To make this great-tasting, long-cooking meat dish, use either cross-rib, top sirloin, or bottom round. The meat needs to have some fat on it.
MARINATING MEAT
4 to 6 pounds beef
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup wine vinegar or claret
2 cups water
2 onions, sliced
2 tablespoons sugar
12 cloves
6 bay leaves
6 whole peppercorns
2 tablespoons salt
1/2 lemon, sliced
To marinate meat prior to cooking, take a crock pot or large glass bowl and place meat in it. Pour in half of each of the liquids, or enough to cover the meat, which might take more than half the liquids; however, use equal amounts of the liquids. Add all other ingredients and leave meat in this mixture, refrigerated, for at least 2 days (depending on amount of meat used. Turn meat over in marinade once or twice a day. Keep meat covered with a tight-fitting lid during entire marination process.
butter, beef drippings, or suet
Reserved meat marinade
1 cup crumbled gingersnaps (about 6)
3/4 cup flour
Vegetable or beef stock, if needed
Use dutch oven or roasting pot with a tight-fitting lid, large enough to accommodate meat.
Take meat out of marinating liquid and let drain. Reserve marinade. Pat meat dry with paper towels.
Place in the cooking pot one of the following; butter, beef drippings, or suet, (just enough to brown meat on all sides, approximately 3 tablespoons fat). On medium to high heat, melt fat until it sizzles. Place meat in fat and brown well. Gradually add all reserved marinade, including all spices, then add crumbled gingersnaps. Cover. Allow meat to simmer slowly for 2 to 3 hours, depending on its size.
Just before meat is done, on a pie panplace 3/4 cup flour, distributed evenly. Run under broiler until brown. Add to pot with meat, and stir in quickly, cook for 10 minutes to thicken gravy. If gravy gets too thick, add a little vegetable or beef stock. After cooking 10 minutes, remove meat from pot and strain gravy. Place meat back in pot with strained gravy and cook 5 minutes longer. Remove meat from pot, slice, place on warm serving platter, and pour gravy over it. Serves 8 to 10.
POTATO DUMPLINGS (KARTOFFELKLÖSSE)
6 medium potatoes
2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup bread cubes
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon farina
Boil potatoes in their jackets. When cooked, remove skins and put through sieve or ricer. Spread on a clean towel for 1 hour to dry out moisture. Place potatoes in a large bowl and sprinkle 2 level teaspoons of salt over all. Make a hollow in middle of potatoes and break two eggs into it. Stir in flour, bread cubes, nutmeg, sugar, and farina. Work this all in together until no more sticks to your hands. If mixture is too wet, add a little more flour and a few extra bread cubes.
Roll this mixture into small balls and then drop into boiling salted water. After potato balls come to surface, let them boil for about 12 to 15 minutes. To test for doneness, take one ball out and cut through it. When cooked, center should be dry, not soggy. (You must be careful not to boil too long because potato balls will fall apart or become wet and soggy.) Remove all potato balls from water with a slotted spoon. Once they are removed from the boiling water, place them on a hot, lightly buttered platter. When ready to serve, pour the gravy over them or pass it separately. Serves 8 to 10 as a side dish.
RED CABBAGE AND APPLES
1/4 cup butter or margarine
2 medium apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium head red cabbage, cored and shredded
1 cup water
1/2 cup red-wine vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
11/2 teaspoons salt
Pepper to taste
1 dried bay leaf
In a 4-quart saucepan over medium heat, heat butter or margarine until hot but not burning. Add apples and onion and cook until tender, about 10 minutes. Add cabbage, water, red-wine vinegar, sugar, salt, a pinch of pepper, and bay leaf and heat mixture to boiling. Reduce heat to low; cover and simmer about 40 minutes stirring occasionally, or until cabbage is very tender. Discard bay leaf before serving. Serves 8 to 10 as a side dish.
I was on the witness stand for two more days. When I was leaving the seat that I’d occupied for fifteen days, I looked at Agro and blew him a kiss good-bye and said something out of earshot of everyone else. The judge yelled at me over the defenses’ objections. I didn’t care. I smiled anyway. While the agents were driving, I noticed they were doing an awful lot of talking on the radios. There were also four cars full of agents, when normally there were two. I was concerned, naturally.
“What’s up, Larry? Why all the cars?” I asked.
It took him a moment to answer me, and then he said, “Eh, we want to get you safely on the plane, Joe. You did a great job, by the way.”
I noticed that we were going through a gate where there were three guys with rifles, and I saw that they were waving all four cars through, I knew they were FBI agents outside there and we were driving onto the tarmac at a clandestine airport.
“Hey, Larry!” I shouted. “What the f____ is going on here? This ain’t the airport that I fly out of.”
Everyone was quiet. Then Larry said, “I didn’t want to tell you this, Joe, but the Mob is watching for you at every airport, so I teletyped headquarters and told them of the urgency to get you out of here and how it was an emergency to see that you arrive safely and all, so Webster sent his own private jet to fly you there.”
Wow! I thought. The boss of the FBI is really concerned. I mean, like, come on now, I really gotta be somebody. I’ll tell you the truth, it felt nice. It really felt good. “But what about my clothes?” I asked. “What are you gonna do? Mail them to me?”
“We already packed them for you, Joe. You’re all set,” Larry Doss said.
They rushed me onto the Lear jet. Agent Rich Tofani was on the plane. That was odd, Tofani put a Scotch-on-Ice in my hand as the plane took off.
“It won’t take us long to get to Savannah in this thing, will it, Rich?” I observed. I noticed a look of surprise on his face.
“Savannah? Didn’t Doss tell you that you had to testify in the Colombo trial in Manhattan? I swear to God, Joe, he told me you knew and that you agreed.”
I was silent. I didn’t say a word. I just kept staring at Richie. I didn’t believe what had happened. I wasn’t mad. I had been had. It was my own fault for trusting them. Tofani was probably a part of this conspiracy. I laughed. “So then all this bullshit about the airports being watched is really all bullshit, huh?”
“No, it’s not, Joe. You’re a hot ticket. I saw the Teletype Larry sent, and that’s the only way we could have gotten Webster’s jet and his pilot. Didn’t you see all the agents with guns? They were ready for war. Don’t worry Joe, we’re well equipped to take care of you in New York,” he added. “There won’t be any f____ ups here.”
When we landed I was half bombed. There was a slew of agents at this clandestine airstrip, too. “Oh, well . . .,” I said as I departed from the plane.
The Colombo trial in Manhattan was exasperating for me. I was extremely tired, getting off one witness stand and onto another in a different state against a different Mob family. It was exhausting. There were twelve defendants on trial. Carmine “Snake” Persico was one of the defendants, “Little Dom” Cataldo, who at one time was my real close friend and compari (before he put out a contract on my life), was also there, plus the under-boss captains and a slew of soldiers—or wise guys, as I would refer to them. The year was 1985. While I was on the witness stand, reputed Mob boss Paul Castellano of the Gambino family was gunned down in front of Spark’s steakhouse on Manhattan’s east side. I don’t know if that was what caused a defense attorney to become ill, but the judge gave the defense a ten-day time-off period for that attorney to get well before the trial started again. I welcomed the delay. I couldn’t wait to return to the Savannah area. Thank God the piles on that defense attorney’s a____ had burst.
I was at my apartment on Tybee Island again when I received a call from a gentleman named, John Andronokis. He owned a jewelry repair shop in the Ogtethorpe Mall in Savannah. He and I became friendly, and although I had ulterior motives—because, as always, I was looking to make some money the easy way—I proposed an illegal scam to John, thinking he would jump at the chance.
He said, “Joey, my friend, I came to this wonderful country when I was a boy, and I love the American way. I would never do anything dishonest for any reason. I make a nice living now, but there were times I was in bad shape—real bad shape. So, Joey, I have to say no to you.”
I admired the guy for his honesty, and he and I became good friends. John came from the countryside in Greece. He was a big, muscular man with that handsome European look. His wife, Betty Jo, was a darling pretty southern lady. The reason for the call was that John had invited me to the house that he built in Blairsville Georgia, which was in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I desperately needed a rest, so this was a god sent. We met, and the three of us, with me riding in the backseat, drove up to the mountains. He had a beautiful house with a lake close by, so I relaxed with a fishing pole in my hand.
My stay there was nice, and while I was there, I prepared a dish for John and Betty Jo.
