Sandwiches big enough for a hippo
52 Weeks of Cooking, Week 12: The Poetry of Shel Silverstein
I’m not a poet, so this won’t quite rhyme.
This week’s meal is inspired by Shel Silverstein.
The theme was Poetic, so I couldn’t say no,
To a sandwich large enough to feed a hippo.
The poems
If you want to feel like a kid again, put on Shel Silverstein’s Spotify channel, where you can listen to poems from Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic. I listened to this channel off and on throughout the week: on walks, while doing chores, whenever I needed a laugh after a tense work meeting. Listening to this absurd, funny, but often wise, children’s poetry made me feel better, less anxious and tense.
The channel also includes songs he’s written, including A Boy Named Sue (yep, that Johnny Cash hit), and the very catchy but not kid-appropriate, I Got Stoned and I Missed It. I highly recommend it, especially for sad, rainy days.
The food
There are several poems about food in Silverstein’s collections, but I like “Recipe for a Hippopotamus Sandwich” for its satirical humor of cooking instructions. If it were written for a recipe blog today, the poem would likely include a long anecdote about how the author first had a hippo sandwich while traveling through mountains of Greece and it always reminds him of his mother or some other such nonsense.
As it stands, the recipe is pretty nonsensical already, and hippo is definitely not available for consumption in the U.S., so I had to make some substitutions.
You can find the entire text of the poem here, and my interpretation of the ingredients below.
A slice of bread, a slice of cake - homemade brioche hamburger buns. Brioche is the most cake-like bread I know, full of eggs and butter. I used this King Arthur recipe and made them extra large.
Some mayonnaise - Miracle Whip/Garlic Toum. It may be Southern sacrilege, but we’re a Miracle Whip household. I had some toum leftover from Bulb week, so I used that as well.
One onion ring - Onion rings. I used the frozen Alexia brand, because they’re delicious and this is not an onion ring challenge, so ready-made is fine.
One hippopotamus - Mississsippi pot roast. Internet research told me that hippo tastes like beef. I love pot roast, but I’ve never had the Mississippi version before. It seemed appropriate, since hippos spend so much time in the water, and I was intrigued by the addition of pepperoncinis to the braising liquid. I used this Instant Pot recipe, halved for a four-pound roast. Then I shredded the meat finely and mixed it with some of the gravy, so it stuck together nicely for the sandwich.
A piece of string - Shredded cheese. I used a pre-shredded mix of Swiss and Gruyere I had sitting in the fridge. This blend is also excellent for crepes.
A dash of pepper - Sliced pepperoncinis. A sandwich this rich needs some kind of pickled vegetable to round it out. Since there were cooked pepperonicinis in the meat, adding pickled ones on top made sense.
The verdict? This “hippo” sandwich was very large and filling — almost too much to eat all at once. The pot roast was good, but nothing special — I was expecting more pop and flavor from the pepperoncinis and the ranch seasoning. But I’ll still eat the leftovers and there are plenty for this week. I’ve already hippo tacos; tomorrow, I’ll have hippo wraps, maybe some hippo mac and cheese — endless possibilities.
Next week: Knife Work