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ByJacquelynGrandy Fathers'Dayisjust around the corner, and what dad doesn't love a good burger? So in celebration of Fa- thers Day, I'm sharing two of our favorite burgers. I can pretty much guarantee that if you make either of these burgers for your meat- eating dad, he will love it. They may even become his favorite burger, too. The first is a turkey burger. I know there are probably some of you there your heads at the thought, remembering all the dry and flavorless turkey burg- ers you've tried before. But these turkey burgers will to- tally change your percep- tion. They're full of fla- vor, thanks to the Gruyere cheese, mustard, scallions and garlic. I also love that the cheese is in the burger — genius! Top them with my cilantro lime mayon- naise and your head will spin. The second is a lean, mean, tasty burger that uses buffalo instead of ground sirloin. These burg- ers taste like pure com- fort food. The patties are flavored with apple, sage and Dijon. Topping them with a bit of sage-jalapeno pesto and blue cheese takes these burgers to a whole new level. You'll never real- ize that you're eating buf- falo. It's a gourmet burger that tastes like it should be a guilty pleasure, but isn't. Here's to a Happy Fa- ther's Day. Turkeyburgers Makes4patties Fortheburgers: 1pound ground turkey (get the dark meat) 1/2 cup finely grated Gruyere cheese 4scallions, thinly sliced 3he y tablespoons dried breadcrumbs — I always use panko breadcrumbs 3tablespoons Dijon mustard 1garlic clove, minced Coarse salt and ground pep- per 4English muffins or mini brioche buns For the cilantro-lime mayonnaise: ½ cup mayonnaise, regular mayo not Miracle Whip ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves, washed and minced 2teaspoons fresh lime juice 2garlic cloves, minced In a medium bowl, gen- tly combine the turkey, Gruyere cheese, scallions, breadcrumbs, mustard and minced garlic; season generously with salt and pepper. Note: When you mix your seasonings into the meat, it's important to remember that the more you handle the meat, and the more you squish it around, the more dense your burger will be. You might also squeeze out some of the juices and end up with a drier burger. Gently form the mixture into four patties. Tip: Use your thumb to cre- ate a dimple or well in the center of the patty, as this will ensure the burgers cook evenly without plumping up. Start cooking the burgers indentation side up. Let's make the cilantro-lime mayonnaise. In a small bowl or ramekin, mix together the mayonnaise, minced cilantro, lime juice and minced garlic until well combined. You can make this mayo up to a day ahead, just be sure to refrigerate it in a sealed container. Grill the burgers 5to 7min- utes per side, or cook them in a skillet. Tip: Don't press down on the patties, or you will squeeze out and loose the flavorful juices. We love these burgers served on English muffins or brioche buns. Broil the English muffins or brioche buns under the broiler with a bit of butter to keep them moist. Serve the burgers on the bun, top them with some cilantro-lime mayonnaise and an heirloom tomato or avocado. Buffalo apple burgers with sage-jalapeño pesto Makes 4patties For the burgers: 1pound ground buffalo, also called bison 1small Fuji apple, peeled and grated (see my note below) ½ tablespoon balsamic vinegar 1teaspoon Dijon mustard ½ tablespoon fresh sage leaves, minced ½ teaspoon sea salt Fresh ground pepper Blue cheese to top the burg- ers 4mini brioche buns For the pesto: 1jalapeño, ribs and seeds removed, cut into large pieces 1cup fresh sage leaves, loosely packed 1garlic clove, peeled ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil 2tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan Salt and pepper Grate your apple using the large hole side of a grater. If you use the smaller holes to grate your apple, it will result in mush. In a medium bowl, gently combine buffalo, grated apple, balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, sage, ½ teaspoon sea salt and some freshly ground pepper. Gently form the mixture into four patties. Don't overmix or you will have tougher burgers. Tip: Use your thumb to create a dimple or well in the center of the patty, as this will en- sure the burgers cook evenly without plumping up. Start cooking the burgers indenta- tion side up. Now, let's move onto the pesto. Get out a mini-prep or food processor and add in the chopped jalapeño, sage leaves, garlic clove and ¼-cup olive oil. Process until smooth. Add in 2tablespoons shred- ded Parmesan and a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. Store the pesto tightly cov- ered in the refrigerator, if not using right away. Grill the burgers; we tend to grill ours 4to 5minutes per side, but if you like them on the rarer side, then grill them for less. You can also use a cast-iron skillet to sauté the burgers instead It's a super quick and easy way to cook burgers if you don't have a grill. Toast the brioche buns either on the grill or under the broiler until they are brown. I always add a bit of butter to the tops of the buns, so they brown up nicely. Top the bun with the burger, a nice slather of the pesto and a bit of blue cheese. JacquelynGrandydevelops recipes and blogs at marinmamacooks.com http://marinmamacooks. com which features healthy, seasonal and tasty recipes for families, and appears the third Wednesday of each month. Contact her at marinmamacooks@ gmail.com. DUDE FOOD PHOTO BY JACQUELYN GRANDY Buffalo burgers are flavored with apples and sage. A pa tt y for Dad These turkey burgers are anything but dry. On the wind-whipped shore of Tomales Bay, just uphill from the marshes near Point Reyes Sta- tion, lo- cal honey is dissolved into vats of water and fermented into what may be the oldest alcoholic beverage — mead. This is Heidrun Mead- ery. Going north on High- way 1, take a left into the driveway. Lean your bicy- cle against a post. Now, have a look around. You may find it as funny as I did during my first visit that someone had planted a picturesque orchard of olive trees here. Nice touch, but really? Olives on the coast? This isn't Sicily. Whoever lanted them should have planted apples. I asked later about the trees and learned that they were planted be- fore Heidrun set up camp here in 2011. I was told the trees, though doing the best they can on the chilly shores of the bay, have not yet produced ed- ible fruit. Anyway, I'm assum- ing you want mead, so go inside the greenhouse (yes, the tastings are con- ducted in a greenhouse). It's warmer in here, and the meads are lined up on the chest-high counter for tasting. It's $15 a person for four samples (roughly the equivalent of a glass- and-a-half of wine) of mead. No reservation is needed, though you must call ahead if you hope to have a tour of the prop- erty, which includes a vegetable farm. Heidrun's lineup in- cludes meads made of California orange blos- som honey, Point Reyes wildflower honey, alfalfa and clover blossom honey, California avocado blos- som honey and Oregon radish blossom. Mead, one discovers at the Heidrun tasting bar, is delicious. It is not cloy- ingly sweet, either. Just as grape juice can be fer- mented to dryness, so can honey water. Heid- run's meads are sparkling (most meads are not) and are made by the mé- thode Champenoise used in making certain bub- bly wines. In flavor and aroma, mead is absolutely unique. Though the yeast ferments the honey al- most completely into alco- hol, enough aromatic and flavor compounds remain to tell your tongue in an instant that this drink is made from the sweet nec- tary spittle of bees. Ah, mead! The taste is rich and buttery. At the more nuanced level, you will detect wonderful variations in aroma and taste — floral and tropi- cal fruit notes, sweet and savory herbs and, always, that aromatic, strangely pungent, essence of honey. In our rather binary beverage world of beer and wine, mead struggles (as does sake) to claim its identity. On one hand, mead seems more akin to beer than wine. Many homebrewers of beer dab- ble in mead making, and at beer tasting festivals, one who looks closely can sometimes find a mead maker lurking in a corner somewhere, with a lineup for sampling. Often, brewers make beer-mead hybrids by adding honey to their brew kettles. But this ancient bev- erage, which has roots in many lands from the equatorial tropics to the high Nordic latitudes, has absorbed some of the stylistic and vernacular nuances of the wine so- ciety. People who make mead often use "vari- etal" as an adjective (when discussing differ- ent honeys) and they like to say their honey is "es- tate grown" if the bee- hives are on the property. Sometimes, they call their mead "honey wine." Mead is generally sold in wine bottles, and in su- permarkets, like Whole Foods, the small selec- tion of meads usually dwells uncertainly just to the side of the chilled whites. In the end, mead is mead, and since I have de- voted this beer column to cider, sake and whiskey, I have devoted this week's to mead. Heidrun opens at 11 a.m. each day, except for Tuesdays, when it is closed. Contact Alastair Bland at allybland79@gmail.com. THROUGH THE HOPVINE Mead, the sweet taste of honey Alastair Bland By Debra Chase Special to The Democrat Popcorn! Get your pop- corn here! Try a bag for free! A revolutionary new method just patented! SocriedCharlesC.C.Cre- tors, inventor of the pop- corn machine, at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. This was not the first time that Americans had popcorn but this may have been the birth of the modern age of popcorn. Eatingplainpopcorngets a little boring though, so sometime in the late 1700s Dutch immigrants intro- duced Americans to Kettle Corn. The corn was popped in a large cast iron kettle over an open fire lending its name to the snack. Oil, and a sweetener like honey, molasses or cane sugar was added to the pot. Today kettle corn is com- monly cooked in stain- less steel or copper kettles because of their lighter weight. It's actually fairly simple to make at home but does take some practice. Make your own using this recipe and remember that popcorn is not always a safe treat for young chil- dren as choking can oc- cur in those too young to be able to chew it properly. INGREDIENTS •1/4 cup vegetable oil •1/2 cup popcorn kernels •1/3 cup sugar •3/4 teaspoon salt •knob of butter DIRECTIONS 1. Heat the oil in a large stainless pot over medium- high heat. Add the popcorn and sugar. Give the kernels a quick stir with a metal spoon or multi-pronged long handled fork, and then cover with a lid. 2. Once the popcorn starts popping, carefully pick the pot up and give it a quick shake every few seconds until the popping slows down, between 3-4min- utes. Remove immediately from the heat and pour the kettle corn into a large bowl smeared with the knob of butter. Due to the high heat of the pot, if you don't transfer the popcorn right away to a lightly buttered bowl it will caramelize and perhaps burn. 3. Sprinkle with salt, allow to cool briefly before serving. 4. Make it your own by adding chopped nuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and sweet spices such as cinnamon or nut- meg during the cooking process. AT THE MARKET America's favorite snack just got better FOOD » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, June 15, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B4