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(SID HOELTZELL @ MIAMI 2023)

Feasting on wursts and German potato salad, aka kartoffelsalat, will get you through when the lights go out.

Great Eatin’ When the Lights Go Out

Windy hurricane advice from Chef Sid

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This month’s column doesn’t feature a fancy-schmancy gourmet dish. With all the storms coming through the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, I decided to share my tips for keeping your bellies fat and happy even when the lights go out.

Let’s face it, figuring out what to eat after a hurricane can be a challenge, so get ahead of it with a “power-outage drill” and annual emergency grilling checkup. Are your propane tanks full? Got enough charcoal? Know where the lighter fluid is? Have a fresh stock of organized cooking essentials on hand before fretting about toilet paper, extra water, scotch, rum, wine and such, because no matter what awaits, you gotta’ eat!

So, the key to getting through the season is packing and prepping well. It’s a shame to be short of umami salt when the last ostrich steak thaws out in the darkness. Moving by candlelight, I have learned to compartmentalize and know what will be on the list of eatz until the power gets back on. Remember to crank down the temps in freezers and fridges if a storm is on its way. And I’ll share my thoughts on the best way to pack a freezer in a minute.

We all have stories of mini catastrophes – three inches of rain in the bedroom, a tree branch through a car windshield, funky water seeping into places that can grow me some fine moldy strata of black fungus. You know, the little things … but my heart goes out to all the folks who have really been devastated by the badass storms and surges that keep coming.

My sense of hope is renewed when I can cook my way out of powerless dark days until the lights come back on. With me, you would be chillin’ while I’m grillin’ so you could be smellin’ what I’m tellin’!

I remember spending 36 hours on the road with Hurricane Irma chasing me – from Miami to Tallahassee and across to Jacksonville – until I ended up in Orlando with minimal coconut damage to my car windows. Yet again I remained virtually unscathed, while others suffered catastrophic and irreparable loss. That’s how it is living in Miami, just like fire and rain with a whole lotta shakin’ going on in California.

It’s how you feed the mind and formulate creative solutions that defines your time while FPL tries to light us up again. Having lived in Florida 45 years and making it through Hurricane Andrew and all the rest of those stormy namesakes, I’ve been blessed and have endured with a sustainable survival strategy.

Hurricane prep is about keeping your family, home and businesses safe and continuing. The one thing we have all shared is the experience of power outages. Months long after Andrew and only days after Irma, I had my flooding and power issues too, but I never stopped cookin’.

subhed = Cooler Survival Guide

Every August I do a quick hurricane prep for my two fridge/freezers. If you haven’t thought to do this, it isn’t too late. Assume the power grid can go off any time after a windy wail, so keep stock of your “ice-aged” goods. Have enough frozen food on hand that can also act as ice in coolers. When the power goes, simply transfer your planned menus into coolers and tape those iceboxes shut. Create layers with frozen meats on the bottom, then lots of fresh frozen fruits and vegetables above with a little ice layer on top.

There’s aways time to fill a 2-gallon zipper-lock bag with ingredients for my mom’s recipe for German potato salad, aka kartoffelsalat. That combo of greatness can remain bagged inside the cooler for days of high-energy starch consumption. With a handy portable smoothie blender, thawed water and frozen blueberries, raspberries and strawberries will make your powerless world go round and round (don’t forget that car charger for that and your cell phone). It’s just darn good comfort food eaten by citronella candlelight, all while battling GMO-modified mosquitoes.

After some trial and error, I found that vacuum sealing and freezing several packs of knockwurst and weisswurst creates the best freezer pack that will keep your cooler cold and offer more nutrition than a thawed ice cube. There they will lay like prehistoric Mastodon meat in your freezer’s tundra, just waiting for the right moment to come alive. I buy mine from Emil’s Sausage Kitchen at 122 N Federal Highway in Deerfield Beach, Fla.

subhed = About Those Wursts

You may also choose to freeze many other “pre-cooked” proteins like your favorite meatballs, stuffed cabbages, your uncle’s lengthy smoked kielbasa, etc., etc. Still, I get happy when I’m thawing out a real pair of German-styled wursts. Not hot dogs … real wursts, baby! Boil them with a light beer, then sear their skins on the grill.

That charcoal grill becomes the center of my unlit universe. Two wursts and some kartoffelsalat is a meal I can feast on all week and get a high caloric intake. Some of my home-fermented half-sour pickles and a schpritz of Dijon mustard will do the trick.

I hope you get prepped for staying safe during the winds and rain by having an adequate meal plan for FPL emergencies.

When feeding your in-the-dark neighbors a great hot BBQ meal, you will get the blessing of sharing. Serve whoever is hungry. My doors are open and my grills are always ready for the challenge.

INGREDIENTS

·     1 cup high-quality bacon – try double smoked – chopped into small, 1/4″ pieces

·     1 medium white onion, finely chopped

·     1 cup beef broth

·     1/4 cup white vinegar (no substitutions)

·     2/3 cup corn oil

·     2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

·     1/4 cup finely chopped chives

·     Salt and pepper to taste

·     5 pounds small red potatoes

·     X pounds knockwurst, weisswurst, kielbasa or bourdain

PREPARATION

·     In medium skillet, sauté bacon until crispy brown; remove from pan to cool and then drain pan, reserving 3 tablespoons of fat.

·     In same skillet, sweat onion in remaining bacon fat, then pour in beef broth and simmer until bubbly (not dry); remove from heat and let cool.

·     To make dressing, in mixing bowl add bacon, white vinegar, corn oil, Dijon mustard, chives, and salt and pepper to taste; set aside.

·     Prepare and boil potatoes, being careful to cook only until very firm (very!), not soft, about 15-18 minutes.

·     While still warm, slice potatoes to 1/4″-thick slices and cut in half again, then transfer to large bowl.

·     Pour dressing over warm potatoes and mix well by hand, making sure to coat each little tater bit with dressing.

·     Preboil knockwurst then cook on grill; plate with a generous serving of kartoffelsalat and serve under the glow of candlelight or your favorite hurricane lamp. Or maybe with a hurricane cocktail, courtesy of our Libations recipe on page X? And if any other tasty morsels end up on the grill before the power’s back on, that’s gravy in my book.

Sid Hoeltzell is an award-winning Miami-based commercial food and beverage photographer and former “MasterChef” contestant. He has completed more than 450 commissioned works for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, teaches food photography seminars and is a preferred fine art photographer for Christie’s, Sotheby’s and private collections.