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Antipasto Platter No longer need shoppers hunt down a salumeria or pork store in the Italian part of town to find meats for a good antipasto platter. Such once-exotic salamis and sausages are found in many good supermarket deli cases. Of course the best meats are still found behind the counter of true Italian butchers.
Antipasto Salad Chicago likes big salads, especially big salads that have lots of ingredients not normally found in a typical bowl of rabbit-food greens. This one includes virtually all the meats and even cheese from an antipasto platter, plus greens. Make sure all the ingredients are diced very fine. Your goal should be to have nearly some of everything on every forkful.
Baked Vidalia Onions These tender, cheese-frosted globes of sweet onion dress up dinner the way a top hat crowns a formal suit. And yet, the moment you lay knife or fork to one, it unravels all over your plate and looks a horrid mess. The good news is that the mess is entirely delicious, and its textural balance of silky-tender onion and crumbly cheese and croutons is sheer pleasure on the tongue.
Beef Carpaccio with Porcini Mushroom Relish Beef carpaccio was first served in Venice at Harry’s Bar, which is also birthplace of the Bellini (white peach nectar and sparkling wine). This elegant recipe is from Harry Caray's in Chicago.
Bierock We've heard all sorts of explanations for the name bierock, including the fact that one of these pocket sandwiches tastes great with beer. Historically, the bierock, like the trademarked Runza, goes back to the Volga Germans who settled on the American plains about a century ago. The portable meals (similar to the Upper Midwest's pasties) were a favorite lunch among farm workers; and today they are ubiquitous at Church suppers and fund-raisers throughout Nebraska and Kansas.
Black-Eyed Peas Black-eyed peas are a familiar sight on the Southern table – a good companion for country steak and mashed potatoes or a welcome fourth on an all-vegetable plate of collard greens, stewed apples, and okra. They are an essential dish for New Year's celebrations, as eating them will bring you good luck for the next twelve months.
Broccoli Salad A great dish for broccoli lovers, for here the florets retain their snap and flavor as they are highlighted by a bath of oil, garlic and lemon juice. The peppers and Kalamata olives make it a beauty.
Caesar Salad The reason many restaurants make Caesar salad as a tableside event is that it never should be mixed in advance. If not served immediately, Caesar salad can get watery and its romaine leaves limp. Caesar dressing is customarily made in a large wooden bowl that serves as a kind of mortar for crushing the garlic and anchovies together. It is also possible to make the dressing separately and combine it with the lettuce just before serving.
Cheddar Corn Pancakes Cheddar corn pancakes are a delicious legacy of Gail's Station House of West Redding and Ridgefield, Connecticut. They are sweet and savory and even more delicious when blanketed with warm maple syrup.
Chicken Caesar Wrap The Sand-Wege is a small storefront near our house with a big sandwich menu. One of its most popular items is a chicken salad in a tortilla wrap of spinach, tomato, southwest spice, honey wheat ,or plain. These are big ones, over a foot across, and we've noticed that one of the things distinguishing them from other versions is just how tightly they are rolled. Even the messiest sandwiches – and this one can be pretty messy – tends to hold together as nicely as a hand-made cigar.
Chicken Vesuvio Harry Caray's is "The Official Home Plate of the Chicago Cubs," a great place to have some brews while watching games and an even better place to plow into great steaks, Italian fare, and a dish that is unique to Chicago, Chicken Vesuvio. Not too many restaurants in the Windy City offer it, but of those that do, this is by far the best version. It is a deliriously satisfying meal of chicken baked to utmost succulence encased in a red-gold crust of lush skin that slides from the meat as the meat slides from the bone. For garlic lovers in particular, it is sheer ecstasy.
Collard Greens Of all the vegetables served at the buffet line of the Blue Willow Inn, proprietor Louis Van Dyke may give the most thought to collard greens, which he calls, "God's gift to the South." He believes that they are always best when cooked a day ahead, chilled and reheated – a process that gives them the opportunity to mellow, and for the good pork flavor to thoroughly infuse the leaves.
Corn Pudding Here is one of the greatest cold-weather party recipes in the world, a side dish that goes with almost any sort of roast, shrimp casserole, or chile. It is the most-requested recipe that we’ve ever served, and guests who try it once demand it on return trips. We learned it from an old pal, Ippy Patterson, who learned it from a lady she knew in San Francisco.
Flo's Hot Dog Relish (Not) Hot dogs are the only thing onthe menu at Flo’s, in Cape Neddick, Maine, so when you enter the low-slung, six-seat diner and peer through the pass-through window into the kitchen, proprietor and chef Gail Stacey (Flo’s daughter-in-law) will ask just one question, and it is not What would you like to eat today? She asks “How many?” Crucial to the formula that has made Flo's a dog-lover's destination is the hot sauce -- a devilishly dark sweet/hot relish of stewed onions, glistening with spice. A “special” is a hot dog with this sauce, a sprinkle of celery salt, and a thin line of mayonnaise. The magic combination transforms a modest dog into something unspeakably luxurious. The onion hot sauce Flo devised for hot dogs is a top-secret recipe so we devised this similar snappy relish for when we want a dog with bite. The recipe is eminently flexible. Adjust chili powder, sugar, and other ingredients to taste.
Fried Green Tomatoes Fried green tomatoes are especially dear to the people at the Blue Willow Inn because it was this dish that made them famous. A few months after opening, when they were still struggling to make ends meet, humorist Louis Grizzard came to dine in Social Circle. He was thrilled to find a restaurant that actually served the hard-to-find delicacy of fried green tomatoes, an old-fashioned dish his grandmother used to make. After eating ten slices, he wrote a column about them. "incredibly pleasing," he declared.
Fried Okra The full name of Ruth & Jimmie's, of Abbeville, Mississippi, was Ruth & Jimmie's Sporthing Goods & Cafe. Here you could buy a rod and reel, shotgun shells, live bait, gas from the pumps out front, and sacks of White Lily flour for making biscuits. And you could also have a great meat-and-three lunch. Ruth & Jimmie's is long-gone now, but we recall the old wood-frame shop every time we make the crunchy fried okra for which they supplied the recipe.
Giardiniera For many Italian beef eaters in Chicago, a lode of giardiniera atop the beef is as essential as the beef itself. Our recipe includes the "sport peppers" that are so popular at Chicago's beef and hot dog stands, but any small, very hot pepper will do. Obviously adjust this to your taste ... but giardiniera should not be mild!
Green Beans "In the South, mama always canned green beans from the garden," says Louis Van Dyke of the Blue Willow Inn. "That is why we always used canned green beans, even when fresh-from-the garden are available. "People come to the Blue Willow Inn to eat food like mama or grandmother made; and when it comes to beans, they have to be canned."
Green Tomato BLT Of all the variations on the classic theme of the BLT, the Loveless Cafe's version, layered with crisp fried green tomatoes, is one of the most beguiling. The tang of the tomatoes and their brittle crunch provides extraordinary balance for the savor of bacon and gentle notes of mayo and lettuce.
Local Hero Before K.C. Scott opened up Magnolia's in April, 1999, it took a long while to come up with the right name. Then one day, standing in her kitchen, she found herself looking at one of the antique signs she had collected … for Magnolia Dairy Products. "I like Magnolia because it has a slow, Southern feel," she explains, noting that her goal in starting this seductive little restaurant was to create a place that provided quality food at a reasonable price in a setting that was as relaxed as a friend's kitchen. Her "Local Hero" sandwich, named for a movie she likes, is made on Magnolia's focaccia and dressed with Magnolia's vinaigrette, but if you are not quite that industrious, these ingredients can be store-bought.
Mighty Ity As its name suggests, Super Duper Weenie is primarily a hot dog place. But it is also a great source for cheese steaks as well as for a superb Mighty Ity Italian sausage sandwich. When chef Gary Zemola gave us the recipe for that one, he said that he felt the key to making it great – beyond using excellent ingredients – is time. "Don't rush anything when making a Mighty Ity," he said. "Let the flavors meld."
Muffaletta The name "muffaletta" once referred only to the bread, a chewy round loaf turned out by Italian bakeries. New Orleans grocery stores that sold the bread got the fine idea to slice it horizontally and stuff it, and the muffuletta sandwich was born. It has become a signature dish of The Big Easy, but, like the po boy, has become known nationwide. It depends on good bread and cold cuts, but the soul of a muffaletta is its olive salad. This is the recipe used at the wonderful All-Star Sandwich Bar in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
New Joe Special I won't get into the complete genealogy of the New Joe Special (because I cannot; it's too confusing), but the most credible tale of its origin is that it was invented late one night at San Francisco's New Joe's Restaurant to feed a hungry musician who ordered a spinach omelet but asked the chef if he could add anything to make his eggs more substantial. The chef said he had some hamburger meat left over from dinner hour. Now, all around the Bay Area, you will find menus that list Original Joes, New Joes, Baby Joes, and just plain Joes, all of which are a variation of the skillet meal that includes ground beef, spinach, and eggs. We like it at Original Joe's in San Jose (since 1956), where it is called the Joe's Special and the menu alerts customers, "We are not associated with any other 'Joe's' restaurants."
Pesto Sauce Originally from Genoa, pesto is named for the pestle traditionally used to grind up basil leaves with garlic as the basis of the verdant sauce.
Roasted Garlic Soup When roasted, even ferocious garlic develops a pussycat personality. With potatoes and cream, six whole bulbs here become the foundation of a mellow soup.
Rodger's Big Picnic Michigan is farm country, a source of superb fruits and vegetables from spring berries through autumn apples. One of the best places to get to know the Michigan bounty is the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market on Detroit Street, open every Saturday throughout the year on Wednesdays, too, May through December. Here you will find farmers selling fresh-picked produce as well as maple syrup, jams and jellies, eggs and cheese. Rodger's Big Picnic is Zingerman's Deli's vegetarian ode to the market from which many great sandwich ingredients can be bought. Specifically, this sandwich depends on good asparagus, preferably Michigan asparagus. Zingerman's Ari Weinzweig says, "I love roasting (as opposed to steaming) asparagus because it concentrates the flavors so nicely."
Spinach Cornbread Greens and cornbread go together as well as ham and eggs. This recipe, given to The Blue Willow Inn by Kitty Jacobs of Guidelines, Georgia, conjoins them in a luscious pan-loaf that is moist, high-flavored … and good for you!
Tomato Basil Soup Tomato and basil: from soup to sorbet (yes, sorbet!), these are the most-paired ingredients in the Italian kitchen. Onions and carrots add a deep vegetable sweetness.
Tomato Chutney Nothing complements fried green tomatoes as well as this sweet relish, which takes full advantage of the ripe tomato's fruity nature. It is vivid red, a beautiful complement to the deep green color of the fried tomatoes inside their crust. This chutney is a great companion for almost any other fried, tangy, or savory food.