Posted on 04/05/2006 10:43:24 AM PDT by HungarianGypsy
Today is Wednesday. In my house that means American History is our History/Geography topic. We are also learning about the individual states. The best way to learn is always through hands-on experience. Since we can't travel to each state at this time, I hoped all the good Freepers could bring their states to us. What recipes do you have that are specific to your area and can rarely be found anywhere else?
Let's see...There's Reindeer Sausage, Pickled Moose Nose, Muktuk (Whale Blubber), and Herring Roe On Kelp... Hope this helps.
Maryland - A mess of steamed Blue Crabs with Old Bay Seasoning...can't get any more Maryland/Chesapeake Bay than that!
Yep. Soft shells. I lived in Maryland for a while, worked as a cook. Used to make soft shell crab sandwiches for people. Breaded, fried in a pan, served on a bun. Of course Maryland crab cakes are very popular, even if the actual crab meat comes from Mexico or Venezuela.
Classic OLD BAY Crab Cakes
This is the original recipe that was on the back of the Old Bay can. This version contains baking powder which helps make the crab cakes light and fluffy. Try refrigerating the shaped patties 30 minutes to help keep them together when cooking,
Ingredients:
2 slices dried bread, crusts removed
small amount of milk
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon McCormick® Parsley Flakes
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon OLD BAY® Seasoning
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 pound fresh lump crabmeat*
Directions:
1. Break bread into small pieces and moisten with milk. Add remaining ingredients. Shape into patties.
2. Broil or fry until golden-brown on both sides.
* Dungeness Crab, Stone Crab and Alaska King Crab will work if you can not get Blue Crab meat.
Makes 4 servings
Nutritional Info
Calories: 174, Fat: 6 g, Cholesterol: 142 mg, Sodium: 1047 mg, Carbohydrates: 7 g, Fiber: 0 g, Protein: 23
Let's see, there's the Sonker, which is somewhat like a cobbler, deep dish, made with fresh fruit with a crusty top. There's the Turkey Bog or Chicken Bog, which is stewed turkey or chicken with rice, peppers (both hot and sweet) and onions, a very thick stew. Persimmon Pudding, made with wild persimmons, cinnamon, brown sugar, etcetera. Wild greens that we call Creasie (sp?) Greens.
I'd have to ask my older relatives for more.
Pasties from Michigan. I don't have a recipe on hand though.
2 Quarts half-and-half
2 cubes butter
A lot of garlic
3 tins of anchovies in oil
A bunch of chopped celery and optional, other veggies
Homemade style bread sliced
Add the anchovies to the butter in a fry pan over a low heat. Break them up with a wooden spoon until they are pulverized.
Start adding the cream slowly over low heat. Stir. Add more cream. Stir.
At a certain point, the butter and cream will blend together. Stop adding half-and-half at that point. Cook it down 'til it is thick over low heat.
Serve in an electric skillet keeping the gravy just barely bubbling occasionally. Everyone stands around the table and scoops the gravy and veggies up onto the bread.
Delicious beyond description and a great holiday dish.
Some replace the butter with olive oil. I don't think it's nearly as good.
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Shrimp & Cheese Grits
Also, the garlic goes in with the anchovies. Don't burn the garlic.
Killer Chile Rellenos:
Ingredients:
6 Ancho, Pasilla or Anaheim Chiles - or - 27 oz. can Mild Whole Green Chiles
1/2 pound Monterey Jack cheese, thinly sliced
1/4 cup Flour
6 Raw eggs (separated)
1/2 cup Flour
2 cups salsa verde
2 cups Homestyle Mexican Salsa
1 cup Corn oil
Recipe Instructions:
1. Rinse the chiles.
2. Preheat your oven to broil.
3. Place the chiles in a 9 x 14 baking dish and place on the top shelf of your oven.
4. Watch and listen closely. When the skins start to make popping sounds and to char and turn black in places, take the chiles out and flip them over. Be sure and use a potholder so you don't burn your hands!
5. When both sides are fairly evenly charred, remove them from the oven.
6. Wrap each chile in a moist paper towel or place in a sealed plastic bag to steam.
7. After a few minutes, check them. Once the skin comes off easily, peel each chile.
8. Cut a slit almost the full length of each chile. Make a small "t" across the top, by the stem. Pull out fibers and seeds (this is where the heat is) and replace with a slice of cheese. You can set these aside, for a few minutes or a few hours if you put them in the refrigerator.
9. Whip the egg whites at high speed with an electric mixer, until stiff peaks have formed.
10. Heat the oil in a skillet until a drop of water sizzles when dropped into the pan.
11. Beat the egg yolks with one tablespoon flour and salt. Mix the yolks into egg whites and stir until you have a thick paste.
12. Roll the chiles in 1/4 cup flour and dip each one in the egg batter. Coat evenly. Fry, seam side down on both sides until golden brown. Place on paper towels to drain.
13. Meanwhile, heat the salsa in a medium saucepan (either one or some of each). Place one or two Rellenos on each plate and pour salsa over them. Serve them immediately and brace yourself for major compliments!
2 pounds calf testicles*
2 cups beer
2 eggs, beaten
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup yellow cornmeal
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
Vegetable oil**
1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce
* Be sure to ask your butcher for calf testicles, not bull testicles. Calf testicles are the size of a walnut and are much more tender than the larger bull testicles.
** Use enough vegetable oil to fill your frying container halfway to the top (to allow for bubbling up and splattering) and to completely cover calf testicles while frying.
With a very sharp knife, split the tough skin-like muscle that surrounds each testicle. Remove the skin (you can remove the skin easily if the testicles are frozen, then peel while thawing). Slice each testicle into approximately ¼- to ½- inch-thick ovals. Place slices in a large pan or blow with enough beer to cover them; cover and let sit 2 hours.
In a shallow bowl, combine eggs, flour, cornmeal, salt, and pepper. Remove testicles from beer; drain and dredge thoroughly in the flour mixture. In a large, deep pot, heat oil to 375 degrees F. Deep fry 3 minutes or until golden brown (will rise to the surface when done). Drain on paper towels. Serve warm with your favorite hot pepper sauce.
In WV, there are ramps. Kinda like wild onions. I think you boil them. Almost like garlic and vampires...the stink oozes from you for a couple of days, but they sure keep you regular!
Perhaps not totally unique to Missouri but delicious all the same.
Sour Cream Sugar Cookies
1 cup thick sour cream
1 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. soda
1 dessert spoon of salt
1 tsp. vanilla
5-6 cups flour
Cream together the sour cream, shortening and sugar. Add the vanilla and beat in the eggs. Combine the soda and salt with one cup of flour. Stir into the cream mixture, then add remaining flour until dough is stiff enough to roll. Chill, roll thin and cut into round cookies. Dust with sugar and bake on ungreased pan about ten minutes. 350°- 375°.
Green Tomato Pie
5 or 6 large green tomatoes
salt
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar ground spice butter pie dough
Line the pie pan with dough, leaving a small amount of dough for the top crust. Chop the green tomatoes into fine pieces into a bowl, using all the juice from the tomatoes. Sprinkle the tomatoes with a bit of salt to take out the sweet taste, and mix slightly. Pour into uncooked pie crust. Sprinkle sugar and spice over the mixture and dot with butter. Roll out the remaining dough and cut into strips. Crisscross the pastry across the pie for top crust. Bake until-done in a hot oven.
I didn't know that Michigan was requiring pasties now. Damn strip club rules!! :-)
Haha! When I was thinking of food for Arizona, I really could only think of Mexican food, too. Have a friend who moved to Tennesee. He says he really misses having good Mexican food.
South Texas Frito Pie (to be eaten at high school football games) Take one small bag of Fritos and split up the side. Add one ladle of chili & a handful of shredded cheese and onions. Eat with flimsy white plastic spoon while jumping up and down on aluminum bleachers.
This is popular in Hawaii. Just about everyone makes theirs just a little different.
Dang, that sounds good!
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I LOVE pasties, my whole extended family's from the UP, but I've been in FL since the late 70's when my immediate family moved down.
I actually do a lot of the cooking around the house, but as a gift to me, my wife learned how to make them from my mom and she does a really good job at it.
Tex-Mex rules in Texas. Breakfast burritos with Chorizo and eggs are a personal favorite. Chicken fajitas for lunch.
South Carolina
I've been making my gumbo since I was in college. Finally wrote it down for some friends. Sorry, but I'm not much for exact measurements (in any kind of cooking.):
NO NAME GUMBO
1 to 1.5 lbs shrimp unshelled, heads on preferred.
1 lb catfish
1 can lump crab meat, 1 can shredded crab meat.
Fresh garlic
Pack of complete celery (stalks with leaves are important)
2 bay leaves
Bacon
Onion
Green Pepper
Tomato sauce
Thyme (powder is ok, or extra finely chopped fresh)
Lemon juice (from about a ½ lemon, or just a little more)
Worscheshire sauce (1/4 c.)
Clam juice, 2 bottles
Cayenne pepper powder
Cajun/Creole seasoning (Tony Chachere’s, Konrico, or equiv.)
1. STOCK
• A good amount (not excessive) of water in a stock pot.
• The ends w/ leaves and butt end of the celery stalks
• Shrimp shells and heads
• Garlic (freshly minced)
• 1 bay leaf
• Cajun/Creole seasoning estimate, to taste
• 1 bottle clam juice
Boil this down to ½ volume or a little less (Then strain & save just the liquid)
2. ROUX (in a separate deep dish fry pan)
• Fry 6-8 pieces of bacon for the fat, remove the bacon strips, dry & finely chop then set aside Leave the grease in the pan.
• Add shortening to make about a cup to 1.5 cups of total hot fat.
• Gradually add an equal amount of flour to fat on med/low heat. One table spoon at at time, sprinkle and mix thoroughly before adding the next tablespoon. It’s done when it’s approaching the color of hot cocoa.
3. ROUX Y VEGGIES
• Add sliced okra, stir and cook over med/low
• Add green pepper finely chopped
• Add thinly sliced celery
• Add thin or tiny onion pieces
• Cook until the veggies are approaching soft
(Add small amounts of water as needed to keep it stirrable)
4. MIX
• Mix the stock and the Roux with veggies
• Add an 8oz can, and maybe another 4-5 oz of tomato sauce
• Add thyme
• Add lemon juice
• Add Worscheshire sauce
• Add finely chopped bacon
• Add 1 bottle of clam juice
• Add bay leaf (remove later, before serving)
• Add cayenne (don’t go crazy)
• Add extra Creole or Cajun seasoning to taste.
Let this simmer for 30-45 minutes, tasting and checking to see if you like the consistency. You can always add a little water, or cook a little longer to get rid of extra liquid.
5. Seafood
• Add catfish first (then wait a few minutes, but not long)
• Add crabmeat
• Add shrimp
Only cook and additional 3 minutes or so, test a shrimp for doneness.
Serve in a bowl that has a little mound of rice in the center of it.
Sprinkle on a little gumbo file (pure ground sassafras) to the gumbo in each bowl just before serving (I left mine at home for the potluck)
Hot sauce on the side as a condiment.
Corn bread’s a great side dish.
(Must use fresh Key Limes or Key Lime Juice)
1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
4 egg yolks
4 ounces Florida Key West Key Lime Juice
9-inch graham cracker pie crust
Mix milk and egg yolks completely with electric mixer. Slowly add key lime juice and mix thoroughly.
Pour into 9-inch graham cracker pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Turn oven off and crack door.
If making meringue, place meringue on hot key lime pie, sealing edges to crust then brown to a golden brown. Turn oven off and cracked door after browning meringue. Let pie cool before placing in refrigerator. If using whipped topping, place on pie prior to serving and garnish as desired.
Do you know the difference between beer nuts and deer nuts?
Beer nuts cost around $2.99 and deer nuts can be found under a buck.
Beat me to the Key lime pie. The only thing I do differently is add lime zest to the pie mixture. Really helps to cut the sweetness of the condensed milk and it adds a little interest.
Florida FReeper ping!
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-redquill
There are probably variations on the batter, but any pancake-like batter will work. Obtain skewers, dip the following items into the batter, and then deep-fry until golden brown.
- Oreo cookies
- Twinkies
- Snicker bars
- Milky Way bars
Sprinkle powdered sugar on the fried object when done.
In Southern Maryland its Stuffed Ham.
Take a Corned Ham, cut slits in it and stuff those slits with greens., Cook for 7 hours and serve sliced, cold. The recipe for the greens is handed down from many years family to family, but basically its Cabbage and kale and spring onions perhaps some Collard.Pepper salt red pepper celery seed. You cook it down before stuffing and after stuffing you wrap the meat tight with cheesecloth to keep it from backing out.
When I go to Baltimore I always stop at the old market and get a stuffed hard crab. They take the top shell off clean out the devils fingers and eyes and mouth then they basically us a crabcake to fill the middle , batter it and deep fry the whole thing. You eat the crab cake and then pick the meat from the rest.
I fell in love with Key Lime Meltaways on a trip to Florida several years ago and found this recipe - from Martha Stewart, I believe - that tastes remarkably like the cookies I had on that trip. Easy to make and great served with fresh fruit:
LIME MELTAWAYS
Makes about 10 dozen The dough for these icebox cookies can be frozen in logs for up to two months.
12 tbs (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
Grated zest of 2 limes (or 3!)
2 tbs of freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 3//4 cup a.p. flour plus 2 tbs
2 tbs cornstarch
¼ tsp salt
1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, cream butter and 1/3 cup sugar until fluffy. Add lime zest, juice, and vanilla; beat until fluffy.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, and salt. Add to butter mixture, and beat on low speed until combined.
3. Between two 8-by-12-inch pieces of parchment paper, roll dough into two 1 1/4-inch-diameter logs. Chill at least 1 hour.
4. Heat oven to 350°. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Place remaining 2/3 cup sugar in a resealable plastic bag. Remove parchment from logs; slice dough into 1/8-inch-thick rounds. Place rounds on baking sheets, spaced 1 inch apart. 5. Bake cookies until barely golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool slightly, 8 to 10 minutes. While still warm, place cookies in the sugar-filled bag; toss to coat. Bake or freeze remaining dough. Store baked cookies in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
Enjoy! BTW, perhaps my 'logs' were larger in diameter or my cookies cut thicker, but I've never gotten more than 6 dozen and I've never had to freeze 'leftover' dough! ;-)
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Thanks!
In my area of Florida they eat Cuban sandwiches and lots of Cuban food. Also, because of Tarpon Springs we have a lot of greek - gyros and the like.
I come from NY, and grew up in an Italian household. That's what I like.
I am going to tell everyone one of the secrets to really great pasta sauce, so those interested should remember it.
Put it through a foley food mill to remove the seeds. The seeds are what add the bitterness. Then you don't have to add sugar, as many do.
Seems like your kind of thread!
That Garbage plate scares me. It looks disgusting and appealing all at once.
Here's a write-up about Nick Tahou's famous garbage plate:
Founder Nick Tahou died in 1997 after more than fifty years running Rochester’s premier hot dog joint (actually two joints – on West Main and at 2260 Lyell). His culinary legacy remains the amazing dish known as a garbage plate. It is up to each customer to choose the foundation of his or her garbage plate. It can be based on Texas hot wieners, hamburgers (with or without cheese), Italian sausage, or steak. The meatstuff of your choice is plated with piles of baked beans and home-fried potatoes, a scoop of cool macaroni salad, a dollop of spicy chili sauce, a squirt of two of mustard, and a sprinkle of chopped raw onions. It comes with plastic fork and knife, a bottle of Ketchup, some hot sauce, and white bread with butter.
It is a wild, ridiculous, and delicious mess! Especially noteworthy is the sauce, a fine-grained, Greek-accented brew that is also available on such lesser variants of frankfurter cookery as Nick Tahou's peppery pork hots and the basic garlic-packed Texas hots, as well as on grilled hamburgers.
Burgers are OK, but upper New York State is hot dog country. Nick Tahou’s are exemplary, if not epicurean. They are called Texas hots, and they are split and fried, which gives them a nice, chewy exterior and hash house raunch that boiled or even charcoal-grilled weenies do not offer.
As befits its menu, Nick Tahou is an unruly dog house, with chairs and tables scattered around and plenty of noise as customers call out for red hots and white hots with the works. Of course Nick Tahou is open all night. You never know when the craving for a garbage plate will strike.
- Michael Stern, 10/3/2000
Really want to hear more about this Poor Dad Casserole. We all have those weeks when we need a recipe like that.
St. Louis, Missouri has a large Italian community. Originally, they settled largely in an area known as The Hill. There are still many great Italian restaurants there. This is easy and tasty:
ITALIAN SAUSAGE AND ARTICHOKE SOUP
1 pound Italian pork sausage links
1 large red onion, chopped
1 14 oz. can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped, or 1 9 oz. package frozen art hearts, thawed and chopped
1 28 oz can plum tomatoes
3 cups chicken stock
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp fennel seeds
¼ pound penne pasta
Salt and pepper to taste
Remove sausage from casings and crumble. Brown the sausage, stirring often, with the chopped onions in a stockpot over medium heat for 6 to 8 minutes until the sausage is cooked through and the onions are translucent. Add the hearts and tomatoes with their juice and pour the stock over the sausage and vegetables. Stir in the herbs. Bring to a boil over medium high heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Add the pasta and simmer for 15 minutes until the pasta is done. Add salt and pepper.
Yay! A Wisconsin recipe. My dad was from Wisconsin and said he thought the Arizona sun made people from back east forget how to cook. Last time he was back in '83 he brought back so many cheeses, sausage, and white soda. I always bypass a lot of summer sausage when it isn't garlic summer sausage. His favorite. Of course, this was a guy who also liked to try unusual foods. His New Year's tradition was limburger cheese and herring on Rtiz crackers.
That's an easy one. The Philly Cheesesteak. The reason it never tastes the same outside of Philly is that other regions attempt to make it using real food.
in a baking dish of 9"X13" put a layer of sausages, a layer of green beans and a layer of soup (with no water added), pepper to taste (no salt is needed), repeat layering, cover with aluminum foil, cook in a 325 degree oven for 20-25 minutes.
Serve hot.
The name came from my wife. She was working evenings so I was always cooking dinner for myself and the two daughters.
One night we had those ingredients left in the house and I was too tired to go shopping.
When she came home she said, "Poor Dad". And there it was, Poor Dad casserole.
LOL
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