sloppy joe - 20 years after the fact
Every so often I’ll get a craving for something completely outside of my normal food tastes. But there are usually outside factors involved - I guess in this case, it was a very inside factor - because I was hung over (don’t judge me. I can see judgement in those hungry eyes) and was craving something comforting but not in the mood for my usual hung over fare. This is probably a good time to mention that advertising is made for people like me. You would think that having a career in this industry would harden me to being susceptible to good old fashioned food porn, but no. When I see a juicy looking burger, I want me that burger. So, I’m thinking that I saw some Manwich commercial (you don’t have to be a man to love manwich, you don’t have to be a witch either it’s true) a few weeks ago and that did it for me. But the thought of buying Manwich seemed wrong. I mean really, what does it take to make a decent sloppy joe? Actually, not that much. I made my first one and I have to say, it was pretty gosh-darned tasty. As I was tasting and adding spices, I was trying to remember if it comes close to the last sloppy joe I ate, which was probably 20+ years ago in elementary school. I’ll say this much, it wasn’t as sloppy (or greasy rather since I’m not making it in giant vats for hundreds of small children) and with the addition of some spices, it didn’t taste so much like little kid food either. I’ve also discovered my new love for mustard powder. You get all the great flavor of mustard without it overpowering anything with too much tang (mind you, I’ve got nothing at all against that tang and enjoy it very, very much. But in this case, having this other layer of flavor without quite knowing what it was kind of made my sloppy joe just a little more respectable).
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Respectable Sloppy Joe (original from AllRecipes.com) Makes 2 joe’s - I lessened the brown sugar and up’d all the spices…this is the recipe I used.
* 1/2 pound ground beef
* 1/2 cup ketchup
* 2 tablespoons water
* 1 teaspoon brown sugar
* 1 tablespoon tomato paste
* 2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
* 2 teaspoon prepared mustard
* 1 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1 teaspoon onion powder
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 hamburger buns, split
In a saucepan, cook beef over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in the ketchup, water, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, garlic powder, onion powder and salt. Bring to a simmer for 10 minutes or until it’s as sloppy as you like it. Serve on buns.
