Road Foods

[KYHeirloomer]

In the Peaches thread I made reference to over-the-road food.

Friend Wife and I used to put on about 40,000 road miles every year. Lunchtime we would picnic on anything from Chef's Salad to Chicken & Zita---stuff we could either make ahead or assemb le out of the cooler.

By the time you reach a motel, after two, or three or a half dozen 500-mile days back to back, the last thing you want is to get back in the car and go look for a restaurant. So we got in the habit of making meals ahead of time that could be frozen in boil-in bags, then heated in simmering water or the motel's microwave.

We still prefer traveling that way, saving restaurant meals for the destination. And have, through the years, developed quite a repertory of these road foods.

But I was wondering if anybody else travels that way, and what you make for your over-the-highway dining pleasure.

[StickyPirate]

The original power bar....pb&j on whole wheat, folded over.

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

We are similar to Sticky Pirate and do sandwiches, as well as fruit, and cheese & crackers and nuts! We do not travel near as far nor as much as you have Brook. But the restaurant food gets old real fast. Even after just 2 days of skipping homemade meals I begin feeling totally deprived. I just can never understand how so many people I know exist on nothing homemade ever!?!?

[chubbyalaskagriz]

When one is in Alaska they road-trip quite a bit, even though it may be unintentional. Towns are SO far apart- and everything is so spread out! Fairbanks and Anchorage are seperated by a 6 hour stretch of road... Homer is 5 hours south of Anchorage... The good part is, every road in AK is scenic, of course. So grubbing with snacks and meals up north isn't just a vacation/trip thang... it's done even on casual drives.

Nan and I have talked of this before- a staple when doing almost anything in Alaska- especially road-tripping is Sailor Boy Pilot Bread (it's sold everywhere up there in the familiar navy-blue box, though I've never seen it in the lower-48 anywhere at all) . They aren't bread at all- in fact they are x-tra large round crackers with perforations like a saltine, but much thicker. There nearly as big around as a music cd and as thick as 2-3 stacked graham crackers. They are stocked all over the far north from remote cabins to fishing boats, because they contain little fat so they don't mold or mildew- plus they repell moisture well so they stay "fresh" a long time. They are delicious, sturdy bases on which to spread peanut-butter, cheese whiz, cream cheese and jam. I also like them with a slice of salami and sharp cheddar. I've munched on them on a bus ride into Denali Park, on a helicopter tour of Mendenhall glacier, on a twin-engine Beaver taking me to work on Admiralty Island, and on the ferry tooling around south-east. YUM! If you ever see these anywhere- you owe it to yourself to snatch'em up and give'em a try! You'll be hooked, I promise!

[chubbyalaskagriz]

Garrison Keillor of NPR's 'Prairie Home Companion" and the "Lake Wobegon Days" book-series has a routine where he talks of being out on the road and going from coast-to-coast performing the radio show in all sorts of out of the way places, and he claims to have sampled Chicken Fried Steak at every diner, cafe and roadhouse between Bangor and Death Valley. He compares the virtues of white milk gravy versus brown gravy... weighs whether it's better to ladle the gravy o'er the top- or to smother it in a skillet of gravy on the stove-top before serving... the benefits of double-breading over single breading... whether or not it's more delicious served with mashed spuds or rice... And of course Garrison's wonderful expressive voice and subtle humor makes one smile big...

[KYHeirloomer]

Here's another road trip meal. The recipe was designed around beef. But we often make it with venison. And, frankly, it wouldn't surprise me to find that chicken or turkey would work just as well.

We serve this on a bed of pasta, if making it directly. For a road meal we mix the sauce and pasta, put a serving in a boil bag and top with the meat.

I also find this works better if you shape the meat into mini-patties, rather than leaving them as balls:

Sweet & Sour Meatballs

1 1/2 lbs ground meat
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
5 tbls flour
1 cup oil
3 diced green peppers
3 eggs
1 1/4 cup beef broth
1 1/2 cup pineapple chunks
3 tbls cornstarch
1 tbls soy sauce
1/3 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup sugar

Mix together the beef, 1 tsp salt, and pepper. Shape into 24 balls.

Mix together eggs, flour and remaining salt. Dim meatballs in batter and brown in hot oil. Remove balls and pour off al but 2 tablesoons oil. Add beef broth, pineapple and green pepper. Boil, covered, for 10 minutes and return meatballs.

Just before serving add cornstarch dissolved in the soy sauce & vinegar and sugar until sauce thickens.

[KYHeirloomer]

My mom used to use this sauce to baste rotisserie chicken as it cooked. I adapted it for cold chicken wings, which we usually have with potato salad and cole slaw

Wings, btw, no matter how you make them freeze very well, so are ideal as over the road food. By the time you reach your night's stop they'll have defrosted perfectly. \

Chicken Wings In Coffee Bar-Be-Cue

for the sauce:

In a saucepan combine 1/3 cup strong black coffee, 1/3 cp catsup, 1/4 cup Worchestershire sauce, 4 tbls butter, 4 tbls molasses, 1 tbls lime juice, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp cayenne (or a couple glugs hot sauce). Simmer for about 30 minutes, or until sauce thickens.

Separate chicken wings. Reserve tips for making stock. Deep fry the wing pieces, in batches, for about 13 minutes or until browned and crisp. Drain on paper towels.

When chicken is all cooked put in a large bowl. Pour sauce over the wings and toss until evenly coated. Transfer wings to a large (2-gallon) zipper bag and freeze until needed.

[chubbyalaskagriz]

Your coffee bbq sounds yummy, KYH... I could eat almost anything on a chicken wing!

Say- your sauce reminds me of a question... I've always made a version of red-eye gravy that was typically pan juices from a baked ham, enhanced with black coffee, seasoned with lots of ground black pepper, and thickened with a roux until bubbly and thick. But in Martha Hall Foose's "Screen Doors & Sweet Tea" (a Mississippi cookbook written by a native who apprenticed in France- that I am enjoying the heck out of!) her red-eye gravy is pan juices deglazed with black coffe sweetened with sugar- OR believe-it-or-not a can of cola! Also she simmers to reduce but doesn't thicken with roux at all. Is anyone out there familiar with this far-different-than-any-I've-ever-made or eaten version?

Also, Martha makes a delicious sweet potato fritter w/ a hidden surprise that I can't wait to try! She makes mashed sweet potatoes flavored with brown-sugar, cream cheese and cinnamon. Using her hands she molds the mashed sweet potato mixture around an extra-large MARSHMALLOW. She then dips this round billiard-ball-sized fritter into egg-wash, then crushed cornflakes and deep-fries until golden. Yum! The photo of this crisp, gooey morsel in her book looks sweetly irresistable!

[KYHeirloomer]

Chubby I've never even heard of using a roux with red eye gravy.

There are several approaches. But the end result should always resemble the words that Joan Baez sang:

"I wouldn't be here eatin' this cold corn bread, or soppin' this salty gravy, my Lord, soppin' this salty gravy". Red Eye is what she was singing about.

You make it by frying a ham steak, and deglazing the skillet with black coffee. That's where most people stop. Some use additional liquid (personally, I always pour it a tot of bourbon), including, yes, cola (which is a far more common cooking ingredient, in the deep south, than most people realize---particularly with pork products).

The final "gravy" should be a thin, watery, salty jus, rather than a thick sauce.

That sweet potato fritter sounds great. I'm gonna have to give that a try.

[chubbyalaskagriz]

Thanks for schoolin' me w/ the red-eye gravy lesson, Brook... Here I've been making it wrong forever! (or, rather than wrong, I'll call it "red-eye gravy B'! Ha!)

And yes... I've heard the Joan Baez song... and speaking of folks music and Mississippi... one of my fav representations of food in music is of course Miss Bobbi Gentry's 'Ode to Billy-Joe' where that sultry alto of hers sings about biscuits, blackeyed-peas and apple pie being passed at the dinner-table, mid-day.