Dinner Tonight: Patty Melt and Chocolate Pudding
Inspiration for tonight's dinner: the all-American soda fountain. Honest food for honest folks. A juicy, gooey mess of a Patty Melt, followed by a big bowl of Chocolate Pudding. Soda jerk and sparkly red vinyl not included.
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Serves 2
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon ground pepper
3-4 Tablespoons butter, softened and divided
6 button mushrooms, sliced
½ sweet onion, sliced thin, half-moon slices
4 slices of oval-shaped, light rye bread
4 ounces, thinly sliced Gruyere cheese
Mayonnaise (optional)
Pickles (absolutely crucial garnish)
1. Mix ground beef, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper thoroughly. Divide mixture and form into two, oval patties. I like to make thinner patties, but shape them so that when they are fully cooked, they cover almost the whole bottom piece of rye bread as this is a sandwich in which each bite should have all the elements. Refrigerate the patties for about an hour or so.
2. In a large frying pan, melt one tablespoon of butter over medium high heat and add the mushrooms. Make sure all the of the mushrooms get coated with butter, but then leave them untouched for 3-4 minutes so that one side gets some nice color before you stir them around so the other side can get some color.
3. Remove the mushrooms from the pan. Add 2 tablespoons butter and the onion to the pan and cook slowly over medium to low heat for 10-15 minutes until the onions are soft and somewhat caramelized. Remove the onions from the pan and keep them warm with the mushrooms.
4. Increase the heat to medium high and fry the burgers to desired doneness. I like mine medium rare, which typically takes 3-4 minutes per side to achieve.
5. While the burgers are cooking, put a second skillet over medium heat and butter one side of each piece of rye bread. Put the bread buttered side down on the hot skillet until you see some nice color. On two of the slices of bread, place two ounces of Gruyere cheese.
6. When the burgers are done and the bread nicely browned, assemble your burgers: Bottom piece of bread with cheese, beef patty, onions, mushrooms, optional mayonnaise and top piece of bread. I like to give them a firm press and then slice each in half before serving with a pickle.
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The Grocery List
3 tablespoons tapioca flour
heavy cream
6 ounces 66% dark chocolate
1lb 85% lean ground beef (2 lbs if you're making 4 patty melts)
6 mushrooms (12 if you're making 4 patty melts)
4 ounces of gruyere (8 oz for 4 patty melts)
Light Rye bread
As always, we trust you've got eggs, vanilla, onions, butter, salt, pepper, milk, mustard, Worchestershire, mayo, and pickles on hand. If we're way off base, add them to the list!
The Plan
1. Make the chocolate pudding! It needs a nice chill in the fridge, and its' pretty fast little monster of a recipe (thanks blender!). Let it chill while dinner happens.
2. Patty melt time! Coast blissfully through dinner prep, knowing that there are fudgy, bittersweet bowlfuls of chocolate deliciousness awaiting you at the end of the night.
As I mentioned above, you may want to have something green for dinner tomorrow night. Like this, or maybe this. But that's tomorrow. For now, snuggle up on the sofa with a big spoon and a bowl of pudding and bask in a dinner well done.
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