SPAMALICIOUS; ATTORNEY'S TASTY TREAT CAN'T BE BEAT AT FAIR.

Byline: Jesse Hiestand Daily News Staff Writer

For a Van Nuys attorney, it started with a dare, a can of Spam and a dim recollection of how satisfying the processed ham could be on a bachelor's budget.

And with that, Richard Mikesell had the winning ingredients this week to take first place as the best Spam cook at the Los Angeles County Fair.

Mikesell bested some 60 others with his recipe for ``Spamigo Green Chili Stew.'' It was the first time in fair history that men took the top three Spam cuisine prizes.

``I was stunned,'' the Sherman Oaks resident said Tuesday. ``The guy who came in second place had a Spam cheese souffle that looked really, really good.''

Mikesell's enthusiasm for the canned pink meat was not shared by the co-workers and friends he enlisted to taste-test his concoction.

``I work for the man, so I was forced to try it,'' said Betty Peugh, Mikesell's paralegal and one of his recipe's first guinea pigs. ``At first I was a little reluctant to taste it, but afterward I said, God, this is really good.''

Mikesell said he grew to appreciate Spam in his bachelor days, when it was a staple of his diet. Later he discovered green chili stew while living in the small New Mexico town of Raton.

Little did he know then, he said, that they would make a delectable match, with Spam's high fat and salt content making it a perfect complement to the stew, he said.

But first it took a dare from a friend who goaded Mikesell into entering the county fair's cooking contest.

``There aren't that many people out there cooking Spam, but those who are are pretty competitive about it,'' he said.

The first challenge was finding the right balance of Anaheim chiles, jalapenos, tomatillos and other ingredients, which took 12 trial-and-error batches over five months.

Mikesell's winning recipe now goes to the chefs at Hormel Foods, the creator of the oft-derided ``mystery meat,'' to pick the best of the 77 winning recipes from county fairs from across the nation. The winner will be announced in January, he said.

The victory also has silenced the snickering of fellow attorneys at Mikesell's Van Nuys law office, where the first-place certificate has joined his Duke University law school diploma on his vanity wall.

Phillip Schroth was one of Mikesell's friends who tried the dish.

``It's a very interesting dish, and I can't really compare it to anything I've had before,'' said Schroth, a health care statistician in Glendale. ``But I can recommend it. The Spam is not overwhelming at all.''

SPAMIGO GREEN CHILI STEW

Richard Mikesell's winning Spam recipe at the Los Angeles County Fair:

First ingredients:

1 can Spam (diced)

10 tomatillos (halved)

2 jalapenos, diced and seeded

12 Anaheim chiles (roasted, peeled, seeded and chopped) or three 7-ounce cans diced Ortega chiles

1 onion, diced

1/2 of a 7-ounce can diced Ortega chiles

2/3 of a bell pepper, diced

1 can Swanson vegetable broth

1-1/2 cups water

1 teaspoon celery salt

1-1/2 teaspoons cumin

2 cloves garlic, minced

Second ingredients:

3/4 cup Niblets corn

3/4 white potato, cooked and cubed

2/3 7-ounce can of diced Ortega chiles

1 jalapeno, seeded and diced

Garnish:

6 sliced radishes 

cilantro

Method:

1. Simmer first ingredients for 2-1/2 hours, then blend in blender

2. Add second ingredients to first in pot or bowl and mix

3. Serve in soup bowls; garnish with radishes and cilantro

CAPTION(S):

Photo, Box

PHOTO (color) Attorney Richard Mikesell of Sherman Oaks took first place in the Spam cooking competition at the Los Angeles County Fair with his recipe for ``Spamigo Green Chili Stew.''

Myung J. Chun/Daily News

BOX: Spamigo Green Chili Stew (see text)