AL ROKER reporting:
This morning on COOK
THIS NOT THAT
, healthy burgers. Now, you know, it's easy to order one in a restaurant, but cooking your own can be a lot healthier and a lot less expensive. Our good buddy
David Zinczenko
is the man behind the "Cook This Not That!" series.
David
, good to see you.
Mr. DAVID ZINCZENKO:
Hey.
ROKER:
Nice apron.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Good to see you,
Al
. Thanks.
ROKER:
Hey, this book, I mean this series, huge. I mean, number one cookbook of
2010
.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Number one cookbook in
America
.
Me and my
co-author,
Matt Goulding
, wanted to whip up the next version...
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...by popular demand.
ROKER:
We never see
Matt.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Yeah. He's busy in the kitchen.
ROKER:
Yeah, sure.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Easy...
ROKER:
Matt
's sitting there, 'Hey, how about me,
Zinczenko
? How about a little -- how about a little airtime?'
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Nice, Al. So the next one is "Easy and Awesome"...
ROKER:
Uh-huh
.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
..." Meals." And the point is...
ROKER:
Yeah, what's the point?
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
And I
'm going to kill you,
Al
. We're -- is if you can go to a restaurant, you can go to
T.G.I.
Friday's...
ROKER:
Right.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...and
Cheesecake Factory
or
Applebee
's...
ROKER:
Yeah.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...and you can have a
burger
that's
1200
to
1600
calories
.
ROKER:
Sure. Like this thing.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
It is the equivalent of having six to eight glazed doughnuts.
ROKER:
Yow.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
So what we're saying is...
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...all you have to do is whip that up in minutes.
ROKER:
Right.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
And if you do that three times a week, a family of four can save 80 to $100, which, over the course of a year, is like giving yourself a $5,000 raise.
ROKER:
Absolutely. And healthier.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Right. So we're going to make here the
A1 Swiss
burger
from the book.
ROKER:
Mm-hmm. Right.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
And what's great is you start off with two ground sirloin patties.
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
And you want to go for something that's 85 percent lean.
ROKER:
Right.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
A lot of restaurants are 20 percent or more fat...
ROKER:
Right.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...which makes it juicy, but makes it very caloric because we're going to cut this down to a 350-Calorie
burger
.
ROKER:
So you make a ball. About how much -- how much meat is that?
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
So you -- OK, so this is four ounces.
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Most restaurants are seven or eight ounces.
ROKER:
Sure.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Portion controls are -- have gone out of control in the last 20 years.
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
They're up 340-calorie for burgers, 100 percent for fries.
ROKER:
Wow.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
So you get the patty in here.
ROKER:
Right.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
You're going to do this in minutes. You're going to wait a couple minutes...
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...and then you're going to use the smashed
burger
technique.
ROKER:
OK.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Which is very popular in the
Midwest
.
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
So what you want to do here is you want to smash that
burger
, whack it.
ROKER:
Right. You mean physically?
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
It's
Election Day
, you're angry, you're angry.
ROKER:
Physically whack it?
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
After two minutes -- yes. Now, what's great about that is it's for max -- OK, you don't have to beat the heck out of it -- but that's not bad. You want to go down to about a third of an inch.
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
And what that does is it maximizes crust development...
ROKER:
Right.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...but keeps the juiciness in there.
ROKER:
Now, can I ask -- why couldn't you do that before you cook it? Because I've always -- a lot of chefs say don't smash your
burger
once it's cooking because it kind of pushes the juices out.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Well, if you -- if you beat it the way you did...
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...but if you give it a good -- one good whack...
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...what it does is it maximizes the juiciness...
ROKER:
Right.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...but there's good crust development around it.
ROKER:
OK.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
So after two minutes, you do that. You let it go for another two minutes.
ROKER:
Right.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
And then you're going to flip it.
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
And then you're going to throw some cheese on it.
ROKER:
Now, what kind of cheese?
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
In this case, it's
Swiss cheese
.
ROKER:
Uh-huh
.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
So it's...
ROKER:
Why Swiss?
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...it's less
calories
, less sodium...
ROKER:
Right.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...less fat. Now, while you are cooking the burgers...
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...you come over here and you're going to saute some nice onions and mushrooms, OK?
ROKER:
Let them caramelize...
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Yeah.
ROKER:
...get that good flavor going.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
You got -- you got another six to eight minutes.
ROKER:
OK.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
And then once you do that, you're going to take your
burger
...
ROKER:
Right.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
So now you're like seven minutes in, and it is just as easy to cook for four people as it is for two.
ROKER:
Sure.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
And you're going to put these burgers on potato buns, which are perfect...
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...for four-ounce patties.
ROKER:
I like the potato bun.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
And they have -- they have four grams of fiber...
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...less
calories
, and they're soft and chewy. They're perfect. Now you're going to coat your
burger
, add the toppings.
ROKER:
Yeah.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
There you go. Now we are going to...
ROKER:
What about the
A1 sauce
?
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...crown -- oop, you are so right. OK, here...
ROKER:
See, if
Matt Gould
had been here...
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...take an ounce -- yeah, yeah, thanks.
ROKER:
...might have...
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Tablespoon of that. Not too much, just drizzle it.
ROKER:
Drizzle.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Just -- yeah, there you go. Three hundred forty
calories
.
ROKER:
Just kiss it -- just kiss it with a little
A1
.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
There you go.
ROKER:
All right.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Now we're going to crown these...
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...buns. And now try it.
ROKER:
Ta-da. Very nice.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Try this.
ROKER:
All right. Try this, not that.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Yes. Cook this -- eat this.
ROKER:
Excellent.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Right?
ROKER:
A lot of flavor, little bit.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
You're saving -- you're saving 900
calories
.
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
And a lot of money. Now for the sides.
ROKER:
Now for the sides.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
OK. You go out to a restaurant, these...
ROKER:
You want to finish -- you want to finish chewing?
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
I'm good.
We have all the time in the world
, right? Yeah, you have 2100
calories
...
ROKER:
Oh my gosh.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...and over 150 grams of fat...
ROKER:
That's crazy.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...in this restaurant offering. And the problem is it's smothered in cheese, and then you have the ranch dressing, which is 140
calories
, most of it fat...
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...per tablespoon. So what you want to do...
ROKER:
And bacon.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Per ounce rather. And bacon. So what we're going to do is, instead of having the deep fried fries...
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...we're going to bake them. And then you're going to end up with these nice plank fries.
ROKER:
Yeah.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
And then you're going to use a handful of cheese and crumbled bacons.
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Just the right amount. You're going to top it with jalapenos. This is going to take minutes. And this is 300
calories
and fewer than 15 grams of fat. So you are saving 140 grams of fat...
ROKER:
Not to mention the money.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...when you go with something like -- yes, you're -- for pennies.
ROKER:
Yeah.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
The -- what you would pay in tip and tax...
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...when you go to a restaurant, you can make for your family of four.
ROKER:
And if you wanted to make it even a little healthier, you could use sweet potatoes?
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Yes, absolutely.
ROKER:
And the guac -- and now the chips and guacamole.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Guac and -- guac and chips right here. A lot of -- a lot of restaurants and others will use cheap oil in place of real avocado. If you make your own...
ROKER:
Mm-hmm.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...you're going to be considered a guac guy at the party.
ROKER:
Sure.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Everybody's going to want you there on Saturday night.
ROKER:
Absolutely.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
And because what you're going to be doing here is you're going to be making for 190
calories
a guac -- an ultimate guac and chip recipe...
ROKER:
Sure. And...
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
...that you're going to be able to bring.
ROKER:
And it's a smaller serving, but it's good.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
It's a -- it's a very good portion size. And you're cutting out all these
calories
, all this fat.
ROKER:
And the flavor's better.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Cook this, not that.
ROKER:
Absolutely.
David Zinczenko
.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
Thanks. Thanks, Al.
ROKER:
Say hi to
Matt
for me when you see him.
Mr. ZINCZENKO:
I sure will.
ROKER:
All right.
“ ”