• Blog
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Tips & Tools
  • International LOVE
  • Love Notes
  • Shop
  • Powered by MSI Media Group

Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Lamb burgers!!

July 4, 2013 by Mary Frances 10 Comments

Grilled lamb burger on a bun with lettuce, tomato and red onion on a brown plate.

This is my favorite kind of burger. Lamb. What’s yours?

We have a local farm here upstate, called Herondale Farm, where they sell the most fabulous lamb. It is all from free range, grass fed, organic, happy animals. It is so flavorful and delicious, that all you really need is some salt and pepper. It was started by a former Wall Street guy who made a lot of money in the 90’s and then wanted to get back to the earth. All of his meats are fantastic. They are also expensive. The ground lamb comes in at around $10.00 a pound. But because the meat is so flavorful, you do not need a lot to eat to be satisfied. One pound makes three good burgers.

THE BEST LAMB BURGERS – serves 3

1 lb. of ground lamb
Coarse salt or French grey salt
Fresh ground pepper

With any meat, take it out of the refrigerator early, before grilling. As my friend Christine, at Herondale Farms said, you NEVER want to throw a cold slab of meat on the grill as it will not cook properly. Think of it, it would be shocking to the meat!

I believe the secret to a great burger is to salt and pepper it lightly, mix and handle it very little, to form three patties. Then salt and pepper the outside, using coarse salt or preferably French grey salt. Grill to your desired doneness. We like medium rare.Chopped basil and thyme, hearty rolls and sliced and quartered tomatoes on wooden cutting boards.

It is also key to have some great rolls or bread to put this on. Toast the rolls on the grill or in your toaster. We dressed this burger with mayo and Dijon mustard, one slice of red onion, one slice of tomato and some leaf lettuce from my garden. It was heavenly!!Mixed leaf lettuces with tomatoes in a serving bowl with African wooden serving spoons.

Serve this with a side salad of mixed leaf lettuces and tomatoes, sprinkled with some sliced scallions, chopped fresh thyme and basil and dressed with a sherry vinaigrette.

So simple, so quick and so very, very delicious.

Now go and enjoy the fireworks! Happy 4th!!

Filed Under: Dinner, Meat, Salads Tagged With: chopped basil, chopped thyme, free range organic lamb, French grey salt, ground lamb, Herondale Farms, lamb burgers, leaf lettuce

Brownies!

July 4, 2012 by Mary Frances 4 Comments

Brownies with nuts on a white plate.
I thought you might need this recipe for your picnic today, perhaps?

I’ve been told I make the best brownies. You can decide for yourself. These are easy and delicious, but it is always about the quality of the ingredients you use. And that goes for cooking anything! I try to use the BEST chocolate I can get my hands on, Mexican vanilla, which I adore, (I bought several bottles of it when we were on a family vacation there. People go there all the time, so ask your friends to bring you back a bottle if they’re going. It’s easy to find, they even sell it at the airport!), high quality unsalted butter and the freshest walnuts. (Keep your nuts well wrapped in ziplock bags in the freezer and they will never go rancid.)

It is important to melt your chocolate and butter together, but not completely. Remove from the microwave with still some chunks of chocolate and stir rapidly. They will finish melting on their own and you will not have hurt the chemical composition of the butter and chocolate by overheating. In my relatively new microwave, I do two rounds of 30 seconds on high heat and stir in between. But not all microwaves are the same. You may want to do two rounds at a lower power setting.

Two are two other important things to remember. Beat well after adding each egg. After adding the second egg, beat to achieve a shiny look and consistency and then beat in your salt thoroughly. The last thing you add is the flour, nuts and vanilla, and you don’t want to beat too much when mixing that in. The other important thing to remember is to not over bake them. 22 – 25 minutes is perfect in my oven. Baking them too long will not give you the soft, luscious, fudgey interior.

Enjoy!!

BEST BROWNIES
– makes 16

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate (I use Scharffen Berger), cut into chunks
8 tbs. (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus a little more for greasing pan, cut into tablespoons
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt (French grey salt is the best)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup of coarsely chopped walnuts

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine chocolate and butter in a medium bowl and microwave on high for 30 seconds. Remove and stir and decide whether to microwave for another 30 seconds or keep stirring until all of the chocolate is melted and the mixture is silky smooth. Meanwhile, butter an 8 1/2-inch-square baking pan.

Stir the sugar into the chocolate mixture. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add your pinch of salt and beat until shiny and smooth. Add flour, vanilla and walnuts and stir to incorporate – no traces of flour should remain, but do not over stir.

Pour batter mixture into pan, and smooth out evenly. Bake 20 to 30 minutes, or until set and barely firm in the middle. Cool on a rack before cutting into 16 squares.

Brownie batter in a bowl.

Beautiful shiny batter.

Brownie batter in a pan.

Right before going into the oven.

Filed Under: Desserts Tagged With: best brownies, brownies, butter, chocolately, French grey salt, Mexican vanilla, rich fudgey brownies, Scharffen Berger chocolate, walnuts

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Join 32k+ followers!


Never miss out on a recipe!

Subscribe to receive new posts via email:

Mary Frances

Mary Frances

Spread love through cooking.

Summer Favorites

Easy Cheesy Sautéed Squash The Best Potato Salad Super Quick Chicken and Summer Vegetables Stir-fry Chimichurri-ed Wilted Endives with Walnuts Chilled Curried Zucchini Soup with Apple Garnish Best Strawberry and Rhubarb Crisp to make now!

Categories

  • Appetizers
  • Breakfast
  • Brunch
  • Cocktails
  • Contest
  • Cookies
  • Cookware and tools
  • Desserts
  • Dinner
  • Events
  • First Course
  • Fish
  • Food Responsibility
  • Guest Post
  • Lunch
  • Meat
  • Pasta
  • Poultry
  • Products for sale
  • Salads
  • Sauces
  • Sides
  • Soups
  • Tea time
  • Travel
  • Vegetables

Pages

Blog
About
Recipes
Tips and Tools
International Love
Love Notes
Shop
Mary's secret ingredients

Blogs We Love

  • 1840 Farm
  • A Pug in the Kitchen
  • Cottage Grove House
  • Food, Photography & France
  • Food52
  • From the Bartolini Kitchens
  • Go Bake Yourself
  • Hotly Spiced
  • Jovina Cooks Italian
  • Lavender and Lime
  • Orgasmic Chef
  • Smitten Kitchen
  • Sophie's Foodie Files
  • Steven’s Wine and Food Pairings
  • That Skinny Chick Can Bake
  • The Pioneer Woman
  • The Squishy Monster
  • Tips on Food and Drinks
  • Yummy Chunklet
  • LOVE - the secret ingredient


  • GET IN TOUCH
  • E mary@lovethesecretingredient.com

· All Rights Reserved ·© 2016 Love- the secret ingredient. All rights reserved. Disclaimer | Privacy Policy Disclosure Policy Terms & Conditions