Horseshoes

The horseshoe sandwich is infamous in central Illinois. By far the best horseshoe around is made at Darcy's Pint. However, not even the cooks there know the secret to their delicious cheese sauce. It is a very well kept Irish family secret. C's mom makes a pretty good horseshoe sauce as well. C is always bugging me to make horseshoes since we are 900+ miles from the horseshoe's native home. A local restaurant, Hyde Park bar & Grill has one on their menu, and while it is good, it just doesn't measure up to Darcy's or C's mom. So I looked and looked for a recipe and had no luck finding one I wanted, so I did what I do best, I made my own!

I give you the horseshoe, not for the light at heart or the artery clogged. It is something you should try though, even if Illinois is not a place you call home.

Horseshoe Sandwich
You will need:

• Fries (country style, unseasoned)
• Meat of your choice (hamburger patty, chicken, ham, roast beef, etc)
• Toast

For cheese sauce you will need:

• 1 stick of butter
• 1 small yellow onion, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• flour
• milk
• 1/4 cup beer (Guinness is preferred)
• 1 T. mustard
• 1 T. Worecestershire sauce
• 2 cups sharp cheddar
• 2 cups Monterey jack cheese
• paprika
• pepper
• chili powder
• 
  
• cumin

Start baking the French fries and making your meat. I made a hamburger for myself and C had Roast beef lunch meat.






Melt the butter over medium heat in a large skillet with the onion and garlic. Once the butter is melted and the onions have softened at flour one Tablespoon at a time stirring vigorously. You will have added enough flour when it becomes a sticky paste and balls up on itself. Add milk, while stirring constantly. You have added enough milk when the mixture is rather thin (~3 cups). Add in the beer, mustard and Worecestershire sauce. Slowly stir in the cheeses. If the sauce becomes too thick to stir, add more milk. add in paprika (~1/4 tsp), pepper, and chili powder to taste. Add a dash of cumin. Let the sauce thicken.







Toast your bread and then put meat on top. You will have two pieces of bread for a true horseshoe and one for a pony shoe (I always have a pony because it is pretty filling).





Top all that withFrench fries. Add as many as desired.







Top all of that with cheese sauce, the more the better!! Makes about 6 horseshoes. If it is just you and the hubby you can use the remaining cheese sauce to make mac and cheese or broccoli and cheese soup etc. Hope you enjoyed this IL classic! :)