like making flan, baklava, AND an over-sized cheesecake this afternoon.



Instead I served this all up with a single tall glass of Hennepin from Ommegang. Apparently Hennepin is named after father Hennepin who discovered Niagara Falls. Strangely the falls were not named after him and, instead, he has some state park in Minnesota named after him.

He may have been screwed out of being named after North America's most famous waterfall but some of that terrible oversight has been repaid in naming this fantastic beer after him.

Truth be told, I'd rather have a beer named after me than a waterfall.

Don't go chasing Hennepins.

Beer Can Chicken

I've never made beer can chicken. That is until tonight. Beer can chicken is something I've always heard about and kind of wondered what the big deal was. So you stick a beer can inside a chicken and cook it. So what? Besides I never really knew how you did it? Did you leave the can full of beer? That didn't sound right, surely it would explode in the oven. Did you empty it? Then if you did that what was the point, couldn't it just as easily be regular roast chicken?



I learned that you were supposed to leave the can of beer half full. That, paired with the fact that I just picked up some canned beer that I wanted to try, sounded rather enticing. So I stood up a chicken on a half-emptied can of beer and seasoned it generously with cumin seeds, celery seeds, smoked paprika, chili powder, brown sugar, salt, pepper, and olive oil. I ground the spices together with a mortar and pestle before adding it to some olive oil generously rubbing the chicken inside and out.



The result was, as anticipated, a roast chicken.



The beer that I used was Elm City Lager from New England Brewing Co. in Woodbridge, Connecticut. So what better to enjoy with the chicken? I guess it's more traditional to use Budweiser or something but I just couldn't allow that to happen.



Overall this was pretty tasty. I can now see why it is popular. Cooking vertically shouldn't really add much but it does produce a slightly different chicken. The beer in the can helps to steam the inside of the chicken and the breast meat in particular was extremely moist.

It's more traditional to do this inside a barbecue but with sheets of rain and ice plummeting from the sky I just couldn't get myself psyched to use the grill this evening. While it was good with a baked potato and some steamed broccoli I think I will recreate this one in the warmer months (or at least the drier days of the colder months) and serve it with some nice fresh tomatoes and grilled corn.

This used up absolutely nothing from the pantry, freezer, or fridge. Everything was purchased specifically for this meal including the beer. That's okay though, it's Jen's last night in town before shipping out to Salt Lake City. Generally she likes nothing more than a roast chicken.

I will need to work extra hard in her absence to move through all of these leftovers and get back to tackling our swelling pantry.