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Happy New Year!
Sydney Minick is celebrating her first new year, and I’m making a special burger in her honor! And why not? 2015 is going to be an exciting and DELICIOUS year – here’s proof!
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It’s “SliderFest 2015!
In order to launch the new year on the best tasting note possible, I plan to make five different international sliders, and as always, I have the recipes to share with you!
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Study this chart: it’s a beautiful thing. But big massive burgers aren’t he point right now – sliders are three bites – you enjoy one, and then you try another – a different flavor…with sliders you can go around the world in your mouth!
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Fry One On!
OK, I admit it: I LOVE a slider with french fries and tartar sauce…I make them all the time and I’m not ashamed. But now I have another reason to try some new sliders – and I want to share all of them with you – thanks to Sydney!
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Sydney Had A Little Lamb!
My gorgeous grand-daughter Sydney just turned six months old, and is therefore celebrating her FIRST New Year’s Day! So what better way to celebrate than with a Lamb slider in honor of her!
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I made these lamb sliders for the first time at my daughter Jessica’s “BABY Q”, her way of doing a baby shower…they were delicious! And they are easy: for the patty, just mix ground lamb with onion, garlic, mint, parsley and salt and pepper…
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Top With Some Tzatziki Sauce!
Yes, a cool yogurt cucumber sauce is all you need to add to this burger to make it great!
1 (16 ounce) container low-fat plain yogurt
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and grated
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
Combine the yogurt, cucumber, garlic, parsley, mint, lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.
Top the burger with this cool sauce and you are “lamb-tacular”! And I added some avocado to mine and here it is!
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There you go, Sydney, your first slider! While Sydney’s not quite ready to join the slider fun yet, this is still a great burger to share with friends! And there is more to share as well: let’s go around the world for some great slider fun – I mean, how can you argue with Marilyn!
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The World’s Best International Sliders!
I love to travel. When I do, I always eat local…but I have noticed that many countries around the world are making burgers….and the Japanese have taken it to the max!
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While the hilarious Lotteria restaurant chain in Japan loves to offer up burgers like this, a slider ISN’T about the meat.
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“It’s All About The Topping!”
The key to an international slider is what goes ON the meat! Whether it’s cheese, spices or sauces, it is all about what adds a unique flavor to the basic hamburger patty. As for the bun, I make sliders by using small dinner rolls, but there are many specialty stores that carry slider buns as well.
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Your basic hamburger uses good quality ground beef with at least 15% fat content, to ensure lots of juicy flavor. I put minced onion in as well, and I use minced garlic as well. I also like to use a fun salt – like pink Hawaiian sea salt, and a fair amount of pepper.
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That’s it for me – upon this temple of meat, these international slider recipes add unique ingredients that give them a special flavor…have fun, it’s time to head around the world!
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Spice It Up! Indian Sliders
Lots of indian spices make this stand out. As the picture above shows, you can also add some grilled onions to this, but the key is spice, spice baby. Here is a recipe that lays out the unique flavors to add to your slider:
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3 lbs ground beef
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1/4 cup minced scallion top
1/2 cup firmly packed chopped cilantro leaf
Grill your burger with all of these spices inside the meat, then top with some scallion and chopped cilantro. No cheese required!
But now here’s a burger that is ALL about the cheese!
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Mai Oui? Why Not, It’s Your Burger! The French Slider
The definition of a French slider is blue cheese, and blue cheese ONLY – take your regular hamburger, and fold in crumbled blue cheese into the meat before you grill. What happens is the cheese melts while the meat is cooking, creating a blue creaminess that oozes out of the meat as you bite it…
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…and the stuff that oozes out while cooking is even better. Score! If you want to go crazy you can wipe a smear of foie gras on the bun as well, but I don’t add anything else.
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Late Night Snack In Barcelona – The Spanish Slider! – Hamburguesa!
Spanish flavors take this slider to a whole new level – as always, start with your traditional hamburger patty. The key here are the condiments.
The topping here is an olive tapenade, that gets spread on top of the cooked slider – you can find recipes for making tapendade, or you can buy it in a jar, but it includes black olives, capers, anchovies, garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice – cook the burger first, and after you turn it add a slice of Manchego cheese and Jamón – Iberico ham – prosciutto-like ham!
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Let the cheese melt as the burger cooks and the ham warms up…Take a bite and you will wake up in Barcelona!
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Got Some Seoul? Kimchi Sliders!
When I was in Seoul, we ate every night at a korean BBQ, where you grill your own meats and seafood on the round grill embedded in your table, then wrap the grilled food around lettuce or thinly sliced pickled vegetables.
Taking that as an inspiration, I have a great recipe here for Korean sliders – which can be made with grilled sliced beef, upon which you add pickled cucumbers, a splash of rice vinegar and kimchi. Thanks to the website The Chubby Vegetarian, you can also do a version without meat at all, or just pile it all on!
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Korean BBQ Sliders (Makes 6)
Recipe from The Chubby Vegetarian website!
1 tablespoon each of soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, sesame oil (mixed)
3 green onions (thinly sliced)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 large portobello mushroom cap (thinly sliced)
6 slider buns
mayo
Vegetarian Kimchi – you can buy pre-made
half of an English cucumber (sliced longways using a vegetable peeler)
Get a frying pan screaming hot, and add the vegetable oil. Once it starts smoking, add the sliced mushrooms and cook for about a minute or until they start to brown. Turn the mushrooms in the pan and add the soy sauce mixture and the green onions. Continually move the mixture around for a few seconds then remove from heat. Divide mushrooms among the buns, and top with about a tablespoon of kimchi and a few slices of cucumber. I love these with or without meat!
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THE WASABI-AVOCADO Japanese Slider!
I read about this over the holidays and I made one…it was delicious! By using wasabi mayonaise, you get the flavor without too much of the heat, but buy some extra and amp it up as you choose!
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It is very simple: just cook a slider patty as usual…no cheese needed. After you turn the patty, add some sliced avocado for a moment to warm it up, and once you put it on the bun, wipe a heavy dose of wasabi mayonaise on the top bun.
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The coolness of the fresh avocado goes perfectly against the spicy wasabi mayo.
Trader Joe’s sells it, or buy some great mayo and wasabi and mix it together to the strength you can handle…this is delicious with a Sapporo!
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The All-American Bacon-Cheeseburger Slider!
What can I say? Here is a burger that never fails to satisfy. Just toast the bun, cook the burger, add the cheese, let it melt, put it on the bun with some or ALL of the added ingredients, and you are set!
Top Bun
Cheese – melted and dripping
Bacon! Bacon! Bacon!
Slider Patty
Tomato
Pickle
Mayonaise, mayonaise, mayonaise!
Bottom Bun
See that? DO NOT DEVIATE – this is perfection.
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G’Day Mate! The Perfect Australian Sliders!
An Aussie slider is just like ours, with two key differences. They add a slice of beetroot – OK, we call it beet, they call it beetroot – underneath the burger. It adds a great, slightly sweet and nutty flavor to the taste.
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Everything else is the same – add cheddar cheese, tomato, lettuce if you like – and if you want to go totally Aussie, take the second step to complete fulfillment – add a fried egg on top….the best!
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And finally…THE BEST SIDE DISHES IN THE WORLD!
When you are enjoying sliders, you can make salads and vegetables, but why not just serve the greatest invention in the world: TATER TOTS! Just buy them frozen and bake them up and you are done!
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Or try this: a tater tot casserole, which is basically baked mac-n-cheese with tater tots added!
And if you want 2015 to be full of good things, then here is all you have to do:
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Happy New Year And A “Hoppin’ John” To You All!
Of course, you MUST include some “Hoppin’ John” as well…as my friend and terrific Author Michael Ruhlman says, “this ‘Hoppin’ John’ recipe is a dish from the American south featuring black-eyed peas, often included in southern food and soul food recipes, traditionally served on New Year’s Day by those angling for good fortune all year long.”
The beautiful photo is courtesy of his wife Donna, and see his entire recipe on his great website here:
http://ruhlman.com/2010/12/hoppin-john/
Follow Ruhls for ongoing culinary magic! And bite down hard on a slider while you are doing it!
Happy New Year!
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