A few weeks ago we were playing what a friend of ours calls “Pantry Survivor” — where you invent new dishes based on what’s in your pantry. We came up with a great veggie burger combination.

The ingredients you’ll need are:

• Wheat bread
• Cheddar cheese (we used white cheddar)
• Veggie burger patties (we used California-style patties from Boca Burger)
• Yellow onion
• Refried beans
• Roma tomatoes
• Pickled jalapenos
• Mayonnaise
• Olive oil
• BBQ sauce (we used Stubb’s Wicked Chicken Wing Sauce)

Slice about half an onion and cover with olive oil. Also slice some cheddar cheese (1-2 slices per burger). Slice tomatoes julienne style, then chop into about 1/4″ pieces.

Grill onions and veggie patties. We grilled them using an indoor grill pan from Pampered Chef, which allows enough air underneath the food to give it a nice crispness that you won’t get with a normal skillet.

Meanwhile, heat up your refried beans and toast your bread. Also mix equal parts mayonnaise and BBQ sauce together.

About one minute before the veggie patties are done, place the sliced cheese on top of them to allow it to melt.

Place a healthy amount of the mayonnaise/BBQ sauce mix on one side of the bread and a healthy amount of refried beans on the other. Place pickled jalapenos and tomatoes on the refried beans side, along with the grilled onions.

Place veggie burger and cheese on the other side. Serve and enjoy!

This is a great Texas-style burger that can easily be made with things you already have in your pantry or refrigerator. Very tasty and filling. We decided that this type of burger needs a name, so we have coined it “La Raquelita.”

Technorati Tags: vegetarian cooking, veggie burgers, burgers

Friday night we met a friend for dinner at Brooklyn Heights Pizzeria, a neighborhood restaurant that we frequent. Our friend grew up in New York and was eager to try it out.

This restaurant was originally a great little coffee shop called The Coffee Plant (funny, the website is still up). They served great deserts all day, but my only complaint was the service was slow. One day Coyote Mercury stopped in for a latte and got to talking to the owner, who was about to close the coffee shop and redesign the space as a “Texas-style pizza pub.” He was even putting in his own water filtration system to balance the ph to the neighborhood in which he grew up in Brooklyn.

So we eagerly awaited its opening, and that day finally came. For the first several months they did not have a liquor license but would give you a beer or a glass of wine on the house. Most of the waitstaff seemed to be brand new to waiting tables, but everyone was really friendly and that made up for any slowness in service. 

In addition to some of the best pizza in Austin, the great thing about Brooklyn Heights is the variety on the menu. You can choose from about two dozen specialty pizzas, do-it-yourself toppings, hot wings, and even onion rings. They even have cheesecake shipped from New York’s Carnegie Deli.

On this visit we ordered “The Mad Italian,” a 16-inch pizza complete with banana peppers, Italian sausage, bell peppers, red onion, and garlic. This usually also comes with pineapple but we skipped this last night. The sausage is slightly spicy and sliced finely, which is a nice complement to the slightly sweet red sauce that is not overly thick but also does not allow toppings to slide off the slice.

When Brooklyn Heights opened I would often tell people that it was equal or superior to Home Slice, but slightly different. I liked the crust at Home Slice better, as it was a little thinner and more akin to pizza I have eaten in New York, but the sauce at Brooklyn Heights was better.

But today I’m not so sure. The restaurant has undergone some management and menu changes, and today the pizza is a little thicker than before and not quite as greasy. Grease is a good thing in pizza in my book, but nevertheless Brooklyn Heights still makes a fine pie that is worth the drive to check out.

Technorati Tags: Austin, restaurants, pizza