Recipe: Skull Burger Patties

The other day the Skull Cakelet Pan from Nordic Ware arrived in our home.

The "Haunted" Skull Cakelet Pan from Nordic Ware

I ordered it after drolling over the cool pizza skull recipe video that I kept seeing online.

While I haven't yet made the pizza skulls (or skull calzones) have been having fun experimenting with ways to use it.

The first night, Liz made some delicious skull scones to accompany a delicious trout and rice dinner.

Skull scones

The next day, I used a package oatmeal muffin mix to make oatmeal skull muffins.

Oatmeal skull muffins go best in the morning with a skull coffee mug

And then yesterday I thought I'd keep experimenting.

And I came up with a recipe that I call Skull Burger Patties - or maybe Spicy Burger Patties (or, more accurately, Slightly Spicy Burger Patties).

Skull Burger Patties

They were delicious.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 700g extra lean hamburger meat (approx 1.5 lb)
• 2 eggs
• 2 garlic cloves (minced, sliced into tiny chunks) (or garlic powder)
• 3/4 cup of  crushed Dorito BOLD BBQ tortilla chips (approx 1/2 a family sized bag)
• 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs
• Montreal steak spice

Makes 6 Skull Burger Patties.

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray inside of Nordic Ware Skull Cakelet Pan with cooking spray.
3. Crush down 1/3 to 1/2 a bag of Dorito BOLD BBQ tortilla chips. (Easy to do this in a sealed sandwich baggy. Crush by hand or use a roller. Heck, play catch with it, step on them, whatever turns your crank) You'll want to end up with about 3/4 a cup of broken Dorito tortilla chips - some fine chunks, some slightly larger ones will be in the mix
4. Mix hamburger meat with 2 eggs, breadcrumbs and Dorito BOLD BBQ.
5. Add minced garlic and Montreal steak spice and ensure hamburger is mixed well
6. Press mixed hamburger mixture into the skull pan. (Each one will be about 3/4 full, or less than a centimeter from the top.
7. Cook in center of pre-heated oven for approximately 20 minutes. (Depending on your stove, you might want to check the meat about 18 minutes in. It could be done, or it might take longer than 20 minutes.

Skull Burgers hot out of the oven.

They turned out delicious.

I had the burgers without buns and a side salad that included sweet-hot peppers. I added ketchup and President's Choice Smokin' Stampede Beer and Chipotle BBQ sauce to the eyes and the nose for fun effect. But these burgers didn't really need any condoments.

I suppose I could have sliced dill pickles and placed them across one another beneath each skull to make a skull and crossbones effect.

Skull Burgers and Salad

As I said, the burgers were delicious. But perhaps not as spicy as I would normally like. (I can handle really hot food).

Next time I might use the Dorito "Flaming Hot" chips to give some nice punch. Or, stick with a regular less painful Dorito flavour, and add in sliced jalapeno or some additional hot dried spice to the mix.

I might also try adding in grated cheese. Maybe by pressing the hamburger meat into the bottom of the pan and a bit up the sides then inserted grated cheese inside, then topping the "back of the skull head" with a layer of meat so the cheese cooks inside.

So many fun possibilities.

Death By Salsa Recipe

My buddy Chad visited a Pepper Palace location in Myrtle Beach when he was in the U.S. over the holidays and brought me a jar of Death by Salsa.

Here is the description from their website:

"This ridiculously hot salsa is sure to push the envelope of pain for all but the “tongue dead.” It has a phenomenal sweet flavor for all those who can endure the heat. The Habaneros, Jalapenos, tomatoes and onion supply the flavor while pepper extracts supply the fire If your taste buds must die let it be Death by Salsa"

Needless to say, this salsa is ridiculously hot and painful. Perfect for a chili-head like me.

The one drawback to it, though, is that, because of the intense and over-the-top heat it delivers, most people can't really do more than dip an edge of your chip into it and then eat it.

But with salsa, don't you really want to scoop up a nice big chip-full? If the average person (even one who likes hot and spicy food) did that with this salsa, they'd still regret their boldness. Having watched more than a dozen people try it, there were only 2 or 3 people who didn't gasp and get a panicked "oh no, what have I done" look on their face when trying just a tiny bit on the end of a tortilla chip.

I solved the issue yesterday by mixing Death by Salsa with a couple of other ingredients adding a different flavour to it but allowing the opportunity to dip and scoop and really experience the dance of taste buds that ultimately lead to the nasty tongue and throat-burning sensation the salsa delivers.

I took three equal parts of Death by Salsa, spaghetti sauce (Francine's home-made sauce with lots of chunks and flavour) and Kraft Three Cheese Ranch Dressing & Dip and mixed them together. The sauce cut the heat a bit and added a bit of chunky flavour and the three cheese dressing further cut the heat and added a cheesy sort of tang.

This blending allowed me to scoop up generous portions but it still delivered a painful blow of pain.

You could easily substitute spaghetti sauce for a mild or medium salsa and the three cheese dressing for sour cream or a plain yogurt to offer a similar cutting, chunk adding effect.

And for those less adventurous, I would strongly suggest you don't go with 1/3 of each, but rather 1 teaspoon of Death by Salsa mixed with a full cup of sauce of salsa, and adding perhaps a couple of tablespoons of the cream sauce. Trust me - most people will still find THAT too hot.