[1] A chocolate hamburger, made with pandoro.

[2] Pandoro is ubiquitous during the holiday season, but you can find it year-round. If you can’t, substitute pound cake in this recipe.

[3] There are numerous other uses for pandoro (all photos courtesy Bauli).

May is National Hamburger Month, and Chef Luca Manfè’s Chocolate Pandoro Burger encourages burger lovers to extend their love to dessert.

Chef Luca developed this recipe for Bauli, producers of pandoro and panettone.

The chocolate hamburger, with pastry cream as the mayo and raspberry sauce as ketchup, is enveloped by a pandoro bun.
 
 
RECIPE: CHOCOLATE HAMBURGER

Ingredients For 4 Servings
 
For The Burger

 
For The Bun

 
For The Pastry Cream

 
For The Raspberry Sauce

1. MAKE the chocolate burgers. Place the butter on the counter to soften completely. Melt the chocolate in a water bath.

2. USE a stand mixer to bring the eggs to a volume with the sugar. When the chocolate cools completely, add it to the whipped eggs with the crushed biscotti and butter. Mix all together and put in the fridge for 20-30 minutes or until the mixture is easy to shape.

3. ROLL the cooled mixture like a log, in a piece of parchment paper. You should get two logs, 2 inches log. Place back in the fridge and let cool.

4. MAKE the pastry cream. In a saucepan, combine milk, 1/4 cup sugar, vanilla bean and seeds, and salt. Cook over medium heat until the mixture comes to a simmer.

5. WHISK together in a bowl the egg yolks, cornstarch, and remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Whisking constantly, slowly pour about 1/2 cup of the hot-milk mixture into the egg-yolk mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, until it has been incorporated. Pour mixture back into saucepan, and cook about 2 minutes over medium-high heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens.

6. REMOVE and discard the vanilla bean. Transfer the mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the butter, and beat on medium speed for about 5 minutes until the butter melts and the mixture cools.

7. COVER with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic directly onto the surface of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours (it can be stored for up to 2 days). Just before using, beat on low speed until smooth, or whisk it by hand.

8. MAKE the raspberry sauce. Combine the raspberries, sugar, lemon juice and salt in a small saucepan set over low heat. Cook until the berries release their juices and just start to break down, about 5 minutes.

9. USE a rubber spatula to press the berries through a fine-mesh sieve; discard the solids. Return the strained juice to the saucepan, stir in cornstarch, and cook until mixture comes to a boil. Let cool. Store, refrigerated, in an airtight container, for up to 3 days.

10. CUT the bun slices. Use a 2-1/2″ ring or cookie cutter to cut pandoro circles. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter In a pan melt and toast the slices of Pandoro on both sides. Assemble and serve immediately: bun half, burger, raspberry sauce, pastry cream and bun top.

As we near the end of National Hamburger Month, we report on burger trends.

Forget bacon cheeseburgers, or burgers with lettuce, tomato and onion. They’re old school.
 
 
RESTAURANT TRENDS FOR BURGERS

According to a survey by Flavor & The Menu, here are the hot-growth burger toppings at better restaurants:

 
And for the burger itself:

 
 
THE AUSSIE BURGER

For fun, we looked around and found The Aussie Burger, popular Down Under. It starts with a lamb burger, and adds:

 
Here’s the recipe.

[1] What’s on your burger? Here are the offerings at better restaurants, per Flavor & The Menu).

[2] Here’s what’s happening in Australia (photo courtesy True Aussie Beef & Lamb).

[1] From Allen Brothers, a seafood mixed grill assortment of sea bass fillets, giant shrimp and bacon-wrapped scallops.

[2] Seafood mixed grill (photo courtesy Flavor & The Menu).

[3] The original mixed grill is an assortment of meats, like this carnivore’s delight at The Chop House in Singapore.

We’re going upscale on Memorial Day. No burgers or hot dogs. Not even the more posh chicken or steak.

Instead, we’re piling on the “brain food” with a seafood mixed grill. It matches the environment: a friend’s large, leafy, landscaped backyard atop the New Jersey Palisades, with an incredible view of Manhattan.

A mixed grill is an assortment of grilled meats. Traditionally, it was cooked over charcoal in chop houses.

According to The New York Times:

 
Here are more mixed grills from around the world.

And Americans? Our mixed grill, even though we don’t call it that, consists of burgers, hot dogs and brats, chicken and ribs.

If your palate favors grilled lamb chops and steaks instead…please invite us!
 
 
SEAFOOD MIXED GRILL

We’ve long enjoyed a seafood mixed grill, whether cooked on the stove top or on an outdoor grill. Our ideal assortment consists of:

 
The grilled seafood is so delicious as is that it needs no sauce; just a wedge of lemon (you can grill the wedges).

But if you want one, here’s a simple lemon “vinaigrette” that doesn’t mask the flavors of the seafood.

Recipe: Seafood Vinaigrette

Just whisk the ingredients together several hours in advance or overnight, to allow the garlic to infuse. For 6 servings:

We love good pizza. What’s good pizza?

To us, it’s a thinner, crispy crust style, a hint of smoke from a wood-fired oven, and great toppings.

By great we not only mean top-quality ingredients, but a choice to make our fantasy pie.

That, and more, is available at 800° Woodfired Kitchen, with 8 locations on the east and west coasts, plus 7 locations from Tokyo to the UAE and Qatar.

We just got our branch in New York City, and couldn’t be happier. We can create the pizza of our dreams, or choose from dreamy pizzas designed by the chefs.

Not up for pizza? There’s something for everyone, with bountiful offerings at lunch and dinner:

 
The dinner menu is even more extensive, with:

 
Different items and specials are available at different locations.
 
 
CREATE YOUR OWN PIZZA

Pizza is one of our passions, and our biggest frustration is that most pizzerias offer the same old, same old. The best-tasting pizzeria in our neighborhood is so old-fashioned that it has the same classic toppings it had when it opened in the 1950s.

Tastes have expanded since. Foodies seek more options—arugula, bacon, burrata, chicken, caramelized onions, honey, jalapeño and other chiles, prosciutto, smoked salmon, truffle cheese, and on and on (all of these are on the menu at 800° Woodfired Kitchen).

Whatever your druthers—classic or contemporary, carnivore or vegan, plain or piled high—we promise you’ll be happy here. The only frustration is figuring out what an “everything” pizza would be, because with some 40 choices, there are enough ingredients for many “everythings.”
 
 
SPECIALTY PIZZAS

But wait, there’s more: 11 specialty pizzas created by the chefs. We’ve had three of them so far, and liked them so much we can’t wait to have them again—making it difficult to get through the rest of the list.

Let’s call them out:

 
 
WHO CREATED 800° WOODFIRED KITCHEN?

Restaurant founder Chef Anthony Carron, whose 20-plus years as a chef include stints at gastronomic temples such as Michael Mina in San Francisco, has brought his inspiration, innovation and dedication to the very-best quality ingredients, to the art of cooking with wood fire.

[1] Design your own pizza or pick a “designer pizza” from the Specialty Pizzas list (all photos courtesy 800° Woodfired Kitchen).

[2] You’re sure to create your fantasy pizza with a choice of some 40 toppings.

[3] Pick meaty toppings, vegetarian toppings, even gluten-free crusts and vegan cheeses and meats.

[4] Can’t decide between a pizza and a power bowl (this bowl is topped with chicken)? Order one of each, and share.

Why wood fire pizza? Chef responds:

Aside from the smoky taste of wood fire, the main difference between the other types of ovens have to do with a texture. Generally speaking, a stone floor oven (brink or deck oven) will give you a crispier crust.

These ovens generally run around 650°F so the pizza has more time to dry out before it gets too dark, making the crust crispier. The stone floor also “wicks” moisture out of the dough, for added crispness.

Why 800°? Chef explains:

With our ovens and Neapolitan style pizzas in general, there is some temperature variation throughout the day as the fire changes. Also, some Neapolitan pizza cooks like to run a little hotter, and some a little cooler, to achieve their preferred result.

Each oven varies individually as well, and also varies with the weather, dryness of the wood etc.

What happens at 900°?

So if someone is touting 900° as better than 800°, it’s just marketing. Our ovens can get to 860°F; it’s all a function of the conditions described above.
 
 
Thanks, Chef! See you soon for more pizza, wood-fired catch of the day, and some of those roasted oysters!

________________

*How is tartufo the same word for a pricey underground fungus (the original tartufo, or truffle) and an ice cream dessert? Chocolate tartufos are round balls of ganache created just after the French revolution (1799). The dark brown chocolates were named after the precious, dark brown Périgord truffles, hunted in forests. The ice cream tartufo dessert appeared around the Victorian era (1837-1901), when the molding of ice cream into flowers, fruits, and other shapes became popular. To resemble the original tartufo, the coating of an ice cream tartufo should be chocolate cookie crumbs or mini chips, rather than enrobing in smooth chocolate.

[1] Grease fires are a common reason for grill fires (photo courtesy Wikipedia | Common Domain).

[2] It’s not just the stove top: Oven fires can develop even when you think your roast is safely cooking (photo courtesy Knox County, Tennessee Fire Prevention)

[3] A Tundra aerosol spray is small, easily portable, and a must-have-on-hand aid when cooking (photo courtesy First Alert).

[4] Have a delicious—and safe—holiday (photo courtesy Aldi).

Cooking or grilling over Memorial Day Weekend?

A survey of adults by the American Red Cross reveals that normal, everyday activities like cooking a meal are actually the leading cause of home fires.

 
In either situation, if there’s another person around who can keep an eye on the cooking while you step away: Ask!

Also keep an easily-portable fire extinguisher at hand (photo #3).
 
 
TIPS FOR USING YOUR GRILL

Even if you’re an old pro at grilling, take a minute to check out these usage tips from the National Fire Protection Association:

 
Charcoal Grills

 
Propane Grills

 
 
10 Tips For Kitchen Cooking Safety From The American Red Cross