Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Well, that sort of worked

I tried the "light" sloppy joes and while they were okay, they were missing something.  I just can't put my finger on what.  They certainly needed salt, which is odd for a soup recipe.

Like many family recipes, I don't know where this originated.  It was called sloppy joes, or even stranger, "barbeques."  It resembles barbeque about as much as I resemble Angelina Jolie.  Less maybe.

Here is the original recipe:

1-1.5 pounds ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1 can chicken gumbo soup
1/2 can water
1 TBS ketchup
1 TBS yellow mustard

Stir all together.

Complicated right?  I didn't take a photo of the finished product because a) I was hungry and b) some foods just don't photograph well.  Stews, curries, and most things with "sloppy" in their name.

I do have one trick for the recipe.  It's really a trick for any ground beef recipe.  When I brown the beef, I like to start with it all on a big hunk (or medium sized hunks) so I can get a really good sear on the outside.  That extra browning adds a lot of flavor and you can't quite get it if you break the meat up first.

I will keep hoping for the original chicken gumbo soup to return, but I'll probably try this a few more times and try to tweak it.  It would be a shame to lose a meal that brought me so much comfort growing up, so hopefully I won't!

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