Spam (plus characters for discourse)

Cafe Society
1

The food, not the unwanted messages…

So, I tried making a spam and pineapple pizza for the family a while ago. And while I don’t think I want to do pizza again, I really liked the spam, much more than I expected to. So I’m looking for suggestions of other things to do with spam.

Requirements:
Must not be spicy or contain any bell peppers. So no sweet or spicy capsaicin veg.
Must cut the spam with other stuff so it doesn’t overwhelm my husband, who won’t want to eat a slice of greasy delicious spam.

That’s about it. So, what have you got?

2

Emmymade

3

Very (very!!!) thinly sliced, Spam makes a fully acceptable bacon substitute which you can use in most dishes you would otherwise use bacon slices.

Sliced into pencil sized sticks, you can lightly coat it batter and have ‘Chicken fries’ style Spam, which is tasty.

I have a bunch of Pan-Asian styles (pretty much you sub out the spam for any stir fry or other dish that uses Pork), but they almost all use at least sichuan peppercorns, so those are a no go.

But the above is a good rule of thumb, any dish you’ve done that uses pork sirloin (not so much pork loin because that’s rather lean) can be done using Spam if you’re careful to drain some of the excess fat.

It seems like the spousal unit wants to avoid the visual cues from a slab of spam, so I’d probably try something like this:

Just subbing out the Spam for the pork as it were. You’ll want it either a low fat Spam, or you’ll want to par cook it first to get rid of the excess grease.

4

When I was a kid Mom used to make a pasta salad with Spam. I’ve made it as an adult and it is still yum.

  • One can of Spam, diced
  • One pound of cheddar cheese, diced
  • Some onion, diced
  • Seashell pasta noodles, cooked
  • Mayonnaise to taste
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Mix it all together, chill before serving.

mmm

5

Hmm, sichuan peppercorns are actually unrelated to capsaicin, and I might be okay with them.

6

Okay, this is from “Cooking Class Chinese Cookbook” rather than online, so I’ll have to type it out for you. Stuff in () are y comments and suggestions for modifications based on my experience and/or personal preferences.

Yield: 2 servings (smallish, so I often double)

Materials:

1/2 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
1 teaspoon cornstarch
4 teaspoons soy sauce, divided (I recommend a good dark soy sauce)
4 teaspoons dry sherry, divided ( if you can’t get shaoxing rice wine)
7.5 teaspoons veggie oil, divided (the more neutral the taste the better)
8 ounces of boneless lean pork (or for this purpose, low fat spam, or par cooked as suggested prior)
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar (I like palm for this, or turbinado)
2 gloves garlic, minced (or more, and More, and MORE!)
1/2 small yellow onion, cut into 1/4 inch slices
8 green onions with tops, cut into 2 inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil

Steps

  1. For marinade, place peppercorns in small skillet. Cook over medium-low heat, shaking skillet frequently, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Let cool. (really important, brings out the best flavor)

  2. Crush peppercorns with mortar and pestle (you can also place between paper towels and crush with a meat mallet/hammer if you don’t have one, or use a dedicated spice grinder, but you don’t want too fine).

  3. Transfer peppercorns to medium bowl. Add cornstarch (may want to slurry this for better dissolving) 2 teaspoons soy sauce, 2 teaspoons sherry (again the chinese rice wine is best if you have it), and 1.5 teaspoons veggie oil; mix well. (emphasis on well, so that’s why I make a slurry with the ingredients in a small cup with tight fitting lit and agitate the BLEEP out of it).

  4. Slice meat 1/8 inch thick; cut into 2 by 1/2 inch slices. Add to marinade; stir to coat well. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. (so this is where you will want to par cook the spam after slicing. Steam or bake in a lower temp oven until partially cooked and excess fat is gone, let cool, and then marinate as above. I often go for a longer soak, and since spam generally has it’s own flavorings, I’d go longer as well so that the ones you’re using here will be primary).

  5. Combine remaining 2 teaspoons soy sauce, 2 teaspoons sherry, vinegar and sugar in small bowl; mix well.

  6. heat remaining 6 teaspoons vegetable oil in wok or large skillet over high heat (as with all stir fry, high heat is a must for caramelization). Stir in garlic. Add meat mixture ; stir-fry until no longer pink in center (hahahah, Spam is always Pink, so cook until mostly done) generally about 2 minutes. Add yellow onion; stir-fry 1 minute. Add green onion; stir fry 30 seconds. ( all these times are for the relatively small batch per above. If you double it, do it in 2 batches, letting the pan get back to temp after the first)

  7. Add soy-vinegar mixture; cook and stir 30 seconds. Stir in sesame oil.

( I sometimes add sesame seeds, lightly toasted in a hot skillet as well, but that’s about appearance more than flavor. I serve over fresh hot jasmine rice, and sometimes a homemade miso soup, but that’s again, not needed)

A few things you’ll have to experiment with: since this is spam, it’s already going to be pretty salty, even without the soy sauce, but this dish doesn’t at least have you pre-salt the meat. Honestly, I expect it to be a wash, as any salt that would enter from the marinade would likely be offset by the osmatic issues of the already salty Spam. But that will impede the soaking a bit, so go longer.

When cooking, the cornstarch in the marinade tends to crisp up the meat just a touch, as long as you keep the wok/skillet hot, which is always the issue with such things.

And last of all, have fun!

7

Diced up with some pineapple, Spam is a nice addition to fried rice.

8

I’d like to point out that there is an official Spam Cookbook. I bought a copy at Goodwill. The recipe I really would like to try (but I cannot because even if you substitute Turkey Spam for regular, the recipe mixes meat and milk) is Spam Savory Cheesecake. My first thought was “Yuck!”. Then, I thought to myself that a savory cheesecake would probably be like Laughing Cow and Spam which sounds quite good.

9

Try a Korean style grilled cheese sandwich. You have the buttered toasted bread, the sauce (some type of jam) of your choice, a fried (really scrambled egg cooked inside a square metal thing to match the size of the bread), some lettuce strips with pickles, a piece of cheese, and a chunk of spam that matches the size of the bread.

Here’s a photo of one such concoction.

10

My Mom’s standby, Spam and cabbage. Flavor with soy sauce.

Thin slices with ramen.

11

Mmmm, several of these sound good.

12

Haven’t had it, but a must in budae jjigae, Korean Army stew, U.S., not Korea.

Also, in tteokbokki, Korean rice cakes with spicy sauce.

13

There’s always spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans and spam. However, the baked beans probably contain paprika and you’ll have to leave those out.

14

Huh, I’ve had lots of baked beans, and can’t recall them ever including paprika. Molasses, tomato, those are the seasonings I associate with baked beans.

15

Smoked Paprika plus baked beans = Godlike.

Sweet, sharp, half-sharp, etc = Good, but you won’t cry for it when it’s gone.

16

Hawaiian Plate Lunch with spam

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Anyway, back to dishes. If you don’t get the Spam cookbook, it seems that these are a good place to start and then adapt to your tastes -

Included are options for the budae jigae and ramen options that @Far_M mentioned, even @running_coach 's musubi.

Looks good for a Mexican inspired option without peppers of any sort.

18

Thanks.

The risotto looks amusing. I think of risotto as fancy, and spam as goofy. But I bet it’s good.

19

I make spam musubi pretty often. I also will dice some up, toss it around the frying pan with some oyster sauce, then use it in an omelette.

My gf thinks it’s an atrocity that I eat spam, so the other day I bought a few cans of Treet, which is like spam but not as fancy(?). She was not amused.

20

That’s quite a popular dish today in South Korea, where it originated.