foodguy's blog

Who Cares About Super Bowl Food ?

There'll be empty seats in the stadium and even NBC had trouble selling all 67 minutes of advertising time. But there is a great story to be told this year. The last time the Cardinals franchise won a championship they were playing at Comiskey Park in Chicago and Harry Truman was President. Even if all that history is not enough....it's still the best commercial watching of the year.

With that its a long day and your gonna need some sustenance to make it through. Chip and salsa, pretzels and popcorn will only take you so far. So here are three recipes to help you get through the long day. First of all, we've all been warned about the chicken wing shortage (which never really materialized) So here's a recipe for turkey wings. They're Flinstone sized wings for guys with big hands and appetites.

Super Sweet and Spicy Wings

Serves 12 to 24

12 Whole Turkey Wings

Cut each wing into thirds using a cleaver or heavy chef's knife. Or if your lucky, get your butcher to do it. Discard the wing tips or save them for another use. Refrigerate the wings while you make the marinade.

Spicy Marinade

1 1/2 cups hot sauce
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine
2 tablespoons minced garlic
Combine hot sauce, butter and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the butter is melted and the mixture is well blended. Remove from heat, divide the sauce evenly into 2 containers and set aside till butter is melted and mixture is well blended.

Honey Glaze

1 ½ cups honey
2 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
In a medium bowl, combine the honey, cilantro, cumin, salt and lemon zest.

Place the wing pieces into sealable plastic bags. Pour half of the spicy marinade into the bag. Cover and refrigerate the remaining marinade. Seal the bag completely, shake the bags to distribute the marinades evenly among the wings. Refrigerate the bag and allow the meat to marinate 2-3 hours or overnight.
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking pan with foil, then spray the foil. Lift the wing sections from the bag onto the baking pan. Discard the used marinade.

Roast the wings, basting with the honey glaze every 15 to 20 minutes. The wings will be done when the meat is firm, pulls slightly from the bone and a thermometer inserted reads 160 degrees.

Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly. Pile the wings on a large platter and serve immediately. Serve the wings with ranch dressing as a dipping sauce

 Download and Print Super Sweet and Spicy Wings

But if you do have a favorite team and a yen for sandwiches then I've got two of them for you. The messiest sandwich ever from Pittsburgh made famous at Primanti Bros. And Southwestern Pulled Pork sandwich that's dripping with goodness and sunshine. (yuck)

Pittsburgh Style Sandwich

10 pieces of frozen French fried potatoes

2 slices Italian bread

5 slices deli cooked roast beef

2 slices provolone cheese

2 slices tomato

1/4 cup prepared coleslaw

Preheat oven or fryer and prepare French fries according to package instructions.

Warm the roast beef topped with provolone in a 400 degree oven until the cheese melts.

Layer Italian bread with roast beef, provolone cheese, tomato, coleslaw, and freshly cooked fries. Serve immediately.

Arizona Pulled Pork Sandwiches

1 large pork butt or shoulder, about 7 to 9 pounds

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon Adobo seasoning or seasoned salt

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 medium onion, sliced

1 large onion, chopped

2 teaspoons oil

1 cup barbecue sauce

1/2 cup vinegar

Lay a large sheet of heavy duty foil in a roasting pan. Place pork roast on foil. Rub pork all over with garlic and seasonings. Arrange onion slices over top. Wrap foil around the pork roast. Bake at 350° for about 4 to 5 hours, to about 185° F. The meat should be falling apart. Let the roast cool a bit, then begin to shred with forks or chop, discarding as much of the excess fat as possible.

Sauté chopped onions in a little oil until tender.

Put shredded pork in a crock pot or a large saucepan or Dutch oven. Blend in vinegar and barbecue sauce, along with the cooked chopped onion. Heat thoroughly on LOW setting or over low heat; serve hot with split buns, coleslaw, and beans.

 Download and Print Super Bowl Sandwich Recipes

So have fun this Sunday ....and try to stay awake, at least for the ads.

Perfect Pizza

We all seek perfection one way or another in our lives. Some spend hours at a gym, others spend hours shopping at the mall. I've found one man, tending a blazing hot oven, is seeking perfection through the dough he throws in perfect circles and tops with almost perfect ingredients, then bakes it in a near perfect oven.  Pizza is a metaphor for life, by the way and if looked at in the right light, is the perfect food. One slice can encompass the entire food pyramid in almost perfect symmetry. This all happens in a basement off Washington Ave. in the very chic and hip neighborhood of the real Warehouse District. If Black Sheep (not sure what the name is all about) were in any large city it would be just another neighborhood pizzeria. What makes it special though, even if it were in another city, is the coal fired oven.

Coal fired ovens are the baking medium of choice in the older pizza establishments mostly in New York. Lombardi's being the oldest has been serving coal fired pizza since 1905 (with a brief 10 year interruption). But, coal fired ovens have picked up a new level of hip that  make it the darling of a whole new crop of pizza providers. We are very fortunate to have a guy like Jordan Smith, willing to take the risk of making the large investment in the coal fired oven. And it's paying off big time. Unless you get there early in the evening (before 6 pm as I did the other night), you'll have to wait for one of the coveted tables in the small dining room or, call ahead and order it to go.

The pizza is noticeably different and very New York. Unlike another recently opened restaurant here,
Black Sheep has not just tried to import New York, they've created and produced a product that can hold it's ground against any pie in the five Burroughs. My first bite of the crust was a little disappointing, only because I tasted it first before taking in the full flavor of the complete pizza. My first impression was that the crust needed a little more salt. But once I started eating like a normal person, and not the food detective I pretend to be sometimes, I discovered the bold and assertive flavors of the toppings and sauce made the crust the perfect foil creating a blended and homogeneous raft of flavor that was hard to stop eating. Or in plain speak....It was f**king good!! The crust is thin, crisp and chewy. It lets you do the NYC fold without collapsing and it's not too heavy either. The combination of a great dough recipe, good toppings and the extreme dry heat of a coal fired oven combine to make one great pie.

Black Sheep is only open for dinner at present. And that's just fine with me. It's better that a new restaurant learn to walk before it can run. I'm sure Jordan is aware of this. He's a seasoned veteran of the business having spent many years with D'Amico's and created the food for Mission American Kitchen. His menu there has been my favorite version so far of the several Chef's that have manned the stoves. Jordan has put together a great little neighborhood joint. Its a simple menu of pizza with a few salads, a small serviceable and well priced list of wine and beer all in a cozy sparsely decorated basement level room.

Black Sheep is one of those places I hate to talk about. If I hype it too much...I'll never get in.

Black Sheep

612.342.COAL (2625)

600 WASHINGTON AVE N · MINNEAPOLIS, MN

Witness

We are witness

I am witness

We have all been witness to the miracles and unbelievable moments that have changed the course of human events. No one is alive today who witnessed the birth of this nation or the time when a simple man from Illinois saved the young nation from being torn apart. Few of us are here who witnessed the day a privileged man from a wealthy family reminded a country there was nothing to fear but fear. Some of us were around when the mushroom cloud sprouted over Hiroshima. Many more of us were glued to our televisions for three sad days in November after a young man’s dreams were spilled on a Dallas street. But we are all, every man woman and child alive today witness to the time, the moment our grandchildren will look back at as the day the world changed. To witness the day the dream of a Baptist minister came true.

The Presidential Peppers

The Bush years will, if nothing else, not go down in the history books as the era of great food at the White House. So far the Obama's have demonstrated an interest in good taste at least in food. The hotel they stayed at prior to moving into Blair House had a top notch restaurant and they were seen the other night at Equinox, one of Washington's finest bistros. But even though the incoming Presidents looks like he likes to eat well...doesn't mean he can cook. And beside's the guy might be a little busy in the next few years to strap on the old frilly apron and whip up a batch of his favorite (and somewhat famous) chili.

In an interview last May, way before the election, he gladly gave out the recipe below to a reporter for the Missoula Independent. As a Chef I can usually tell by reading a recipe how it will taste when complete. And this one sounds a little dull. There are quite a few herbs and spices, albeit in small quantities, but the mix is missing some heat. I just hope he can cook up a recovery plan with a little more flavor.

If he's interested in taking some time off from leading the world to prattle around the White House kitchen, I'm posting a few recipes below he might enjoy. There's JFK's Clam Chowder...I know he identifies more strongly with Lincoln, but there's not a whole lot of info about Abe's habits in the kitchen. We do know the old guy loved simple comfort foods, but that's about it. His inaugural lunch at the Willard Hotel was corned beef and cabbage followed by a blueberry pie. There's a little of the Camelot in the Obama's though so I thought he might enjoy Jack's chowder.

The Obama's are also our first real celebrity inhabitants of the White House since the Kennedy's, so I thought I'd throw in a real celebrity chili. This recipe was enjoyed by Hollywood's elite from the 40's to the early 70's. This is the chili Elizabeth Taylor had shipped to her in Rome while filming Cleopatra.

So if your looking for some ideas for your own inaugural party...here they are. And Mr. President if you happen to read this....we have other things to talk about,  so don't let my chili comments get in the way.

The Obama Family Chili Recipe*

1 large onion, chopped
1 med. green pepper, chopped
Several cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground turkey or beef
1/4 teaspoon (each) of ground cumin, ground oregano, ground turmeric, and ground basil
1 tablespoon chili powder
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Several tomatoes, depending on size, chopped
1 can red kidney beans

Sauté onions, green pepper and garlic in olive oil until soft. Add ground meat and brown. Combine spices together into a mixture, then add to ground meat. Add red wine vinegar. Add tomatoes and let simmer, until tomatoes cook down. Add kidney beans and cook for a few more minutes. Serve over white or brown rice. Garnish with grated cheddar cheese, onions and sour cream

*From the Missoula Independent e-interview with Mr. Obama, by Ari LeVaux. This recipe was also on Good Morning America.

 Download and Print The Obama Family Chili Recipe (click here)

JFK's New England Clam Chowder

Ingredients:
4 doz. Medium Hard Shelled clams, scrubbed
5 cups Cold Water
or
5 cups Clam broth/juice
2 cups Chopped Clams
1 2? cube Salt Pork, diced
1 large Yellow Onion, diced
4 med. Potatoes, peeled and diced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 cups Milk, hot
1 ½ cup Heavy Cream, hot

Preparation:
To Prepare Hard Shelled Clams;
Place the clams in a deep pan with the water covering the clams. Bring to a boil 10 minutes or until the shells are open. Strain the broth through a cheesecloth and reserve. Remove the clams from the shell, clean and chop.
Combine the slat pork and onion in a large saucepan and cook gently over low heat about 3 minutes; do not brown. Add the broth and potatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook until the potatoes are tender. Add the clams.
Remove from the heat and slowly add the hot milk and cream. Serve immediately.

  Download and Print JFK's Clam Chowder (click here)

Chasen's Chili

Serves 6-8

1/2 pound dried pinto beans

Water

1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
1 large green bell pepper, chopped

2 Tblsp. vegetable oil

2 cups mushrooms, sliced

3 cups onions, coarsely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/2 cup parsley, chopped

1/2 cup butter

2 pounds beef chuck, coarsely chopped*
1 pound pork shoulder, coarsely chopped*
1/2 cup chili powder
1 Tblsp. salt
1 1/2 Tsp. black pepper
1 1/2 Tsp. ground cumin

* Chasen's used the best beef chuck, center cut, trimmed completely of fat. The restaurant used a special meat grinder, but for the home cook, meat chopped into one-quarter to one-half-inch chunks is much better than ground meat for this chili.

Rinse the beans, picking out debris. Place beans in a Dutch oven with water to cover. Boil for two minutes. Remove from heat. Cover and let stand one hour. Drain off liquid.

Rinse beans again. Add enough fresh water to cover beans. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer covered, for one hour or until tender.

Stir in tomatoes and their juice. Simmer five minutes. In a large skillet, sauté bell pepper in oil for five minutes. Add onion and mushroom and cook until tender, stirring frequently. Stir in the garlic and parsley. Add mixture to bean mixture. Using the same skillet, melt the butter and sauté beef and pork chuck until browned. Drain. Add to bean mixture along with the chili powder, salt, pepper and cumin.

Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for one hour. Uncover and cook 30 minutes more or to desired consistency. Chili shouldn't be too thick - it should be somewhat liquid but not runny like soup. Skim of excess fat and serve.

Download and Print Chasen's Chili (click here)

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama,chili,Obama food trends,White House

Recipe For A Pleasant Sunday

Snow and cold and freezing rain and more snow and more cold...a good old fashioned Minnesota winter. I've kinda missed it the last few years, call me sick. But I'm sure by the 150th snowfall in March I'll be climbing the walls with the rest of you. Without a team to cheer for in the NFL playoffs, and a hit and miss NBA team, there just aint a whole lot to do on Sunday's beside spend all day reading the papers and maybe catching a movie or two. When this part of winter hits...I cook. Sure its a busman's holiday for me, but I'm sure there are plenty more "normal" people dusting off their Dutch ovens and crock pots on weekends as well.

When I was a kid I grew up in a house of two working parents. Not so unusual these days, but in the late fifties and early sixties, I was the kid with the house key tied around his neck. One of the reasons I got so interested in cooking was the Sundays I would spend in the kitchen with mom and dad cooking. Mom loved to make her own "T.V. Dinners" among other things. She would have her friends and neighbors drop off their empty (and cleaned, I hope) aluminum trays from their own Swanson nights. She would fill them with all manner of stews and casseroles. She even took a stab at turkey and stuffing, though I liked the Swanson version better. My job after school was to start dinner for the family by tossing a few of these MTVD's (Mom's TV Dinners) in the oven.  But my favorite Sunday activity was Sunday Gravy day. It was a day long event of cooking that wound up with a great dinner of spaghetti, meatballs, braciole and sausage on Sunday night and then many variations of it for a week or more to follow.

We were not the typical family when you think of this quintessentially New York Italian American feast. In fact we were so far away from typical we were actually a Jewish family in suburban Chicago. But both my mother and father had many Italian friends and loved Italian food. I'm not quite sure where this recipe comes form, other than my mother's tattered recipe book. I'm sure some Sicilian grandmother grudgingly gave up the goods after being hounded by my mother for weeks. (She was good at getting things she wanted) It did our family well in good times and bad. I'll haul it out once or twice a year for friends, especially when I'm expecting a crowd. I love the way it fills the house with aromas and smells that to me mean warmth and home. When I talked comfort food last week, this is it.

So pick a Sunday soon and give it a test drive. Gather the family to help cook and eat. And before you take your first bite, raise your glass of cheap Chianti to Ruth, my mother, who taught me this recipe that I can now pass on to your family, and to the many other lessons she taught me about food, family and home.

SUNDAY GRAVY

Makes about 1 ½ gallons

Enough for 6-12 people

¼ cup Good Olive Oil

1 lb. Italian Sausage, links spicy

3-4 cloves Fresh Garlic, smashed

1 ½ cups Onion, diced fine

1-6 oz. Can Tomato Paste

1 cup Red Wine

¼ cup Sugar

4-28 oz. Cans Whole Plum Tomatoes, drained and crushed, reserve the juice

1 Tbsp. Dry Leaf Oregano

1 recipe Braciole (recipe below)

1 recipe Meatballs (recipe below)

3 cups Water (optional)

Kosher Salt

Fresh Ground Black Pepper

Crusty Bread (for tasting the sauce while it cooks)

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed 8-quart Dutch oven over medium high heat. Cut the sausage in about 2 inch lengths and brown in the hot oil along with the braciole. Cooking the sausage and braciole in smaller batches will actually be faster. Just brown the sausage and braciole, actual cooking will come later. Remove the browned sausage and braciole pieces to a platter or baking sheet and reserve.

Reduce the heat to medium low and add the crushed garlic. Brown the garlic in the oil then remove it to the platter with the meat. If it looks like there is more than ½ cup of oil and fat in the pot, drain off excess and discard. Add the onions to the pot and cook over medium low heat until the onions are softened completely but not brown. They’ll pick up some color from the oil, but don’t let them get any darker.

Add the tomato paste and sauté in the oil with the onions about 3 minutes. Add the wine and sugar. Increase the heat to high. Scrape the bottom of the pot to release most of the brown bits. Let the wine reduce slightly, about 5 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes, reserved juices, salt, pepper and oregano. Keep the heat on high until the sauce begins to come to a boil, then reduce the heat to low.

Gently place the browned, sausage and braciole into the sauce. If the sauce seems thick, add a little water. Cover the pot and cook over very low heat about 1 ½ hours. Stir occasionally and taste the sauce (with torn pieces of bread), adjust the seasoning or add water if needed. Add the meatballs and cook for the 30 minutes more.

To serve, lift the meats from the sauce to a warm serving platter. Top with a little sauce and tent with foil. Toss warm cooked spaghetti with a little sauce. Serve extra sauce in a sauce boat at the table along with the platter of meats. Have lots of grated parmesan on hand for the pasta.

MEATBALLS

Makes about 25 Meatballs

1 lb. Ground Beef

1 lb. Ground Pork

1 lb. Ground Veal

1/3 cup Parsley, chopped fine

2-3 cloves Garlic, chopped fine

3 large Eggs

2/3 cup Parmesan Cheese

1 cup Fresh Breadcrumbs

2/3 cup Milk

1 Tbsp. Black Pepper

2 ½ tsp. Kosher Salt

Combine all the ingredients well. Portion the meatballs onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Roll each lightly with moistened and while placing them on the pan.

Bake at 350° for 20 – 30 minutes or until 180° internal temperature. Cool slightly before placing in the meat sauce.

BRACIOLE

Makes 6 rolls

1 1/2 lbs. beef (chuck or round steak), sliced to 1/4 inch
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 cup Fresh Parsley, chopped

½ cup Fresh Breadcrumbs

3 cloves Garlic, chopped

2 large Eggs, hard cooked and chopped
Kosher Salt and Black Pepper to taste

Pound steak with mallet to tenderize, cut into six equal pieces.

Combine cheese, parsley, garlic, breadcrumbs and eggs. Season the steak with salt and pepper. Divide the filling between the pieces of steak.

Roll steak fillets in jelly roll style, starting with short side. Tie meat securely with string. Brown the braciole with the sausages and follow recipe for the Sunday Gravy.

Download and Print Sunday Gravy Recipe (click here)

Technorati Tags: pasta,spaghetti,Sunday Gravy,food,cooking,meatballs,tomato sauce

Good and Comfy...Restaurant Food Trends in '09

It doesn't take much of a prognosticator to tell you that the coming year is going to be tough, for everyone. We get it shoved down our throats daily by the news media. (I firmly believe we create our own futures. Thereby, believing there is doom and gloom on the horizon will probably make it happen. But I'll save that for another rant.) But a bad few years ahead doesn't mean we'll stop eating in restaurants. We'll probably change our habits and eat out less often or maybe order less extravagant meals. The Wall Street soothsayers ( I don't know why we should even bother with these guys) are predicting an uptick in sales at quick serve restaurants like McDonald's, Wendy's etc. And a flat to moderate growth for casual dining restaurants like Ruby Tuesday, Applebees etc. High end restaurants will be most adversely affected by rising costs than lower sales. On top of that, this segment is generally made up of smaller business that don't have the opportunity to make up for lower sales by increasing volume with discounts and deals like the casual market can. With all that, we still gotta eat. So what will be on our plates in 2009?

In times of trouble we turn to comfort. We saw that right after 9/11. Whether it's on our own dining table or on a table at the corner bistro, everyone will be looking for comfort foods. What are comfort foods? they are anything that reminds you of a better time or helps you soothe the edges of a ragged day. It can be cream of tomato soup to one person or dried cuttlefish to someone else. It all depends on the culture, environment or region of the world you call home. We have so many great restaurants in this country that its really not too hard to find the comfort food you crave. And in the coming months there will be more chefs and restaurants featuring there versions of comfort food.

Besides visceral comfort many of us will be looking for ways to be comfortable in our own skin. Meaning that we'll be looking for ways to live a healthier lifestyle, which means eating healthier. This will affect restaurants in more ways than just putting a diet plate on the menu. The inventive ways many restaurateurs will use to approach this will range from putting more vegetarian and vegan items on their menus to using lighter cooking methods (less fats) to buying more locally grown or produced products. The latter being the most prevalent and the one getting the most attention. Because eating locally will carry with it a whole lot of cool this year.

So here's a list of just some of the things you may see on menus this year. Now you may only find some of these at that little Chef owned cafe down the street, but I wouldn't be surprised that a few of them don't pop up at your local chain eatery as well. Either way happy eating in '09.

almond pesto

candy bar desserts

cannellini beans

chocolate/peanut

churros & doughnuts & beignets

coconut desserts

duck fat fried potatoes

egg with asparagus

farro (Emmer Wheat)

gnocchi

parnmigiano flan

pork belly

prosciutto or bacon wrapped whatever

sauerkraut

bacon

truffles

pretzels

fish 'n chips

Russian dressing

Classic sauces; beurre blanc, perigourdine, veloute

 

Technorati Tags: food trends,restaurant,2009,economy,recession