Feast Menu for Captain Barton Angel Sanchez’ Sausage & Eggs Casseroles With Roasted Poblano Peppers Smoked Trout
By ROBERTA STRICKLER
Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2006 Lancaster Newspapers, Inc.
LANCASTER, Pa. — Hot stuff
Being a fireman is dangerous, difficult, highly trained work. One of the perks is an abundance of camaraderie in a firehouse and it’s organized around work shifts that alternate 10-hour days with 14-hour nights, then four days off.
“Because of the hours, if it’s a career firehouse, there is a cook, and they are usually a good cook.” said Lt. Robert Pennypacker, a shift supervisor for Lancaster City Bureau of Fire.
Lancaster City’s three firehouses prove his point. Three cooks on dayshift from the three stations got together to provide a feast one recent Friday morning at Station 3 on East King Street.
Bacon sizzled in fry pans. Then thick slabs of bread were dipped in egg and fried. “We don’t make French toast,” said Kevin Hess (cook at Station 6 on Fremont St). “We serve American toast.”
His recipe: eggs, milk, light cream, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and “definitely some orange zest, " shaved from a fresh orange.
Coffee cakes came out of the oven, courtesy of Bud Andrew, cook at Station 1 on West King Street, so that Angel Sanchez, cook at Station 6 on East King Street, could put two egg casseroles in the oven.
Sanchez gets citywide notoriety for his cooking ability. He claims he learned by trial and error, mostly trying out his culinary skills after he became a fireman.
“Angel is the cook,” said a voice in the crowd standing in line, plates in hand. “The rest of us are just sous chefs.”
Hess, on the other hand, first learned to cook as a child. He realized he could get his older brother to give him a ride to school if he made up a good breakfast in the morning. “Then,” Hess said, “I got divorced and I really learned to cook.”
Bud Andrew has some formal training because he took cooking classes at the former Stevens Trade School during his student days. His claim to fame is his salsa garden, which supplies his kitchen with peppers, jalapenos, five kinds of tomatoes, plus basil, other herbs, and some watermelons.
Breakfast is served and suddenly there is a crowd, representing all three stations. Not a one of them is anything but lean and fit. There’s no sign they’ve been eating these big breakfasts every day.
“Truth is,” said City Fire Chief Tim Gregg, “the big meal is not the usual thing anymore.
“We’re more health-conscious, more fit, and we don’t eat like we used to.”
Gregg spent more than 20 years in the firehouse, moving up through the ranks, before his appointment earlier this year by new Mayor Rick Gray.
Luke Henry, deputy chief, who has more than 30 years in the bureau, had to agree. “For the first several years I was on the force,” he said, “we would never miss a breakfast.
“It was like a ritual. Forget the groceries? That was the worst thing you could do in a day.”
“Now,” said Gregg, " most guys will bring a salad for lunch.”
“Back then” Henry continued, “you were apt to have an interruption. A nice meal would be sitting out, you’d get a call and you would have to leave the food sitting there.”
“Now,” said Gregg, “we are busier than ever. There are more training classes, school visits, inspections and many security system alarms. There’s an average of seven fire calls a day. Hazardous materials calls take an hour or two just to set up.”
The breakfast tradition is more likely to be a supper celebration for an anniversary or a promotion, said Sanchez. Recently, he got the outside grills going and put together a “good excuse for a feast when Captain Barton got his promotion.”
- 20 Steaks on the Grill
- Oven-Roasted Fingerling Potatoes
- Asparagus Bundles Wrapped in Prosciutto, with Bread Crumbs
- Corn
- Salad
- Cake and Ice Cream
“There is no such thing as a recipe,” Sanchez said. “You just put it together.” The Lancaster City Fire Fighters Ladies Auxiliary put together a cook book called “Food on the Stove,” several years ago. However, the book is out of print and a new one is not being considered because “it is so hard to get the guys to write it down.”
Put the peppers in the oven. Char the skins. Then put them in a paper bag and steam them. Take off the skin and seeds. Put the prepared peppers in the bottom of a rectangular baking dish.
Mix together some eggs, half and half, chili powder, salt and pepper.
In a separate bowl, mix pepperjack and cheddar cheeses with cilantro.
Make layers out of these ingredients.
For the spicy version of the dish, add chorizo and onions and top with the cheese mixture and flour tortillas (quartered).
A lot of guys don’t like spicy food, so Sanchez creates a mild version of this casserole with sweet Italian sausage plus red and green sweet peppers.
Bud Andrew is willing to write down his recipes. Here is his version of Trout Brine = 1 quart water, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup salt (un-iodized), Pinch of garlic powder.
Get your minnow net and your kids and go net minnows (make the kids wear old clothes ‘cause they will get wet.) Take minnows and all your fishing gear and put in car. Wake up at 4 a.m. and drive to Stony Creek. Park your car and walk upstream for 45 minutes, catch as many trout as you can. Keep a couple nice ones, clean and freeze the trout. When ready, thaw trout. Marinate trout in brine overnight. Remove trout, pat dry. Smoke in electric smoker for at least 8 hours. Use hickory chips. Remove and put in paper bag for 24 hours, then a plastic bag. Eat 1 trout during a football game with beer.