Perfectly Practiced Preservation, aka Homemade Hamburger Helper

So, I had a friend of mine ask a question about phyllo dough, why does it have to be frozen? And I started looking around for the answer. For those of you who don't know what phyllo dough is it is a dough of turkish origin, made of flour, water, oil, and either raki or white vinegar which is then rolled out until it is paper thin. It's name means leaf in greek. It is layered to make a whole slew of foods from baklava to spanakopita and is often filled with nuts, cheese or vegetables to make appetizers. It is extremely difficult to make (there are stories about whole dinning room tables full of rolled out dough), but you can buy it frozen at some supermarkets. There are a couple of reasons why it is frozen, first is to make sure that the super thin layers can withstand shipping. When a liquid dips below a certain temperature (freezing point) the molecules slow down and start sticking together to make a solid. Solids are less likely to move around in shipping, so the layers are less likely to tear. The more important reason for freezing phyllo dough is to keep it from spoiling.

Freezing and refrigeration are two natural forms of food preservation (others include drying, heat, salting, and vacuum). How freezing and refrigeration work is that all organisms, including bacteria and mold (which cause spoiling by eating the food), tend to work best at warmer temperatures. Think of a bacterium like you. When it's a nice warm spring day you are really really ready to move. You walk, skip, jump, work in the yard, whatever. But when it starts to get cold, like a Minnesota morning in ... well, October - March, you are pretty much just going to sit inside and stay warm. Bacteria and mold are the same way. If you get them cold enough they start eating slower and slower, making your food last longer. Hence freezing food to keep it fresh.

Sometimes, however, freezing isn't enough. This is where humans stepped in and invented these chemicals called ... dum, dum, dum... artificial preservatives. These chemicals work in one of three ways. 1) they create a really bad environment for bacteria to grow in. 2) The slow the oxidation of fats and lipids (aka they keep fat from breaking down into goo) or 3) They stop enzymes (natural proteins that speed up stuff like the break down of cells) from working as quickly. It all seems great, but in a large enough quantity they are really bad for the body because they disrupt the body's natural balance and can kill cells that are important for regulating the body. They can also cause tumors and cancer. Yuck.

So, in honor of avoiding these nasty little chemicals, and for nostalgia, I made Hamburger Helper not from the box (actually I was going to make an asparagus phyllo dough appetizer, but apparently phyllo dough hasn't made it to Minnesota yet, and as adventurous a baker as I am, I'm not about to attempt making this one on my own). I am happy to say it was as good as the original, not much harder, and even passed the test of a kid who's favorite food is none other than Hamburger Helper out of the box. The original recipe is from John Mastro (http://www.johnmastro.net/2009/09/cheeseburger-macaroni/), I made a couple of small tweaks, and it's better for you than the box, so eat up!

Homemade Hamburger Helper

Ingredients

1 lb lean ground beef

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 cup ketchup

2 3/4 cup water

1/2 lb any shaped pasta (I used penne)

2 1/2 - 3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

In a large skillet with a lid, brown the hamburger and drain. Stir in the black pepper and the onion powder. Add the ketchup. Pour in the water and pasta. Bring to a boil, stirring everything together. Reduce heat to medium and cover. Simmer until the water is absorbed and the pasta is tender (~15 min if you are using penne pasta). Remove from the heat, stir in the cheese until it is all melted and even through out. Enjoy!!

(I hope to get pictures into this post eventually, but the uploader thingy is acting up, so soon)