- Sorry about all that.
I'd like to recommend the burger of the day.
The "if looks could kale" burger.
(chuckling) Eh, you get it?
- Mmm-hm.
- Well, you're not laughing.
I don't think you got it.
If looks could kale.
- Yeah, I got it.
- [Andrew] Hey, what's up guys.
Welcome back to "Binging with Babish,"
where this week we're taking a look
at the "if looks could kale" burger from "Bob's Burgers."
Now I know what you're thinking.
"That's not the cruciferous
leafy vegetable I know and love as kale."
And that's true, what we've got here is Swiss chard,
but that's because I got a bonus Bob's Burger up my blouse.
Before we can do that, the first ingredient
of any Bob's Burger is the burger.
We know that he grinds his own beef,
and that he uses high-quality ingredients,
so I'm going to prepare my preferred burger blend
out of this chuck roast, which is a great all-around cut
for burgers in general, but I'm going to augment its flavor
and fat content with this brisket and these short ribs.
The brisket and short ribs are easy enough to trim,
but the chuck has a lot of sinew and connective tissue in it
which we're going to want to trim off
by pulling apart the lobes of the beef,
making these less desirable bits
easier to get to and remove.
The short ribs and brisket, likewise.
We want to get rid of any silver skin,
but we want to keep a fair amount of fat.
Once we're all trimmed up, we're cutting all of our meat
and fat into one-inch cubes that we're gonna
throw in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes until firm,
before passing through a thoroughly chilled meat grinder.
Now I like to grind each type of beef separately
so I can control the ratio of two parts chuck
to one part each short rib and brisket,
but at the end of the day, that truly doesn't matter
because you're grinding your own beef,
and it's gonna taste better than anything
you can get at the store.
When mixing the beef together,
take care not to overwork it
but you don't want it to be too crumbly either.
I'm measuring out third-pound balls
that I'm shaping into patties.
Patties with sort of little walls around the outside,
so as J. Kenji Lopez-Alt puts it,
they look like red blood cells.
This is gonna prevent the burgers
from puffing up too much in the middle
as they so often do during the cooking process.
Now it's time to stick those in the fridge,
so as we can prepare our kale, which we're gonna wash,
pat as dry as possible, and remove the stems.
Then I'm gonna toss them in a mixture
of one teaspoon garlic powder, one teaspoon kosher salt,
and a quarter cup of light olive oil.
Normally I would advocate for fresh garlic,
but on kale, it can easily gather into clumps and/or burn.
Once tossed until evenly coated,
we're gonna spread this out on a rimmed baking sheet
and toss in a 325 degree Fahrenheit oven
for anywhere from 15 to 20 minutes,
flipping halfway through, yielding some delicious
garlicy, crispy kale chips,
as yet the only known way to rob kale
of its nutritional value while making it
semi-pleasant to eat.
With our kale crisped up and ready to go,
It's finally time to prepare our burger.
First, I'm gonna toast up my bun in a little bit of oil
on a ripping hot cast iron skillet,
Bob strikes me as a bun toaster,
before cranking the skillet pretty much
as hot as it will go, plopping down our burger
on a little bit of fresh oil,
and only now seasoning with kosher salt.
Now, as soon as we've got a sear and we flip this guy,
I'm gonna immediately top it with some Gruyere cheese.
Then to help melt the cheese, we're gonna give the pan
a little squirt of water and cover it with a pot lid.
(flames sizzling)
Which I would advise caution in doing
if you're using a gas stove.
Now that the cheese is melted and the fear of God
is freshly in your heart, we're making sure
to turn off the flame before creating any other
billowing clouds of highly flammable aerosolized oil,
placing our burger on its toasted bun
with a big pile of crunchy kale, and there you have it.
The "if looks could kale" burger,
inspired by the "Bob's Burgers" cookbook.
Let's take a look at that cross-section.
It's been a while since I've said "it's been a while
since we've had a cross section on this show."
That is overcooked, but thanks to our fatty blend
of flavorful beef, it's still plenty juicy,
and despite being 10 to 30 degrees over target temperature,
it's still entered the clean plate club.
And I know this is a weird time to say it,
but Jess and I are trying to eat less meat,
and another burger from "Bob's Burgers"
gave me an idea for a veggie version.
- Well, the burger of the day
is the "chard to a crisp" burger.
- What the hell is that?
- Oh, it's a burger with Swiss chard on it.
I've just having fun with it.
- Look at you, Mr. Creative.
- No, I love it.
- What was your name again?
- Bob. - Bob.
- [Andrew] Hey, what's up guys.
Welcome back to "Binging with Babish,"
where this week we're taking-
Yeah, I already did this.
But hey, that's why the chard is here on the table.
Chard isn't just healthy and rather striking to look at.
My thinking here is that the stalks of the chard
could bring some nice beef-like color to our patty,
which, like so many veggie burgers,
is going to be black bean-based.
The other thing that's got me stoked about this idea
is the idea of deep frying the burger,
giving both more meaning to Bob's pun,
"chard to a crisp," and having the fringe benefit
of probably tasting pretty good.
So I'm starting by sauteing five finely chopped
stems of Swiss chard just in a hot pan with some oil
for a minute before adding half a small chopped onion.
Go ahead and saute those together
for five to eight minutes or until nice and soft.
Add a clove of chopped garlic,
saute for an additional 30-some odd seconds
or until fragrant, season with kosher salt,
and drop the mixture, along with one 14-ounce can
of rinsed and drained black beans, into a food processor,
pulsing and scraping down the side of the bowl
until it's relatively smooth
but still has a little bit of texture.
Speaking of which, we're gonna add one cup
of cooked and cooled brown rice, two tablespoons
of nutritional yeast, a quarter-teaspoon of cayenne pepper,
one teaspoon of smoked paprika,
and a quarter-teaspoon of cumin,
mixing until distributed,
you know, like ground beef but healthier and beanier.
Season with kosher salt, mix it up,
and normally this is where I'd tell you
to start forming patties, but this is indeed
my first ever veggie burger, and it's missing
some important elements, as I would soon find out.
I was thinking a fast, hot fry in one inch
of 350 degree Fahrenheit oil would both
make the burger crisp and help it retain its structure,
but it did neither.
in the end, I was able to barely keep the patty together
and it kind of looked the part,
and it tasted pretty good too, kind of Southwestern.
But, and I'm sorry that this is not in focus,
as you can see, not exactly a texture
I would call burger-like or worth eating.
So we're back to the drawing board,
adding one large egg white
and a quarter-cup of plain breadcrumbs
which is gonna help give a great deal
of structure to our patty.
Depending on your mixture, you might need to put these
in the fridge to firm up a little bit, but on my end,
these guys are ready to head over to the stove top,
where I'm gonna cook this thing just like a normal burger.
The deep frying didn't seem to have any effect
on the crispness of the burger, and even though
we added breadcrumbs that might help,
I just wanted see if I could make
a functioning veggie burger at the end of the day.
So we're gonna top this guy up with our kale,
just like the other burger, top it up and serve.
And it kind of looks the part, maybe a little vegetal.
Let's take a look at that cross section,
compare it to the beef burger,
which, yeah, it's definitely not beef,
but does it taste good?
And since I just ate a whole burger,
here's Jess to taste test it.
So Darlin', what do you think?
- [Jess[ That's definitely not beef, but I really like it.
- [Andrew] You know what I call it?
- [Jess] What do you call it?
- [Andrew] The Ka-beam Abdul Ja-chard.
you know, 'cause the Kareem Abdul to the-
Okay, I deserve that.
(upbeat music)