Recipe: The World's Best Favas

Favas be big beans-BIG BEANS! It's a dish that seems to be an acquired taste. Which basically means that cowards or the uninitiated don't care for it. I like it however. I like it quite a lot and the recipe below is responsible for more than a few converts to the dish. Most recently, my beautiful wife who LOVED them. It's one of those meals that can be had in as many variations as the number of families that make it. This is my version of course and I am telling you that these are the World's Best Favas. THE WORLD'S BEST FAVAS!

One little Portuguese cooking trick that I use in this dish may seem like it wouldn't make a big difference, but it really does help to create THE WORLD'S BEST FAVAS. That trick is sweating the onions and garlic instead of sauteing them. You'll notice how profound that difference is when you pop the cover off the pan at the end of that 20 minutes. The aroma is HEAVEN! HEAVEN PEOPLE! Which incidentally is where they probably serve a lot of these favas because if I haven't mentioned it yet: THESE ARE THE WORLD'S BEST FAVAS!

What else can I say about this recipe?

How about this: IT'S GOT CHOURICO IN IT!

Chourico, as in EVERYTHING IS BETTER WITH CHOURICO. Including these favas which happen to be THE WORLD'S BEST FAVAS!

Pay attention to the details at the end, the bread, sweet butter and chilled Dao are MANDATORY!

'Nuff said on my part.

The World's Best Favas

1lb. of dry favas beans (soaked then simmered or pressure cooked to tenderness)
2 Tbs Portuguese olive oil
4 onions (halved and then thinly sliced)
8 cloves of garlic (minced)
3 sticks (about 20+ ozs.) of chourico (sliced in 1/4" disks)
1 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
3 tsp hot crushed red pepper (the wet stuff)
4 Tbs fresh parsley (chopped)
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat a large saucepan over low heat.

Add olive oil and spread it around the pan. Add the onions and garlic and sweat them covered in the pan for 20 minutes. Don't open that cover. Keep the flame on low and don't burn it!

Add the chourico and mix in well. Raise the heat a little and continue cooking for 10 to 15 minutes.

Add the crushed tomatoes and crushed red pepper and continue at a good medium simmer for about 45 minutes.

Add the fava beans and continue cooking for 30 more minutes or until the beans are tender and creamy inside.

Add all but 1 tablespoon of the parsley to the favas and mix throughout. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish with the last tablespoon of fresh chopped parsley and serve with a good crusty peasant bread, sweet butter and some chilled red Dao wine (that's right I used "chilled" and "red wine" in the same sentence! DO IT!).

It's even better the second day!

Recipe: Portuguese Chourico-Style Chicken and Chip Sandwiches

Back in a place called the 1980's I used to live in a quasi-housing project. A good friend of mine who shall remain nameless for his own dignity was living-in-sin with his then not-yet-wife in an adjacent building in the same housing area. Often on the weekends, he, his not-yet-wife, my not-yet-ex-wife and I would get together for dinners and the other absurdities that bored twenty-somethings do when they are low of funds because they are products of growing up in economically depressed circumstances. Some of these things the same people might find embarrassing today. Not me though, but I'm empathetic so I blur lines.

Anyway, round about near this quasi-housing project was a small Portuguese market that served as our corner store. Milk, bread the occasional box of cereal that kind of thing. They also sold some great Portuguese food including chourico rolls, malasadas and sweetbread. One of our favorite things to get there were seasoned pork cutlets called "chourico meat". This was pork that was marinated as if it was going to be ground and made into chourico, but instead, you pan fried it, topped it with cheese parked it in a pao secos and ate it as a sandwich. Good stuff under the worse circumstances, you add a few beers and some company and you've got a party!

I haven't had those sandwiches in about 30 years! So, recently, I've been making my own chourico and a few evenings ago I decided to make "chourico meat" using some chicken breasts that I had in the fridge. The result of course was delicious! Why else would you be reading about it at this moment, right? Now, I make these things pretty spicy because that's the way I like them. You can vary the ingredients less or more so as you desire.

Just promise you won't eat a few of these, drink too much beer and switch to tequila okay? Because my buddy did that, then I ended up saving his life by stopping him from falling into a newly excavated hole for the foundation for a building that "wasn't there yesterday" if you know what I mean? Also, don't bet two crazy women that you'll French kiss another guy for sixty bucks, because chicks never pay on bets!

On to this fabulously easy yet great recipe!

Portuguese Chourico-Style Chicken and Chip Sandwiches

3 lbs of boneless chicken breasts (sliced in half horizontally into cutlets)
1 cup of red wine
1 Tbs. colorau (or regular paprika)
1 Tbs. smoked sweet paprika (or regular paprika because you are obviously paprika deficient!)
1 Tbs. coarse sea salt
6 cloves of garlic (chopped)
3 Tbs. hot crushed pepper
2 cups of white wine or chicken broth
1/4 to a 1/2 cup of chopped parsley
Homemade, frozen or restaurant-bought french fries
Your favorite sandwich rolls (sliced)

In a large bowl add the chicken, wine, colorau, smoked sweet paprika, salt, garlic and hot crushed pepper and blend together well. Cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator for 2 to 4 hours. Take out and redistribute the mix once or twice during that time.

Have your french fries ready.

Place a large pan over medium high heat. Add the olive oil. When the oil begins to shimmer add the chicken 2-3 cutlets at a time and cook turning once until just done. Remove and place in a covered bowl to keep warm while cooking the rest of the cutlets.

Continue cooking all the cutlets in the same manner, placing them in the covered bowl until they are done.

Raise the heat and take any remaining marinade and pour it into the pan with the white wine or chicken broth and deglaze the pan.

Reduce the resulting sauce until thick.

Lower the heat and add all the chicken and parsley to the pan with the sauce. Coat well until warm enough for serving.

Remove from heat. Make sandwiches by filling the sliced rolls with the chicken and a good amount of the french fries.

Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Recipe: Creton (Pork Paté or Gorton)

For years I didn't know how to spell the title of the recipe below. Sure, I may have eaten it my entire life and even pronounced its French name near perfectly at a young age, but I never knew how to spell it. Apparently, neither did the commercial manufacturers of the stuff in my region. The closest they ever got was "gorton" which while kind of phonetic is wrong nonetheless. In fact I walked on God's green earth for about 40 years before I happened upon the correct spelling.

I was sitting in a popular Montreal breakfast diner one morning with several friends. Most were new to the city so those among us that had been before were helping with the items on the menu pointing out favorites, etc. Then someone came across "creton" and we were all stymied. We puzzled over it for a few moments and then took the next logical step and asked the waitress.

"What is this?" I asked pointing to the word in the menu.
"It is creton" she answered "a kind of pork paté."
"AH!" we all answered after hearing it in French. "We know creton!"

Creton (kind of sounds like "KrrrAW-tohn" or "GAH-taw") is a food most people with Quebecois parents or grandparents may remember growing up in my area. It is a mildly spiced pork paté spread that used to be popular and via nostalgia is gaining in popularity again. It is used at breakfast on toast and with mustard in sandwiches for lunch. Some people will use it with breadcrumbs to stuff a turkey and I'm sure there are other uses.

It's not healthfood by any stretch of the imaginaton, but it is much loved. In fact when I told my mother I had begun experimenting with it she was quite pleased. "I remember my mother's creton." she said, "It was so good on toast for breakfast."

Mom got her much loved creton on toast the very next morning. It's good stuff and simple to make. If you like French meat pies or devilled ham, give it a shot. I prefer mine on bread with mustard. It's damn yummy and makes me feel like I'm 9 years old again, running into my parents apartment to wolf down a sandwich before rejoining my friends outside.

Creton

1 pound ground pork
2 Tbs bacon fat
1 medium onion chopped
1 clove garlic chopped
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cloves
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
beef stock or whole milk

Place an appropriately-sized sauce pan over medium heat.

When pan is hot, add 1 Tbs bacon fat and gently fry the ground pork until cooked through. While the pork cooks use a fork to keep crumbling it.

Add the onion, garlic, spices, salt and pepper and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions and garlic are soft and translucent.

Lower the heat to a low simmer and continue to cook for about an hour.

If mixture starts to dry out add beef stock or milk to keep it at a very-thick-sauce consistency.

Remove from heat and allow mixture to cool.

If needed add beef stock or whole milk so the mixture seems just spreadable.

Put the mixture in a food processor and process until fine and granular but not pasty.

Place the mixture into a glass or ceramic container and add a small layer of bacon fat over the top to seal and add extra flavor.

Refrigerate until needed. Serve on crackers as a snack, toast for a hearty breakfast or with mustard as a sandwich for lunch.

Recipe: Pimenta Salgada (Portuguese Salted Peppers)

Pimenta salgada are the lynch pin in Portuguese-style steak sandwiches and other dishes. For me and many others, if they are not in there, you're just having a mildly spicy steak sandwich that you can get anywhere. They have a salty and unique flavor that makes the dish what it is. Because of that unique flavor I also use them in several other Portuguese recipes and I am sure they will infiltrate more.

Here in the good old South Coast of Massachusetts city of Fall River, we have a large Azorean-Portuguese community. It is so large in fact that many Azoreans consider Fall River to be the tenth island in the Azores chain! Because of that large Portuguese population we have immediate access to a great deal of good Portuguese food and ingredients. From staples like the spicy chourico and linguica sausages and bolos levedos sweet buns to more exotic things like fresh Azorean seafoods and hard-to-find spices.

One of the harder to find items is pimenta salgada. You won't find it in most local grocers. Only the most "Portuguese" of the Portuguese stores carry it. I don't think that is because it is rare or unpopular but instead, I think it is because most people who use it in their cooking prefer to make it themselves. One of those people is my friend Karen (family name: Lima) who learned how to make it from her mother. When I asked her for instructions on how to prepare it she didn't hesitate to offer them up.

So, for my friends from far away who may or may not have have had Portuguese food, or better yet: Portuguese-style steak sandwiches, and who want to create them at home using my recipes and others, you are now just a short process and fourteen days away from being able to do it in your own kitchens! I have other great recipes that use these unique peppers coming in the near future. Thank you Karen for your generosity!

Pimenta Salgada (Portuguese Salted Peppers)

Red Finger Peppers (hot or sweet peppers 6" to 8" long)
Coarse Sea Salt
A suitably large and deep, lidded glass or ceramic container (red ceramic is traditional).

Carefully wash all the peppers and blot them dry.

Cut off the top of pepper, be careful not to remove the seeds.*

Fill each pepper with sea salt and carefully layer them in the glass/ceramic container.

As you complete each layer of peppers, place a layer of salt over it before starting a new layer.

Continue until you fill the container or run out of peppers.

Cover and place in a cool dark place.

The pimenta salgada are typically ready in about 2 weeks.

You can expect the peppers to give up a great deal of their moisture and it may eventually cover the peppers, this is normal. It is also normal for pimenta salgada to darken and soften over time. It requires no refrigeration.

*There is an alternative method in which you halve and deseed each pepper. Then you layer them in the container and cover each layer with salt. I've used them both ways.

Recipe: Academica/Caravela-Style Portuguese Steak Sandwiches 2010

Way back in November of 2008, I posted the first recipe for Portuguese-style steak sandwiches on Chop Onions, Boil Water. In that entry I recounted my first experiences with that type of sandwich at a Fall River, Massachusetts restaurant called "The Academica". I went on to explain how my friend Dave Leboeuf had, observed how the locally-famous (now internationally famous, right Kiwis?) sandwiches were made, and how he tinkered in his home kitchen until he came up with a good version. I took his version and tuned it to my personal tastes (admittedly, not much tuning needed thanks to Dave's work) and created my own recipe. This all took place a year or two before I ever posted the recipe online. If you're interested in that Portuguese steak sandwich recipe, just click here.

Since that time, the Portuguese steak sandwich situation in Fall River, Massachusetts has gotten a little "complex". It seems that a while back the cooks at the Academica restaurant decided to open their own place and did so, right on the side of the Academica! They named their new restaurant "The Caravela Family Restaurant" and proceeded to create the same sandwiches and other dishes that they did at the Academica. Today, each place has its adherents and I'm sure they have good personal reasons for which restaurant they patronize. I have my favorite and that's where I take my out-of-town guests and they love it too. Hell, I've even heard there may have been a split at the Caravela and there could be a third contender for the best Portuguese-style steak sandwich in Fall River, Massachusetts.

Why a new recipe you ask? Because, as good as the original one was, it was never perfect. Something about it was always just a little less than authentic and that sent me to thinking about it.

Now, Dave had seen the whole process, he'd seen the ingredients, so why couldn't we absolutely nail it in our home kitchens? I talked to him about it a couple of times and we came to the conclusion that it must have something to do with the repeated cooking. The Academica and the Caravela produce hundreds of steak sandwiches everyday. We figured that the remnants of each steak: the juices, garlic and seasonings are allowed to collect and simmer on that grill over the course of the day, and that somehow effects the final flavor of the steak. In the end this ended up being easy to test because Dave is the president of a social organization and he often cooks some of their large dinners. For a few of those dinners, he decided to create his version of Academica sandwiches and he confirmed that the steaks that came off the stove later in the night tasted more authentic than the ones that were prepared earlier.

After some thought about Dave's experiences I created a work around to avoid having to prepare hundreds of steaks for hours to get the right flavor. I discovered that if you slowly cook some of the ingredients in a separate pan before you cook your steak you be able to recreate what happens on the stoves of these restaurants. It takes a little time, but it is easy and makes a huge difference in the flavor.

Another thing I noticed about the Academica and the Caravela's steak sandwiches were the peppers that came inside each one. They were denser, saltier and not nearly as juicy as the ordinary pickled peppers available in the market. I searched the local markets for similar peppers and tried a variety of them and while the resulting sandwiches were always good, the peppers were never really right. Finally, I asked my Azorean friend Sandy to call her mom and describe the peppers that were in the Portuguese sandwiches. Her mother recognized the description and informed us that they were called "Pimenta Salgada" (salted peppers), she also directed me to the local markets where I could find them. I did find them, and PRESTO they were the real deal. Props to her mom as well because she also gave me a generous amount of them after I had inquired.

The resulting steak sandwiches were, and still are the best that have come out of my home. My wife, who is as big a fan of Portuguese-style steak sandwiches as anyone has pronounced them as better than either restaurant. Yeah, I know... my mom says I'm very handsome as well.

Academica/Caravela-Style Portuguese Steak Sandwiches 2010

2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs butter
1 head of garlic (all cloves picked off, peeled and lightly crushed)
Frank's Hot Sauce® or Texas Pete's Hot Sauce®
Steak, not too thick, cubed steak works well. It should be 1/4" to 3/8" thick.
1 cup of dry white wine or beef broth
Stick-style sandwich bread
Pimenta Salgada (Portuguese salted peppers)*
Salt to taste

In a small saucepan or skillet, add 1 Tbs olive oil, butter and a splash of the hot sauce. Place it over a low flame, when the butter is done foaming add all the garlic and allow it to cook SLOWLY until the garlic darkens, softens and just begins to caramelize. Be sure not to burn the mix. I usually start this part of the recipe an hour before I begin cooking the steak. Go LOW with the heat and SLOW with the cooking and you'll be fine.

Season each steak and then tenderize the meat using grid side of a tenderizing hammer. Just a quick going over, don't mash it into goo!

When you notice the oil, butter and garlic mixture close to finishing, preheat a large, deep skillet over a medium-high flame.

Add the remaining olive oil, when it begins to shimmer, add the steaks one to two at a time to the pan.

Brush on a little hot sauce to the top of steaks while cooking.

When steaks are nicely browned on one side, turn them over, brush on a little more hot sauce and cook until browned on both sides.

As each steak finishes cooking, remove it to a covered plate to keep it warm while you continue cooking the others.

When all the steaks are done cooling, raise the heat to high. When pan is hot, add the wine/beef broth and deglaze the pan by scraping it with a wooden spoon while the wine or broth simmers.

Add the garlic, oil, butter mixture to the simmering sauce and continue simmering until sauce becomes thick.

Remove from heat, add the steaks and any drippings to the sauce being sure that each steak is well-coated. Cover the pan to keep steaks and sauce warm while you prepare the sandwiches.

Slice the bread, add the sauce soaked steak, be sure to get some garlic in there. Top with a slice or two of pimenta salgada and serve with french fries.

*Pimenta salgada can be purchased at Portuguese grocery and specialty shops. They are very salty, you may want to rinse them in fresh water or soak them in water during the cooking time to cut the saltiness. If you don't have them in your area don't worry, I'll be posting a recipe for making your own in the next few days.

Recipe: Linguini with Chourico and Red Pepper Sauce

It's no secret that I am a fan of the spicy portuguese sausage known as "chourico". Why I am a fan of chourico is no mystery either, it's because chourico is a ubiquitous ingredient in the cuisine of my hometown of Fall River, Massachusetts (where the word chourico is pronounced something like: "SURE-dEESE"). Fall River has a large Azorean Portuguese community and that means we have great Portuguese food. From what I hear, Portuguese people on the island of Saint Michael now consider Fall River the tenth Azorean island. I like that.

So, like I said, chourico is a ubiquitous ingredient in our local cuisine. It is in sandwiches, pies, paired with seafood, a pizza topping, a breakfast side, it is served as an appetizer, a main, it can be used with or in a variety of things. It has even penetrated the most American of feasts: Thanksgiving, where our local variety of turkey stuffing has a good deal of chourico in it. Hell, one of my friends even eats it dipped in chocolate. I prefer to cook mine in a flaming bath of Portuguese moonshine.

That's why, I can't even consider a collection of personal Italian recipes that doesn't include one that uses chourico. This is probably the oldest of the chourico sauce recipes I have. I've been preparing something like this since around 1980. In those days the recipe was basically a marinara with ground chourico in it. I've refined it now and I also add some sweet and crunchy red pepper that works great against the spicy chourico.

If you don't have chourico where you live, I've included a link below where you can get some of the best. Don't be afraid to try a different kind of spicy sausage with this dish. Italian, Cajun or Brazilian sausage will work fine, and while I haven't tried it with Mexican or Spanish chorizo, I'm sure that would work as well.

Linguini with Chourico and Red Pepper Sauce

2 TBS olive oil
3 large links (about 1.5 lbs.) of chourico cut into 1/4" slices
1 large leek (white part only) chopped (substitute onions if you like)
4 cloves of garlic (chopped)
2 bay leaves
2 28 oz. can of crushed tomatoes
1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
1-2 TBS dried basil
1 healthy pinch of dried oregano
2 cups of chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste
1 large red pepper (cut into matchstick sized pieces)
Parmesan-Reggiano cheese (grated)

While you are preparing the sauce as outlined below, cook your linguini the normal way.

Place a large pan or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil to the pan.

When the oil begins to shimmer, add the leeks, bay leaves and chourico and sauté stirring regularly until the leeks get translucent and the chourcio begins to cook and brown a little.

Add the garlic and continue to cook stirring frequently for 1 to 2 minutes. DO NOT BURN THE GARLIC!

Raise the heat to high and deglaze the pan by adding the two cups of chicken broth to the mix. Stir well and be sure to scrape up and hard bits from the pan.

Allow the chicken stock to reduce. When it does, add the two cans of ground tomatoes, the tomato sauce, the basil and the oregano and bring the sauce to a boil. Lower the heat to a low simmer and cook like this for 20 to 30 minutes.

Taste the sauce and add salt and pepper to taste.

2-3 minutes before you are ready to serve the sauce, add the red pepper and stir in well. DO NOT OVERCOOK THE RED PEPPER. You want it to remain a little crunchy.

Serve the sauce over your linguini with a generous sprinkle of parmesan-reggiano cheese.

Recipe: Linguini with Chourico and Red Pepper Sauce from Chop Onions, Boil Water - World Food at Home by Henry Krauzyk http://www.choponionsboilwater.com

Recipe: Fall River Style Boneless Buffalo Wings

When you think about it, buffalo wings have become a phenomenon. If my sources are correct, they were first served by Teressa and Frank Bellissimo at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York on October 3rd, 1964. Since that historic and important date time they have spread internationally and spawned thousands of regional variations.

My favorite regional variation is from my hometown. Unlike more complex versions the local one is simple, as it calls for just one extra ingredient. It differs most from the original Buffalo Wings in that it isn't a chicken wing or drumstick at all but rather it is made from chicken tenders or slices of chicken breast.

This recipe was among my favorites at a restaurant I used to visit almost every night. In fact I met my wife there and made many friends during the time I spent there. Things change however, and that restaurant has faded into history. Its former glory now only a memory for the patrons that used to love it.

Now, if you read all my little stories above the recipes you're in for a special bonus treat here. My friend Sandy used to bartend at this same restaurant and one night when I was ordering the boneless wings, she insisted that I add some barbecue sauce to the prepared dish and then wrap the whole thing up in a tortilla. Well I did and it was great and it became one of my favorite sandwiches/wraps for a few years. If you try it I think you'll enjoy it as well! The schlubs who don't read these stories will never know that! So to honor it's creator I will call this recipe "Sandy's Super-Secret Boneless Barbecued Buffalo Wing Wrap." Try it, you'll like it.

Fall River Style Boneless Buffalo Wings

1/2 cup of Frank's Red Hot© Sauce
1/3 cup butter
1/8 lb. salt pork
1-2 lbs of chicken tenders or breast strips
Clam fry batter
Celery sticks
Carrot sticks
Your favorite bleu cheese salad dressing

Combine the Frank's Red Hot© Sauce, salt pork and butter in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until salt pork is well rendered. Set heat to low to keep sauce warm while you prepare the chicken.

Heat the oil in a deep fryer to 375°F.

Dredge chicken tenders in clam fry batter and deep fry until done.

Drain the chicken of excess oil and then toss it in the hot sauce mixture until well coated.

Plate it and serve with the celery sticks, carrot sticks and bleu cheese dressing.

Crack open an ice cold beer and enjoy!

Recipe: Fall River Style Boneless Buffalo Wings from Chop Onions, Boil Water - World Food at Home by Henry Krauzyk
http://www.choponionsboilwater.com

Recipe: Teriyaki Sirloin Tips

This is a really simple dish made with a few prepared products. You may have noticed or you will notice that I am not fond of using prepared products in most of the meals I create. My philosophy is that you should home prepare as much as you can. It's just better for you and your family. Sometimes though something comes along and if it works don't mess with it. This is one of those recipes.

This recipe came to me, (and therefor you) by way of begging, nagging, coersion and screaming. It also took several meetings in dark alleys with shady characters to finally get. It is not one of my own recipes, but it is just too good to neglect entering it in Chop Onions, Boil Water for my readers, friends, family and descendants.

It comes from the kitchen of a now defunct restaurant and former favorite hangout. Those of you who know me or are familiar with Fall River, may know of where I speak. It was a pretty cool place for a time. The social center of a lot of our lives. A place where I spent many, many hours, drained many bottles of cabernet sauvignon and made many friends. It is a place that represents a part of my life that I consider my own renaissance. A place where I was able to stand back, relax, look at myself, take stock and rebuild. It is also an important place because I met my wife there.

Enjoy these steak tips folks because many people who used to will never be able to again. They weren't as tenacious as I was at bugging and coercing people for the recipe. Nor are they as resourceful as my friends Sandy and Shane were at securing this recipe.

Thanks guys!

Teriyaki Sirloin Tips

3-5 lbs beef sirloin tips
3/4 cup of Italian dressing
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup Kikkoman Teriyaki glaze (plus a little for post grilling)
1/4 cup Kikkoman Teriyaki marinade

In a large bowl combine the Italian dressing, water, teriyaki glaze and teriyaki marinade. Blend the ingredients well.

Add the sirloin tips to the mixture and coat well.

Cover and place in the fridge overnight. Turn mixture occasionally.

Prepare on the grill to desired doneness.

Toss with a little bit of the teriyaki glaze.

Serve and enjoy!

Recipe: Teriyaki Sirloin Tips from Chop Onions, Boil Water by Henry Krauzyk http://www.choponionsboilwater.com

Recipe: Academica-Style Steak Sandwiches

In 1993 my friend Tom asked me to join him for lunch at a local Portuguese bar. We ended up at the Academica Association in my hometown of Fall River, Massachusetts. The Academica is an informal little Portuguese place that has a bar side and a restaurant side. We chose the bar side. When I asked what to order he suggested the steak sandwich and fries. At the time I didn't realize how my choice would affect the eating habits of so many people.

When the plates arrived, the portions were large which is not unusual for a Portuguese restaurant. A large, medium-crust bread which had been sliced lengthwise and filled with reddish brown steak topped with cooked whole garlic cloves and sliced red peppers. There was also a hefty pile of fries on the plate as well. I bit into the sandwich and was really surprised at how phenomenally good it was. Luck of luck, the fries were equally tasty. Well, I wasn't 4 bites into the sandwich and I knew I'd be back, and back I went, and continue to go to this day.

I introduced a few friends and family to the place and mentioned it to others and soon it was a hit amongst them. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence to have a friend mention they had just been to the Academica and then express how good it was. One friend in particular, Dave Lebouef, started getting take out there. Dave is one of my oldest friends and it was his luck that I told him about the Academica, but my luck that he went and became interested in it.

Dave's friends also know him as the "Technician" because of his pragmatic approach to the process of things that interest him. Well, during his visits to the Academica, he studied the processes of cooking those steak sandwiches and experimented on his own at home. He soon came up with an excellent version. Like most things in life the simplest things are often the best, and such it is with these sandwiches. This recipe is my adaptation of Dave's. I think I use a little more garlic than Dave does, that's about it. Oh no wait, I also take my sandwiches with a half bottle of Dao wine as well! You'll read more about Dave elsewhere here, but know he makes major contributions to our cooking circle.

Academica-Style Steak Sandwiches

Steak, not too thick, cubed steak works well. It should be 1/4" to 3/8" thick.
Stick-style sandwich bread
1 TBS Olive oil
8 to 12 cloves of garlic
Pickled sweet red peppers (mild to medium heat, sliced and seeded)
Frank's Hot Sauce® or Texas Pete's Hot Sauce®
1 tsp butter
Salt to taste

Heat a large saucepan over a medium-high flame.

Add olive oil, when it begins to shimmer, add the steaks to the pan.

Salt steaks and add some hot sauce to the top of steaks while cooking.

Toss garlic cloves around the pan. Move it around frequently so it does not burn.

When steaks are half done, turn them over, add a pinch of salt and more hot sauce.

Move pan contents so the ingredients blend well.

Turn steaks when done and be sure all the liquid ingredients in the pan blend well.

Add a teaspoon of butter to mix and blend in.

Swirl steaks around in sauce, move onto bread, add a little of the garlic and top with pickled sweet red peppers.

Serve with french fries.

Recipe: Academica-Style Steak Sandwiches from Chop Onions, Boil Water by Henry Krauzyk

Recipe: Bolos Levedos Acorianos (Portuguese Sweet Muffins or Portuguese Pancakes)

Okay, allow me to let you in on a little secret. Big, snazzy New York City burger joints are scoring high praise and big dollars with their burgers that are gently nestled in Portuguese rolls that are shipped in from my hometown of Fall River, Massachusetts. Of course they're using good beef, but what is really setting these burgers apart are the Portuguese sweet muffins. I blogged about it a little while back, you can find that post here.

The people from the South Coast towns of Massachusetts and Rhode Island have always enjoyed these rolls and they're available in most markets. We call them Portuguese sweet muffins or Portuguese pancakes, but their real name is "bolos levedos" (sounds like "bhoulzsh levezsh"). Of the varieties you get in the market, some are good and some could be better. The best ones I ever had is when I visited the town of Furnas on Saint Michael in the Azores. Now those bolos levedos are something. Larger and more tender than the American variety and just a little more special. It could of course be the locale, but I'm also betting on the Portuguese butter and a few other things.

We always have a supply in my house. We use them for breakfast sandwiches, hamburgers, fish sandwiches or just toasted with some butter or guava jelly. Recently, I decided I wanted to make them for myself and set out to do so. I wanted something closer to what I got in Saint Michael and I'm certain I was able to do that. I found the recipe I based mine on on a Portuguese cooking website. With the help of a good friend and her mom whom are both fluent in Portuguese I was able to translate the instructions and recipe amounts. I made some pretty big adjustments and got exactly what I was looking for. So now I can make my own bolos levedos Acorianos and anyone out there who really wants them can have the best hamburger buns in the world. These things are addictive, you've been warned.

Bolos Levedos Acorianos

1/2 cup whole milk (70-80°F)
1/2 cup + 1 TBS sugar
2-1/2 tsp instant yeast
4-1/3 cups unbleached bread flour
2 eggs (beaten)
9 TBS sweet butter (softened)
1/2 tsp zest of lemon (grated then minced fine)
2 TBS vodka (if you can get Portuguese moonshine use that, but I imagine everyone can't get it like we can!)
1/8 tsp salt
A little water as necessary.

Mix the instant yeast into the warm milk and set aside.

Sift the flour and sugar into a large bowl.

Form a well in the middle of the flour/sugar combination add the milk/yeast combination and mix it in a little. Add the eggs, butter, lemon zest, vodka and salt. Mix together until it forms a rough dough ball. If you need to add a few drops of water to make it gather into a ball, do so in small increments. Once the ball forms, cover the bowl and let the dough rest for 15 minutes. This allows the dough to hydrate evenly.

Turn the dough ball out on to a floured surface and knead for 12 minutes. If you need instruction on kneading refer to the instructions on kneading in the homemade naan recipe here.

After kneading cover the dough with plastic film and allow it to rest for 10 minutes.

Gently form the dough into a ball and place in a lightly oiled container that will allow it to increase to twice its size. Press the dough down gently and then cover with the container cover or plastic wrap. Mark the container with tape where the dough is and allow it to rise to twice its size (30 minutes to 4 hours).

Turn the dough back out onto your floured surface and divide in to 9 equal sized pieces. Gently form each piece into a smooth ball and cover with plastic wrap and let rest 15 minutes.

Pat each ball into flat patty. Let rest 15 minutes covered with plastic wrap.

Place a comal or flat griddle over medium-low flame and allow it to heat up.

Flatten and expand each piece of dough again. Let rest 15 minutes or more covered with plastic wrap. You want it to rise a little bit again.

When they are ready, place a patty on the heated comal or griddle. Cook it SLOWLY on medium-low heat, or the outside will burn before the inside is cooked properly. Turn over when nicely browned, remove when evenly browned on both sides and cooked through. It'll take a little testing at first but is easy once you sort it out. Eventually, if your comal or griddle are large enough you can cook four at a time.

You now make the best hamburger or fish sandwich buns in the world. You can also use them for breakfast by splitting them, buttering them and toasting them on a comal or griddle. Add your favorite jelly. My wife toasts them this way and then makes a sandwich of fried egg whites, cheese and split sausages. Those things are great!

Bolos Levedoes are very versatile and can be used a number of ways!

Recipe: Bolos Levedos Acorianos from Chop Onions, Boil Water by Henry Krauzyk

Recipe: Dad's Coney Island Hot Dog Sauce

So this Zen guy goes up to a hot dog vendor and he says, "Hey, make me one with everything!" Come on, laugh! It's funny! I suppose you are one of the unbelievers and you doubt the "Be here now" Zen aspects of the hot dog? Many people can link certain foods they enjoy back to certain moments in their life. None do this as much for me as the hot dog.

I remember a rainy night of fishing in Newport, Rhode Island as a young child with my dad and grandfather. It was fruitless but it was capped with a late night stop at the King Phillip Diner in Fall River, MA. Several dogs with the works, a coffee milk and not one, but two pieces of blueberry pie. I also remember my dad returning from bowling on Friday nights with a dozen for my sisters, my mom and myself to share. These would be the first of my late night hot dogs. Later on however late night hot dogs usually came/come after copious amounts alcohol!

Then there's the one I had outside in the cool air after a night of dancing in a hot night club in Ponta Delgada, Azores. It had all manner of toppings including tiny french fries! Wait, then there are the ones I have had at that shrine to Americana, Fenway Park while watching the Boston Red Sox win the world series! (Remember when that was just a dream? GO SOX!). Sure, I can't remember every hot dog I have had, but why can I remember so many?

I was introduced to the local variety Coney Island hot dog by my dad. It was long enough ago where I can't remember it (peculiar), but I'm sure it was because him and my mom were arguing, because that's how I got to see Planet of the Apes (which by the way, ended up with us getting hot dogs at Nick's Coney Island in Fall River, Massachusetts. I think I also got a fish at a pet store that day, fight on parents, fight on!).

Anyway, my dad is a kickass cook and he makes one helluva good hot dog sauce. Unfortunately, he does it a little differently each time and never writes much of it down, but this is his basic recipe. I always make a surplus and freeze servings in zip lock bags.

Says Pop, "Don't be afraid to use more onions or cumin."

Says I, "Don't be afraid to write it all down old man!"

Dad's Coney Island Hot Dog Sauce

1-1/4 lbs of lean ground beef
2 cups of water
2 shakes of ketchup
2 shakes of Worcestershire sauce
2/3 cup of onion (minced)
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp ground cumin
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp prepared mustard
3 tsp of chili powder

Place the hamburger in a heavy skillet. Add water and remaining ingredients.

Stir mixture as you bring it to a boil.

Reduce heat to a simmer and maintain simmer for 45 minutes stirring occasionally.

If sauce becomes too dry, add a little water.

The finished consistency should be like thickish chili.

Add a cooked hot dog to a steamed bun, add mustard, coney island sauce, chopped onions and a sprinkle of celery salt.

Dad's Coney Island Hot Dog Sauce by Henry Krauzyk from Chop Onions, Boil Water

Why didn't I think of that?: Portuguese Sweetbread Rolls & the Perfect Burger

I live in a small city called Fall River on the Southcoast of Massachusetts. I mention this because we have a unique local cuisine based on the cultures that settled the area over the years. We have dashes of French, Irish, Native American and also, especially for the purposes of this entry: Portuguese.

Recently I've been reading online reviews of various burger joints in New York City. One came up several times with glowing reviews because of their unique and delicious burgers. It's a place called Zaitzeff in the financial district. What made the Zaitzeff burgers so good? One writer had a succinct answer: The bun. He described the bun as "flat, like an English muffin with a pale yellow color" he went on to describe it a "sweet and delicious which enhanced the burger's flavor." I didn't need to be hit on the head with a log to know what he was talking about, but then he continued "which the restaurant orders from a Portuguese bakery in Fall River, MA.

Bolos Levedos (bhoulzsh levezsh) or "Portuguese Pancakes" as we grew up calling them in Fall River. I've had them all my life in numerous ways, but you know what? Never ever did I think or recall anyone else who had the presence of mind to toast them on a grill and serve up a burger on them! Since reading the reviews of Zaitzeff's burgers that has changed.

It's the hamburger roll of the house now. In fact we go Zaitzeff's one better by not only using the sweet bolos levedos, but also their larger brothers the sweetbread rolls. We don't limit the meats to just burgers either. Panko battered mahi-mahi sings an opera on these types of rolls as does homemade chicken salad. Thank you Zaitzeff!

It's strange how you can become overly familiar with the common things in your life, never giving them a second thought or seeing them outside their normal uses. Along comes someone who doesn't see them everyday and the next thing you know that thing changes.

Thanks Zaitzeff! I haven't had your burgers, but damn, you're onto something with your rolls!

Why didn't I think of that?

Anyone that doesn't live near Zaitzeff or Fall River can find recipes online to make your own bolos levedos or you can Google "Portuguese Bakery Fall River MA" and possibly get them sent out.

Until then, you're kind of missing something great.

Photo courtesy of Paobolosecia