Making hamburgers

It's summertime and, as I've already said, that's grilling season. One grilled food we enjoy, being Americans and all, is a good hamburger. We don't buy meat that's been ground in some factory. We buy whole cuts of beef (or veal, or turkey) and grind it ourselves to make 'burgers. When we first came to live here, I wanted to make a Greek moussaka using ground lamb. Nobody sells it, it turns out. We had to grind it ourselves at home...

I was making a ground beef filling for zucchini "boats" with some of this beef...

A few weeks ago, I went to the supermarket for the first time since March and actually went inside to shop. I went because the Super U market in Saint-Aignan advertised a special on the cut of beef called basse-côte. I think it would be called chuck steak in the U.S. In terms of value and taste, it's the best cut of beef we've found for grinding and making hamburgers and meat sauces. Often, fresh meat that hasn't been industrially pre-processed and pre-packaged in a factory somewhere is not available for on-line ordering and pick-up from the supermarkets. You have to go into the store to buy it.

Beef sliced up and ready for the grinder

We have a KitchenAid stand mixer with a meat-grinder attachment that we use to process beefsteak into hamburger meat. We've had it and used it for 25 or 30 years. We brought it to France when we moved here in 2003. I'm so glad we did. One reason is that while you can buy industrially made ground beef here in France as well as "ground to order" beef in butcher shops, you really pay a premium for it. And you can't buy ground lamb or veal, for example, as far as I know.

Hamburger patties ready for the freezer

A week or two ago Walt bought some ground beef in a butcher's shop in Saint-Aignan just to see what it would cost and whether it would be good. It cost something like 18 euros per kilogram. And it was too finely ground; the resulting grilled hamburger had a mushy texture. The basse-côte à griller that I got at Super U cost just 7.90 euros per kilogram — half the price. And we can grind it coarsely enough with the KitchenAid attachment that the burgers have a much more pleasing, meaty "bite" to them.

We also make our own hamburger buns, as you might remember. There's a post about them here, including photos and a recipe. It's nice to be retired and to have time to do all the work we do in the kitchen.

Refreshed

It's 10 degrees Fahrenheit cooler this morning than it was yesterday morning. Walt tells me there was thunder and lightning overnight, but I wasn't aware of it. It's just getting light outside, and I can see evidence that we go a little rain during the night. All of nature, including me, is feeling refreshed this morning.

These are some photos I took 24 hours ago when I went out for my walk with Tasha. I walked down the hill on our north side, and by the time I walked back up to the house I was soaked. No, not rain. Sweat. The whole walk was just over a kilometer long, but the hill is steep. We also took a detour through a couple of long rows of vines.

La fin de la canicule de 2020

France's 2020 canicule ("dog days" or heat wave) appears to be ending. We had a thunderstorm yesterday afternoon and the temperature dropped significantly. However, after a couple of house-shaking claps of thunder and flashes of lightning, with a heavy downpour that lasted maybe 20 minutes, the sun came back out and the temperature rose again. It didn't get quite as hot as it had been earlier in the day, but the relative humidity was much higher. Still, we were able to go and spend the afternoon up in the loft for the first time in about a week.

In France, the period during which extended spells of hot weather are frequent and expected, called la canicule (dog days), runs from July 24 until August 24. That's when the Dog Star (Sirius) rises in the morning sky just as the sun is rising. Since ancient times, people believed that Sirius intensifies the heat of the sun enough to cause the summer's hottest weather.

August 2020 weather reports and predictions for Saint-Aignan

The worst heat wave of recent times occurred in the summer of 2003, which coincided with our arrival in Saint-Aignan. We weren't sure we were going to survive. The house we live in is not air-conditioned — a very small percentage of houses here in France have AC. That summer, the weather station over in Romorantin, 20 miles east of Saint-Aignan, recorded six days of temperatures at 40ºC or above. Forty degrees Celsius is the equivalent of 104ºF. This year's canicule will not have been as long or as intense as 2003's, but it has certainly been hot. Look at the Accuweather chart above.

We had a string of five days with highs above 93ºF, including three days with highs of 98, 101, and 100. Three or four other days saw temperatures in the high 80s. Today it's still supposed to hit 89. Notice also that the historical average high temperatures in this part of France in August are in the high 70s Fahrenheit. It'll be nice to be just "average" again over the coming days.

We are also hoping for some rain — the vegetable garden will like that. Our tomatoes are suffering, but maybe it's not too late for a healthy late-season crop. The chard plants like the one on the right will appreciate some rainfall too.

Summertime foods — pasta and "pterodactyl"

Grilling season. A spur of the moment idea: pintade. "Pterodactyl" as American friends called it years ago when they visited and we bought a pintade at the market. It's a guinea hen. Walt got it from the poultry vendor in the market last Saturday. It weighed nearly 2 kilos (just over 4 lbs.) and sold for 6.50€ per kilo — about $3.50/lb.

I wasn't sure I'd be able to cut it up the way I would cut up a chicken, but it turned out to be pretty easy. The plan, given our current afternoon temperatures in the 35ºC range (that's 95ºF), was to cook it on the barbecue grill on the front deck.

We cooked just one leg and thigh and one half of the breast. The other meaty pieces went into the freezer for later. And with the back, neck, and giblets I made broth (despite the hot weather). It was morning and all the windows were open anyway. By noon it would have been to hot in the house...

This is the liver. I poached it briefly in the broth I was making. It was a tender morsel to enjoy with the grilled guinea fowl pieces, and with a pasta salad on the side.

I made the salad with leftover cooked pasta and steamed cauliflower from lunch a few days ago, plus some chickpeas, green beans, and a lot of fresh basil leaves and tomato.

P.S. Sorry I neglected to take any photos of the grilled guinea fowl pieces. Next time...