The Hirshon West Coast Cheese Zombies

October 23, 2018 by The Generalissimo Leave a Comment

Cheese Zombie Image Used Under Creative Commons License From pinterest.com

Citizens, your old-school Despot – the OG who ALONE is TFD! – is a fan of this nostalgic school lunch sandwich, which was just featured on Gastro Obscura! In that article, they expounded:

In the late 1950s, a school district in Washington’s Yakima Valley received an excess of subsidized cheese. Faced with the abundance of dairy, the food services supervisor (or, by other accounts, a local cafeteria cook) invented a new sandwich that soon appeared on cafeteria menus: the Cheese Zombie.

The Cheese Zombie is essentially a grilled cheese cake that’s baked with fresh dough. Zombie-makers begin by placing American cheese slices between rolled-out sheets of dough. Before placing the giant sandwich into the oven, they pinch the dough together to seal it—no one wants to lose any of the cheese—then top with a brush of melted butter to create a soft, brown crust. When they’re finished, the individual sandwiches are cut much like a sheet of cake.

The result is easy to eat with one hand, hearty, and terrific with tomato soup. And, unlike the typical toast used in grilled cheese, the bread in a Zombie is like a soft pizza crust.

Yakima Valley school districts still make the meal, and nostalgic adults can get their Zombie fix from one of the many small shops in the area that also serve the sandwich. It’s especially popular at Halloween, perhaps due to its name.

This article from the Yakima Herald goes deeper into the origin story of the Zombie:

About Cheese Zombies

A Cheese Zombie is sort of like a grilled cheese sandwich, except with bread dough. They are baked in large sheets, with slices of cheddar cheese baked between layers of dough.

The origin of the Cheese Zombie is the stuff of legends in the Yakima Valley. According to a 2005 article by James Joyce III in the Yakima Herald-Republic, the Zombie was created by M.J. Sabinish, a cook for the former Broadway-Stanton School District, which merged with the Yakima School District in the mid-’60s. According to son Mike Sabinish, who was a baker at Garfield Elementary at the time, they were invented at least around 1959.

But according to a recent obituary, the Cheese Zombie was invented by Dorothy Lucille (Pelley) Finch of Grandview, who died May 25. Finch was the School Food Service Supervisor for the Grandview School District starting in 1956, the obituary said. She was credited with helping create the national school breakfast program and serving on a legislative committee for the American School Food Association.

Sadly, I have been unable to locate any of Finch’s survivors to get more of that story.

Regardless of origins, Zombies have a statewide following and are served in Yakima schools to this day.

The origin of the name may be more unknown than the original creator. “We always have them on Halloween,” said the cook manager at Garfield, Cindy Herring, in the 2005 article. Or maybe the name has something to do with the color.

My horror-film loving husband and I came up with a new theory, based on what new Zombie chef Linda Davis told us about her process. It takes two hours for her to make her Zombies, because there is yeast in the dough.

Just like the undead, Cheese Zombies need time to rise.

After searching at length, I found a great recipe for Zombies on materialmama.typepad.com, where it was served in a Bay Area school cafeteria, meaning these Zombies had spread across the entirety of the West Coast from their epicenter in Yakima!

As noted on her blog:

What is a Cheese Zombie you ask? Nope not a cheese covered dude from Walking Dead. It’s nirvana and heaven mixed together and stuffed with generous cheese in a soft spongy bread thats been soaked in butter before baking. I always thought this particular item was just a local Walnut Creek thing, but then a teacher I worked with in Elk Grove went to Ygnacio Valley and had them too!

The bread was so soft and airy that we could squish them into cubes roughly the size of a golf ball. I craved them with each of my pregnancies, but never seemed to be near a school that served them at lunchtime.

Perhaps it is just that they were the bright spot in my life, perhaps they are a reminder of my youth. Regardless, I have been on and off on a mission to recreate the beloved Zombie for the last 15 years or so.

I e-mailed the head of Food Services for the Mount Diablo Unified School District (duh should have done this 15 years ago LOL) Her name is Jana Harrison and I’ll be in her ‘Zombie Debt’ forever. Please send her a thank you or well wishes if you remember these fondly or find them tasty! Here was her reply:

Hi Megan,

You can’t believe the number of requests we get for the recipe. We use American cheese but have also used mozzarella when making pizza-type zombies. Good luck with the recipe. The test of a true zombie baker is to have no “leakers”, where the cheese melts out of the dough You can post to your group, but you may want to test the recipe first. We recently revised the home size version as it had too much yeast. We haven’t had anyone use it since the revision.

Happy “leak-free” baking,
Jana

They gave me permission to print it out here so to all you Northgate and MDUSD grads, this is my gift to you all. Go forth and bake!

Citizens, I could not resist jazzing this recipe up a bit – in my case, by adding some optional thinly-sliced scallions and a hint of equally optional mustard to the cheese and some very optional oregano to the tops. Feel free to omit all of these for the classic Zombies! These also remind me a great deal of Nebraska’s Runza sandwich (recipe also here on TFD!), except without the meat component.

Battle on – The Generalissimo

The Hirshon West Coast Cheese Zombies

Ingredients

To make 2 ½ pounds of dough:
2 cups warm water
1½ - 2 Tablespoons yeast
6 cups bread flour
¼ cup sugar
1 – 1 ½ teaspoons salt (depending on taste)
¼ cup butter
***
For the filling:
Velveeta Cheese
Scallions, thinly-sliced (light green and white part only - VERY optional, this is a TFD addition. Omit for classic Zombies)
Your favorite Mustard (Very optional, this is a TFD addition. Omit for classic Zombies)
***
Melted butter to brush on cooked Zombies
Crushed dried oregano to sprinkle on top of Zombies (Very optional, this is a TFD addition. Omit for classic Zombies)

Instructions

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add remaining ingredients and mix with dough hook about 10 minutes until the dough no longer sticks to the sides of the bowl. Dough should be soft and pliable. Let dough rest a few minutes then divide into 1-pound portions. Roll the portions into logs. Cut each log into 5 equal pieces.
Use 1 ½ to 2 oz. of Velveeta cheese per zombie, plus sufficient optional mustard to very lightly coat the cheese slices. If using optional scallions, sprinkle on the mustard. Lay the cheese on top of each dough slice, then pull dough up from the sides to cover filling. Pinch closed very carefully.
Place zombies pinched side down on parchment paper or a greased cookie sheet pan (parchment works best). Brush with melted butter. Let rise until almost doubled in size. Bake @350 degrees until brown on top, about 15 to 20 minutes.
Brush with more melted butter, sprinkle optional oregano on top (if using) and serve immediately.

https://www.thefooddictator.com/the-hirshon-west-coast-cheese-zombies/

World Champion Southern Hushpuppies

October 19, 2018 by The Generalissimo Leave a Comment

Hushpuppies Image Used Under Creative Commons License From realhousemoms.com

Citizens, we continue our journey into the past with our heirloom recipes flight, of which this is the second! As with our previous and future posts on this topic, the recipes will not have my name in them (as is normally the case here on TFD) as there will be no changes by me to these gems of perfection! Today – allow me to share the world championship recipe (twice!) for hushpuppies!

Not these kind of hush puppies (though TFD is honored to share his abode with the King of Basset Hounds!):

A hushpuppy is – of course – a small, savory, deep-fried ball made from cornmeal-based batter. Hushpuppies are frequently served as a side dish with seafood and other deep-fried foods.

The use of ground corn (maize) in cooking originated with Native Americans, who first cultivated the crop. Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole cooking introduced one of its main staples into Southern cuisine: corn, either ground into meal or limed with an alkaline salt to make hominy, in a Native American technology known as nixtamalization.

Cornbread was popular during the American Civil War because it was very cheap and could be made in many different sizes and forms. It could be fashioned into high-rising, fluffy loaves or simply fried for a quick meal.

Hushpuppies retain strong ties to the Southern United States, although they are also available throughout the United States at restaurants serving deep-fried seafood.

The first recorded use of the word “hush-puppy” dates to 1899. The name is often attributed to hunters, fishermen, or other cooks who would fry some basic cornmeal mixture (possibly that they had been bread-coating or battering their own food with) and feed it to their dogs to “hush the puppies” during cook-outs or fish-fries.

Other legends date the term to the Civil War, in which Confederate soldiers are said to have tossed fried cornbread to quell the barks of their dogs.

Typical hushpuppy ingredients include cornmeal, wheat flour, eggs, salt, baking soda, milk or buttermilk, and water, and may include onion, spring onion (scallion), garlic, whole kernel corn, and peppers. Sometimes pancake batter is used. The batter is mixed well, adjusting ingredients until thick, and dropped a spoonful at a time into hot oil. The small breads are fried until crispy golden brown, and cooled.

Hushpuppies are served with seafood or barbecued foods. They are commonly made at home or served in restaurants advertising home-style food.

This recipe is from T/Sgt. Virgil Tullos, U.S.A.F. Retd. Med. (World Champion Hushpuppy Cook) 2 Yrs.! I am unsure of the date, but it most definitely is an exceptional recipe, which I found on yesterdish.com!

Battle on – The Generalissimo

World Champion Southern Hushpuppies

Ingredients

2 cups corn meal, yellow 
1 teaspoon salt
2 rounded Tablespoons flour 
4 teaspoons baking powder (Calumet)
 ½ teaspoon (baking) soda 
1 Egg 
1 Cup Buttermilk
 ¼ Cup Young Green Onions, tops, bottoms, and all, cut fine 
1 Jalapeno pepper cut fine 
1 small clove garlic cut fine

Instructions

Sit sifter in large mixing bowl, fill measuring cup half full of corn meal, add one rounded up tablespoon four, then fill cup on up to 8 oz. mark with meal. Do other cup same way.
Then add all dry ingredients and sift, make hole in center of dry mixture, slightly whip egg in small bowl. Add 3/4 cup of your buttermilk to egg; whip again with fork to mix, pour in to your dry mixture stirring slowly with fork.
If this dough is not moist enough, add more buttermilk until you get it as moist as you like. I like my dough pretty moist.
Now add your onions, garlic, and jalapeno pepper and mix thoroughly.
Now you are ready to fry hushpuppies. Have your oil ready in a medium frying pan. I use Wesson oil that catfish has been fried in. Dip up a tablespoon of your dough; turn your spoon over real fast and level it on the top side of your bowl, turning back upright all in one motion.
Cut this spoonful of dough in half with the forefinger if your left hand and flip it in the hot oil, then flip the other half into the hot oil. Continue this until you have about twenty hushpuppies in the oil.
When they are a golden brown on the other side, begin taking them out of the oil, and serve with fried catfish and all the trimmings. Have this oil from 375 to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, and be on your toes. This is a fast operation.

https://www.thefooddictator.com/world-champion-southern-hushpuppies/

The Hirshon Georgian Kubdari – კუბდარი

October 15, 2018 by The Generalissimo Leave a Comment

Kubdari Image Used Under Creative Commons License From tasteatlas.com

Citizens, it has been FAR too long since I have posted a recipe from my spiritual homeland – the proud country of Georgia! As such, allow me to share yet another superb recipe from this garden of earthly delights! 😀

Kubdari or Kubed (Georgian: კუბდარი, Svan: კუბედ) is a popular Georgian bread that is traditionally filled with veal or beef, pork, or a combination of the two, along with spices such as cumin, dill, coriander, blue fenugreek, red pepper, onions, garlic, and salt. The dough consists of flour, water, yeast, sugar, salt, and eggs. Interestingly, the meat used in this savory pie should be cut, not minced. It is recommended to glaze kubdari with butter and serve it hot.

Kubdari is particularly a national dish of the Svans and is also traditionally made with cannabis leaves or cannabis seed paste, as the plant grows wild in the region. Kubdari was inscribed on the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Georgia list in 2015.

Who are the Svans, you ask? I’m so glad you did!

The Svan language (Svan: ლუშნუ ნინ lušnu nin; Georgian: სვანური ენა svanuri ena) is a Kartvelian language spoken in the western Georgian region of Svaneti primarily by the Svan people.

With its speakers variously estimated to be between 30,000 and 80,000, the UNESCO designates Svan as a “definitely endangered language”.

It is of particular interest because it has retained many archaic features that have been lost in the other Kartvelian languages.

Svan is the native language of fewer than 30,000 Svans (15,000 of whom are Upper Svan dialect speakers and 12,000 are Lower Svan), living in the mountains of Svaneti, i.e. in the districts of Mestia and Lentekhi of Georgia, along the Enguri, Tskhenistsqali and Kodori rivers.

Some Svan speakers live in the Kodori Valley of the de facto independent republic of Abkhazia. Although conditions there make it difficult to reliably establish their numbers, there are only an estimated 2,500 Svan individuals living there.

The language is used in familiar and casual social communication. It has no written standard or official status. Most speakers also speak Georgian, the country’s official language, and use it as their literary and business language.

There is no official instruction in Svan, and the number of speakers is declining due to the dispersal of the Svan population in the face of increasing economic hardship. The language is regarded as being endangered, as proficiency in it among young people is limited.

Svan is the most differentiated member of the four Kartvelian languages and is believed to have split off in the 2nd millennium BC or earlier, about one thousand years before Georgian did.

My recipe for Kubdari is based on one from georgianrecipes.net – a fantastic site for all info on perhaps my favorite country in the world! 🙂 I choose to make my Kubdari with Svanetian salt – სვანური მარილ – a blend of salt, garlic, herbs and spices that will truly rock your world, Citizens!

Since using the leaves or seeds of Cannabis is virtually impossible in the States, I have chosen to substitute finely-ground hemp seeds instead as a very close substitute. Buy it here – and no, you won’t get high off this! You can also buy genuine Georgian marigold and blue fenugreek (Utskho Suneli) from here. I’ve left the dough measurements in metric as it is far more precise that way.

Battle on – The Generalissimo

The Hirshon Georgian Kubdari – კუბდარი

Ingredients

Slightly more than 1 pound (500 grams) pork
Slightly more than 1 pound (500 grams) veal
1 medium sized onion
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp. finely-ground hemp seeds
3 tsp. Svanetian salt, made from:
2 heaped tbsp. dried coriander
1 heaped tbsp. dried dill
1 heaped tbsp. blue fenugreek
1 heaped tbsp. dried red pepper
1 heaped tbsp. marigold (can substitute turmeric, but marigold is better)
½ tbsp. dried cumin
6 ½ heaped tbsp. coarse white salt
150 grams (5.3 ounces) top-quality fresh garlic
***
dough ingredients:
900 grams of flour
400 ml warm water
1 level tbsp. yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp of salt
1 egg (optional) and 200 grams of all-purpose flour for dusting and kneading
Butter for glazing

Instructions

Make the Svanetian Salt:
Remove skins from the garlic and crush the cloves.
Put the garlic to one side and use a spoon to thoroughly mix all of the other ingredients.
Add the crushed garlic to the mixture.
Use your fingers to mix the crushed garlic with the other ingredients.
Ensure that all of the ingredients are thoroughly mixed together.
The mixed ingredients will feel a little moist and should look like the picture below. Store in a dry, cool place in a glass jar that has an airtight seal.
Serving: Use as a condiment instead of table salt. It can also be used as a flavoring when cooking a variety of meat, fish, potato and soup dishes.
Cube the beef and pork and add to a mixing bowl.
Finely chop the onion and garlic and add to the mixing bowl, together with Svanetian salt and finely-ground hemp seeds.
Use your hands to thoroughly mix and squash the ingredients. This helps to ensure that the kubdari is juicy and the spices blend with the meat.
Preparation (dough): Kubdari requires a robust pastry that uses more flour than usual dough. To make it, add 400 ml of water (heated to 35 C) to a bowl and stir in the yeast.
Add 900 grams of flour to a mixing bowl and make a depression in the flour. Add the yeast water and a raw egg (optional). If you want the pastry to have a golden color you can add 1 tsp of sugar.
The dough should be formed into a soft ball.
Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm place for 2 hours for the dough to rise. Once the dough has risen, add the 150 grams of flour and firmly knead the dough.
When ready, place the dough on a flour dusted preparation area.
Cut the dough into 4 pieces.
Mold the pieces into balls. Cover the dough balls with cling film and leave for 10 minutes.
Roll out each ball of dough and add the filling. Wrap the dough around the filling and pinch the top to seal it.
Carefully press the filled dough into a circular shape that is less than 20 cm (8") diameter. Don’t flatten it too much. Some cooks make a little hole in the middle before baking. This can help to prevent the dough bursting during baking but if the dough has been made correctly it should not be necessary.
Bake on a flour dusted baking tray at 200 C (about 390 Fahrenheit) until the dough becomes golden brown. The meat will cook in its own juices.
Serving: Glaze the surface of each Kubdari with butter and serve hot.

https://www.thefooddictator.com/the-hirshon-georgian-kubdari-%e1%83%99%e1%83%a3%e1%83%91%e1%83%93%e1%83%90%e1%83%a0%e1%83%98/