Projo Football Food & Spirits

The family wants to be traditional. The requests were wings and super nachos.

So I'm buying wings and drummettes today to marinate overnight two ways. The first is essentially a homemade barbecue sauce, the second is Teriyaki-style. (Most of us don't like hot wings, and I find Buffalo bitter.) Both recipes come from readers at RecipeZaar's Super Bowl Chicken Wings category:

Wing Dings
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup catsup
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
2 1/2 lbs chicken drummettes

Combine all ingredients except chicken in saucepan. Bring to boil, and simmer 5 minute Cool.

Place drummettes in bowl, or zippered plastic bag. Add cooled Sauce. Coat chicken evenly and refrigerate several hours or overnight.

Place drummettes, skin side up, on FOIL-LINED rimmed baking sheet. Spoon leftover Sauce over them.

Bake 45-50 minutes at 400º, until done, basting with sauce occasionally.

Serves 4-6

Baked Teriyaki Style Chicken Wings
25-30 chicken wings
1 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons sugar
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 cup sherry wine

Combine all ingredients except the wings in a large pitcher. Mix well.

Place chicken wings in single layer in a 9" x 13" pan.

Pour the liquid mixture over the wings.

Marinate at least 2 hours, flipping wings once. Keep wings refrigerated while marinating.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. Flip once during baking.

Note: I won't have space in my fridge tomorrow for a flat pan of wings -- these will go in a plastic bag with their marinade, like the first recipe.

One recipe calls for a 400 degree oven, the other is at 350. I may split the difference and bake them on different racks at 375 degrees. Since I don't know how the double quantity will affect cooking time, I'll start checking them after an hour and every 10 minutes after that, if more time is needed.

I'll let you know Monday how it went.

The funniest recipe in the run-up to the Super Bowl is New England Chili at New York Daily News, adapted from the "Anheuser-Busch Cookbook: Great Food Great Beer" (Sunset Books. $24.95 paperback.)

The last two ingredients:

1 pound cooked pheasant, cut into ½-inch dice
1 pound cooked quail, cut into ½-inch dice

They set up a confrontation between this and New York Vegetarian Chili. You think there's bias there?

Well, it beats clam chili.

The Louisville Courier Journal does meaty chilis -- one with ground beef and ground pork, and a chunky Texas truck stop/diner chili made with big cubes of brisket, pictured at right -- and yet another called Smoking chipotle pork stew. Carnivores will be pleased.

Spinach dip in a bread bowl from "The Sour Dough Bread Bowl Cookbook," by John Vrattos and Lisa Messinger appears at the San Jose Mercury News. Spinach and portobello mix with dairy in a large round loaf of sourdough.

I like Susan Barnes' attitude -- she's food editor of the Ann Arbor (Mich.) News: It is, after all, football. The recipes she offers, all on one page, include her own Chicken or Vegetarian Minestrone, and a
crockpot Beef Stifado with red wine, cinnamon sticks and allspice, meant to be served over rice.

Turkey-Black Bean Chili is a crockpot recipe from Detroit News that uses ground turkey and chicken broth. Make it with black soybeans -- canned, indistinguishable from the other black beans, available for sure from Whole Foods -- and they're low-carb.

Caramelized Opossum Onaplank -- where else would you expect to find gourmet roadkill but ESPN's Fans' Super Bowl party recipes

At the Rocky Mountain News, Chicken Enchiladas With Yogurt Sauce looks easy and tasty. By the time the stuffed tortillas bake together, topped with salsa and cheese, you probably have a casserole.

On that same page, an uncooked, layered Southwestern Taco Dip made with yogurt.

Cheddar Beer Dip with Smoked Sausage -- from from Diane Phillips' "You've Got it Made" via AP -- may satisfy wannabe linebackers without the ick factor of the opossum.

Honolulu TV station KHON2 had a contest, and the winner is Superbowl Recipe Winner: Healthy Hoagies made with crispy chicken apple sausage, garlic, onion and bell pepper.

AP

The South Bend (Ind.) Tribune casts the Super Bowl as the battle of the chowders -- Manhattan red vs. New England white. (It beats chowder vs. soft pretzels.)

Cook up a super bowl of chowder:

We asked Alan Perry, chef at Orchard Hills Country Club in Buchanan, to explain how. He says the process is similar for both varieties.

For New England chowder, Perry uses a combination of cream and milk and tightens it up with a slurry of cornstarch and water. The consistency Perry shoots for is bisque-like; not really thick, but not watery, either (Perry likens it to a thinned-down Elmer's glue).

This goes a long way towards explaining why many of us prefer Rhode Island clam chowder, without milk, without tomatoes -- the base is the juice the clams release into the broth in which they are steamed; steaming opens them, and releases clam broth. (Recipe at the end.)

Fortunately, the gluey chowder is not the published recipe, which comes from Yankee Magazine's current issue:

New England Clam Chowder

7 pounds cherrystone clams, scrubbed and rinsed
3 cups water
4 strips bacon, finely chopped
1 medium Spanish onion, diced small
2 tablespoons flour
3 large red potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 cup heavy cream

In a large soup pot over high heat, add clams to 3 cups water. Bring to a boil and cook just until clams open, about 10 minutes. Remove clams from broth and set aside. (Discard any clams that don't open.) Strain broth through a sieve lined with a coffee filter and set aside.

Clean your soup pot; then over medium-high heat, sauté bacon until it's browned and fat is rendered. Using a slotted spoon, remove bacon to a paper towel. Discard all but 2 tablespoons of bacon fat. Add diced onion to the pot and sauté until translucent.

Stir in flour and cook 1 minute, being careful not to brown. Whisk in reserved clam broth. Add potatoes and thyme, and simmer 10 minutes.

Remove clams from shells, reserving liquid, and chop roughly. Strain liquid; then add clams and liquid to the pot. Stir in parsley and cream and cook just long enough to heat clams through, about 3 minutes.

Red: Manhattan Clam Chowder

Recipe from epicurious.com, originally published in Gourmet, March 2004.

Treat yourself to fresh clams for this recipe -- they make all the difference. This dish originated in Rhode Island during the late 19th century, when, as story has it, Portuguese immigrants added tomatoes to their chowder. British New Englanders believed their creamy chowder to be superior and named the Portuguese version after Manhattan, presuming that New Yorkers were the only people crazy enough to add tomatoes.

Active time: 30 minutes

Start to finish: 45 minutes

2 bacon slices, cut into 1/2-inch squares
1/3 cup chopped onion
3 tablespoons diced (1/3 inch) green bell pepper
3 tablespoons diced (1/3 inch) celery
2/3 cup diced (1/3 inch) peeled boiling potato (1 small)
1 (8 ounces) bottle clam juice
1 cup canned diced tomatoes (8 ounces), including juice
1 1/2 dozen small hard-shelled clams (1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter; 2 pounds total), scrubbed well
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Cook bacon in a 2- to 3-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring, until golden, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to moderately low, then add onion, bell pepper, and celery and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in potato, bottled clam juice, and tomatoes (with juice) and simmer, covered, 10 minutes. Stir in clams and simmer, covered, stirring occasionally, until clams open wide, 8 to 10 minutes. (Discard any clams that after 10 minutes have not opened.) Remove pan from heat.

Remove most of clamshells with tongs, then detach clams and return them to chowder. (Keep a few in their shells for garnish.) Stir in parsley and salt and pepper to taste.

Note: Chowder, without clams or parsley, can be made 1 day ahead. Bring to a simmer before adding clams and proceeding.

Journal files / Bob Thayer
Clear broth clam chowder, with quahogs, red potatoes and select spices, was a Chef's Secret -- a requested recipe -- in 2002 from Roger's Family Restaurant in nearby Somerset, Mass. The unusual spices add the red color; it's not traditional in clear chowder.

Clear: Rhode Island clam chowder

From a "Good Neighbors" recipe exchange reader in 1999 comes a classic:

Each year, the South Kingstown Lions Club serves over 600 gallons at their South County Seafood Heritage Festival. This recipe was developed by Bob Smith; he reduced his five-gallon recipe to this one for six people.

The recipe is from Good Tastes of Rhode Island's South County. (Now out of print.)

A quahaug (or quahog or quohog) - from the Narragansett Indian word Poquauhock - is a salt-water clam with a round, hard shell. Smaller sizes are called cherrystones and littlenecks and can be eaten raw. North American Indians used the inner surface of the shells to make wampum, their form of currency. It was also used for beads and ornaments.

South County Quahaug Chowder
6 pounds quahaugs
6 cups water
1/4 cup salt pork, cut into tiny cubes
1 cup chopped onion
4 cups cubed potatoes
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Scrub quahaugs. Place in large kettle with water. Cover. Place over medium heat until shells open, about 5 minutes. Remove meat from shells and grind into small pieces. Discard shells. Save all liquid; set aside.

Fry salt pork to light brown in large pot. Add onions; fry lightly. Add reserved liquid plus enough water to make 8 cups.

Add potatoes, salt and pepper. Simmer until potatoes are tender, about 5 minutes. Add chopped quahaugs; bring to light boil for 2 to 3 minutes. Serves 6.

Note: Another reader suggests cooking the potatoes in the clam juice before adding the water, so they absorb the full clam flavor.

Weight Watchers offers a simple recipe made with low-fat cheese, and doesn't suggest you serve it with bread or crackers.

Beer and Cheese Fondue
1 12-oz. can or bottle light beer
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 pound low-fat cheddar or colby cheese, shredded
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

In a medium saucepan over moderate heat, warm beer until it boils; stir in mustard and pepper.

In a bowl, toss cheese with flour. Slowly add cheese to beer mixture, stirring. Continue stirring until mixture is smooth and thick, about 6 minutes total.

Yields about 1/4 cup per serving.

(Tip: Serve this dip with cubes or rolled slices of lean ham and smoked turkey as well as carrots, celery sticks, baked tortilla chips or cubes of crusty bread.)

Photo / Sheila Lennon

I've been playing with this versatile, easy recipe that's rich enough to satisfy a crowd and, if there are leftovers, it's even better the next day. It's fine with just mushrooms, or add sun-dried tomatoes to give it a bite. The cheese makes its own delicious browned crust. (This is not quivery like a quiche, since there's no milk or cream in it.)

You might add scallions or leeks, substitute (lightly steamed) broccoli for the spinach, or use 1/2 pound of cheddar and 1/2 pound of other cheeses (leftovers from your cheese plate). Double the spinach if you want it to be more like a spinach pie. Feel free to improvise -- the cheese will hold it all together.

Spinach & Cheese Squares
1 lb fresh baby spinach
1 oz. dried porcini mushrooms or 4 oz. fresh mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped (optional)
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 tablespoons melted butter
6 eggs, beaten
16 ounces cottage cheese or ricotta
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 pound sharp Cheddar cheese (or half Cheddar and half other cheeses), coarsely grated
1/4 cup sherry wine (optional)
Pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 13-by-9-inch baking dish. Drain spinach well; the drier the better.

Photo / Sheila Lennon

Bring about 2 cups of water and sherry to a boil in a saucepan and add the dried mushrooms and sundried tomatoes. Blanch for 2-3 minutes, then let sit for at least 10 minutes to absorb the liquid. Drain.

In a heavy soup pot large enough to fit all the spinach, sauté onion and garlic in 2 tablespoons of the melted butter till translucent.

Add spinach, stirring it down till it wilts, then drain. Add mushrooms and sundried tomatoes, eggs, cottage and cheddar cheeses, flour and the remaining butter and mix. Season with pepper.

Pour into prepared dish and bake for 1 hour. Serves 8 to 10.

Note: Use more water and sherry when reconstituting the mushrooms if you want to spin off a flavorful addition to soup. I've added the excess sherry-mushroom water to overly-carroted turkey soup and it cut the sweetness, much improving it.

Andy Rogers / Seattle P-I
John Howie's Texas Chili. Recipe is below.

Here's the Wildcard Weekend TV schedule:

Saturday, Jan. 5

Washington Redskins (9-7) at Seattle Seahawks (10-6)
Qwest Field, 4:30 p.m. ET (NBC)

Jacksonville Jaguars (11-5) at Pittsburgh Steelers (10-6)
Heinz Field, 8 p.m. ET (NBC)

(The lowest-seeded survivor of these games plays the Patriots in Foxboro Saturday night, Jan. 12.)

Sunday, Jan. 6

New York Giants (10-6) at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9-7)
Raymond James Stadium, 1 p.m. ET (FOX)

Tennessee Titans (10-6) at San Diego Chargers (11-5)
Qualcomm Stadium, 4:30 p.m. ET (CBS)

Over at the Seattle P.I., whose hometown Seahawks face the Redskins Saturday, they arranged a chili cookoff: Two recipes go helmet to helmet to see which deserves a spot at the playoffs.

A local sports bar won, and their chili is below. (The other, which included 1/4 lb. of slab bacon, was understandably judged too greasy.)

I've also included the meatless black-bean chili they found. Make it with black soybeans -- Whole Foods has 'em -- and it's low-carb. (Although John Howie's beanless chili might qualify, the sugar in the pineapple juice may be too much for you.) At the link above, you'll also find a recipe for skillet cornbread and one for making your own chili powder.

John Howie's Texas Chili
Makes 1 Gallon

* 1/2 cup canola oil
* 4 pounds white onion, diced
* 4 pounds chuck roast or other beef, diced in 3/4-inch by 1-inch pieces
* 1 pound pork, diced in 3/4-inch by 1-inch pieces
* 3 cups tomato sauce
* 2 1/2 cups pineapple juice
* 1 cup water
* 1/2 cup mild chili powder
* 1 tablespoon ancho chile powder
* 1 1/2 teaspoons chipotle chile powder
* 1/8 teaspoon habanero chile powder
* 1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
* 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground basil
* 1 1/2 teaspoons granulated garlic
* 1 1/2 teaspoons sweet paprika
* 1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
* 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
* 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin
* 5 bay leaves

Place oil in a large stock pot or braising pan, add the beef and onions in small batches and sear until the onions are tender.

Add the remaining ingredients, bring to a simmer, and cook for three hours, stirring frequently. Serve with cheddar cheese, tortilla strips and salsa on top. Howie also serves it over nachos.

(Note: Habanero powder can be difficult to find. You could omit it, but it's easy to make by whirling a dried habanero in a mini-Cuisinart or spice grinder.)

-- Courtesy of John Howie

Quick Black Bean Chili With Goat Cheese
Serves 4-6

* 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 1 small red onion, chopped
* 1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
* 3 garlic cloves, minced
* 2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 2 teaspoons chili powder
* 1/8 teaspoon hot red pepper
* 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
* 2 15-ounce cans black beans, rinsed and drained
* 4-ounce can mild chopped green chiles, drained
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 cup chopped cilantro (optional)
* 3-6 ounces goat cheese, crumbled or cut into small pieces

In a medium pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add the red onion and green pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onion is soft and translucent, 3-5 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin, chili powder and hot pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute to toast the spices.

Stir in the tomatoes, black beans, chiles and salt. Simmer for 15 minutes. Season with additional hot pepper and salt to taste, bearing in mind goat cheese is salty.

To serve, ladle into warm bowls. Sprinkle cilantro and goat cheese on top.

-- From "One-Pot Vegetarian Dishes" by Amy Cotler

The Jets actually play at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, New Jersey, sharing the stadium with the Giants. We struck out at the Jersey papers' food sections -- they seem only to eat out and write about it -- but found a page of recipes from Jersey Fresh Cooks, collected by the state department of agriculture.

This chicken pot pie caught my eye, because it easy -- no crust -- and, baked with a topping of mashed potatoes, may be the ultimate comfort food as we watch the teams weather a nor'easter Sunday.

Chicken Pot Pie with Chive Mashed Potatoes

For Filling:
2 lbs whole chicken breasts with skin and bones
1 cup pearl onions, unpeeled
2 Jersey Fresh medium carrots, cut into ¼-inch thick slices
2 Jersey Fresh celery ribs, cut into ¼-inch thick pieces
½ cup Jersey Fresh peas
¼ pound mushrooms, sliced thin
¼ cup Jersey Fresh shallots, finely chopped
¼ tsp Jersey Fresh thyme, crumbled
¼ cup all purpose flour
2½ cups chicken broth
2 TBS unsalted butter
1 bay leaf
¼ tsp Jersey Fresh tarragon, crumbled
1/3 cup Jersey dry white wine
salt and pepper to taste

For Mashed Potatoes:
1 ½ pounds Jersey Fresh potatoes
3 TBS Jersey Fresh chives, minced
¼ cup sour cream
salt and pepper to taste

To make filling: In a large saucepan, bring 3 quarts of water to a boil. Add chicken and simmer, uncovered 25 minutes. Remove pan from heat and transfer chicken to a bowl, discarding cooking liquid. Cool. Discard skin and bones. Cut chicken into ¾-inch cubes.

Bring 2 quarts water to a boil and cook onions until tender. Transfer onions to a bowl of cold water, reserving cooking liquid in pan. Peel onions and add to chicken. Return reserved cooking liquid to a boil and cook carrots and celery until just tender. Drain carrots and celery and add with uncooked peas to chicken mixture.

Cook mushrooms in ½ TBS butter over moderate heat, stirring, until softened and golden brown and add to chicken mixture. Cook shallots with bay leaf, thyme, and tarragon in remaining 1½ TBS butter over moderately low heat, stirring, until soft and pale golden and stir in flour. Cook mixture, stirring, 3 minutes and gradually whisk in wine, broth, salt and pepper to taste. Simmer sauce 5 minutes, whisking occasionally.

Discard bay leaf. Pour sauce over chicken mixture and stir until combined well.

For Mashed Potatoes: Peel potatoes and cut into 1-inch pieces. Cover potatoes with water and simmer until very tender. Drain potatoes and reserve about 1/3 cup cooking liquid. In batches, force potatoes through a ricer or food mill fitted with medium disk into a bowl and stir in sour cream, chives, salt and pepper to taste, and enough reserved cooking liquid to reach a fluffy consistency. Do not use a food processor. Transfer potatoes to pastry bag filled with a ½-inch fluted tip.

Spread filling in a 1½ to 2-quart gratin dish or other shallow baking dish. Pipe mashed potatoes decoratively in mounds on filling and bake in a pre-heated 425 degree oven until filling is bubbling and potatoes are golden on edges, about 25 minutes. Serves 4

Contributed by: Helen Archer, Burlington, NJ

I'll skip the pastry bag part. Sculpted snowdrifts, that's the ticket.