Friday, August 26, 2011

FFwD - Cafe Salle Pleyel Hamburger

I don't know if I'd call this burger "forbidden, illicit, or subversive" like the recipes originator did but I would call it good!  The combination of tomatoes ( I used slow roasted tomatoes from a previous French Friday recipe), capers, cornichons, and spices add a dimension not common in a good old fashioned American burger, but it is very good.  Fusion food is popular these days and this is a good example of the fusion of the best of two cooking traditions.

The onion marmalade was the only disappointment.  It wasn't very marmaladey...just boiled onions with a bit of a coriander flavor.  The recipe calls for 20 minutes of cooking one medium red onion in a cup of water.  Coriander, butter, salt and pepper are the only other ingredients.  I cooked it much longer than called for, more like 45 minutes and I still poured off water before serving.  If I used this recipe again I'd caramelize the onions first and use 1/4 cup or less of water.  I'm eager to read what the other French Friday cooks thought of this.  They are a creative and opinionated bunch of good cooks!

16 comments:

  1. I'm glad to see someone else used slow roasted toamtoes as well instead of the jarred variety!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with you on the marmalade. Mine was quite watery too, and
    the color was not too pretty. I think caramelized onions would taste
    a lot nicer. We did enjoy the burger, and yours looks great. Tricia
    missed out on a good recipe this week due to traveling, but some
    of her crew came for a taste. I served Ina Garten's corn pudding with
    it. great combo.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I totally agree about the onions - I poured water off, too. But, the burger was great & I'm sure we'll use this technique again!

    Have a great weekend!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I had issues with the onions too. Like you, I cooked them for almost an hour. I couldn't believe how bland they were. I liked the colorful patties.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree with you on the marmalade. I had a lot of water in my onions too! I cooked them for about an hour. But the burger was great...we really enjoyed this. Your burger looks great! Have a great week-end!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lola...yea when I read it thru, I imagine 1 cup water of water is too much for just 1 red onion so I just poured in enough water to just covered the chopped onions and cooked till it becomes slightly marmaladey and the water reduced to almost just wet ...I did not check the time though :p but it did turn out great for me.

    Yours look great....your onions bits look crystal like :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Agreed - I really wanted to caramelize these before adding the water. But I still thought it was pretty good (Maybe I stopped following the directions at some point, I don't remember :-) )

    ReplyDelete
  8. I don't get the water in the onions either?? Oh well, I won't make the onion jam but the burger was good! Your burger looks delicious;-)

    ReplyDelete
  9. The quote tickled me too so I had some fun with it. Subversive? lol Those French! It sure was good though.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Sorry the marmalade wasn't a hit for you. I cooked mine a bit longer until almost completely caramelized. Mite have been the difference.

    Thanks for coming by.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yeah my onion marmalade wasn't what I expected & I cooked it way longer as well.
    But all in all I liked the burger.
    Love your pics makes me hungry!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I think I let my onion marmalade boil furiously for longer than what the recipe suggested before turning down the heat. I also chopped the onions in my food processor into small pieces, and spooned a bit of sugar to help the caramelization process. I hope this helps!

    ReplyDelete
  13. That's too bad that the onion marmalade didn't work for you. I used quite a large onion and left the amount of water the same - I think that made the difference for me. We loved these burgers, too. I'm glad I made a bunch of patties and froze most of them. We're all set for another burger night, soon.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Sorry that you didn't love your onion marmalade! I wonder what the variable was, that people got such different results. I did cook mine a bit longer than stated in the recipe, but only by a few minutes. Oh well...glad you enjoyed the burger part!

    ReplyDelete
  15. yep. same issue with the marmalade. I wanted it caramelized, so I did cook it down longer and let it brown just a bit at the end. Liked the flavor of the corriander very much.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I liked the marmalade, and mine cooked down to a jammy consistency, but it did take around 45 minutes. Mostly, I do sauteed/caramelized onions, but when I want a similar thing without the grease, I'll go with this stuff.

    ReplyDelete