One of the simple farm suppers we had last week was the hearty menu staple, hot beef Manhattans.
We already had leftover thick and rich brown gravy from another meal, along with leftover mashed potatoes, therefore most of our menu items for this easy supper were prepared and ready for assembly.
Our farm kitchen bread drawer had a loaf of wheat bread perfect for toasting, and after work, I’d stopped at our favorite deli counter for a pound of premium, shaved sirloin roast beef.
Voila!
Hot roast beef Manhattans consist of generous mounds of cooked roast beef slices served on either plain or toasted bread slices with an accompanying scoop of mashed potatoes, all of it slathered in brown gravy. (Mom served this entree with delicious leftover creamed corn, which she said helped to add ‘’some color to our plates.”
I mentioned our hot beef Manhattan menu to my colleague, 23-year-old Luke Miiller of Hammond, who is one of my former Purdue Northwest college class students. He was both baffled and curious.
I explained the simple nature of the dish and that it ranked as a family favorite for decades. Not only at the farm as a remedy for leftovers, but this was also a menu item we all liked to order at roadside restaurants.
Even during our annual summer family fishing trips, hot beef Manhattans held a special culinary distinction for our dining appetites.
During most of my youth, our annual summer fishing vacation was in Northern Minnesota at Richardson’s Shangri-La Resort, a tradition our family began shortly after 1960. In 1949, Ralph and Jan Richardson from our small town of San Pierre began building their dream of a quiet Minnesota fishing resort on the shores of Pelican Lake.
Today, this classic Northwoods retreat of nine quaint and rustic cabins in tiny Orr, Minnesota, not far from the border of Canada, is still owned and operated by the third generation of the Richardson Family, caring for the recently renovated cabins and landscape of birch trees and white pines. During these family fishing vacations, on Sunday afternoons, we’d have our family dinner at the only town diner where the Sunday menu special was always delicious hot beef Manhattans.
Until some research last week, I did not realize this “open-face sandwich” also has Hoosier roots. Since it has the name association with Manhattan, New York City, I thought it must have an East Coast tale of origin. As it turns out, it came to popularity and gained its name in the 1940s. It was the workers at the Naval Ordnance Plant in Indianapolis who gave the dish its name after having eaten it in cafeterias while stationed near Manhattan. When the men were sent back to Indiana, they brought the recipe request with them to a popular Indy deli (which has now closed), which vaulted it as a top menu specialty.
During my description chat with Luke, I also categorized hot beef Manhattan as “comfort food,” “affordable,” and common on the menus of diners and cafes as “a blue plate special,” the latter term which also confused him.
According to historians and likely due to wartime rationing and the need for frugal spending, the concept of diners, cafes and restaurants serving “blue plate specials” began in the 1920s and continued into the 1960s before fading. Dining establishments would promote a daily “blue plate special,” which meant a hearty multi-item meal with a generous portion at a very reasonable price. Inexpensive blue china plates, usually with three designated segmented areas on the plate, were divided by ridges to gauge portion control.
Newspaper comic strips like “Blondie,” launched in 1930 by Hearst King Features Syndicate, often liked to poke fun at blue plate specials, especially the strictly enforced rule by restaurants about “NO Substitutions!”
The past two weeks of cold temperatures and snow have had my older sister Pam dreaming up new dessert recipes to test. A sure “keeper” is the easy pastry creation she’s dubbed “Pam’s Irish Cream Whip Cake.” Moist and decadent, it’s the perfect dessert to indulge in for this weekend’s arrival of February, makes a great Valentine’s Dinner sweet finale, and is an ideal option to savor before this year’s Feb. 18 Ash Wednesday date and the start of Lenten sacrifice.
Columnist Philip Potempa has published four cookbooks and is a weekly radio show host on WJOB 1230 AM. He can be reached at PhilPotempa@gmail.com or mail your questions: From the Farm, PO Box 68, San Pierre, Ind. 46374.
Pam’s Irish Cream Cake
Makes 14 slices
1 Devil’s Food or Chocolate (16-ounce) Cake Mix
1 Carton (8 ounces) frozen non-dairy whipped topping, thawed
1 Carton (4 ounces) non-flavored or flavored yogurt of choice
1/2 cup Irish cream liquor
Powdered sugar garnish as desired
Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients.
Pour batter into a sprayed 9-inch-by-13-inch baking dish.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
Once cake has cooled, dust lightly with powdered sugar. When serving, a dollop of whipped cream can be added if desired.