Burgers aren't just for summer cookouts

Recently, gourmet hamburgers - those marketed as upscale alternatives to the standard fast food fare - have exploded onto the American dining scene. From celebrity chef labeled offerings to local favorites gone national, hungry consumers now have many choices for delicious burgers. The best of these options illustrate the keys to burger delight - simplicity, freshness, and restraint. By taking cues from the gourmet burger renaissance, any home chef can make a perfect burger in their kitchen.

A hamburger is, at its most basic, a sandwich of ground meat. This simple definition is the key to burger perfection - perfect the meat and the bread and you're well on your way. Anything beyond that becomes a matter of personal taste. So the first trick for the home cook is to find the best ground meat possible.

Avoid prepackaged ground beef. Walk right up to the butcher at your local supermarket and order 80% lean ground chuck.

While at the market, you'll need a vessel for the burger. Freshly baked Kaiser rolls fit the bill - soft but not doughy, crisp without being tough.

At home get your grill or grill pan as hot as you can. Form about 1/3 pound of meat into a disk. Don't squish the burger - you want to retain the "fresh ground" texture. Next, make a slight indent into the center of the burger with your thumb. This step avoids the burger puffing up like a balloon during cooking. Now season the burger liberally with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. Cook the patty on a hot grill for 4 minutes, turn 90 degrees and cook another 2 minutes, then flip to finish to your desired doneness. Adorn as you wish, with the confidence that you're building on a great foundation.

What else should I do with figs and arugula?

When I was a kid, figs were these mystical food things that only came wrapped in a soft cookie blanket.  They tasted sweet, caramel-like, but had a somewhat off-putting grittiness thanks to their seeds.  I knew they were fruits of some sort, but had no idea what one in its naked form would look like.

Fast forward a few years, and I'm a young adult becoming increasingly interested in cooking and food in general.  I stumble across dried figs in the bulk section of the market and try some.  They basically taste like a drier, less sweet version of the Fig Newton filling.  A few more years later into my culinary exploration and I see fresh figs being used as an ingredient.  I was of course extremely intrigued, but couldn't find these things at my local market.

Last month I was shopping at the Super Walmart of all places, and stumbled upon a crate full of fresh figs.  I was ready to buy a few containers until I took a closer look - they were all mashed and rotten looking.  I left the store determined to find them elsewhere.  After striking out at a few likely places - Honest Weight food coop and Green Grocer in Halfmoon - I found them at the new Fresh Market in Latham.  I quickly bought a container, and ate two in the car ride home.

A fresh fig tastes nothing like the fig flavor you get in a dried fig or fig cookie.  It's analogous to the difference between a grape and a raisin.  The fresh fig tastes like a little water balloon of mild sugary sweetness, and has the texture of an overripe kiwi, or a plum without any hint of sourness.  Delicious.

So now that I had my partially eaten container of figs, what was I to do with them?  Since I also picked up arugula, goat cheese and pizza dough I decided to make a pizza.

Here's the recipe:

Fresh fig and goat cheese pizza

Ingredients:

1/2 portion Whole wheat pizza dough (store bought)
6 fresh black mission figs, sliced thinly
2 tablespoons goat cheese
2 tablespoons ricotta cheese
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
kosher salt to taste
fresh ground black pepper
1 cup baby arugula
Fresh shaved parmigiano-reggiano cheese (use a vegetable peeler to get thin slivers of the cheese)

Preheat oven, preferably with a pizza stone set at the lowest rack, at 500 degrees.

Roll and stretch the dough into a pizza shape on a lightly floured work surface.  Lightly dust a rimless cookie sheet (or pizza peel if you have one).  Move the shaped dough to the cookie sheet.

Mix the goat cheese, ricotta, 1 tablespoon of olive oil and salt and pepper together in a small bowl.  Drizzle the dough with the remaining  olive oil, then spread the goat cheese mixture like it was a tomato sauce.

Add the sliced figs, and arrange them kinda like they are pepperoni.  Bake the pizza for 5 minutes, until the dough starts to brown slightly.  Carefully add the arugula to the partially-baked pizza, and cook for an additional 2 minutes until done.  Remove the pizza and scatter some parmigiano atop prior to slicing.