Before my nap (!), want to share this NY Times article with you about the perfect burger. Because this caught my eye and it makes so much sense and I can’t wait to try it at home:

There’s a lot you can learn from a man who’s griddled thousands of burgers. Michael David, executive chef at Comme Ça brasserie in Los Angeles, had already earned his burger stripes on the team that developed Mr. Boulud’s French-American DB Burger.

At Comme Ça, Mr. David finally nailed the consummate burger on the 11th try.

The genius of his Comme Ça burger is that it is consistently juicy, perfectly seasoned and precisely medium-rare. The patty is charred on the outside and rosy pink from edge to edge.

It is a radical improvement on what most people already do, but it’s not much more complicated. His trick is to treat the burger the way many chefs do a steak.

He puts a good hard sear on both sides using his plancha, the freight train of flat tops, then transfers it to a 375-degree oven to finish cooking. After it comes out, there’s a built-in resting period while he toasts the buns and makes a last-minute lettuce salad.

His method translates to an amazing amount of flexibility. Home cooks who don’t have a plancha can sear the meat either on a grill or on the stovetop in a cast-iron skillet. It works equally well for one or two people, or for a crowd, because you can sear in batches.

The final cooking works beautifully in a toaster oven as well as a regular oven. Or, if you have an outdoor grill that is as large as some people’s kitchens, you can simply move the burgers to a cooler spot once they’ve been charred.

Oh, and after that, take a peek at these movie trailers -

The Road – based on the Cormac McCarthy book, starring Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron and Robert Duvall.

Pressure Cooker – audience fave at film festivals, a documentary about inner city kids vying for college scholarships in cooking.

Shutter Island – Looks like Martin Scorsese has made a horror film, of course with Leonardo DiCaprio … and Max Von Sydow!!!!!

Hongkie Town
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