At the risk of ruining my culinary integrity, if I do indeed have that, I have been playing with that cheapest of cheap deli meats, bologna. Several years ago, I watched Emeril take a whole loaf of bologna, lather it with brown sugar and mustard and bake it for four hours. Bologna was the lunch meat of my childhood before we could afford to buy ham for sandwiches and for me they occasionally serve as comfort food, spread with lots of mayo on soft white bread.
Well, with the memory of Emeril's recipe, I picked up a one inch hunk of bologna from the deli and when I got it home, I cut it in half. With one half I decided to make salad.The web provided me with recipes for bologna salad...like ham salad and including hard boiled egg and pickle relish, all put through the food processor and mixed with mayo. The egg gave it good texture and broke the too much bologna taste. It was supposed to include capers but I was out of them.The other half of the chunk I slathered with a mixture of mustard and brown sugar, wrapped it in foil and baked it for about 45 minutes. The coating turned to a lovely sweet syrup and the meat turned out to be quite tasty. I was surprised it was as good as it was and decided that if I do it again, it will pair well with sweet potatoes or baked beans, even in a sandwich made of good brown bread.
Clearly I have the winter boredoms. Good thing classes start soon.
Debbie -- we had a lot of bologna salad when I was a kid -- though we called it "ham salad." I guess we were putting on airs! Anyway, I still love "ham" salad made with bologna better than the kind made from actual ham!
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