Tag: grilling

Hamburger with cheese, jalapeños, pineapple, bacon, red onion and Huli Huli sauce.
Recipes

Huli Huli Burgers

Our friends at Poi Dog make sauces that capture the flavors of Pacific Rim cuisines, and their latest, Huli Huli Sauce, brings the flavors of Hawaii right to your grill. With pineapple, miso, and Chinese 5-spice flavor notes, it inspired us to create a special burger with just a bit of spice. It’s so messy, and so good. 

Serves 2

  • 1 pound Panorama Organic Chef’s Blend ground beef
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon seasoned salt
  • 2 slices pineapple
  • 2 thick slices red onion
  • 2 tablespoons Poi Dog Huli Huli Sauce
  • 2 slices pepper jack cheese
  • 2 large hamburger buns
  • 4 slices cooked bacon
  • 1 jalapeno, sliced
  • Huli Huli Sauce for garnish

Gently mix the ground beef with the black pepper and seasoned salt, taking care not to overwork it. Shape the beef into two patties. Refrigerate or freeze for ten minutes. 

Heat the grill to high and place the burger patties on the grate. After a minute or two, flip and brush each patty with Huli Huli Sauce. Flip once more and brush with the sauce again. Add a slice of cheese to each burger. Cook to your desired doneness. (We suggest medium or medium rare). 

While the burgers are cooking, place the pineapple and red onion slices on the grill. Flip once and cook until soft and slightly charred.

Remove everything from the grill, tent the burgers with foil, and toast the buns.

To assemble the burgers, brush the sauce on each half of the buns, then layer on the onion, pineapple, bacon, burger patties, and sliced jalapeno. Drizzle with more sauce.

Serve immediately with plenty of napkins.

Family sitting around table with candlesticks inside kitchen
Recipes

8 Tips for Making Cooking at Home Simple, Delicious, and Fun

As inflation continues to eat away at consumer buying power, especially at the grocery store, home-cooked meals continue to trend among American consumers. Between 79 and 80% of American meals are consumed at home, a number that hasn’t decreased even as the pandemic has somewhat loosened its grip on life.

Eating at home has its benefits—portion control, knowing what’s in your food, healthy ingredients, less expense—but if you’re not someone who enjoys the process, grocery shopping and preparing food can be a chore. Yet with a little planning, even the most kitchen-resistant among us can learn to put healthy, delicious, and simple meals on the table, and have fun doing it.

Make a plan. Spend a few minutes on the weekend planning what you’re going to cook and eat during the week. Keep in mind that you don’t have to actually cook every meal. Grill a big steak for dinner one night, save the leftovers, and you’ll have sandwiches/salads/tacos for lunch for the next couple of days. 

Make a budget and a list. (The tedious part.) Once you have a basic menu outlined, then make a shopping list, keeping in mind your food budget for the week. It’s easy to bust the budget by impulse buying lots of meat, cheeses, and expensive condiments, but meat doesn’t have to be the center of your plate at every meal. Fill in with lots of fresh vegetables and beans and use less-expensive cuts, like stew meat (for soups and stews), steak strips (for kabobs) or brisket, which will feed a crowd and still give you leftovers for sandwiches or other meals. And of course, Panorama Organic’s grass-fed ground beef is an excellent choice for burgers, meatloaf, or tacos. The key with meat is to buy the best you can afford, but then use it sparingly and extend it through more than one meal.

Stock your freezer. It’s just as easy to make a big batch of soup or stew as a small one and then freeze what you won’t eat in a few days. Just be sure to wrap it well so you don’t end up with freezer burn, and label and date it so you aren’t faced with mystery containers later. It also helps to keep a list of what’s in the freezer. A small magnetic dry erase board on the outside makes inventory management a snap. It’s super-gratifying to know that on a chilly day, you can pull a package of delicious beef stew out of the freezer and have dinner on the table in no time at all.

Stock your pantry. Buy things like beans, rice, pasta, and other staples in bulk so they’re always ready to cook when you are. Canned stocks and tomatoes are also essentials for soups and stews. But make sure you stock up on things you’ll actually use—we’re still choking our way through the gluten-free quinoa pasta we bought in bulk at the beginning of the pandemic when there wasn’t anything else in the store.

Use prepared foods. You don’t have to bake your own bread, hand make pasta, or cook anything from scratch unless you want to. Panorama Organic has created a pre-cooked line of grass-fed meatballs, sausage, and hotdogs that help you get delicious and wholesome meals on the table quickly and easily. Visit our recipe page for ideas.

Commit to trying one new recipe a week. It’s easy to get into a rut in the kitchen, always making the same set of meals over and over. It’s easy, but it can get pretty boring for both the cook and the eaters. Spend a little time on one of the thousands of recipe sites (Simply Recipes is a good place to start) and come up with a list of new things to try, then pick one each week. Experiment with a new cuisine, a new cooking method, or a new ingredient or spice. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to make it ever again, but it might add a new meal to your rotation and make things a little more interesting.

Make good use of your slow cooker and/or Instant Pot. A slow cooker is great for soups, stews, chili, or even oatmeal for a nourishing breakfast in the morning. And if you have an Instant Pot and some dry beans in the pantry, you can get a delicious soup on the table in a little over an hour without soaking or precooking the beans. It doesn’t get much easier.

Get everyone into the act. Even young kids can learn to make simple dishes like hotdog mac and cheese, so let them cook, with some adult supervision of course, one night a week. And be sure that those who don’t do the cooking are there for the clean-up. Making it a team effort is more fun than having one designated cook who has to shoulder the entire responsibility.

Finally, don’t forget to treat yourself once in a while and go out to eat. Local restaurants are still struggling to recover from the pandemic, so give them your support.

Burger with lettuce and tomatoes and side of fries
Recipes

Chef’s Blend Burger

Our newest product is hitting store shelves now. Chef’s Blend ground beef is a succulent mixture of ground chuck, short rib, and brisket. It’s full of beefy flavor and juiciness for an at-home burger every bit as delicious as the one at your local steakhouse. We prefer to keep it simple to bring out the meatiness, but if you would prefer, dress it up some steak sauce or your favorite condiments. We have several different burger recipes you can also try. One thing—be careful not to overcook. This one is exceptional at medium rare.

Makes 2 half-pound burgers

  • 1 package Panorama Organic Chef’s Blend ground beef
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 brioche buns
  • Sliced tomato, lettuce, pickles, mustard, ketchup, or any other condiments you choose

Split the ground beef brick into two equal size chunks. Roll each chunk into a ball and then pat into a burger patty. Don’t overwork the meat. Make an indentation in the center with your finger. This will keep the patty from curling up on the grill. Place the formed patties in the freezer for 10-15 minutes to get very cold, but not frozen.

Heat the grill to high. Sprinkle the patties with salt and pepper. Grill over high heat for a minute or 2 on each side to get a sear and some grill marks. Turn the heat down and move the patties away from the hottest part of the grill. Cook until medium rare. Remove to a covered plate and let sit for 5 minutes. Toast the buns on the grill, then dress up the burgers to your taste. Serve with your favorite French fries. 

Steak on a grill with green peppers and bearnaise sauce
Recipes

Tips for Grilling Grassfed Steak

When you’re ready to throw that beautiful grass-fed steak on the grill, you’ll want to pay attention and take some care to get the tastiest, most tender results. With its leaner profile, grass-fed beef tends to cook faster, so it’s important to thaw properly, use the right grill temperature, and use a meat thermometer. Don’t skip the last step, which is most important—let it rest after it comes off the grill.

Thawing:  

It’s best to thaw grass-fed beef in the refrigerator for a day, but if you’re in a pinch, you can always place the vacuum-sealed bag in cold water for a few minutes. Never use a microwave to thaw grass-fed beef. Once the steak is thawed, unwrap it and pat it dry, then let it sit at room temperature while the grill heats, for no more than 30 minutes. Don’t cook it cold straight from the refrigerator because it won’t cook evenly. 

Seasoning:

Marinades are great for adding flavor and moisture. Use your favorite or make your own. Place the steak in a glass dish with a cover and then pour the marinade over, making sure the meat is covered completely. Refrigerate for two to six hours, turning several times. Remove from the refrigerator, discard the marinade, and pat dry the steak. Allow it to sit for no more than 30 minutes before brushing with a little olive oil and seasoning with salt and pepper, and then put it on the grill.

You can also use a dry rub to add flavor. Again, use your favorite or make your own. Once the steak is thawed, pat it dry and then liberally sprinkle all over with the rub. Allow to sit at room temperature for no more than 30 minutes before putting it on the grill.

If simplicity is your thing, just before putting the steak on the grill, brush it with a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Cooking:

Always preheat the grill. You can sear the steak before or after it’s cooked to get those nice crispy, caramelized grill marks that add so much flavor. If you want to sear first, heat the grill to high, put the steak on until you see the grill marks on both sides. Turn the heat down to 350° and cook until done. For a reverse sear, just reverse the process. 

Never use a fork to turn the beef. Always use tongs. 

Use an instant-read meat thermometer to test for doneness. Watch the temperature carefully—you can go from perfectly cooked to overdone in less than a minute. The meat will continue to cook after you remove it from the heat, so when it reaches a temperature ten degrees LOWER than the desired temperature, it’s done.

For grass-fed steaks, rare (125°) to medium-rare (130°) is perfect. If you go much past medium (140°), your steak is liable to be very chewy.

After you take the steak off the grill, cover it and let it sit in a warm place for five to eight minutes. This allows the juices to redistribute throughout the meat. If you like, add a big pat of grassfed butter to add flavor, moisture, and even more benefits from healthy fat.

Raw ground beef patty with onion, tomato, and lettuce on side on wooden cutting board
Recipes

Tips for Cooking the Best Grass-fed Burger Ever

We’ve all been to the barbecue where the burgers cooking on the grill smell delicious, but then, when it’s time to eat, you’re faced with a platter of hockey pucks. You pile on all kinds of condiments and vegetables to make it palatable, but still, that gray, tough, dry chunk of meat lurks at the center.

It’s not hard to make a great burger, but it takes a little care, from the time you buy the meat until you take it off the grill. By following a few basic tips, your grass-fed burgers will be the envy of your grilling neighbors.

Choose the right meat.

Start with good meat and the right fat percentage. Panorama Organic’s grass-fed, organic 85/15 blend is the perfect ratio of meat to fat. If you go too lean, your burgers will be dry. Adding an egg to the mix will give you a tad more moisture for the perfect level of juiciness.

Thaw correctly.

If you’re starting with frozen ground beef, never thaw it in the microwave. Ideally, you should defrost it in the refrigerator for a day. In a pinch, you can let the package sit in a bowl of cold (not warm) water until it thaws, changing the water several times.

Don’t overwork the beef.

Blend it gently with your hands just until the seasonings are incorporated. Too much mixing will make the burgers tough. The same rule applies when you’re making the patties. Don’t overhandle them. Also, wet your hands with water so the meat doesn’t stick.

Make a dimple in the middle of each patty with your thumb. This will help keep the shape of the patty as it cooks.

Chill the patties before you start cooking.

Unlike most meats that should be at room temperature before you put them on the heat, burgers should be as cold as you can get them without being frozen. They cook more evenly with less shrinkage and they hold together better.

Use high heat and a meat thermometer.

With grass-fed, it’s easy to overcook because it cooks quickly. Using an instant-read thermometer will help you keep from overdoing it. For medium rare, the perfect combination of pink and warm in the middle, the internal temperature should be 130 degrees F.

Flip as many times as you like.

The burgers cook quicker and more evenly. And don’t press on the patties with a spatula while they’re cooking. That squeezes all the juice out and makes them dry. 

Cook them in a cast iron pan on the stove.

If there’s snow covering your grill, don’t fret. Cast iron holds high heat evenly and the flat surface allows the burgers to cook in their own juices. Just make sure to turn on your exhaust fan.

Give them time to rest after they come off the heat.

Cover the platter with foil and let them sit for at least ten minutes while you toast the buns and get the rest of the condiments ready. That allows the juice from the surface to migrate back into the center of the meat.