Re-create flavors you favored in restaurants
Some readers love cooking, eating and dining out. Face it, they are all foodies at heart, whether they cook or not. They like to eat.
Often, when dining out, there is a dish that is so memorable, readers want the recipe to try and make at home.
Today, requests and conversations with readers have sent me to my files for two of the most requested recipes.
A query from Joanne Trussell of Ocean Springs, Miss., sent me searching for a reader favorite, seafood pan roast. The now-gone Grand Casino in Gulfport, Miss., made a pan roast that lives on even after its demise in 2005. Periodically, readers want this recipe.
"Years ago, the old Gulfport Grand used to serve a pan roast, a seafood stewlike dish, that was really good. I know it had wine in it and maybe half-and-half," Trussell said. "We have tried to find any local restaurants that serve this but have been unsuccessful. We also have tried to duplicate it with some success, but it's just not the same.
"I don't even know if it is possible to obtain this recipe, given the circumstances that (Hurricane) Katrina left us with. So if at all possible we would appreciate your expertise in this," she said.
Recent Facebook chatter brought up Biff Burgers and requests for the sauce recipe.
Here are a couple of pan roast recipes; both are close to the one served at Grand Casino. I have had the first one in my files since the 1990s; the second is a copykat.com recipe that is close to the one served at the Silver Legacy Casino in Reno, Nev.
Here's a shrimp pan roast that's really good. You could add more seafood to it.
SHRIMP PAN ROAST
1 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons cocktail sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon margarine or butter
4 dashes red pepper sauce
1 bottle (8 ounces) clam juice
1 pound uncooked, peeled, deveined medium shrimp, thawed if frozen
3 cups half-and-half
Mix all ingredients except shrimp and half-and -alf in Dutch oven. Heat to boiling. Stir in shrimp; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered 2 to 3 minutes or until shrimp are pink and firm.
Gradually add half-and-half, stirring constantly, until half-and-half is just heated through. Pour into individual bowls. Serve with a pat of butter and a sprinkle of paprika on top. Serve with French bread.
SILVER LEGACY CASINO SEAFOOD PAN ROAST
1 ounce whole butter
1- 1/2 ounces white wine
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon celery seed
1 ounce clam juice
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon Worcestershire
1/8 teaspoon Tabasco
2 ounces cocktail sauce
2 ounces shrimp, 41/50, peeled and deveined raw
2 ounces scallops
2 ounces oysters, raw, shucked
2 ounces crabmeat
3-4 each black mussels
3-4 each clams
Salt and pepper to taste
2 ounces whipping cream
1 ounce whole butter
Chives
For best results, use a double boiler and blanch seafood of your choice. Get pan hot, add butter and melt. Add white wine, clam juice, cocktail sauce, celery seed, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, Tabasco sauce, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Add mussels and clams, cook until they open. Add shrimp, scallops, and crabmeat, and bring to a full boil. Finally, add whipping cream and boil for approximately 1 minute. Finish with the last 1 ounce butter and garnish with chives. Serve hot. This makes 1 serving.
-- From copykat.com
Biff Burger
Longtime Coastians loved their Biff-Burgers and still want the special sauce to make at home.
Gulfport's Biff-Burger was off Pass Road at the Hardy Court Shopping Center. In 2004, Doris Mahalak shared the sauce recipe with me. She and her husband, Larry W., owned the Biff-Burger in Gulfport.
Biff-Burger was a chain of drive-in burger stands out of Florida. In the 1950s and '60s, there was a string of them from Florida to Texas. There are only two remaining Biff Burgers in the country, one of which is in St. Petersburg. The Biff in Biff-Burger stands for "Best in Fast Food."
BIFF-BURGER SAUCE
3 large cans ketchup (No. 10 can contains 115 ounces per can)
2 cups prepared mustard (start with 2 cups and maybe increase to 3)
3 cups sweet pickle relish (start with 3, then maybe 4)
1/2 cup salt
1/8 cup ground ginger
6 teaspoons liquid smoke
Mix all the ingredients together. Workers at the restaurant used to mix it in a 5-gallon container.
-- Submitted by Doris Mahalak in 2004
This recipe could be cut down to:
1 large can (No. 10) ketchup
2/3 to 1 cup prepared mustard
1 cup sweet pickle relish
1/6 cup or 1-1/3 ounces salt
Pinch of ground ginger
2 teaspoons liquid smoke
Mix together and put in an airtight container in the fridge.
In search of crab dish
Now another reader wants another memorable restaurant recipe.
"I am writing to see if Lookout Steakhouse could be persuaded to give you the recipe for a menu item they no longer have," Terri Jones said. "It was a decadent seven-cheese crabmeat casserole that was delicious."
I will ask owner Rob Stinson if he will share the recipe. Seven cheeses with crab? That dish has to be awesome!
Fall favorites
Please send me your favorite pumpkin, squash or apple recipe to share with your fellow readers. It's now the last day of September, so those fall favorites work well for festivals, carnivals and even at the dinner table.
Andrea Yeager, can be reached at ayeager51@cableone.net and takes requests at Cook's Exchange, P.O. Box 4567, Biloxi, MS 39535-4567.
This story was originally published September 30, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Re-create flavors you favored in restaurants ."