>Eating the Opponent met a challenge this week: the Packers faced the Detroit Lions. We knew nothing about Detroit, so we had to do a little research.
Internet searches showed us the chili dog and/or the Coney Dog; La Petite doesn’t like hot dogs, so she wouldn’t like that.
Another Internet search found many different dishes that featured onions – sausages slathered in onions, onion rings, anything onion. We hypothesized that too many years of losing teams had led Detroit fans to hide their tears behind the cutting of an onion.
We asked my stepfather, a Detroit area resident for many years: he suggested hush puppies and collard greens. The research began again. Traditional hush puppies are deep fried. We don’t own a deep fryer and don’t plan to buy one. I did, however, find a simple recipe for baked hush puppies, so we pulled out the cornmeal and got to work. Here it is, Packers fans and blog readers: our game day meal vs. Detroit.
Baked Hush Puppies
2/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/3 cup milk
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
Preheat oven to 450. Lightly grease (or spray with nonstick spray) a 24- mini muffin pan.
In a medium bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, salt & pepper.
In a separate bowl, mix together the onion, milk, eggs, and butter. Fold the egg mixture into the cornmeal mixture until just moistened.
Spoon one Tablespoon of mixture into each mini-muffin cup. Bake for ten minutes, or until the hush puppies are firm to the touch and golden brown around the edges.
I resisted adding cheese. Maybe next time.
Whatever will we cook when the Packers play the Minnesota Vikings? I’m sorry, but lutefisk is out of the question.
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>Pickled herring. Yum.
>Really? Hush puppies and collards from Michigan? Who knew that Southern soul food had worked its way so far north?
>Oh, and when we visited my sister-in-law's family in Minnesota, we had something called Turkey Supreme. It was turkey and I think noodles? And some kind of cream of something soup, maybe?
It wasn't to my tastes, in any case, so I wouldn't really recommend it, but Minnesota is the land of the Hot Dish–aka any casserole with cream of whatever soup in it. Which can be good, actually, if done properly. Mmmm, tuna noodle casserole with potato chips . . .
>Mmmmm….growing up in the South…your tailgate party is my cup of tea!!! But you forgot the catfish to go with the hush puppies….whew…sounds delicious!!!