I love my job. I have had to spend hours and hours in the venerable Spy Test Kitchen working on and trying out various deelish snackum recipes to serve at a football event that is coming up this weekend. (The owners of this event are quite litigious, so it must remain nameless. But you know what I mean. New England. Philadelphia. The big one.)
As the football teams gather in Minneapolis, we will assemble ourselves in the living room. Mr. Friday will watch the game from the sofa, and I will curl up in an adjacent chair, binge-watching a few episodes of ER on my Kindle. (I love technology!)
Originally I thought that I would make Philadelphia cheesesteak sandwiches and New England lobster rolls as clear representations of the two teams. But both sandwiches require a lot of prep work, and really are more delicious in their native settings. And that is not mentioning how crucial good crispy hot French fries are. I do not have enough arms to juggle all three.
Instead, I propose these delicious nachos garnered from Food52, which is the spot for all your food questions. I added some taco meat to the batch I made batch earlier this week, but you might be entertaining some vegetarians, so this recipe is just perfect. https://food52.com/recipes/60524-salad-nachos
Two helpful take aways I got from this recipe were just mind-blowing! 1. Open your chip bags from the bottom! Then all the little broken mingey bits are the first out of the bag, and you can cover them easily with the unbroken, easily more delicious chips that float on top. 2. 500 degrees F. I usually bake our nachos at 350°, and the cheese melts slowly, and doesn’t get good and gooey. 500 degrees lightly scorches the edges of the chips and the refried beans, and I am transported back to the first Mexican food I ever enjoyed at Mama Vicky’s El Acapulco in South Norwalk, Connecticut.
Here is a list of possible toppings for your Game Plan:
taco meat
pulled pork
shredded chicken (think leftover rotisserie chicken!)
sliced grilled steak
diced sausage
leftover chili (I just found a bowl from Monday in the fridge!)
shrimp
crab
crumbled bacon
black beans
pinto beans
refried beans
sliced pitted black olives
shredded Cheddar cheese
shredded mozzarella cheese
shredded pepper jack cheese
shredded Muenster cheese
crumbled feta cheese
sour cream
chopped onions
caramelized onions
chopped jalapeños (fresh – not out of a jar!)
chopped green/red/yellow peppers
sautéed green/red/yellow peppers
chopped tomatoes
radish slices
chopped scallions
diced avocado
guacamole
shredded lettuce
fresh cilantro
roasted corn
zucchini (if you still have some left from your neighbor’s summer’s harvest)
salsa
From J. Kenji Lopez-Alt – the perfect cheese sauce: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/09/cheese-sauce-for-cheese-fries-and-nachos.html
Ostensibly, you can make a Philadelphia Cheesesteak batch of nachos: top the chips with sliced roast beef or steak, smother in Kenji’s sauce and carmelized onions. Yumsters.
Or, you can make some New England lobster nachos, which are fancier. I guess it depends on your crowd: chips, lobster tail meat (about 3 ounces), roasted corn, chopped tomato and shredded cheddar or Kenji’s deliciousness to even the playing field.
For the few of you who will ruin a party by not wanting to consume mass quantities of corn chips, we do offer a kale alternative: https://minimalistbaker.com/kale-chip-nachos-30-minutes/
“…So please, be tolerant of those who describe a sporting moment as their best ever. We do not lack imagination, nor have we had sad and barren lives; it is just that real life is paler, duller, and contains less potential for unexpected delirium.”
― Nick Hornby
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