Beef Sliders

Last week, I was trying to decide what to make for dinner by thinking of restaurants we like and what we eat there. Every now and then, we go to Works Burger with my folks (my stepdad gets super excited when he gets their coupons in the mail) so I considered burgers. Jeff likes to barbecue in the summer but Canadian winter is not conducive to outdoor cooking. I thought about doing homemade patties and frying them on the stove when it hit me: sliders! Thus decided, I did what a good little novice chef does; I called my grandmother.

The recipe
The following is how Nana has made burgers my whole life:
– Put 1 pound regular ground beef in a bowl (she said lean or extra lean meat make your patties too dry)
– Break up beef a bit, but don’t play with it!
– Whip one egg; pour into bowl
– Add 1/4 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper
– Add a literal handful of bread crumbs (like cup your hand and fill that but don’t heap it too much)
– Use a fork to mix everything, but don’t play with it too much! (I’m getting the impression she helped someone make burgers recently but they did it wrong and said her instructions were no good)
– Spoon out meat and flatten into patty size of your choosing, keeping in mind they will shrink a bit as you cook them
– Cook on high heat, seer both sides for 2 minutes, then lower heat to medium and cook 3 minutes on each side (WARNING: keep an eye on them; ‘high heat’ on my stove apparently means ‘immediately burnt’ so maybe don’t use too high of heat)

Ease (or not) of prep
Overall it took me about 30 minutes to prepare and cook eight burgers, plus a pretty huge garden salad as a side, so I’m pretty happy with how fast this dinner was to make.

Ingredient changes
Nana used to always put chopped onions in the patties but I can’t really eat them anymore so I did not include them. Next time I make them, I’ll put onions in half the batch for Jeff because I’m pretty sure that guy would eat an onion like an apple.

Boyfriend Test: Pass
Jeff was pretty excited for sliders when he got home but said, “too bad you don’t have any bacon to put on them.” I turned around and whipped out freshly fried bacon and said, “Who do you think you’re dealing with?”

He loaded his up with pickles, cheese, bacon, Sriracha, and BBQ sauce and made all the yummy noises while he ate.

Picky Eater Test: Pass!
I was afraid that I’d burnt them but they were cooked perfectly. They were juicy but not greasy. I got Brioche buns (since slider buns are out of season, as I was informed by an unnecessarily snarky sales person at the grocery store) and dressed my burgers with cheese, bacon, ketchup, and mustard.

I also have four patties left over that I laid out on waxed paper and stored in the freezer so next time we made sliders, it’ll take half the time! …I wonder what I’ll have to complain about then?

Roast Beef and Vegetables

My kind of cooking is the sort where you dump a bunch of stuff in a pot and walk away for several hours. With this is mind, I called my grandmother for help making roast beef. This was the only instance in which I was glad my mother taught Nana how to use an iPad because rather than asking me where her apps were or exclaiming that she “doesn’t have that button” (yes, Nan, you do), I was able to show her what I was doing to make sure it was right. I used to spend a lot of time in the kitchen with my Nana so that, compounded by the fact that Mom recently gave me a roast pan that Nana bought the summer I was born, made for a very nostalgic roast beef!

The recipe
This isn’t one of those family secrets that people guard religiously so here were Nana’s precise instructions:

– Buy a roast, labelled “outside round.” Should be around $12. Put on a plate.
– 1 tbsp. horseradish – rub all over and into roast.
– Montreal steak spice – use liberally, rub all over and into roast.
– Transfer roast to roast pan.
– Dump in vegetables (choose only hearty veggies that won’t turn to mush when cooked for several hours). I used a small bag of baby potatoes (left whole), three quarters of a large bag of baby carrots, and a small white onion (cut in large chunks and spread over the top of the other vegetables). Nana said to not put any onions on top of the roast because that could make it slimy (ew).
– 1 and 1/2 cups beef broth, poured around roast, but not on top of it because you’ll wash away your spice.
– Cook at 400°, allowing about half an hour per pound of roast (I cooked mine for 4 hours).

Ingredient changes
I didn’t change anything because I was aiming for the roast beef I loved when I was young but I will say that the roast was 25 BUCKS, not 12, as advertised. Apparently my Nana has access to magic butchers with fancy low prices.

Ease (or not) of prep
From washing vegetables to rubbing the meat (not a euphemism), prep time took about 20 minutes, which makes this my favourite thing to cook, no matter what it tastes like.

Boyfriend Test: Pass
You can’t really go wrong giving Jeff a hunk of meat and a pile of carrots so he really liked it. He said it was really flavourful and was surprised to hear about the horseradish since neither one of us like it.

Picky Eater Test: Soft pass
I have always been a picky eater. Since I was a kid, I’ve liked only the things I like, nothing more, and none of those things are vegetables. Vegetables are green and that’s the colour of poison, so you’re obviously trying to kill me. I eat vegetables now but with a lot of conditions (if they’re raw, I must have French Onion dip; if they’re cooked, they can’t be mushy, unless we’re talking about mashed potatoes in which case mushy is kind of the point). As an adult, I’ve tried to expand my palette but that’s easier said than done. I endeavour to respond to a dish I’ve never had with “that sounds interesting” rather than immediately turning up my nose, shouting “NO!” and storming off in a huff, like the good little only child I am.

All of that is to say, I enjoyed the roast because I too subscribe to the “beef good” theory, but I also still don’t like horseradish and I could subtly taste that tangy flavour with every bite. I especially enjoy an outside slice of the roast but I avoided that completely because it would have had a much stronger taste. The next time I make this, I will likely do more spice, no horseradish, and add pepper.

I’m sorry I don’t have a picture of the finished product for you (the blog wasn’t yet a twinkle in my eye so I didn’t think to take one). I can’t even take a picture of the leftovers for there are none.