Mariquitas & Mojo (Plantain Chips & Sauce) by Eddie Rodriguez - from "Cooking at Homeplate with the Arizona Diamondbacks" (2003)

 

RECIPE

MARIQUITAS - Mariquitas is the Cuban name for a crisp-fried green plaintain chip.

4 cups vegetable oil

2 large green plaintains

salt or garlic salt

Peel the plaintains with a sharp knife, slash the skin of each plantain once lengthwise. On each side of the plantain, take the skin off by opening it away from the center as if you were taking off a coat.

Once the plantains are peeled, slice lengthwise as thinly as possible on to a plate. Add sliced plantains to hot oil.

Use a deep skillet. Pour oil and heat to 350 degrees.

Fry the strips until golden brown, turning them. Drain the strips on paper towels. Sprinkle with salt or garlic salt and serve. (They are at their best when just fried.)

4 Servings.

MOJO - Mojo is a Cuban marinating sauce. Can be used for meats and vegetables alike. Mojo is Cuba's national table sauce.

1/3 cup vegetable oil

5 garlic cloves, peeled, thinly sliced or minced

1/2 cup sour orange juice or lime juice

salt and ground black pepper, to taste

In a saucepan add vegetable oil,  garlic, sour orange juice or lime juice, salt and black ground pepper to taste. Bring the sauce to a boil.

Serve warm. 

Makes 1 cup.

Add the Mojo to the Mariquitas to your liking.

Cuban-born Eddie Rodriguez is a long-time coach who has travelled many roads.  After playing as a shortstop in the minor-league systems of Baltimore and California, he went on to coach for the Angels, Blue Jays, the U.S. Olympic Team, the Diamondbacks, Expos and Nationals.  He managed a Mariners' minor league affiliate in 2007, and joined the Padres' coaching staff in 2016.

True to his roots, he submitted this recipe for the Arizona Diamondbacks' 2003 cookbook.  It's a quick method for frying up unripened plantains into a tasty, chippy snack.

The directions tell you to slice the plaintains "as thinly as possible" but I went with a thicker cut.  The end result was less of a crispy chip and more akin to french fries, thick and lightly browned on the outside, soft on the inside. 

The citrus-garlic sauce goes very well as a dipping sauce, bringing all kinds of flavours together: sweet and salty plantains with a hit of lime and garlic.  Fantastic! 

Florida Marlins Summer Salad by H. Wayne Huizenga - from "Munchin' With the Marlins Cookbook" (1995)

RECIPE

1 lb. torn spinach, freshly washed and drained

1 can drained mandarin oranges

1 cup alfalfa sprouts

generous sprinkle of sunflower seeds

Dressing

2 tbsp. cider vinegar

3 tsp. dijon mustard

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/4 cup honey

1 tsp. salt

1 small onion, chopped

2 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 cup oil

Arrange salad ingredients in a large salad bowl for tossing or make individual salads.  Keep salad refrigerated until served.  Blend all ingredients in blender for 30 seconds.  Serves 6.

Born in 1993, the Florida Marlins' early days were all about optimism and teal.  Teal hats, teal pinstripes, teal on all their merchandise.

The Marlins joined the team cookbook club in 1995 with Munchin' With the Marlins, a nice collection of recipes from players and personnel.  Then-owner Wayne Huizenga offered up this recipe for a summer salad.  Huizenga came from a family of businessmen and was best known as the man behind Blockbuster Video and AutoNation.  He had a hand in three sports franchises in the Sunshine State, owning the Miami Dolphins and bringing both the Florida Panthers and Florida Marlins into existence as their first owner.

As owner of the Marlins, Huizenga assembled the club that won the 1997 World Series.  Then, like so many baseball owners, he cried poor and dismantled the championship team in a "fire sale".  The 1998 Marlins went 54-108 and were the first club to lose 100 games a year after winning a World Series.  Not long after, Huizenga sold the club.

The ingredients for this salad are easy to throw together and you won't cry poor after assembling them.  The mandarins add a burst of Florida sunshine.  Can't go wrong with this one.

Brandy Slush by Janet K. Hallas - from "Home Plates: Players' Favorite Dishes" (1984)

RECIPE

7 cups water

2 cups sugar

4 tea bags

12 oz orange juice concentrate (frozen)

12 oz lemon juice concentrate (frozen)

2 cups brandy

Mix water and sugar in large pan.  Bring to boil.  Remove from heat.  

Brew tea bags in water/sugar mixture for 5 minutes.  Stir in frozen concentrates and brandy.  Freeze.  

Serve with 7 Up or Mountain Dew.  

Note:One ice cream scoop of slush per 8-10 oz of 7 Up, or can also be used according to taste.  Makes over 30 drinks.

Sweet and citrusy, a drink the colour of Fort Knox Gold.  Definitely needs a straw to get going, but the slush melts quickly enough.  Nice kick from the brandy after a few sips.

Great idea to keep an ice cream bucket or large tupperware container of this slush in the freezer.

Bookshelf - "Home Plates: Players' Favorite Dishes" (1984) by the Oakland Athletics

295 pp. paperback

268 recipes from the wives of players, coaches and management

Even though I have dozens of baseball cookbooks in my collection, I manage to find something unique inside each one.

Sure, after a while you start seeing the same recipes again and again, but there's always at least one that's so unique that you know it was a family favourite.  Or there will be a personal anecdote from a player reminiscing about a dish he loves to eat.  Or a new twist on something familiar that lets you experience food in a new way.

Home Plates: Players' Favorite Dishes, is a cookbook that was compiled and produced by the wives of the 1984 Oakland Athletics.  Proceeds from sales of the book went to the National Kidney Foundation of Northern California.

As baseball cookbooks go, this one is kind of underwhelming.  It's got a lot of recipes, but most of them are uninspiring; the kinds of dishes prepared by people who are not too adventurous in the kitchen.  If you love broccoli casserole, you can try five different recipes here.

However, one section stands out.  There's an entire chapter of recipes for alcoholic punches and cocktails -- definitely not something you find in most other baseball cookbooks.

A lot of these drinks have a fern bar vibe.  Captivated by the idea of boozing it up the way grown ups did back in the 80s, I'll be cranking some Huey Lewis tapes and chilling out with the following icy drinks: 

Brandy Slush

Sangria

Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri 

Chi-Chis

Yellow Rice and Chicken by Kathy Sanguillén - from "A Treasure Chest of Pirate Recipes" (1971)

 

RECIPE

1 fryer [I used a package of chicken thighs]

2 buttons garlic

1/2 pint olive oil

1 onion

1 green pepper

1 two-oz. can small peas

6 ounces tomatoes

1 bay leaf

1 lb. of rice

2 pimentos

2 tablespoons salt

1 1/2 quarts water

Cut chicken in quarters and fry with onions and garlic.  When finished add tomatoes and water.  Boil for 5 minutes.  Add bay leaf, salt, rice and green pepper.  Stir thoroughly.  Place in oven at 350 F for 20 minutes.  Garnish with peas and pimentos.

Manny Sanguillén had one of his best seasons as a member of the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Panamanian-born catcher hit .319 during the season with 7 home runs and 81 RBIs.  He was an NL All Star for the first of three times, and helped the Pirates win the NL East by 7 games over St. Louis. In the 1971 World Series, he batted .379.  

Recognized as one of the best catchers of the 70s, Sanguillén spent most of his career in Pittsburgh and was there in 1979 when they won their second World Series of the decade.  His lifetime batting average of .296 is the fourth-highest by a catcher post-1945.

In recent years, Sanguillén has remained active as the operator of Manny's BBQ, located behind centerfield at PNC Park.  He greets fans in line to buy food, signs autographs and poses for photos. 

  

photos from Cut4/MLB.com

If the Sanguillén recipe in the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates cookbook is any indication, patrons of Manny's BBQ will be well fed.

This recipe for yellow rice and chicken is massive and could feed an entire starting lineup.  The step-by-step procedure does not require any special cooking skills, since all you have to do is keep adding the ingredients to the same pot or large pan, then leaving it to cook until the rice is done.  The result is like a chicken paella.  The only substitution I made was to use a package of chicken thighs instead of an entire chicken cut in to pieces.

This is a dish that will impress a crowd.  Viva Sangy!

Asparagus Casserole by Mandy Sands - from "A Treasure Chest of Pirate Recipes" (1971)

 

RECIPE

(4 large servings)

14 1/2 oz. can asparagus spears

1 can Campbell's Cream Mushroom Soup

4 squares Kraft Pimento Cheese

2 hard boiled eggs

1/2 stick of butter in chunks

Ritz Crackers (crushed) / or potato chips (crushed)

Put asparagus spears in a row into a medium buttered casserole dish.  Slice hard boiled eggs over spears, dice butter chunks next.  Cover with strips of pimento cheese and finish layers of ingredients with the can of cream of mushroom soup completely covering the casserole.  Top with Ritz crackers or potato chips (crushed).  Place in oven 350F for 30 to 35 minutes - crackers will be browned and soup should be boiling around edges.  It's done and ready to be served immediately.

Charlie Sands' baseball career was short.  He appeared as a pinch hitter and backup catcher for four different teams, and played in 93 major league games spread over six seasons.

He did however have the good fortune to be traded as a prospect from the New York Yankees to the Pittsburgh Pirates in October 1970.  

In his rookie season at 23 years of age, he got into 28 games with the 1971 Pirates, batting .200 and hitting one home run.  He was able to come along for the Buccos' post-season ride, and made one plate appearance in the World Series (he struck out).

Despite his unimpressive record, he got himself a World Series ring, so who cares!

As for Charlie's culinary entry in the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates cookbook, I'm going to declare this is probably the low point of my year-long effort.  Yes, it's only April, but no, I don't think I'm going to prepare anything as unappealing as this asparagus casserole.

This is vintage mid-century fare.  Canned ingredients slopped together, topped with crumbled junk food, and baked until any nutrients are but a memory.  Also, I was unable to locate any authentic Kraft Pimiento Cheese, so I shredded a small block of Monterey Jack with red chili peppers in its place.

I'd like to think that no one makes recipes like this any longer.  If so, you have my sympathies.  I know canned vegetables are essential in some places, but fresh asparagus should be available to most people these days, and breadcrumbs would work better than crumbled chips or crackers.

Anyway, I made this dish so you will never have to, to honour a player you have probably never heard of.  I think we're done here.

The Return of Tony La Russa and an Eight-Year-Old Slice of Cake

British people have lots of wild traditions.

One of those traditions is to preserve slices of cakes that were served at royal weddings.  Not as in, "Let's wrap this up to take home and enjoy tomorrow."  More like, "Let's put this in a sealed container so that someday far into the future, people not even born yet will be able to look upon this cake and consider the wonders of our empire."

The article in this link takes a deep dive into the tradition of preserving royal wedding cakes, a tradition that goes back to 1840.  People with gentle constitutions may find some of the cake images upsetting.

Pivot to 2013, the year I launched this website.  It was originally built around the 1983 Chicago White Sox cookbook, and I set out to make every recipe and post the results here.

"La Russa Gastronomique" was the perfect mashup name for this blog, and the perfect recipe to start off with was the one from Tony La Russa.  

The recipe that he submitted for the cookbook was for Tropical Delight Cake, a fruitcake with a decadent cream frosting.  Here's the photo of the finished cake in 2013.

After posting the write-up and photo, I remembered British tradition and on a whim, stowed a slice of this cake in the freezer.  That was in April, 2013.  I never imagined that eight years later, La Russa would return to manage the White Sox once again.  I also never imagined that after eight years, the cake would still be sitting in my freezer, but it was.

To mark the stunning return of this blog's namesake, what more appropriate time to thaw that slice and see what eight years in a cryochamber had done to it.

Would it have held up in stasis?  Would it immediately break down and liquefy like Poe's Valdemar?  Would I dare put some eight-year-old cake in my mouth?  The photographic recap follows.

Commence the thawing!  A skeptical Tony La Russa looks on.

Released from its frozen tomb and plated, the cake maintained its structural integrity.

Tony noted that the golden raisins, once plump and soft, now resembled dried walnut pieces.

The moment of truth.  Even a grizzled veteran like Tony La Russa couldn't bring himself to watch.

The cake tasted old.  Just old.  No life to it, no freshness at all.  It was still light and chewable, and the frosting was sweet, but that first mouthful was punctuated by overwhelming staleness and agedness.

No second mouthful was necessary.  The remainder of the cake went into the trash.

But the memories will last as long as this website does!

Final verdict: don't expect much from an eight-year-old cake that's been sitting in a freezer.  Go out and get yourself something fresh and nice, or better still make your own.

"LUBY" (Favorite Lebanese Dish) by Connie Lamb - from "A Treasure Chest of Pirate Recipes" (1971)

RECIPE

1-1/2 to 2 lbs. ground lamb or ground beef

2 onions

2 cans tomatoes (regular size)

1 small can tomato puree

2 cans tomato paste

2 lbs. fresh green beans or fresh yellow beans

1.tsp. cinnamon

garlic salt, salt, pepper

Add onions to meat and brown.

Add garlic salt and drain off and drain off meat juices.

Add tomatoes, tomato puree, salt, pepper, cinnamon, tomato paste and water (fill tomato paste can twice) to mixture.

Wash and snap beans, and add to mixture.  Stir, cover pan and let simmer until the beans are tender.

Serve over portions of minute rice.

Especially delicious if served with a tossed salad and Syrian bread.

Among all the entries in the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates cookbook, the one from John Lamb stands out for several reasons.

First off, John who?  Lamb spent parts of only three seasons on the Pirates' major league roster as a relief pitcher.  His career numbers are 66.1 innings pitched over 47 games, all in relief.  Zero wins, two losses, and a 4.07 ERA with five saves.  Sadly, he didn't stick around long enough for Topps to deem him worthy of a baseball card in 1971.

Much more amusing is the fact that Lamb's recipe is for lamb.  

Best of all, he dishes out an exotic middle eastern stew that stands out from most of the mid-century dinner table fare that can be found in the surrounding pages.

Luby is an Anglicized take on Lubiyeh, which is Arabic for green beans.  In this recipe, the beans are added to a thick, tomatoey lamb stew.

This is an easy one-pot recipe that basically asks you to keep adding ingredients until you run out of ingredients, then cover and simmer everything until it is thick and delicious.  As recommended, it went well with rice.  It freezes well, giving you something to look forward to when you need a break from the kitchen.  Simply thaw, reheat and enjoy.

John Lamb!  They may have left you off the '71 World Series roster, but you just might have served up the best dish in this cookbook.  Let this expiate!

Nut Bread by Paula Ellis - from "A Treasure Chest of Pirate Recipes" (1971)

RECIPE

1 cup sugar

shortening the size of a walnut

1 well-beaten egg

1 tsp. salt

4 tsp. baking powder

3 cups flour

1 cup sweet milk

1 cup chopped nut meats

Pour into buttered pan.  Let stand 20 minutes before baking.

Bake slowly 40-60 minutes, at 350F.

Baking is not my thing. 

A lurking fear always grips me that one tiny error in measurements will destroy everything. The mismeasured ingredients will collapse upon themselves, destroying the cake or tart.  The overburdened baking dish will break the rack and slam to the bottom of the oven with a thud, destroying the oven.  The tiles under the oven will crack and open a hole in the floor, destroying the floor. The floor will crumble and implode the entire building, destroying the building. Who knows where the destruction might end.

Haunted by fantasy cataclysms, I approach recipes like this one with some trepidation.

Prepping to make Paula Ellis' Nut Bread recipe, my nerves were set on edge almost immediately by the inclusion of "sweet milk" in the list of ingredients. Gripping my phone and staggering to the fainting couch, I flopped down and did some Googling. Turns out, sweet milk is just plain whole milk. Back in the day, it was sometimes referred to as sweet milk to differentiate it from buttermilk or skim milk. Confusion sorted, I forged ahead.

It appears that Paula Ellis expected people to know exactly what to do once the ingredients were assembled. I made the effort to set everything out in advance, within arms reach. I also creamed the first two ingredients because that seems like a thing one does. The rest of the items fell into the bowl without problem, and soon enough the loaf of sweet dough went into the oven.

I may have overmixed everything. After almost an hour of baking, the bread that emerged was more like a bread-shaped cake. Dense and weighty but also sweet and nutty. 

Kept in a bag in the fridge, it lasted days and each morning I sawed off a slab for breakfast. As bread-shaped cakes go, it turned out great so I'll take the W thank you.

As for the man on the card, Dock Ellis is usually remembered as the man who pitched a no-hitter during an acid trip. It's a wild story and has been retold in a variety of media, but after his career ended, Dock acknowledged that he had a substance abuse problem. He cleaned up his life and spent his final years as a substance abuse counselor. He died, way too soon, in 2008.

Beef Stew by Dolores Stargell - from "A Treasure Chest of Pirate Recipes" (1971)

RECIPE

1 lb. beef stew chunks or 1 lb. ground steak 

1/2 cup flour

salt, pepper, garlic salt

1 small onion

2 green onions

1 envelope Lipton's Beef Flavor Gravy Soup

1/2 cup cooking oil

1/2 small bell pepper

1 1/2 cups water

*rice or noodles, as suggested below

Flour and season meat with spices, then brown meat with cooking oil at medium high heat in skillet.

Pour off almost all oil and add dry soup and water.  Add chopped onions and bell pepper.  Simmer until meat is tender about 1-1/2 hours.

Serve over rice or noodles.

Wilver Stargell, aka Willie, aka Pops, a Pittsburgh Pirates legend.

In 1971, Stargell was approaching the midpoint of his 21-year career, all of it played in the Burgh. He led the NL in home runs with 48, and was named NL Player-of-the-Month twice as he led his club to the division title and World Series.

By decade's end, Stargell would be one of the faces of the franchise.  He was the clubhouse leader who introduced the "Stargell Stars" that were awarded after a good game or key play.  These stars can be seen on most Pirate players' caps in the late 70s.

Here we have one of the dishes that gave Pops his pop.  

This beef stew is warm and comforting, and I served it over some wide egg noodles as suggested by Dolores Stargell.  Coating the meat with flour before browning elevates the comfort level.  As you can see, the recipe is flat-out simple and the only thing that takes time is the simmering.

I wasn't able to find an exact envelope of "Lipton's Beef Flavor Gravy Soup" but any powdered gravy mix will do.  The end result was delicious.  

Hang a Stargell Star on this one!

Mystery Pie by Shirley Virdon - from "A Treasure Chest of Pirate Recipes" (1971)

 

RECIPE

Mix together:

20 Ritz Crackers (rolled very fine)

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup chopped nuts

Then:

beat 3 egg whites very stiff

add 1/2 cup sugar and

3/4 tsp. vanilla

Fold in other ingredients.

Place in buttered 9" pie pan.  Bake in 350F oven for 35 minutes.  Cool.

Topping:

whip 1/2 pint whipping cream

add 3 tsp. powdered sugar

Spread on cooled pie shell.  Top with slivered chocolate (optional).  Chill for 2 hours before serving.

NOTE: Pie shell may be made 24 hours before serving.

It's a mystery! / C'est un mystère!

Crumbly on the outside, gooey on the inside.

This recipe was provided by Shirley Virdon, whose husband Bill was a longtime Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder and one of the coaches of the 1971 team. (The following season, he would succeed Danny Murtaugh as manager.)

This is one of those vintage recipes that probably appeared in magazines and community cookbooks for decades.  The ingredients are all items that would have been found in most households, and the preparation is simple.

Funny enough, the finished pie did not have any of that buttery Ritz flavour to it.  Like I said, it was very crumbly on the outside -- the photo above shows my desperate effort to get a clean slice onto a plate.  Inside however, it's all sweet and gooey with a bit of texture provided by the nuts.

Would I serve this to guests today?  Oh gosh no.  This is one of those desserts that should be trapped in time like an artifact, something to be appreciated but not really something for the present day.  There are better things to do with Ritz crackers anyway.

Lobster Vinaigrette by Delia Pagán - from "A Treasure Chest of Pirate Recipes" (1971)

 

RECIPE

1 lb. lobster tail

1/2 cup olive oil

1/3 cup vinegar

1 tsp. salt

1 small onion - chopped

4 hard boiled eggs - diced

1 green cayenne pepper - diced

Boil 2 cups of water and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt.  Add lobster.  Let stand 5 minutes.

Remove and cut into chunks.

Mix olive oil, vinegar, salt, onion, pepper and eggs.  Pour over lobster chunks.

Refrigerate and serve chilled.

Puerto Rican infielder José Pagán played 15 seasons in the majors, starting with the San Francisco Giants in 1959, then moving to Pittsburgh in a trade in 1965.

Pagán was the hero of the 1971 World Series against Baltimore.  In the eighth inning of Game 7, he doubled to drive in the game-winning RBI and secure a place in Pirates lore.

After one more season in the Burgh, he signed as a free agent with the Philadelphia Phillies for one season, and retired in 1973.

There are two approaches you could take to preparing this appetizer. Either get ahold of genuine lobster tails as directed in the recipe, or find some packages of lobster meat already scooped from the tail (it's cheaper and the meat is ready to use). Another substitution I made was to use a shallot instead of a small onion, just because I had shallots in the fridge.

The hot green pepper definitely adds some zip to this dish. If you don't have or don't want to use something that fiery, you can leave it out and splash the prepared dish with a few drops your favourite hot sauce instead. Delia Pagán's recipe definitely calls for something to balance out the mellowness of the lobster and eggs.

José Pagán came through for the Pirates at the end of the World Series, but here he leads off with a hit.

Bookshelf - "A Treasure Chest of Pirate Recipes" (1971) by the Pittsburgh Pirates

32 pp. paperback

33 recipes from the wives of players, coaches and management

The year 2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the Pittsburgh Pirates' fourth World Series championship. 

Those Pirates have been referred to as the team that changed baseball, because they were the first championship team to be fully integrated. Half of the players on the roster were either African American or Latin American.

In 1971 the club also published A Treasure Chest of Pirate Recipes, the slim volume pictured above. This cookbook has quickly become one of my favourites. Even though it contains fewer than three dozen recipes, they definitely reflect the multicultural makeup of the ballclub.

There are fancy appetizers and desserts, lots of soulful comfort food from popular American and Latin American cuisine, and some scary Jello-based salads too.

Over the course of the next 12 months I'll be preparing a bunch of these recipes and posting the results here. The lineup includes dishes from the kitchens of the Stargell, Ellis, Clemente, Blass, Oliver, Sanguillen and Grant families, and many more. Check out the food that fuelled the Pirates fifty years ago.

Pepper Steak by Barbara Allen - from "Phillies' Fillies Cookbook" (1976)

 

RECIPE

1 lb. top of the round steak

1 lb. mushrooms

3 bell peppers

3 med. onions

1 clove of garlic

salt and pepper

Saute mushrooms, peppers and onions. Remove from pan. Cut top of round into 2" squares. Add steak and clove of garlic to pan, and brown on both sides. Then add mushrooms, peppers and onions, and simmer for approximately ten minutes.

This might be one of the baseball cookbook recipes I have made more than any other.  It's simple, it's comforting, and it's very filling.  I can imagine Dick Allen sitting down to dinner with a mountain of beef and veggies on the plate before him.  He pounds down the entire dish, then works some of it off by going outside and bench pressing his neighbour's house or something.

Dick Allen passed away earlier this month. He was one of my baseball heroes. As a young man he excelled in many sports, ultimately deciding on baseball as his career goal. In the early sixties he was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies, a team notable for dragging its feet when it came to integrating black players. He was assigned to their minor league affiliate in Arkansas and went through hell in the deep south, dealing with racism and personal threats on a regular basis when all he wanted to do was play baseball.

He made it to the majors and became a beloved figure in more than one city. Rookie of the Year in Philadelphia. MVP in Chicago.  I have lost track of how many times I have read someone recount a memory of a Dick Allen home run.  How he came to the plate carrying a 40-ounce bat that looked like a tree trunk.  How he would study pitchers and know exactly when to pounce. How his home runs would start off as line drives, blazing over the infield, over the outfield, and continuing to rise as they soared into space. He hit home runs into the no man's land of centerfield in Comiskey Park.  He hit home runs over the roof of Comiskey Park.  He hit home runs of such velocity that they cleared the outfield fence, went through one of the windows at the back of Comiskey Park, and ended up in a field across the street from the stadium.

That Dick was excluded from the Hall of Fame while alive was just one more injustice he had to face. He didn't kiss enough asses to earn a Hall of Fame invitation while still alive, but that was his style. He never railed, never moaned. Wherever he went he let his bat and his record to all the talking.

Back to this recipe. Like I said, it's simple. After sauteeing the veggies and removing them from the pan, I crank the heat up a couple of notches, add a few more drops of oil and then sear the hell out of the steak on both sides.  After dumping the veggies back in, I give it a quick stir and it's done. If you like your steak rare or medium, there's no need to let it sit there for 10 minutes.  It's done.  Enjoy!

Hoppin' John by Frank Thomas - from "The Big Hurt's Guide to BBQ and Grilling" (2016)

RECIPE

1 1-pound ham steak

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 celery rib, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

6 cups chicken broth

salt and ground black pepper, to taste

4 cups fresh black-eyed peas

2 cups uncooked long-grain white rice

2 tbsp unsalted butter

3 cups water

Preheat grill to high.

Rinse the ham under running water, then pat dry and trim off any excess fat.  Season both sides with salt and black pepper.

When your grill is hot, use tongs to dip a wad of paper towels in vegetable oil and run them a dozen times across the grates.  Grill ham over direct heat until grill marks begin to appear and the ham is cooked through, about 5 minutes on each side.  Allow the ham to cool, then roughly chop.

Heat vegetable oil in a large Dutch oven over direct heat, then cook onion, celery and garlic until tender, about 5 minutes.  Add broth, salt, black pepper, and peas and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat and simmer until peas are tender and creamy, about 45 minutes.  Add chopped ham and stir.

Add rice, butter, and water to a medium pot on your stovetop and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and let simmer for 15 minutes.  Remove pot from heat and allow rice to rest for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork.

Spoon rice onto plates and top with the peas and ham.

"A classic Southern dish" is how Frank Thomas describes Hoppin' John.  Sure enough, a quick online search comes up with a pile of Hoppin' John recipes that's almost as high as Stone Mountain.

Around the same time I prepared Thomas' recipe, I came across this near-rapturous exaltation of the dish in The Member of the Wedding by Georgia-born author Carson McCullers:

Now hopping-john was F. Jasmine's very favorite food. She had always warned them to wave a plate of rice and peas before her nose when she was in her coffin, to make certain there was no mistake; for if a breath of life was left in her, she would sit up and eat, but if she smelled the hopping-john, and did not stir, then they could just nail down the coffin and be certain she was truly dead.

Well, that's quite a statement, attesting to the powerful hold this simple dish has on people. It's one of those slow-cooking recipes that afford you time for contemplation of life and death, I guess.

But it is also delicious.  No southern cookbook would be complete without a Hoppin' John recipe, and the one presented by Thomas does not disappoint.  I could keep eating this until the time comes to nail down the coffin.  On that delightful note...

Put it on the board, yes!

Bookshelf - "Fowl Tips: My Favorite Chicken Recipes" (1984) by Wade Boggs

45 pp., paperback with plastic rings.

31 recipes, with tips for preparing, seasoning and cooking chicken

Here is the perfect convergence of baseball and cookbooks.

Back in 2014, I added one of the Holy Grails of baseball cookbooks to my collection: "Fowl Tips", the Wade Boggs chicken cookbook. Nothing but chicken recipes.  Yes, this was and still is an actual thing.

One of the legends attached to Boggs was that the Hall of Fame batting champ ate chicken before every game. In his own words:

"Chicken has been very good to me. It may sound strange, but I maintain that chicken has played a major part in the success of my baseball career.

"It all started back in 1977 when I was coming up in the minors... During spring training that year, I noticed something peculiar. On those days when I ate chicken before a game, I always got at least two hits... So when I started getting hits after eating chicken, I just naturally began eating more chicken. And I'll be doggoned if my batting average didn't continue to rise.

"Don't ask me to explain it. I won't even try. All I know is that now I eat chicken before every game we play."

And so was born Fowl Tips: My Favorite Chicken Recipes by the man whose twitter handle is @ChickenMan3010.

The book is scarce now and demands a new printing. I did a recent online search and the only copy I could find is from a seller who is offering a copy via Amazon with the asking price of $300.  That's cluckin' nuts!

After I was lucky enough to score a copy online, I immediately tried a bunch of the recipes.

The recipes are 30-plus-years-old, and very basic. Lots of grilling and frying.  Some offer a decent foundation to add and experiment with, others are more of a novelty than anything I would seriously serve to guests. You can decide which is which.

I'll keep an ongoing list of links to the recipes and photos that I posted below.

Barbecue Chicken Wings

Barbecue Chicken Wings by Wade Boggs - from "Fowl Tips: My Favorite Chicken Recipes" (1984)

RECIPE

2 lbs. chicken wings
1 bottle (18 oz) prepared barbecue sauce
1 cup honey
4 tbsp. butter

Preheat oven to 300.

Melt butter in skillet, brown wings on both sides. Drain on paper towel. Combine barbecue sauce and honey in deep mixing bowl using a whisk or fork. Dip each chicken wing into barbecue-honey mixture. Place wings in baking pan. Cover. Warm in 300 degree oven for at least one hour or until ready to serve.

I wrangled a copy of Wade Boggs' Fowl Tips years ago and have been working my way through his single-minded compilation of chicken recipes.  Here is the first of many that I'll be posting, with more to come.  

They say baking is better than deep frying - in fact, most things are better than deep frying - so here's a simple procedure for baked chicken wings.

This is more of a technique than a recipe, but a good way to use up some leftover barbecue sauce you have kicking around.  The honey and butter bring some sweet without any heat.  If you want to spice it up, or add another flavour note like smokey or garlicky, go ahead and use your own sauce of choice, or splash in some hot sauce, whatever.  The foundation for baked chicken wings is here, you can make it your own thing and enjoy with minimal effort.

Grilled Sweet Potatoes by Frank Thomas - from "The Big Hurt's Guide to BBQ and Grilling" (2016)

 

RECIPE

3 or 4 medium-sized sweet potatoes

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp Kosher salt

1/4 cup cilantro, minced

1 tsp cayenne pepper

zest of half a lime

Poke about a dozen holes in each sweet potato.  

Line a microwave-safe dish with paper towels, then place two potatoes on the plate and set the microwave on high for 4-5 minutes.  Do the same with the other two potatoes.

When cool enough to handle, cut the potatoes in half and then into wedges (or simply cut them into 1-inch circular slices).

Preheat grill to high.

Brush the potatoes with oil and season with salt and pepper.  When your grill is hot, cook the potatoes until slightly charred, about 2-3 minutes per side.

In a small bowl, mix salt, cilantro, cayenne pepper and lime zest, then sprinkle over the potatoes.

Thanksgiving in the year 2020 is a very different proposal from what most people are used to.  However that's no reason not to enjoy some food that's traditionally associated with this holiday.

With this receipe, Frank Thomas takes a staple Thanksgiving side dish and gives it an upgrade, making them, in his own words: "crunchy and charred on the outside, sweet and creamy on the inside". 

If you have a microwave and a grill pan, you can make this dish without having to step outside. Finish the sweet potato wedges on a smoking hot grill for a couple of minutes per side and the final result can be seen in the photo above.

Frank's suggestion of finishing with cilantro, cayenne and lime is perfect. So if you are downgrading your Thanksgiving this year, you can still make this quick and simple recipe as part of your meal.