This steak is not very Italian-o

When I was growing up, one of my favorite meals from my mom's treasure trove of recipes was a dish called "Round Steak Italiano".  It was round steak cooked in a gravy of tomato sauce and a packet of instant onion soup mix, and by Midwestern standards, it was Euro-delish. Mom would serve it over those "no yolk" curly noodles in the cellophane package.  By adding some spinach and using slightly less instant-y ingredients, this can become one of your staples, too. (PS, replace the beef with mixed mushrooms and the beef broth with a non-beef substitute, and you've got a tasty vegetarian option.)

Round Steak Italiano Reboot

Serves 4

1 pound pappardelle pasta, cooked al dente
olive oil
10 oz. flank steak, London Broil, or other lean cut
salt and black pepper
2 large shallots, minced
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 10 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 cup beef broth
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon Italian seasoning (or dried oregano and a pinch dried basil)
1 tablespoon corn starch + 2 tablespoons cold water
2 packed cups torn spinach leaves

Bring a large pot of well-salted water to boil and cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, season the steak on both sides with salt and pepper. In a large skillet, heat about a tablespoon of olive oil over high heat.  Sear the flank steak on both sides and remove from the pan when the steak is edible but rare.  Allow to sit on a cutting board. 

Lower the heat to medium and add the shallots and garlic.  Saute until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Remove pan from heat momentarily and add the red wine; it will smoke up a bit.  Scrape any brown bits off the bottom of the pan, then return to heat.  Add the tomatoes, beef broth, bay leaf, Italian seasoning, and salt and pepper to taste. Lower to a simmer and cover.

Once the steak has cooled a bit, cut it into thin strips.  Scrape the steak and all juices into the pan, toss in the spinach, give it a stir, and replace cover, allowing to simmer for about 5 minutes or until the spinach is wilted. Bring to a boil and stir in the cornstarch mixture, whisking to thicken. Remove from heat and serve over the noodles.

Midwest is Best: How to Salad Correctly

A colleague who grew up in New Mexico once told me about the time she spent teaching in Iowa. At the end of her first year, she had a potluck party for her college students, most of whom had grown up within 75 miles or so of their humble state U. She decided it would be fun to cook up a big batch of green chili, just like she had grown up eating in New Mexico, to share something from her culture with her students. They didn't like it.  It was way too spicy for all of them (although, being from Iowa, they were extremely polite in their rejections).  The students all brought typical Midwestern potluck fare, and my colleague was absolutely aghast.  Snickers salad, various mismatched foods frozen in aspic, and hotdish all made the list, and they were all totally foreign and bizarre ideas to her. I loved that story when she told it to me years ago, because at the time I was new to the Rocky Mountain region and was therefore just learning what about my Midwestern upbringing was not universal.  Now here I am, ten years on, and I do the same thing with my (almost always) non-Midwestern students.  When I make some of these typical flyover-country "salads" for my students, I am a traditionalist, like a faithful Civil War battle recreationist.  I do also update some of these for more healthy consumption when I'm trying not to embarrass myself with my peers. But for the record, everyone usually loves the unhealthy, Grandma Riner version...

"Oriental" Cole Slaw: this one was so awesome to me as a kid, because it had uncooked ramen noodles in it!  How radical is that?!  My mom would never make it, I realize now because she had some standards.

THE ORIGINAL:
Serves 12
1 16 - ounce package shredded cabbage with carrot (coleslaw mix)
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1 3-ounce package chicken-flavored ramen noodles, broken up
1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup salad oil
1/3 cup vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Combine coleslaw mix, green onions, ramen noodles (set aside seasoning packet for the dressing), almonds, and sunflower seeds in a salad bowl. Chill, covered, until serving time, up to 1 hour.

For dressing: In a screw-top jar, combine oil, vinegar, sugar, pepper and seasoning from the package of noodles. Cover and shake. Chill until serving time.

Before serving, shake dressing; pour over salad and toss to coat.

SUBSTITUTIONS / ADDITIONS:

Take out some cabbage and replace with finely chopped broccoli or sliced sugar snap peas

Ditch the sunflower seeds and almonds for cashews (or not)

Replace the uncooked ramen noodles with 3-4 oz. cooked angel hair spaghetti, soba noodles, etc.

Replace dressing with this ginger-sesame viniagrette

Broccoli and Raisin Salad: The combination of sweet, bitter, and salty actually makes this much better than you're probably expecting. Honestly, though, it does look like baby diaper on a plate. 

THE ORIGINAL:

Serves 6

4 cups fresh broccoli florets (1 medium bunch)
3/4 cup golden raisins
1 small red onion, chopped
1/2 cup Miracle Whip
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
3 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

In a large bowl, combine the broccoli, raisins and onion. In a small bowl, combine the Miracle Whip, vinegar and sugar. Pour over broccoli mixture; toss to coat. Sprinkle with bacon. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

SUBSTITUTIONS / ADDITIONS:

Blanch the broccoli

Add 1 cup boiled new potatoes + 2 chopped hard-boiled eggs

Omit the raisins (you substitute halved grapes): seriously, the sugar in the dressing is enough

Sub vegan mayo (Just Mayo is great) for the Miracle Whip

Apple Salad: My grandma made this one a lot, and I never liked it.  Somehow the mayo always ruined the apples for me (also, I hated bananas, because I was difficult). She never put mini-marshmallows in this, but I've seen it done at many a picnic. But it's still a salad, because MIDWEST.

THE ORIGINAL:

Serves 12

4 large apples, diced
1 cup chopped celery
1 sliced banana
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup mayonnaise

In a large bowl, combine the apples, celery, banana and walnuts. Add mayonnaise; toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate until serving.

SUBSTITUTIONS / ADDITIONS:

I'm just going to go ahead and make this the dessert it is trying to be. Add a cut up orange in there, too--what the hell. Get rid of the celery, and replace the mayo with honey-flavored Greek yogurt thinned out with a teaspoon or two of lime juice. Now you can put it on your waffles at brunch. 

Snickers Salad: No one in my family made this, and I was always bummed.  But Julie Hanson's mom made it, and I thought she was awesome (until I found out she was an alcoholic). 

THE ORIGINAL:

Serves who cares you're going to die anyway

6 SNICKERS® bars, diced
12 oz. Cool Whip
5-6 green Granny Smith apples with peelings on, diced

Mix diced SNICKERS® bars with Cool Whip. Refrigerate overnight. This step is important. The next day, mix in diced apples. Chill at least 1 hour. 

SUBSTITUTIONS / ADDITIONS:

Are you kidding?  I just wanted you all to know that this exists. Don't make this if you are over 10 years old. However, if you are trying to suck up to a 10-year-old, you should definitely bring this to the party.  And then drink a lot, because your life must be very sad to have to curry favor with a fickle 10-year-old. 

I grew up eating April Fool's food.

You know, fair reader of this blog, that I am a proud product of the Midwest, the Great Lakes region, to be specific. In the Great Lakes, we make casseroles (NOT hot dish in Illinois, anyway), our salads sometimes come with candy bars, and every rural road house near a pond has a "famous" fish fry on Friday nights. As I was thinking about the relevance of April Fool's to food, I realized that plenty of my favorite childhood foods could be considered pranks to the uninitiated.  So no, this is not a joke post; it is a celebration of Midwestern heritage, or perhaps a humble question: were our parents just messing with us our entire lives?!

Classic Snickers Salad: I've never had this, but I've certainly heard about it a lot.  I think it's more of an Iowa thing, and the people are a littler weirder over there (they get their gas at a place called the Kum N Go, for instance).

1(8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1(12 ounce) container Cool Whip, thawed
6 Snickers candy bars
4 -6 granny smith apples

Mix cream cheese and powdered sugar until thoroughly blended. Fold in Cool Whip. Cut Snickers into bite size chunks and add to cream cheese mixture. Chop the apples into chunks and stir. Chill 1 hour before serving.

Catherine's Cherry Salad: my grandma hauled this one out for fancy meals, like Thanksgiving and Christmas.  It was served in a crystal cut bowl (not pictured), and it was my favorite thing to eat with ham.

1 container of Cool Whip
1 (15 oz.) can cherry pie filling
1 (15 oz.) can crushed pineapple, drained

Mix it up and put in your best serving bowl. Show-offs might add chopped walnuts, but this salad stands alone.

Tuna Noodle Casserole: I called this "tuna noodle glop" because I was a pretty bratty kid, and my parents could never control me. It's a pretty complicated recipe involving canned tuna AND canned cream of mushroom soup, so I'm just going to leave this link here for you.  Oh, and here's the Green Bean Casserole recipe while you're at it.

Chicken and Noodles: what the hell is it?  It's not quite a soup, not a casserole, but it is some sort of soupy side dish to be served near your turkey at Thanksgiving. Now, I will say that in the Riner family, we always did it with homemade noodles, so you can replace the nice, light egg noodles in this recipe with some fat, doughy ropes that resemble Elmer's glue. I also don't remember so much chicken in the dish, but there was was some.





Don't forget to put the Ranch dressing out, because that shit goes on everything: salad, baked potato, tuna noodle casserole...






For more classic recipes, you might like The Hospitality of a Midwestern Potluck from April 2015.

Restaurant Review: Two for Evanston

While performing at a conference at the Hilton in downtown Evanston, IL, I of course decided to spend as much of my free time eating as possible. Evanston is just north of Chicago and right on Lake Michigan's shore (and yes, that made for a rather nippy November weekend), but the downtown area is culturally a world apartfrom the historically blue-collar northern neighborhoods of the city.  With Ivy League-ish Northwestern University within walking distance and crisply ironed chinos all 'round, you can bet there are some overpriced restaurants on every corner. Here's what I found:

Farmhouse.  Housed in the Hilton Orrington at the corner of Church and Orrington Streets, this farm-to-table, locally sourced bit of adorableness sports rough-hewn wood tables and a milky, white-washed interior.  This is the place to go for local beers: there are 36 beers total on tap, and over a dozen come from within 25 miles of the restaurant.  I loved my glass of Virtue Cider from Roscoe Village, which was crisp and dry enough to be champagne. We decided not to get too carried away with healthiness at this place, so our lunch consisted of a shockingly generous bowl of fluffy fried cheese curds (amazingly grease-free on the fingers) with homemade garlic aioli and homemade ketchup for dipping, the pork schnitzel sandwich (fine, but a bit dry) with delicious homemade potato chips, and the roasted root vegetable salad, featuring roasted local mixed beets, spring onions, and radishes, on top of baby arugula and dressed with an incredibly soft, tangy goat cheese and a heavenly mustard seed vinaigrette. Fantastic, and so was the extremely warm service.

*                                       *                                      *                                       *                                  *

The Cellar.  Run by the very upscale folks at The Stained Glass, The Cellar is their hipper and more casual younger sibling.  Well-crafted cocktails and long, long wine and beer lists compliment smaller portions meant to be shared, a sort of tapas menu with Midwestern roots. From the cocktail menu, we tried All That Jasmine (Effen Cucumber Vodka, Koval Jasmine liquor, Chamomile infusion) and Pure Cucumber (Hendrick’s Gin, crushed mint, shaved cucumber), which were both delicious.  Pure Cucumber was quite dry, so All That Jasmine might be more suitable for frou-frou fans.  The Spanish ALBARIÑO had a complex, almost nutty finish, and Metropolitan Flywheel was a crisp lager with a bready finish.  

To share, we had haricots verts with mint pesto and almonds, tomato and mozzarella salad with huge chunks of homemade mozzarella, the savory-sweet acorn squash ravioli made with homemade pasta, juicy Black Angus micro burgers with delicate, crispy shoestring potatoes, and one of our party ordered the full-sized lamb burger on a dark, glossy pretzel bun. The table fell silent as we devoured everything in sight, and the lively atmosphere in the restaurant added to our sense of celebration as we said good bye to our formerly clean, clear arteries.  

Hungarian Goulash

Spring weather is finally here and this dish couldn't be more wrong--you should be eating a lot of fruit, cucumbers, and grass clippings.  Perhaps it is because, as I write this post, I am visiting my family in Illinois, but I like the heavy old Eastern European classics sometimes, even when they're out of season.

You can enjoy this alone as a stew or serve it over egg noodles, spaetzle, or rice.  I like it over spaetzle and sprinkled with a little fresh dill and sour cream.

Hungarian Goulash

Serves 6-8

1/3 cup vegetable oil 3 onions, sliced 2 tablespoons Hungarian sweet paprika 2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon ground black pepper (or less if you're a baby) 2 large Russet potatoes, scrubbed and diced into 1-in cubes 8 oz. chopped mushrooms 1 pound beef stew meat, cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste 1/2 cup dry red wine 1 1/2 cups water 1 clove garlic, minced 1 teaspoon salt chopped fresh dill and sour cream or plain yogurt for serving Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat.  Cook onions until very soft, stirring frequently.  Remove onions and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine paprika, 2 teaspoons salt, and pepper.  Coat beef cubes in spice mixture and cook in oil until brown on all sides.  Add the potatoes, mushrooms, and cooked onions, as well as the tomato paste, red wine, water, garlic, and remaining 1 teaspoon salt.  Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 1 1/2-2 hours, or until meat is tender.

Simple Spaetzle

When I was a kid, I loved buttered noodles.  We would have them as a side with pork chops and salad (iceberg, hold the chopped vegetables).  Now I realize that what made this kind of meal so Midwestern was actually its German roots, for there are many Germanic peoples in the Great Lakes Region (which still doesn't explain the accent, but anyway...)  When I am in Germany, I love spaetzle, which are German noodles that are basically little clumps of pillowy pasta dough, boiled to perfection.  I don't like the casserole dishes with heavy cream, cinnamon, cherries, and spaetzle (a popular Sunday evening meal in Bavaria)--I prefer plain old buttered spaetzle.  It's not adding much, nutritionally, to your life, but it's so comforting and chewy.  This version throws in some mushrooms for variety.  It makes a nice side, but don't eat this alone day after day.  You might get scurvy.

Jaeger Spaetzle

Serves 6 as a side

1 pound spaetzle (make it or buy it)

For the sauce: 
1 tablespoon butter
4 minced shallots
3 cups mushrooms,  scrubbed and quartered
1 1/2 cups beef or vegetable broth
1/4 cup flour salt and black pepper to taste

Bring salted water to boil and cook the spaetzle as until al dente, about 8 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile, melt butter in a medium pan over medium heat. Saute shallots until clear. Toss in mushrooms until mushrooms are sautéed. Place flour in a separate bowl, slowly whisk in broth. Pour  broth mixture into mushroom pan boil for 5-10 minutes until thickened, stir fairly often so it doesn't stick.

Mix together the cooked spaetzle and the mushroom sauce and season with salt and pepper.  Some fresh herbs would be nice in there, too.  

Shepherd's Pie gets a makeover

I love Shepherd’s Pie, from the rich stew underneath to the crusty, golden brown mashed potatoes on top.  It’s a staple in British and Irish pubs, and it was a special treat we would occasionally eat at home growing up.  I equate it with cold winter nights, adventures abroad (in which I learned that many of my family's staple meals were merely rip-offs from the motherland), and the massive tangle that is Midwest-Irish-British-whatever-the-hell culture. But it’s filled with stuff I don’t eat much anymore: cheap cuts of meat, butter, loads of white potatoes… The trick is keep what’s best about the pie--the rich, hearty flavors and that fantastic crust on top--without creating a heart attack on a plate.  Easy.

Shepherd’s Pie, Made Over

Topping:
1 small head cauliflower, roughly chopped
1 russet potato, peeled and chopped
2 small parsnips, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, smashed and minced
¼ cup plain yogurt
4 oz. grated cheddar cheese (optional)
Salt and black pepper to taste

In a large pot of salty water, boil the cauliflower, potato, and parsnips until soft.  Drain and mash by hand with the garlic, yogurt, and salt and pepper to taste.  Stir in cheddar cheese.  This step can be done the day before and refrigerated or can occur while you make the filling.

Filling:
Olive oil
4 oz. dried shitake mushrooms, hydrated, drained of excess water, and chopped
½ cup broccoli florets and stems, chopped
1 small yellow onion, diced
½ green bell pepper, diced
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste
½ cup dry red wine
1 tablespoon minced chives
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, pinch salt, and the smoked paprika and sauté until tender.  Stir in the broccoli, mushrooms, pepper, tomato paste, and red wine, lower to medium low heat, and cover.  Allow to stew about 10 minutes, remove from heat, and stir in chives and salt and pepper to taste.


Grease a a large pie pan or medium-sized casserole dish with a bit of olive oil.  Pour in the vegetable stew and smooth out so it’s even.  Spread the potato mixture on top, gently smoothing like a thick layer of icing over the stew.  If the potatoes are cold, cook uncovered in the oven for 20 minutes at 400°F before broiling; if everything is hot, place under the broiler and cook about 10 minutes, or until potato mixture gets browned.


Please, for the love of god, have this with a porter or stout while shouting over cheesy 80s punk music from the U.K.

If it doesn't squeak, is it still a cheese curd? Taking in the sights in Wisconsin's capitol city...

I recently had the good fortune of travelling to Wisconsin's capital city for some concerts in May, and I did indeed eat my proverbial heart out.  Non-Midwesterners may scoff at the idea of looking for fun and good food in Madison, but those from the Great Lakes region know it's a great college town with fresh produce stands all over in the summer, not to mention the locally made artisan cheeses and ice creams.  It's worth the drive if you're already in the Chicago or Milwaukee areas, and if you're in those areas to visit family this summer, it's a great short-term escape from Grandma's guilt trips and casseroles.

The view from Lake Mendota on UW-Madison's campus. 

Travel:
The cheapest way to get there is to fly in to Chicago at O'Hare or Midway (O'Hare is slightly closer to the Wisconsin border) and take the shuttle up to Madison.  Coach USA runs a bus with stops at both airports and the Amtrack terminal (union Station) in the heart of downtown Chicago, dropping you near two stations with multiple "L"  and Metra lines, if you decide to go that route.  They run an on-time (or early) ship and it's $58 round-trip/ $29 one-way.

[By the way, I'm not going to waste a lot of time saying nasty things about airlines in this post; I've done enough of that already.  But I would just like to warn you, in case you didn't know, that Spirit Airlines charges $35 per carry-on.  I did not know this when I booked my tickets through Priceline, and if I had, I wouldn't have thought they were the cheapest deal.  So don't forget to check baggage fee policies with the company before booking through an aggregate sight, kiddies!]

Activities:
Mostly I practiced and performed, but I can give you a few tips.  Frank Lloyd Wright spent many years in the area, so if  you're into that sort of thing, check out his handiwork near campus at the First Unitarian Church, which he built in 1951.  Monona Terrace Convention Center was not built while FLW was alive, but he did draw up the plans, and it's also where they record Michael Feldman's NPR show, Whad'Ya Know?, every Saturday.  There is a fee to be in the audience, but the free coffee and doughnuts are pretty tasty.

Monona Terrace

Olbrich Botanical Gardens are free to the public from dawn until dusk and contain the only Thai Pavilion in North America.  It is beautiful, and the gardens are really stunning (plus they're a fun way to learn what grows in this part of the country).

Did you know that University of Wisconsin has a big, honkin' LAKE right on campus?  For a reasonable fee, you can rent a sail boat from the boat house on campus and act all fancy.  Or you can just wander along the mostly wooded trail that rings the lake and enjoy the many Gothic-inspired buildings on the heart of campus for free.  If I had attended this school, I don't think I would have done much homework.

This is the student union building at UW-Madison!
There's a good ice cream shop in here, too. 

Eating:
This is the most important activity when visiting a town, isn't it?  It tells you so much about whether or not that town deserves to exist (the town where I reside, for instance, probably does not).

The Dane County Farmer's Market is the largest producer-only farmer's market in the US.  Wander around the charming downtown area every Wednesday and Saturday in the summer and eat your weight in fresh cheese curds and other artisanal cheeses, homemade salsas, samples of locally raised meat, and so much more.  There are food stands, too, so you can get a more balanced diet if you want.  This is actually a great place to go for lunch.

If you don't make it to a farmer's market, Brennan's Market is your next best choice. These sort of overgrown roadside stands are all over town, and they carry loads of local produce, wine, beer, and some groceries, along with a deli counter and another lifetime's worth of Wisconsin cheese (and yes, you can eat your weight in free samples here, too).  Local cheese, locally made wine, and a big loaf of crusty bread can all be purchased here and brought to any one of the several lakes in town for a perfect picnic lunch.

Lao Laan-Xang at 2098 Atwood Ave. offers beautiful Laotian food in a slightly gentrified Capitol-area neighborhood and a reasonable price.  There's a little outdoor seating, but it goes fast during Madison's short summer.

Across the street, get your dessert at Monty's Blue Plate Diner (that is seriously what we did).  They actually have a terrific-looking menu, with tons of egg dishes and healthier, often vegetarian versions of diner classics, reminiscent of Sweet Melissa's in Laramie or the Chicago Diner.  But I only went for the homemade pie, which was glorious in every way.

There is a lot more to do in this diverse, education-rich, politically active town, I'm sure.  In the short time I spent there, I was overwhelmed by how much fun I had every single day.  Madison is a great place to hang for a weekend as a 20-something, 30-something, or as a whole family.  In mid-May, the weather was near-perfect every day, and there were plenty of places to go biking and running (in fact, you can rent bikes from the city for sight-seeing).  I highly recommend a visit.

Alright alright, I'll make Superbowl food

After the brief 80s revival that occurred in the late 90s (or judging by the sound of indie bands today, perhaps it's ongoing), I thought I'd gotten over my nostalgia for Frankie Goes to Hollywood and neon sweatshirts, but I feel a wave of it coming on lately.  Suddenly Spandau Ballet is amusing instead of irritating, and I have found myself craving the Good Housekeeping-approved recipes of my childhood at an alarming rate.  Did anyone else eat 7 Layer Dip at every party from 1982 to about 1994?  Was it just a Midwestern thing, or just a low-class thing (if so, I'm OK with it)?  I have been craving it for weeks--both the unimaginative,Taco Bell-like flavors and the memories of the Harvest Gold and/or Avocado kitchen appliances that helped make it possible.

I thought I might try to update the dip a little to suit my super-classy, grown-up tastes.  I'm also pretty excited about the fact that I am now old enough to drink beer with this junk, which probably negates the need for the higher quality ingredients.  Gimme a holla if you remember this delectable American classic, and share your own variations below!

Aaaaaw yeah, baby.

7 Layer Dip 2.0

Serves somewhere between 1 & 16


2 lbs mixed mushrooms, cleaned and roughly chopped
1 small yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 (16 ounce) can black beans
1 tablespoon lime juice
4 cups shredded cheese 
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
1 cup guacamole
1 cup salsa
1 cup mixed olives, chopped
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped green onions

In a large skillet, saute mushrooms, garlic, and onion with a little salt. Drain in a colander and set aside cool to room temperature.

In a 9 x 13 casserole or serving dish, spread the black beans, season with salt, and sprinkle with the lime juice.  Smash the beans a bit with the back of a wooden spoon and spread evenly, creating a layer about 1 inch deep.   Sprinkle 2 cups of shredded cheese on top of beans. Sprinkle mushroom mixture on top of cheese. Spread sour cream very slowly on top of mushrooms. Spread guacamole on top of sour cream. Pour salsa over guacamole and spread evenly. Sprinkle remaining shredded cheese. Sprinkle olives, tomatoes, and green onions on top.

Serve at room temperature with pita chips or those delicious, middle-aged fashionable multigrain tortilla chips they're selling now. 

Time to get fat on cheese and potatoes!

This is a little fussy, but it makes a boatload of food and it's totally worth it.  It's salty, it's spicy, and it's full of cheese.  If this crappy weather is what we have to put up with until April, then we've earned this.

Green Chili and Potato Gratin


Serves 6-8

4 large russet potatoes, scrubbed and sliced ¼-inch thick
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
½ yellow onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, smashed and minced
1 cup prepared green chili sauce
2 teaspoons salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 oz. (1 cup) grated parmesan cheese
4 oz.  (1 cup) grated sharp cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat a 3-quart baking dish with butter or cooking spray.

Place sliced potatoes, and broth in a large pan or Dutch oven.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until potatoes are tender but still hold together, about 10 minutes.  Drain in a colander when done, but reserve about a ½ cup of the cooking water.

Meanwhile saute the onion and garlic in a small frying pan with some olive oil over medium heat until onion is tender, about 10 minutes.  In a small bowl, combine the onion mixture, green chili, and ½ teaspoon of the salt.  Set aside.

Ladle just enough of the potato cooking water into the baking dish to lightly cover the bottom.  Then place approximately one half of the potato slices into the baking dish, overlapping slightly and dusting with a light layer of salt (about ½ teaspoon).  Top with ½  of the grated cheeses,  then all of the green chili mixture.  Cover with the remaining potato slices in the same fashion as before, then top with remaining cheese.  Cover with foil and bake 30 minutes.  Remove foil and bake another 10 minutes or until the top starts to brown.

Salmon Patties like me old great-grandmammy used to make

OK, that title is totally confused; my great-grandmother was Swedish-American, and she made salmon patties for special occasions. (Leave it to Midwesterners to haul out the canned fish for "special occasions".)  What can I say, I get sappy around the holidays.  I have revamped them ever-so-slightly (added some flavoring) to fulfill those nostalgic cravings from which I sometimes suffer, but if I am careful to present them just right, these are also acceptable for guests at cocktail hour. What really dresses them up is a simple salad and sauce to top the cakes.

PS--I like these best with a dirty martini or gin and tonic.  Anything with gin, really.


Salmon Cakes Deluxe

Serves 6

2 cans salmon, flaked

1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs

1 egg, beaten

salt and pepper, to taste

1 teaspoon garlic powder

Vegetable oil, for frying

Heat oil in over medium high heat in a large skillet. Combine canned salmon, egg, 1/4 cup bread crumbs, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Form into patties about 4 inches in diameter. Fry until golden brown, about 3 minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels, place on serving platter, and top with cucumber salad and dill sauce.  

Cucumber salad:

1/2 cucumber, peeled and diced

1/4 cup red onion, diced

1 tablespoons chopped fresh parley

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and top each salmon cake with equal amounts of salad.  

Dill Sauce:

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 tablespoons plain yogurt

1 cloves garlic, smashed and minced

1 tablespoon dill, minced

1 teaspoon wasabi paste (less for milder sauce)

1 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients thoroughly in a small bowl.  Add one dollop to each cake which has already been topped with cucumber salad.  

Fargo is hip, dontcha know!

A few weeks ago, I found myself in Fargo for a couple of performances, and much to my surprise, I got a taste of urbanity that I have trouble finding in Denver.

HoDo is the Hotel Donaldson in downtown Fargo, a renovated Art Deco building which is home to a 17-room stylish hotel (rooms are each designed around one original work of art by local sculptors, painters, photographers, etc.),  a chic urban bar decorated with local art, and a New American-style restaurant run by Chef Tim, semi-finalist for the 2011 James Beardhttp://www.jamesbeard.org/index.php?q=about_awards Foundation's Best Chef in the Midwest.  (Winners announced May 6.)

The restaurant strives to highlight local produce, with items like rack of North Dakota lamb , local wild rice sausage, and an artisanal Midwestern cheese plate.  Staying true to his roots, there is even a small plate of mixed marinated vegetables, pickles, mustard, and grilled bread (served with or without the cheeses).  If that isn’t the classic ploughman’s platter, I don’t know what is (and it may just be the only one offered by a James Beard nominee)!  

I had the three-cheese lasagna with truffle cream and wild mushrooms. The flavor was fantastically earthy and multi-dimensional, and of course, the massive quantities of cheese were very comforting.  The dish was rather large for one person, and also a bit too salty for my taste, but as leftovers, it mellowed nicely the next morning for breakfast.  (Yeah, you read that right.)  HoDo also boasts a great wine list, which it shares between the bar and the restaurant, and my companion and I enjoyed generous glasses of Malbec from Argentina (it’s tough to get dry red wines from North Dakota, I’m guessing).

For dessert, the chocolate trio consisted of homemade milk chocolate sorbet, a bittersweet la bete noir (my favorite), and a fluffy Godiva souffle.  All were fantastic, even the chocolate sorbet which I usually wouldn’t enjoy.  The souffle was rich and very sweet.  The flourless chocolate cake, however, aside from  the perfectly creamy consistency, had a certain roasted flavor to the chocolate that definitely elevated the entire trio into a dessert for grown-ups.  

The food that night was certainly the work of an artist (saltiness aside), and the atmosphere was just what it should have been: dark, cozy, and elegant without being stuffy, in good Midwestern style.  Our service was clearly well-trained in pushing the most expensive of everything, but she was a sport when we continually chose more interesting--though cheaper--items on the menu, and she seemed knowledgeable enough about the menu in general.  A walk through the bar afterward provided a livelier, more youthful version of the same general vibe, and the artwork in the halls and scattered throughout the walls made Fargo seem like a satisfyingly artistic place.  It was a nice night.  Youbetcha.

Greeley, CO's weirdest restaurant

Ostensibly, Red's Dogs and Donuts hearkens back to Greeley's potato-loving past, offering "spudnuts", or doughnuts made with potato flour.  In reality, it's a crazy hot mess of A.D.D. junk food love--doughnuts (most are not spudnuts), "gourmet" hotdogs made with kobe beef (Why bother?  Can anyone explain this?) and all kinds of random toppings like mole sauce with pickled red onions and coleslaw with bacon, as well as a couple of special treats you can't find anywhere else.  In fact, you might not ever have heard of them.

Kolaches are a yeast-based bun filled with meat, vegetables, or fruit.  Most are geared towards breakfast (though Red's is open until 8pm weekdays, midnight weekends) and amount to enclosed Egg McMuffin-style sandwiches.  And then there are the Wacky Waffles (I'm pretty sure a "TM" belongs after that term).  Wacky Waffles are merely Belgian waffles with various toppings, most of them including candy and heavy whipped cream, but I guess maybe they thought waffles weren't exciting enough to sell without a special name.

Now, I'm not making fun--their doughnuts are pretty incredible (though you can save your money on the Baconator--you can see the bacon, but you can't taste it), and the kolaches are a pretty handy portable way to fill up.  All in all, the food is made well and with a great affection for all that is unhealthy.  And the extreme enthusiasm with which the workers greet and serve you behind the counter is downright heart-warming.  I'm just saying, this place is bizarre.  And the owners are definitely going to die of heart disease soon.

Ode to the Horseshoe Sandwich

I returned recently from a brief visit back to the homeland—West-central Illinois. I actually didn’t grow up there, but my dad’s family lives in this area, about 60 miles West of Springfield, and I don’t think it will ever cease to be exotic to me.  I am  amazed by this part of the world. I don’t care what you say about the Midwest, these people are creative! They grind up leftover ham and stir in pickle relish and mayonnaise to make Ham Salad! They put ranch dressing on their baked potatoes! And they invented the most wondrous creation this side of Green Jell-O Salad with Cottage Cheese and Pineapple: the Horseshoe Sandwich.

I have eaten only a small number of these creations in my life (which is why I am still alive), and since I grew up in the Big City, I had to do some research on this gut buster to properly inform you of its wondrous beauty. I always thought it was the weirdest damn thing I’d ever seen when I was a kid visiting my grandparents, and it turns out most of the country feels the same way: it is the “signature dish” of the Springfield, Illinois area, meaning no one else eats it.

The sandwich was created in the late 1920s by chef Joe Schweska at Leland Hotel in Springfield, Illinois located on the corner of Sixth and Capitol (now an office building). There, there’s my research for you. What is it, you ask? It is a hot mess of what should be a normal enough sandwich (hamburger patty, ham steak, or fried pork tenderloin are all candidates) with a pile of smooshed French fries and a generous ladling of cheese sauce placed atop the meat. Being paranoid about taking pictures in greasy diners near interstates, I tried to find an attractive picture online--the above horror was the best I could do. So, thick cut fried bread or a white bun, hamburger, undercooked, frozen French fries, oozy cheese sauce, and another big piece of white bread. There it is. And for the kiddies, you can order the “pony” size so they don’t overeat. Gotta start ‘em young.

The funny thing is that, despite the language I use to describe this creation, it’s pretty good. I mean, if you are craving salt and grease and don’t want to eat another meal again for at least twelve hours, the Horseshoe does have a certain charm. It’s not so terribly different from much-loved French-Canadian poutine, the plate of French fries smothered in cheese curds and gravy. It could be my genetically inherited Midwestern taste buds talking, but I suspect that perhaps it caters to the baser food instincts in us all. Go on, try it. You know you want to.

Horseshoe Sandwich
1 oversized white bun or two slices Texas toast
1 oversized piece of meat or meat substitute (I’m going to try a Garden burger to be healthy). Don’t grill it—that would compete with the cheese sauce
1 large handful of French fries, fried but not quite golden brown. Don’t get fancy—use Ore-Ida frozen ones.
1 half-cup Cheese Whiz or similar cheese-like sauce, heated

Perhaps if we drink red wine with this, it will mitigate the cholesterol issues.