Norm Matthews

I have ordered three or four things that took a month or more to get here. I wonder what is going on? Anyway, yesterday a long awaited bread pan that holds three hoagie size buns finally came. Today I used them to make some sub sandwiches. The recipe makes eight buns so I froze half of it for another time. I forgot to score them, so maybe that is why they are higher in the middle. The middle loaf was 186º when the other two were 194º but it came out OK anyway.

There were two recipes in the newspaper today that I decided to try. One was Crispy Chicken with Lime Butter and the other one was Ree Drummond's Garlic Parmesan Fries. I didn't get to take a picture of the fries. It was eaten before I got a chance.

This is also a copy of Hemingway's hamburger with some expanded information. i tried this version a few years ago. It was good. There were images including the original image but they didn't copy. Matt Moore • September 10, 2019 • Last updated: June 4, 2021 How to Make Ernest Hemingway’s Favorite Hamburger Ernest Hemingway had a huge appetite for life. Whether pounding away at his typewriter, deep sea fishing off the Florida Keys, hunting from the mountains of the American West to the savannas of Africa, or issuing journalistic dispatches and even running his own reconnaissance patrols on the frontlines of war, he had a outsized hunger for a wide range of interests — and that included food itself. Hemingway’s intimate connection to his food started early in his childhood. When he was just a young boy, his father introduced him to the pursuits of hunting and fishing, as well as their ethics: Ernest had to eat whatever he killed. For most sportsmen, such a rule is practical (and often delicious), especially when the game consists of rabbits, venison, elk, and fowl, all of which Ernest consumed with gusto; he had a particularly punctilious recipe for campfire-cooked trout. Yet he kept his father’s rule concerning less common and conveniently cooked game as well, consuming everything from porcupine to snake to lion. Though Papa found his solace in the wild, he also enjoyed the culinary comforts of civilization — like dining out and sipping a nice wine or refreshing daiquiri. His posthumous masterpiece, A Moveable Feast (1964), showcases Ernest’s appreciation for describing his meals. I remember serving up this specific quote to my wife, to get her to come around to the joy of oysters: As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans. And while he wasn’t overly domestic, Hemingway sometimes cooked at home for himself and for others; as a war correspondent, he was known to fry up a pancake breakfast on a portable stove in his hotel room and invite his fellow journalists to partake. Most frequently though, he had his household staff cook his meals, based on recipes he had first meticulously taste-tested and formulated himself. A batch of these re-surfaced a decade ago, when in 2009 a trove of digitized documents made their way into the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. Most of these documents came from Hemingway’s time in Cuba, a roughly twenty-year period where he produced some of his literary bests, including For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea. While the majority of the details in this archival material were mundane, there was one particular document, made viral by The Paris Review, that captured even my attention: the recipe for Papa’s favorite hamburger. I’ve long been a burger purist. My philosophy has been well documented: use the best meat you can find, with a nice ratio of fat to meat, and season it with salt and pepper — nothing else. Gently mound the burger into a loose patty, and cook it up in a cast-iron pan to develop a nice char, with a medium-rare center. So I must say that I was a bit taken aback by Hemingway’s instructions when it came to preparing his hamburgers: “ground beef, onions, garlic, India relish, and capers, cooked so the edges are crispy but the center red and juicy.” Though the later cooking technique seemed on point, I felt awash in a slew of additional ingredients, some of which I naively deemed to be unnecessary. Nevertheless, if there is one man who perhaps deserves an immense amount of trust, it is Hemingway himself. So I set about to re-create his recipe, exactly as it was written, ingredients, instructions, and all. I inevitably hit some same snags in resurrecting this three-quarters-of-a-century-old burger formulation, however. One of the Spice Islands seasonings has since gone kaput. And India relish? I checked my local store and online, and while it’s possible to source, it’s not easy. With my beers cold in the fridge and my wife hankering for this burger, I thought it best to find the right substitute (included below). I felt less guilty about not following the recipe to a T, as Hemingway himself, or perhaps a family member, includes a slew of other ingredients scattered on the page. What resulted was honestly one of the best burgers I’ve had in my life. I’m not just saying that. Hell, my wife told me it was bar-none the best burger she’s ever had. The seasoned meat, when cooked exactly as described, provides a savory umami bomb of complexity, and the drippings of the burger absorbed into the bun, making condiments entirely unnecessary. I can see why a man so well-traveled, indulged, and imbibed, would go out of his way to create such a pleasure. And like most of his work, I’m simply glad he took the time to record it for others. The recipe is quoted in its exact form below, and I added a few substitution notes after that. How to Make Papa’s Favorite Hamburger From experimenting, Papa’s Favorite Hamburger. There is no reason why a fried hamburger has to turn out gray, greasy, paper-thin and tasteless. You can add all sorts of goodies and flavors to the ground beef — minced mushrooms, cocktail sauce, minced garlic and onion, chopped almonds, a big dollop of Piccalilli, or whatever your eye lights on. Papa prefers this combination. Ingredients I’m showing you all the ingredients here together so you can see them at a glance. But as you’ll see from the instructions, you add them to the meat in different steps when making the recipe. 1 lb. ground lean beef 2 cloves, minced garlic 2 little green onions, finely chopped 1 heaping teaspoon, India relish 2 tablespoons, capers 1 heaping teaspoon, Spice Islands Sage Spice Islands Beau Monde Seasoning — ½ teaspoon Spice Islands Mei Yen Powder — ½ teaspoon 1 egg, beaten in a cup with a fork About one-third cup dry red or white wine 1 tablespoon cooking oil Directions Break up the meat with a fork and scatter the garlic, onion, and dry seasonings over it, then mix them into the meat with a fork or your fingers. Let the bowl of meat sit out of the icebox for ten or fifteen minutes while you set the table and make the salad. Add the relish, capers, everything else including wine and let the meat sit, quietly marinating, for another ten minutes if possible. Now make four fat, juicy patties with your hands. The patties should be an inch thick, and soft in texture but not runny. Have the oil in your frying-pan hot but not smoking when you drop in the patties and then turn the heat down and fry the burgers about four minutes. Take the pan off the burner and turn the heat high again. Flip the burgers over, put the pan back on the hot fire, then after one minute, turn the heat down again and cook another three minutes. Both sides of the burgers should be crispy brown and the middle pink and juicy. Substitution Notes/Changes Spice Islands discontinued its Mei Yen Powder several years ago. I substituted with 1 tsp. soy sauce, ½ tsp. kosher salt, ½ tsp sugar, combined and added into the meat mixture. The other Spice Islands seasonings are still available. The Beau Monde is a unique blend, but the sage can be substituted with any other good quality sage. India Relish. You can indeed still get this online, but often in bulk and usually for a pretty penny (for a jar of relish). The taste is described best as right down the middle, not too sour or sweet. I’m personally a dill relish guy, so I just substituted with my favorite dill relish and the result was spectacular.

Periodontist put me on a soft food diet since an extraction on Thursday. That night I had leftover ham and noodle casserole. Last night was Pho delivered and tonight was some Creole Corn and Crab bisque. I mads some garlic toast with sourdough bread. We ate outside.

Yesterday we had a ham dinner. No occasion, just that Charlie said a few days ago that he'd like to have ham sometime soon. A couple days ago, Walmart had some Frick's bone in ham and they are always good City hams and cheap too so that is what we had. Today we went to an Italian restaurant in Overland Park for lunch then went to the Korean market in the same mall and got stuff for dinner tonight. Charlie got some side dishes: a tofu dish called dubujolim, japchae, fishcake, kimche, and some other stuff not for dinner tonight. I got some thin sliced pork shoulder, bok choy, snap peas, shitake mushrooms and rice. I made bulgogi with the pork and cooked the vegetables separately in sesame oil and salt and pepper, then combined them to heat through and served in one bowl. We had so much food that we each needed two plates for everything.

A few days ago I got a package of fondue and today decided what to do with it. I cooked some steak, new potatoes, shrimp, baked a loaf of bread and added some cut up apples

Charlie asked about having lasagne today. I told him that asking for lasagne and getting it the same day would be too hard and too late. He then suggested chicken breast, Martini style. That I can do. We like it with fettuccini and Alfredo sauce. I decided to add mushrooms to the usual carrots and green beans.

We have one that looks very much like that a few blocks away. It is in a liquor store parking lot and next to a car wash.

Happy Easter. We had a modest dinner. There will be a lot of leftover ham in coming days.

We had Mongolian Beef and asparagus tonight

Chicken Vindaloo. according to the recipe introduction, is a spicy curry dish that was originally a Portuguese dish of spicy pork but you can use any meat you wish. The curry was not a pre-made mix but made from scratch and had a subtle curry flavor, IMHO. I made banana nut bread for dessert

I haven't been posting recipes here or on my blog lately, which I first started doing when Charlie asked me to do, so we'd have them for the future. I posted as many as I could find on the blog along with this recipe but without pictures. This one is Shrimp with pasta, garlic, parmesan cheese, chicken broth and cream.

We had our Irish-American meal this afternoon. If there weren't a St. Patrick's Day, I'd invent a holiday for making corned beef brisket from scratch. Maybe my birthday... well no, that's July. Not a good time for boiling a big chunk of meat for hours. Maybe that Seinfeld holiday.. Festivus. I told Charlie that I'd make it even if I lived alone . I did not serve an everything-boiled-in-one-pot this year. The soda bread recipe said this one is more likely to resemble the way it would look and taste in a typical Irish home. It contains some whole wheat flour and rolled oats. I bought a turnip for the colcannon a few days ago but could not find it today. I made a quick trip to the closest store to grab one and they did not have any. Instead I got a rutabaga. It was from Canada and cost $4.53. A pretty hefty price for one Canadian rutabaga. Trump tariff? This is the first time I have made colcannon. Charlie liked it and the mixed cabbage cooked in butter instead of boiled too. The colcannon recipe said to use peeled red potatoes but the red potatoes available were the size of river rock so I boiled and mashed them with skins on. The dip sauce for the Scotch eggs is made with butter, cream and mustard. I left out the flour and instead let it thicken as the butter cooled. Just to explain the Scotch eggs today, the recipe came from an Irish Pub Food cook book.

I gave them some sourdough bread and butter and coleslaw. The guy that Charlie invited ate enough crab for three people but there would still have been enough ribs to feed the extra people if it hadn't been pork ribs. I could easily have adjusted for them if it hadn't been at the last minute. I could have cooked the sausage separately. But I didn't know until they were there.

Tonight was the night Charlie's friend came over for a crab boil. Charlie and him have been friends since high school. Charlie explained that the trash talking was not serious, it was just the way they kid around with each other. He came over with his girlfriend and about noon he called to tell Charlie that his brother had flown in to Nebraska from Philly, bought a car and drove down to see him and he was coming with them. He and a friend came but the friend was Muslim and could not eat any of the food because it was cooked with pork. He ate some of my sourdough bread and some coleslaw. HIs brother didn't eat anything either.