Market Power

Sioux City Loosemeat Sandwiches, ala the Charlie Boy

If you grew up in Sioux City, Ia. like I did, then you are aware of the mecca that SCIA is for comfort food.   I may be biased, but you haven't lived until you've had a Milwaukee Wiener House hot dog, a Coney dog, Jerry's Pizza, El Fredo's Pizza, Sneaky's Chicken, onion chips from Tastee's, and a raised doughnut from Sunkist Bakery.  But don't forget to include one of the biggest icons of SCIA comfort food: a loosemeat sandwich.  There is none better, IMHO, than the Charlie Boy served at Miles Inn.  

Here's a rough indication of the popularity of this loosemeat sandwich.  Awhile back I created a fan page for the Charlie Boy on Facebook.  I was having trouble sleeping one night, and I made the page on a whim.  Many of my high school and college classmates and other friends joined, and their friends joined, and their friends joined, and so on, and so on, and so on.  The page now has over 2,600 fans.  

Let's just say the Charlie Boy is nearly synonymous with what I consider to be one of the best mid-sized cities for comfort food, SCIA. 

But I digress.  Now that I'm an expatriate, I have come up with a recipe that is loosely based on the Charlie Boy and that uses many ideas from various Charlie Boy recipes I have come across over the years.  Unfortunately it's difficult to do a taste comparison when my kitchen is in Mankato, Mn. and a fresh, tasty Charlie Boys is nearly 200 miles away in SCIA.  But my family enjoys this recipe when I make it.

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 small onion, finely-chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 teaspoon prepared yellow mustard
• 1 tablespoon horseradish
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• water to cover mixture

Directions

1. Pour oil into a large skillet and sprinkle the salt into the oil over medium heat.  Add onion and garlic and cook until soft and fragrant, about 1 to 2 minutes.  Add ground beef and brown, working the beef to break it into small bits.
2. Add mustard, horseradish, white vinegar, sugar, black pepper, and enough water to just cover the mixture.  Mix well and bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until almost all the water has boiled away, usually about 15-20 minutes.  Serve on warm hamburger buns.  

If you prefer your loosemeats to not be so loose, you can stir in a little Wondra or cornstarch at the end of the cooking.

Miles Inn serves their Charlie Boys with the customer's choice of onion, pickle, ketchup, and American cheese.  I also think a bacon-cheese Charlie Boy would be fabulous, but you'll have to make those at home since Miles doesn't serve theirs with bacon.  Miles also serves their sandwiches with a literally ice-cold schooner of ice-cold beer.

As always, comments on and suggestions for improving the recipe are appreciated.  Bon appetit!  

Spinach Fettuccine with Puttanesca Sauce

Classes don't start at my university until next week, but my kids went back to school this week, meaning I can do a little food experimenting at lunch time at the Pub and Grub.  Today I made a Puttanesca sauce mixed with some spinach fettuccine.  I am a big fan of Allrecipes.com because of their rating system and the quality of the commenters.  Oh, and their recipes are good too.  I used the Puttanesca I sauce as a base and made some slight modifications in the ingredients.

Each summer, I grow tomatoes and buy many, many more from the local farmers' market which I then can.  I used a pint of my canned tomatoes which I whupped up in the food processor.  I did not take out the seeds for convenience.  In step 2, I added a 6 ounce bottle of mushrooms and three marinated artichoke hearts (coarsely chopped).  I also used green olives stuffed with pimentos instead of Greek olives (it's all I had on hand).  Other than that, I followed the recipe.  I had some Al Dente spinach fettuccine on hand, so I cooked that according to the package directions and mixed the noodles in with the sauce.

My wife isn't as much of a fan of this dish as I am.  She thought it was too spicy for her tastes, and a bit too sour.   But I liked it as I made it.  

Quick and Easy Tomato Soup

It's winter here in Mankato, which means it's comfort food time here at the Pub and Grub*.  Yes, this early part of the season has been unusually mild here in southern Minnesota, but it still gets dark soon after 5 PM.  So even with the relatively warm temps, it's comfort food time at my house.

Then again, when is it not comfort food time?  But I digress.

Today for lunch I'm having a grilled cheese sandwich (homemade potato bread with Muenster and American cheese) and a tomato soup that I whupped up from scratch a year or so ago.  Here is the recipe.

Ingredients for 5-6 servings

• 1 28 ounce can of tomato puree
• 1 14.5 ounce can of chicken broth
• 1 chicken bullion cube
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 cup of butter

Directions

1. In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, stir the tomato puree and chicken broth together until well-mixed.  Add bullion cube and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium low, cover, and cook for 10 minutes.
2. Add salt and sugar and stir in.  Add butter and stir until melted.  

That's all there is to it.  The prep time is trivial, so your soup is ready to serve in about 12-15 minutes.

*Since I brew my own beer and I do about 80 - 90% of the cooking in my household, I've taken to calling my kitchen the Pub and Grub.

Update:  edited for typos.

Lasagna Classico

This lasagna recipe went over well in our house last night.  The kids even ate the mushrooms.  It's based on this classic lasagna recipe from the always excellent Allrecipes.com and submitted by Allrecipes user Barb R.  I changed the ingredients a little bit based upon my personal (and family's) preferences and based upon some of the comments of the recipe's reviewers.  I describe my changes below the ingredients.

Ingredients

• 9 lasagna noodles
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 pound bulk Italian sausage
• 1 (8 ounce) can sliced mushrooms, drained
• 3 cloves of fresh garlic, crushed
• 1/2 cup of fresh onion, minced
• 1 teaspoon fresh or dried oregano
  
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh or dried sweet basil
• 1 29 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 15 ounce can tomato sauce
• 1 6 ounce can tomato paste
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 pound grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 pound shredded mozzarella cheese

The original recipe called for the use of garlic salt, but I prefer to use fresh garlic.  It also called for 16 ounces of mushrooms, but my kids don't care for mushrooms.  I figured I could get 8 ounces past them without them complaining too much, but not 16 ounces.  I also added olive oil and fresh minced onions to the sauce.  I used freshly grated Parmesan.  Lastly, I added more Parmesan to the cheese mixture and on top of the final product.

Directions (my directions, while based on it, are slightly different than those at the original recipe;  the main difference is the ordering of the steps which, I think, are slightly more efficient time-wise relative to those given on the original recipe):

1. Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan and cook the ground beef and sausage over medium heat; drain. Stir in the onions, mushrooms, garlic, oregano, thyme, basil, and tomato products. Season with salt and pepper to taste; simmer 30 minutes.*
2. While the meat sauce is simmering, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the lasagna noodles and olive oil; cook until al dente, 8 to 10 minutes; drain.
3. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Also at this time, mix together the ricotta cheese, eggs, and about 2/3 of the Parmesan cheese in a bowl.  Set aside the remaining Parmesan.
4. Ladle enough of the meat sauce into a 9x13 inch baking dish to cover the bottom in a thin layer. Form a layer atop the sauce with 3 of the lasagna noodles. Spread about 1/4 of the ricotta cheese mixture over the noodles. Sprinkle about 1/3 of the mozzarella cheese over the ricotta cheese mixture and then ladle about 1/3 of the meat sauce over the mozzarella cheese. Repeat layering twice more.  On the last layer, do not add the remaining mozzarella cheese.
5. Cover with tinfoil and bake in a preheated oven 70 minutes. After the 70 minutes are finished, remove the foil and spread the remaining mozzarella and the remaining Paremesan over the top of the lasagna.  Replace uncovered in the oven and bake for an additional 8-10 minutes.
6. Allow to sit 10 minutes before serving.

The result was a flavorful lasagna, better than most I've had at restaurants.  Make sure that when you cook this, begin approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes before your meal.

*If you like a spicier sauce, you can add red pepper flakes or some paprika to the sauce in the first step.  You can also keep some of the grease from the frying of the meat to add a little extra flavor to the sauce.  I reserved about 2 tablespoons of grease for this purpose.

Phili's Chili

Many moons ago, Doc asked me to post my recipe for chili.  I've been pretty generous with my recipes here on this blog, but I couldn't part with the intellectual property that is my chili recipe.

Yes, I actually own a piece or two of intellectual property.  But I digress.

Here, after all these moons, is Phili's Phamous Chili recipe.  As usual, t = teaspoon and T = tablespoon

Spices*:

• 1/3 cup chili powder
• 1 t salt
• 1/2 t cumin
• 1/2 t black pepper
• 1/2 t paprika
• 1/2 t ground mustard
• 1/4 t crushed red pepper
• 1/4 t cayenne pepper
• 1/4 t sage
• 1/4 t garlic powder

Other ingredients:

• 2.5 quarts of canned fresh tomatoes (I've never used store-bought canned tomatoes for this recipe)
• 1 pound of ground beef
• 1/8 cup vinegar
• One pound of dry pinto beans, washed and cooked
• 1 cup of diced fresh onion

I combine the tomatoes and the spices into a large pot and stir until the spices are dissolved.  Then I add the beans, the vinegar, and the onion.  Lastly, I add the raw ground beef directly to the chili.  I put the chili over medium heat, cover, and cook for about an hour (long enough to cook the meat), stirring occasionally.

The result is a medium to mild chili that has always been a hit at parties and tailgates.  Even my wife, who is not too fond of spicy food, loves it.  Not only is it good as a bowl of chili per-se, but the leftovers are great for chili dogs.

When I've felt spicy, I've added cayenne pepper sauce, fresh hot peppers (cayennes, for example), or tabasco sauce to make the chili hotter.  But, usually, I just go with the recipe as given above.

*I make this recipe so often that I have made a big container of the chili spice mix listed above.  Nowadays I just add 1/3 heaping cup of my chili mix to the other ingredients.

The Perfect Pancake?

Maths expert Dr Ruth Fairclough stepped up to the challenge, unveiling a complex algebra formula to help chefs nail the dish on the day.

The 34-year-old senior lecturer of mathematics and statistics worked out the food formula because her two daughters loved eating pancakes so much.

Dr Ruth, who teaches at Wolverhampton University found that
100 - [10L - 7F + C(k - C) + T(m - T)]/(S - E) created the tastiest snack.

In the complex formula L represents the number of lumps in the batter and C equals its consistency.

The letter F stands for the flipping score, k is the ideal consistency and T is the temperature of the pan.

Story here.  As someone commented on Fark:  "pancake recipe or GTFO."  Done!

Macaroni and Cheese

From Megan McArdle:

As the ingredients below attest, this is really, really not good for you. But it's worth it. Also, it will give you an opportunity to use your scale

1 pound rotini
12 tablespoons butter, softened
6 tablespoons of flour
2 cups of whole milk
1-2 cups of heavy cream (you may replace one cup of the cream with 1 small container of sour cream)
2 pounds of good sharp cheddar, grated
1/2 pound of gruyere, grated
3 Kraft American singles
2 slices of Kraft provolone
1 teaspoon dry mustard
Pinch of paprika
Pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
Fresh ground black pepper
Salt
Panko (japanese bread crumbs--if you can't find these, use unseasoned Four-C ones, but the panko make a nicer crust)

(optional for those who like it spicy)

Dash of cayenne pepper
Pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

Preaheat the oven to 375. Boil the pasta in a large pot of water with a tablespoon of salt. Do not be tempted to use a smaller pot because it makes the water boil faster; without dilution, the accumulated gluten will make the pasta sticky and slightly off-tasting. When it is cooked to slightly more al-dente than you would normally eat it, drain and return to the pasta pot. Don't forget to take the pot off the burner if you've got an electric stove--we're doing crispy noodles next week.

Meanwhile, make your white sauce with the butter, flour, milk, and cream, according to the instructions in my old macaroni and cheese recipe--the one I used before I learned that a little bit of processed cheese goes a long way.

Grate all of the cheeses, including the American cheese, in your food processor. If you don't have a food processor with a grater attachment, grate the gruyere and chedder, and chop the other cheeses fine.

In one bowl, mix 1.5 pounds of cheddar with 1/3 of a pound of gruyere, and all of the American and provolone. In another bowl, take the box of panko and mix it with the remaining cheddar and gruyere, and 3 tablespoons of soft butter.

When the white sauce is finished, stir in the spices, except for the salt and pepper, and the larger portion of cheese. Salt and pepper to taste.

Combine the cheese sauce and the pasta in the pasta pot. Meanwhile, use the remaining butter to well grease a large casserole (or two smaller ones, or adorable little ramekins like they serve at E). At this point, if you want to make ahead, you can refrigerate the bread crumbs and macaroni mixture separately, in well-covered dishes, for up to a day.

When you're ready to cook, top the macaroni mixture with the panko and cover the dish(es) with tinfoil. Bake, covered, for 40 minutes (60 minutes if it has been refrigerated). Uncover and bake for another 20 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and crispy looking.

I think I know what will be on the menu sometime in the next couple of weeks.  Cue the simethicone and Lipitor!

Alfredo Sauce

Here's the recipe that I followed. 

Ingredients

1. 1/4 c butter (I used salted butter)
2. 1 c heavy whipping cream
3. 1.5 c shredded parmesean (freshly-shredded by moi)
4. Garlic to taste
5. parsley flakes

I melted the butter in a sauce pan and then mixed in the cream.  I heated this mixture for 5" and shredded the cheese in the meantime.  I slowly melted the parmesean in the cream mix and added the garlic.  I added parsley, cooked for 2 minutes, and mixed with fettucine.

The website said it was a good sauce for all kinds of alfredo recipes, and it was first-rate for fettucine alfredo.

Sloppy Jareds

This is the PowerHouse version of sloppy joes, named after a member of the household.

1. 1# ground beef
2. 1/2 c ketchup
3. 2 T mustard (prepared)
4. 2 T Worcestershire sauce
5. 4 oz beer (salted)
6. 1 - 2 T brown sugar (optional)

Cook the ground beef in 4 oz of salted beer.  Mix in the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 15".  I serve mine on buns with a few dill pickles.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Ingredients

1. 1 whole chicken, cut-up
2. 2 c buttermilk
3. 1/4 t freshly ground pepper
4. 1/2 t salt
5. Crushed Kellog's Corn Flakes
6. Lawry's seasoning salt
7. Peanut oil

I mixed the buttermilk with the pepper and the salt and then marinaded the chicken in the mixture for about 1.5 hours. 

I then seasoned each piece with a little Lawry's and then coated each piece with corn flake crumbs.  I set the breaded pieces on wax paper and let sit for 1/2 hour. 

I deep-fried the pieces in 300 degree peanut oil for 10 minutes.  Eldest, the PowerWife, and the PowerMom approved.  Youngest, crabby from a nap, did not eat his dinner.