Cornichon.org

Mini expansion

If big is bad and small is good, mini must be better, right?

From its earliest days, Cornichon has been peppered with dispatches from and about Cascadia, star of Belltown's First Avenue sidewalk and home to Seattle's best Happy Hour bar snack, the $1 miniburger.

Now Chef Kerry Sear has taken the mini to a whole new level. Where some restaurants might have bewailed the popularity of a time-consuming, how-can-we-possibly-make-money-on-this, we've-created-a-monster menu item, Cascadia's response is to turn lemonade into nectar: keep the basic burger, add options, and upsell like crazy.

To wit: the classic beef miniburger (still ground from hanger steak, still $1 during Happy Hour) is joined on Cascadia's new menu by wild king salmon and veggie versions ($2 during Happy Hour). All three basic burgers run $3 outside of Happy Hour, and there's a raft of new add-ons: grilled onions ($1), sauteed portobellos ($2), pancetta ($2), even a fried oyster ($3) and barbequed lobster ($4) Tomato, lettuce, pickles and ketchup remain part of the base price, but dijon mustard, homemade mayo, and other condiments cost will set you back four bits.

If you say Mini, a lot of people these days will think of the Mini Cooper. Fair enough. So Kerry found the one he wanted, had it shipped to Seattle, painted it bright yellow and parked it out front.

And he's making the Mini--not his award-winning, soul-gratifying, ego-satisfying gourmet cuisine, but his one dollar burgers--the focus of his catering business. Takes confidence, takes imagination.

Can you picture it? Yellow "Mini-van" shows up at your party with grill; kitchen crew in starched whites dispenses choice of burgers topped with Oregon blue cheese and bites of barbecued lobster drizzled with black truffle butter ...

There's even a new website for the project, www.miniburgers.com. Genius, I tell you. I'm in awe.

Double martinis

Those of you looking for signs of divine intervention can give up now; we're all going to die.

But while we await the inevitable, those three-dollar midday martinis at Spice--previewed on this page a couple of weeks ago--offer temporary solace. At least that was my friend's premise in extending an invitation to lunch. Watching the bartender's two-wristed pour, I had to agree: we're doomed. For the rest of the afternoon at least.

What goes with with martinis? Why not a big, juicy burger? And then another round ...

I'm sure there was some cosmic revelation that afternoon, but it must have evaporated. Maybe I'll try again next week.

Rub-a-dub

Safeway was selling bottom round steaks and roasts for $1.99 a pound ... so I bought several of the roasts [looked like tri tip to me] and made my own rub, just using stuff on hand, starting with ... finely ground French Roast coffee. Added other stuff like garlic powder, salt, crumbled up bay leaf, paprika, and rubbed and rubbed.

Then I seared the roasts one by one [each must have been about two lbs] in a cast-iron skillet, put on a roasting rack, and left them in a 200-degree oven until internal temp reached 140-150 degrees.

Had two parties back-to-back this weekend, first one at my place, second one at waterfront home on Lake Washington in Kirkland.

Carved the meat on the spot, thin-thin-thin, then cross-cut a couple of times for easy mounding on bread. Perfect medium-rare. Accompanied with easy-to-make sauces: a horseradish sour cream [1 oz prepared horseradish, 1/2 cup light sour cream], and a yogurt-mustard blend [half non-fat yogurt, half dijon mustard]. Fresh-baked baguettes from Biofournil that use organic flour and imported sourdough starter from Nantes. Yum, I tell you, yum.

And it was my brother's description of the rubs right here on Cornichon two weeks ago that gave the me the idea.

Adding more prep info: rub night before, refrigerate in plastic bag, roast next day.

More specifics re oven: preheat to 300, insert meat, reduce to 200. Check roast w quick-read thermometer after maybe 3 hours. (Best is if oven is calibrated below 200: you can turn to 150 & leave indefinitely, since interior will not warm past that point.)

Cooking sage Shirley Corriher says you should roast to 110 degrees, then bump temp to 500 for 20 mins to get great crust, but I didn't do that part, figuring that the pan-searing already gives me the flavorful crust I want.