foonel.
dens
Make those famous
restaurant recipes
at home.
Mock Schuler's Onion Soup
ANNABEL COHEN
Special to the Jewish News
I is hard not to talk about great Detroit
restaurants without zeroing in on a
favorite food.
Most restaurants are secretive when it
comes to revealing their signature recipes. Even
when restaurants share their proprietary formu-
las, they often leave out "secret" ingredients, or
offer vague instructions regarding preparation.
You can't blame them. After all, if everybody
could make these exclusive recipes, they would-
n't be special. Many have tried to concoct their
own versions of beloved fare, and thankfully,
some with remarkable success.
Detroit radio personality Bob Allison has had
a love affair with Detroit foods for decades. His
"Ask Your Neighbor" Web site
askyourneighbor.com is teeming with recipes
for many Detroit Eaves, free of cost.
Are these recipes the real thing or merely
close approximations? I don't know. Even if the
recipes are dead-on perfect, as every good cook
knows it's extremely difficult to make recipes
the way restaurants do, especially since few of
us are professional chefs, and instructions with
amounts specified, such as "salt to taste" or
one large onion," can lead to inconsistencies.
Either way, the "Ask Your Neighbor" recipes
are worth a try. And just reading through some
of these recipes indicate that they will work.
Other recipes are available in local cookbooks
sold for fund-raising efforts.
Inspired by Lelli's zip sauce and minestrone
soup, Hudson's Maurice salad, Joe Muer's white
bean salad and Schuler's Swiss onion soup,
these are tastes Detroiters will never tire of
These recipes are my interpretations of some
famous Detroit standards — they've been
tweaked to be consistent and workable. Also,
substitutions may be required to make these
recipes kosher.
MOCK ZIP SAUCE
1/2 (1 stick) cup butter
4 cubes beef bouillon
1/4 cup water
1/2 t. minced garlic
2 T. Maggi brand seasoning
Melt butter in a small saucepan
over medium heat. Pour the butter
into a bowl, discarding the butter
solids (you want only clear, clarified
butter).
Pour the clear liquid butter back
into the saucepan and add bouillon
cubes, water, garlic and Maggi season-
ing. Heat until warm and serve as a
sauce for your favorite foods. Makes
6-8 servings.
"
MOCK LELLI'S MINESTRONE
4 T. butter
2 cups chopped onion
1 T. minced garlic
4 cups vegetable broth
4 cups chicken broth
1 can (14 oz.) crushed tomatoes
2 T. tomato paste
2 1/2 cups cooked great northern
beans or red kidney beans
5 oz. (1/2 of a 10-oz. box) frozen
GREAT PRETENDERS
on page 82
2/21
2003
81