Monday, April 27th Recipe

Just like Buffalo New York is synonymous with Buffalo wings, Broome County New York is known for its speedie or spiedie marinade. The original idea for spiedie was brought by Italian Immigrants to the Southern Tier of New York State in the early 1920s. The specific origin of the spiedie is disputed. Two men – Agostino "Augie" Iacovelli and Peter Sharak – are credited with the creation of the spiedie. Iacovelli from Endicott, New York, began serving spiedie sandwiches in 1939 when he opened, Augie's, his first restaurant. He emigrated from Abruzzo, Italy (Civitella Casanova) at the age of 25 in 1923. His son Guido continued in the spiedie business into the 1990s, owning as many as 26 restaurants at the peak of his career. Sharak is also supposed to have invented spiedies. Apparently, patrons of Sharkey's Bar and Grill were served lamb straight from the grill on its metal skewer with slices of bread. Sharkey's promotes itself as the birthplace of the sandwich in television commercials across the greater Binghamton area. Though the issue is disputed, Sharkey's began serving spiedies in 1947, which makes Iacovelli more likely to have invented the dish first. The term "spiedie" comes from the Italian "spiedo," meaning "spit." Traditionally the early Broome County spiedie was made only from spring lamb, but currently, most commercial restaurants prepare spiedie using chicken or pork. The "chicken category" was added to the Spiedie Fest cook-off in 1987, and quickly became the most popular meat choice. The regional dish in Abruzzo, Italy, most closely resembling spiedie, uses goat meat. Another regional dish from Sicily, "zúzzu,", consists of a gelatinous sausage made from the cartilage of pork and beef meat that is usually served cut into cubes. Iacovelli's marinade, which he called "Zuzu," originally was made simply from wine vinegar, water, lemon juice, garlic and mint. Italian spices, olive oil and minced onion were added later as regional tastes and the choice of meat began to vary. One of the restaurants most famous for spiedies today, Lupo's Char-Pit, was established in 1967 by John, Sam, and Bart Lupo, in Endwell, New York. In 1975, Rob Salamida began bottling spiedie sauce for sale. His company now produces and sells Salamida's State Fair Spiedie Sauce from a 15,000 square foot facility in Johnson City, New York, and states that it has sold over 2 million bottles." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiedie

Chicken Speedie

Ingredients

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts, 1" cubed

2 cup oil

1 cup white wine vinegar

¼ cup sugar

1 onion

8 cloves garlic

1 t salt

1 t black pepper

1 ½ t marjoram

1 ½ t basil

1 ½ t thyme

1 ½ t oregano

1. Place all ingredients in a blender except the chicken
2. Puree the ingredients for a couple of minutes
3. In a large container, place the chicken and pour marinade over. Place a lid on the container and shake to completely cover the chicken
4. Refrigerate over night
5. Taking long metal skewers, thread the pieces of chicken on
6. Heat your grill to high and grill the chicken, trying to get a nice char on the outside
7. Eat as a sandwich or as a main with grilled vegetables