Episode 014 is another in the What We’re Grilling series, where Taryn discusses recipes she and her family have grilled over the last couple of weeks to give you some grilling inspiration. In this episode, Taryn talks about a recent camping trip she and her family did for Memorial Day Weekend. She discusses cooking on a Blackstone Griddle flat top grill for dinner one night and the recipes her family made, including hamburgers, sauteed onions, and some morel mushrooms she and her family foraged in the area.
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Resources Mentioned
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Recipes Mentioned
- Susie’s Grilled Burger Recipe
Transcript
Taryn Solie: Hello grillers! Welcome to another What We’re Grilling episode. I am your host, Taryn Solie, and I am here to give you some grilling inspiration. These What We’re Grilling episodes are meant to be short and sweet, coming out about every 2 weeks or so. I go over some of the foods that my family and I have grilled that we’ve liked – some of what I mention will just be general ideas, and for others I’ll go into more detail to give you a sense of how to grill it. The goal is to give you some ideas for what to cook for your family and friends.
Now we are coming off Memorial Day weekend, which is a big grilling and camping weekend for many people. My family and I went over to the Winthrop and Twisp area, it’s kind of in north-central Washington state. We went there with my in-laws and spent several nights over there. My in-laws actually have some property in that area that we mainly use for camping. They have some trailers and a bunkhouse there. It’s just- it’s a fun area and my kids love going there.
At the property my father-in-law has a Blackstone Griddle, which is essentially a big grill with a flat griddle cooktop instead of grates on it. This was my first experience with a griddle like that and I have to say it was pretty darn slick. One night for dinner we made hamburgers, hot dogs, grilled onions, and grilled morel mushrooms. The grill was large enough that we were able to cook things together instead of separately, which was nice. Though we did cook the mushrooms separately because my mother in law is allergic to those.
So my father in law prepped the grill, oiling it up, heating it so it was hot before we put any food on it. The hamburgers we did very simply – we just put some ground beef made into patties then seasoned with kosher salt, ground black pepper, and garlic powder. I like to season one side, put them on the grill with the seasoned side down, and then season the other side while they’re on the grill. We cooked them over a medium heat for maybe 4 to 5 minutes a side.
Normally I would check the temperature before pulling them off the grill, but we didn’t have a thermometer with us so we just king of went by look and feel. Next time we go though I’m going to have to bring my Thermapen, I really rely on that.
For the onions we sliced them fairly thinly and then just put them on the griddle and cooked them in a little oil until they were soft and browned, maybe 7 or 8 minutes. Onions are fairly easy to cook that way, you just want to be sure to keep stirring them so they don’t burn.
The last thing to go on the grill, after warming up the hot dogs for the kids, was the morel mushrooms. So these we foraged in the surrounding area and they were mostly there because last summer there was sadly, some large forest fires that broke out. Morels thrive in that environment and while they had been mostly picked over, we were able to find just enough for our dinner.
So we cleaned them by rinsing them thoroughly and running them through a salad spinner, which was surprisingly effective at getting the water out. Then we cut them in half and grilled them in a little oil and just some salt. We cooked them on the griddle, stirring them fairly frequently, until they softened a bit. It was probably a similar cook time as the onions, so 7 or 8 minutes, and then we just put them on a plate for serving.
I decided to make a mushroom onion burger, so I got a bun (a gluten free one for me) and a hamburger patty then piled a bunch of the sauteed onions and morels on top. It was quite good. I love a good mushroom burger and this combo was pretty great. Though I will say, the morels were a little unwieldy and kind of kept falling off the burger. I actually ended up putting some on the bottom half of the bun and some on the top half of the bun to kind of squeeze them together, which worked pretty slick.
If I were to do it again, I would probably chop up the morels ahead of time, saute them, then combine them with the meat to make the patties. They have this really great, kind of earthy, nutty flavor that I think would come through really well in a hamburger that way, and then you wouldn’t have to deal with the mushrooms falling off the burger. I will say, if you do attempt to do that, you want to saute them and then wait for them to cook a little bit before you combine them with the hamburger.
Now we did a really simple burger recipe, but I wanted to mention a burger recipe that my friend Susie from Mom’s Dinner talks about in her new podcast called Let’s Make Dinner. You may remember Susie from episode 8 where she and I discussed items you could make for Cinco de Mayo, if you celebrate that holiday. In her podcast episode she mentions a trick she uses to keep her burgers juicy – I don’t want to give it away, but I will link to her podcast on the show notes page. You can also search for it in whatever podcasting platform you listen to. The episode is just under 10 minutes so it’s not long but it is a fun listen.
I’m going to stop there for today and just keep this episode Memorial Day weekend themed! So we talked about griddle recipes today, hamburgers, hot dogs, sauteed onions, and morel mushrooms. I will put links in the show notes page to some of the things I’ve mentioned. You can either go to my main website at Hot Pan Kitchen dot com and click on podcast in the main menu, or you can click on the link provided in whatever podcast app you’re listening with to get to that show notes page.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast and leave a rating and review! As a newer podcast, it helps spread the word and I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much for listening, and until next time, keep grilling like a mother.
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