What's your secret ingredient that makes your version of a common dish better than anyone else's?
Mine probably isn't that secret these days, but almost every sauce I add nutritional yeast to. Curry, chilli, bolognese, it just makes them all better.
If it’s tomato heavy, add sugar, neutralizes the acids a bit and makes it easier if you suffer heartburn.
When I grill burgers I mix in an egg and breadcrumbs. The egg seals in the juices and the breadcrumbs stabilize it. Garlic salt and Lowry’s seasoned salt mixed in as well.
In fact garlic salt and Lowry’s finds their way into most meals in the house. Great combo for almost any meat and most veggies.
Throwing a little bit of baking soda into tomato based sauces can tame the acidity as well, and is actually a pretty great trick for neutralizing the canned taste if you're using canned tomatoes. Just make sure to add it slowly and mix slowly, otherwise you'll be creating a science fair volcano on your stovetop.
I've found that thats good advice if you dont cook the tomatoes for that long, less than 30 min, like Shakshuka. If you are going to to cook them for hours, then you don't really need it, like for red sauce.
On the subject of burgers, I make sliders using ground beef with chopped garlic and onions, Worcestershire sauce, and peanut butter. Pretty sure I got the recipe from somewhere. I use King's Hawaiian bread rolls for the buns and it's absolutely delicious.