Archive for the 'sandwiches' Category
I hardly ever make sandwiches, but when I do, it’s mostly because it makes me feel like a good and competent wife feeding one to Mike, the way my Grandma made a sandwich for my Grandad every day for lunch, or at least every day that I was in their presence. She’d feed it to him at the head of the table in the windowed dining room looking out onto the Detroit river (they lived in Windsor), where occasionally a freighter would go by and we’d all scramble to get out the binoculars and smokestack guidebook to help us identify where it had come from. Sometimes he’d have it at the glass table in the kitchen, which they bought so they could see who (of my mom and her 4 brothers) was kicking whom under the table. Each time he’d say “thanks Mad” without looking up from his sandwich, and we thought it was totally hilarious that he called her “Mad” (short for Madelon).
Mostly they were tomato and/or onion or salmon sandwiches on buttered bread, which he would dip into a shallow bowl of vinegar - he said when you got to be ninety, your tastebuds needed a little help. Tonights’ were made with roasted Mediterranean chicken from the deli, with some havarti, tomatoes, lettuce, light mayo and lots of pepper; every time I have a sandwich like this, which seems too boring to bother with, I remember how much I love them, especially on grainy bread.
W asked for Raisin Bran again. (I’m glad he likes it; when I was a kid, all we would get was Raisin Bran, Cheerios, Shreddies and Muffets, and I fantasized about Cap’n Crunch and Froot Loops and Corn Pops, which we only got little boxes of when we went camping. When we were at Grandma’s though, she’d have Harvest Crunch, which was the best, even though she made us cut it with Special K. To this day it has to be Special K and Harvest Crunch.)
While I have your attention, I’d like to know, please, what is going on with my rhubarb. How is it that I am completely and utterly unable to successfully grow what is essentially a weed that requires no maintenance nor a green thumb? My neighbor pulled out an unwanted rhubarb plant last year, and the thing thrived in the back alley beside the garbage bin, roots fully exposed, for an entire season. And here mine, planted nicely beside the deck in semi-sun and the protective bosom of a loving family, refuses to thrive. The stalks are pencil-thin (and pencil-long), depressed looking, and mostly green. (I’ve also killed my basil, but my peas seem to be doing very well.) Down the alley there is a plant almost as tall as me with leaves you could wear as a sarong. Up the hill, A’s rhubarb is lovely and full, thick as three-ply celery and ruby red, and you can pick more than you can carry without making the slightest dent in one plant. So long as she allows access to her rhubarb everything will be OK, but I’d still like to pick my own outside my back door.
Anyone?
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June 27 2008 | sandwiches | 11 Comments »
Or as someone slightly more eloquent might say, Croque Monsieur.
I love it when dinners come about like this: last week, Pierre wrote about Mr. Crunchy in his food column in Swerve; generally I would glaze over a story about grilled ham & cheese (as you may very well be doing right now), but I like Pierre. Not a whole lot must have sunk in except the name of said sandwich, because tonight I was still under the impression that a Croque Monsieur was ham & cheese dipped in egg and fried (actually a Monte Cristo). I had the kids, and all they wanted to eat was grilled cheese. But my sister was coming home from work to eat dinner with us, and I didn’t want to feed her a plain old grilled cheese. I found a package of ham I had forgotten I bought, and remembered Mr. Crunch.
Searching around, I found a lot of CM (or MC) recipes that were simply ham & cheese, and then a Barefoot Contessa recipe as well as one credited to some café in Paris (if I ever went to Paris, I might know the place; sadly all my dineros go to accountants and dentists and other non-glamorous places… and a new roof, furnace, washer and dryer and gas stove are on my to-spend list before trips) that was made of ham & gruyère, with a gruyère cheese sauce poured overtop and broiled. It’s sort of part fondue, part Welsh Rarebit (if you made it with some ale and mustard and Worcestershire).
I never have gruyère. I had gruyère! So I couldn’t really not make it, could I?
So I dismissed all the way-too-elaborate instructions to broil the bread, spread with mustard (and sometimes crème fraîche), top with cheese and ham and another slice of bread, broil again, and then top with the cheese sauce and broil - I just made a grilled ham and cheese with gruyère, made the cheese sauce (seriously the easiest thing in the world - melt 2 Tbsp. butter or oil in a pan with 3 Tbsp. flour, whisk until melted, whisk in 2 cups of milk, heat until it bubbles, and stir in a couple handfuls of grated cheese), poured it overtop of the sandwiches and ran it under the broiler for two minutes.
For future reference, a Croque Monsieur with a fried egg on top is a Croque Madame. (Ms. Crunch.) Mike would have loved this, like he’s favourite Vera’s fried-egg burger in Vancouver, but said he’d better not.
We balanced Mr. Crunch out with a green salad and a big bowl of Ichiban salad, which my sister got all excited over. The best way I know of to eat my cabbage.
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June 26 2008 | sandwiches | 2 Comments »
I’ll tell you straight up, the soup is green, and refreshing in a way that only pure green things are, but I likely wouldn’t make it again. It’s like a pea smoothie; I can’t get past the cold grassiness of it. I’m thinking of throwing the rest on the stovetop tomorrow. Others may enjoy it, though. At least it’s healthy - besides being so green, peas are a crazy high source of fiber.
This morning we talked about no heat dinners on CBC, and so I made it for the occasion. I wasn’t surprised to come home with the whole batch. (Why is it said that something not so great is “nothing to sneeze at”? Is there any occasion that calls for sneezing at something that is particulaly good?)
Minted Pea Soup
Adapted from Real Simple magazine.
4 cups fresh or frozen peas, thawed
a big handful fresh mint, torn into pieces
a small handful fresh chives, torn into pieces
3 cups chicken or veg stock
1 tsp. each salt and sugar
Whiz everything in the food processor or blender until smooth. Makes about 1 1/2 L.
The shrimp fajitas, on the other hand, are great. I made them about a year ago when trying to come up with a way to incorporate guacamole into our dinner, on account of an overabundance of perfectly ripe ones in our fruit bowl. This time it was planned for the aforementioned show. You could throw the cooked shrimp right in there - frozen, even, if you want to keep the fajita innards cool en route to a picnic or bring it in your lunch - but I decided to give them a quick minute in a hot pan with a tiny dab of butter and shake of chili powder, just to fajita things up a bit. Either way.
Shrimp & Black Bean Fajitas
All these measurements are approximate; just wing it.
1 ripe avocado
1 clove garlic, finely pressed
2 Tbsp. lime juice (or to taste)
pinch salt
about 20 cooked, peeled shrimp, thawed (or not, if you want to keep it cool en route to a picnic)
1/2 cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2-1 cup crumbled feta
1/4 cup salsa
4 whole wheat flour tortillas
In a small bowl, mash the avocado, garlic, lime juice and salt until smooth. Spread a quarter of it into the middle of each tortilla. Divide the shrimp, beans, feta and salsa among them, and wrap like a burrito.
Serves 4.
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June 17 2008 | sandwiches and seafood and soup and vegetarian | 2 Comments »
Sorry, quesadillas again. We narrowly averted Inglewood Pizza by a busy signal. Good thing there was a hockey game.
It still surprises me that often I still have no idea what’s for dinner at 6:20 at night. Quesadillas are a common stand-by, as you may have noticed; one step up from the grilled cheese sandwich, and assembled out of virtually anything you have around, provided some of it is cheese. I keep whole wheat flour tortillas in the freezer primarily for these, and also for peanut butter banana wraps. They have saved dinner (and lunch, and breakfast) on many a busy occasion.
Tonight, they were constructed out of black beans (there’s always a can on the shelf), finely chopped tomato and thin slices of jalapeño havarti I got at the cheese market last weekend. Bonus: I use quesadilla wedges to scoop up copious amounts of chunky salsa, thus boosting my lycopene intake.
And here’s another idea: when camping, you can make s’mores quesadillas with chocolate chips and mini marshmallows, either in a skillet on the Coleman stove, or wrapped in foil and tossed in the hot coals. A sliced banana in there is yummy, too.
Or just stick with the cheese.
Tomorrow night, I’ll be downtown at dinnertime for the June First Thursday. If anyone wants to join our group of 12 (so far!) to go restaurant and gallery-hopping, meet us on the Teatro patio at 5pm tomorrow night! (Free drinks and snacks, and deals on others!)
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June 04 2008 | appetizers and cheese and sandwiches and snacks and vegetarian | 2 Comments »
I was a complete walking disaster today, making a complete mess of everything in my path. Except dinner, miraculously, most likely because I was starving. Hunger is great motivation.
The chickens had been too picked over for Caesar salad, so we stretched the chopped bits into three quesadillas along with a few sautéed mushrooms. Making quesadillas is exactly the same as making a grilled cheese sandwich, only you use flour tortillas (whole wheat, always) and put more stuff in it, using cheese as the glue that holds them together.
My cast iron skillet doesn’t quite accommodate a full-size quesadilla, so I do the ones made out of one tortilla, folded in half. Because there was no salsa, I spread a bit of sun dried tomato pesto onto the base of each one before adding the mushrooms, chopped chicken and a bit of grated old cheddar. Black beans would have fit in nicely, too. I am a fan of old cheddar, much more so than the light stuff, which you need twice as much of to really taste it… I’d rather use the old stuff, and less of it.
Cook them in a dry skillet - no need for oil - until toasty and melted. Quesadillas are one of the fastest and easiest meals I can think of; like frittata or fried rice, you can get away with using up bits of anything, and stretching it into dinner.
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May 27 2008 | appetizers and sandwiches and snacks | 3 Comments »
It’s a boy!
We planned to get a new washer and dryer this weekend; instead we got a dog. A border collie-husky cross, 10 weeks old, about the same size as W. So, two toddlers. My sister has been on a mission to find the perfect dog, and brought him home for a trial run on Saturday to ensure she wasn’t allergic. She was, but her allergies didn’t kick in until we spent several hours discovering how mellow and awesome he was, and so this morning we couldn’t bring ourselves to send him back. He is as yet unnamed - we are open to any and all suggestions. I want to name him John Cusack, but Mike won’t go for it.
So between the chaos of suddenly getting a dog (!!) and scrambling to finish Animal, Vegetable, Miracle before I interview Barbara Kingsolver tomorrow morning, there wasn’t a lot of time to make dinner. Luckily, my mom brought over some fresh bison burger patties from Sunterra, which we tossed on the grill alongside a couple Portobello mushrooms. Grilled Portobellos make great burgers on their own, but Mike has always fantastized about topping another burger with one. I must admit, it was far easier and meatier than sautéing a panload of sliced button mushrooms, and fit snugly on top of the burger. To grill a Portobello mushroom, pull out the stem and scrape out the gills with the side of a spoon - the gills tend to be bitter - brush with oil and grill. If you like, marinate it in balsamic vinaigrette first - mushrooms are like sponges and will quickly absorb any flavours they meet.
And that’s it. One of the mushrooms broke into several pieces as W pretended it was his umbrella, but they are meaty enough that we grilled the pieces and it worked out fine. I realize the burger photographed above is lacking anything green; to be truthful I’d far rather have a salad on the side than adorn my burger with a couple measly leaves and a slippery slice of anaemic tomato. (To be even more truthful, I didn’t bother with a salad, just ate the burger. On the couch.)
We have a dog. What have I done??
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May 25 2008 | bison and on the grill and sandwiches | 19 Comments »
Eureka!
I love it when I learn how to make something I’ve never made before, especially when it’s dead easy, and even good for me.
I was grumpy when I got home. I didn’t have a plan for dinner. I wanted so badly to order Inglewood Pizza. As is often the case, my mind was changed by wilting produce - in this case a bunch of cilantro in the fridge that was worth about 58 cents. One of my biggest pet peeves is buying produce, letting it go slimy in the fridge, and throwing it in the compost bin.
I had the idea about a week ago to stuff a chicken with crumbled falafel, and the thought has been rattling around in my head ever since. I’ve only ever made falafel with a mix, so I looked up a recipe on epicurious. Turns out it’s as easy to make falafel as it is to make hummus. Of course - why wouldn’t it be? I just never really thought about it. This particular recipe called for fresh parsley and cilantro, and I just happened to have both. I’m sure you could get away with using either, or neither.
The recipe I used was a good one, all it required of the cook was a few pulses in the food processor, but we found it far too salty. (It called for a full teaspoon of salt, and canned beans are always saltier than dried - rinse them well to get rid of as much sodium as possible.) As I was patting myself on the back for making falafel from scratch in under 15 minutes, I came to the line: “Turn into a bowl and refrigerate, covered, for several hours.”
#$@!$#%@#$%!!
So as any sane person would do, I ignored it. The falafel turned out perfectly. They might have been better after a rest, who knows. I put out a plate of them with some whole wheat pita, tzatziki, chopped tomatoes and cucumbers. They were too garlicky and salty for W, but worked for us. (The original recipe called for a full teaspoon of salt - in this version below I’ve cut it down to 1/4 tsp.)
Falafel
(adapted from Epicurious, where it was reprinted from The Foods of Israel Today)
1 19 oz. (540 mL) can chick peas, rinsed and drained
1 small onion, chopped
2-4 garlic cloves, peeled
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
1 tsp. cumin
1/4 tsp. salt
pinch dried chili flakes
1/4 cup all-purpose or whole wheat flour (plus extra, if needed)
1 tsp. baking powder
canola oil, for frying
Put the chick peas, onion, garlic, parsley, cilantro, cumin, salt and chili flakes in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until combined but not smooth. Add the flour and baking powder and pulse until you have a soft mixture that you can roll into balls without sticking to your hands. Add another spoonful or so of flour, if you need to.
Roll the dough into meatball-sized balls, and if you like, flatten each into a little pattie. I like doing this for maximum surface area, which equals more crunch. (They also cook through more quickly as the distance between the middle to the exterior is shorter.)
In a shallow pot or skillet, heat about 1/2″ of canola oil until it’s hot but not smoking. Test it with a bit of falafel mixture or a scrap of bread - the oil should bubble up around it. Cook the falafel for a few minutes per side, without crowding the pan (which will cool down the oil), until they are golden. Transfer to paper towels. (You could get away with using just a skiff of oil - if you do this, best to leave the falafels round, so that you can roll them around in the pan to brown all sides.)
Serve in pitas with tzatziki, chopped cucumber, purple onion and tomato.
Makes about 20 falafel balls or patties.
Tzatziki
Regular yogurt, preferably thick Greek yogurt, is far superior to the runny low fat or fat free varieties that are most commonly found at the grocery store. Even ‘full fat’ yogurts generally only contain about 3 grams per half cup, and it’s much more delicious and satisfying.
1 small English cucumber, unpeeled
1 – 2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 cups good quality plain yogurt, preferably Balkan-style
Salt & pepper to taste
Grate the cucumber with a box grater onto a double thickness of paper towel. Gather up the cucumber in the towel and squeeze out as much excess water as you can. (If you don’t mind runnier tzatziki, you can skip this step.)
Combine cucumber, garlic, yogurt, salt and pepper in a bowl and stir until well blended. If you like, add a squeeze or lemon. The garlic flavor will intensify the longer it sits.
Makes 2 1/2 - 3 cups.
Per 1/3 cup: 45 calories, 1 g total fat (0.6 g saturated fat, 0.3 g monounsaturated fat, 0.1 g polyunsaturated fat), 3.5 g protein, 5.6 g carbohydrate, 3.7 mg cholesterol, 0.3 g fiber. 20% calories from fat.
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May 06 2008 | beans and sandwiches and vegetarian | 6 Comments »
We watched the Flames fizzle out tonight over pocket dogs.
For those of you who have never been to the Saddledome, pocket dogs are a delicacy often referenced by George S. on CBC TV’s The Hour. I have never had the pleasure of one; had it not been for George I wouldn’t have known what our neighbor was talking about when he suggested we make them tonight when a bunch of us converged at our place to watch game 7.
To make one, you first gut a section of baguette. At the ‘dome, they have a sort of probe that pulls out the innards and toasts it at the same time. Since this kitchen gizmo is not yet mainstream, I used my fingers. The plan was to torch the insides to toast it, but I just now realized I forgot that part.
You then stuff it with a dog, and, traditionally, any combination of ranch dressing, neon cheese goo, ketchup, mustard, relish and something else I’m not thinking of. We stuffed ours with grilled chicken-apple and mild Italian sausages from Spolumbos, caramelized onions, and of course ketchup and mustard.
My friend A, the forgotten vegetarian, ate the leftover carrot soup from last night, and thankfully brought a killer plate of hummus.
Although I know she ground some cumin seed for it, I don’t have her recipe, so you’ll have to try mine.
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April 22 2008 | sandwiches | 4 Comments »
Having discovered that Willem has eaten his way through about a third of two apples and three pears, and I don’t really want to finish them all (again) I needed to find a way to use them before they compost themselves right there in the fruit bowl, on the dresser and on the edge of the bathtub.
Often I chop or grate them into oatmeal or muesli (muesli: oats, dried fruit, nuts, flax and some grated apple stirred into vanilla or plain yogurt with honey, left overnight to soak itself up) but this time we were outnumbered, so since we (miraculously) have a bit of Breyer’s Light vanilla ice cream in the freezer, I made a crisp.
There is no need to measure ingredients for a crisp. Chop, without peeling, as many apples and pears as you’d like to use, and put them in a baking dish. (There is no need to peel them - why would you, when so much of the fiber and nutrients live in their skins? I mean, you don’t peel them before eating them out of hand. Besides, cooking softens them anyway.) Toss with as much white or brown sugar as you like (not too much - according to your taste and the sweetness of the fruit), a sprinkle of cinnamon and if you like, a squeeze of lemon juice.
For the crumble: 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup oats, a handful of whole toasted almonds in their skins (I usually have these around to nibble on), 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup butter, or thereabouts. There are thousands of formulas for crumble mixtures, with oats and/or nuts and without, so really you can use whatever ratio you like, blending until the mixture holds together when you squeeze it in your hand. Pulse it in a food processor or mix with a fork until well combined and crumbly. (Obviously if you use a fork, you’ll then need to use sliced almonds, or none at all.)
The other great thing about crumble mixtures is that it takes exactly as much effort to make a large batch as it does to make a small batch, so use what you like and keep the rest in a freezer bag in the freezer to scatter over muffins and other impromptu fruit crisps.
Sprinkle over the fruit and bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes, or until golden on top and the fruit is soft.
Between the pears, which are particularly high in fiber for a fruit, the whole wheat flour (you can’t tell the difference with a crumble topping - it works perfectly in place of all-purpose flour), oats and nuts, this is a reasonably high-fiber dessert. A handful of raspberries or cranberries would have been nice thrown in with the pears, or a grating of orange or lemon zest. I can’t wait to have the remains cold for breakfast with a glop of vanilla yogurt.
So dinner was backwards; the crisp was so enticing coming warm from the oven that we ate some right away, and then some antipasto that ended up prematurely thawed because I thought it was Chicken Pesto Stew, and then it seemed silly to put much effort into a full dinner, so I quickly waffled some ham & Swiss cheese sandwiches on grainy bread. What are waffled sandwiches? The same as grilled cheese, but you do them in your waffle maker, which acts sort of like a panini grill, cooking them on both sides while creating cool waffle grooves. If you like, you can put a teeny dab of ketchup into each divot. Kids think this is very cool.
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April 05 2008 | dessert and sandwiches | 6 Comments »
I was home for dinner tonight! We taped overnight last night - 10:30 pm until about 11 am - so by dinnertime today a sane person might have considered ordering a pizza. Stephen, the Sound Guy on set, asked the other day if I ever get tired of cooking. I do. But not very often, and not for long. And for some reason the thought of pulling together dinner tonight was not at all daunting; after all, I didn’t need to tag team with Ned, or time everything right for the camera, or think of anything smart and witty to say about whatever it was I was chopping or cooking while trying to stand up straight and suck it in. The thought of pulling together a quick dinner for the three of us at home in my own kitchen in my PJ pants without talking anyone through it was a relief.
I made a sort of chile-spiced pulled pork goulash kind of thing back in January, and while rummaging through my freezer the other night in an attempt to locate something prepared and edible, unearthed a container and pulled it out. I threw it into a pot. Further rummaging revealed the last of the baked beans, which I figured would get along nicely with the pork. That went in too. And to serve it over, Sloppy Joe-style, some warm biscuits. This is my favorite biscuit recipe: made with olive or canola oil and half whole wheat flour, they take on any flavor you like very well. Had I had some in the fridge I might have added some grated cheese. On weekend mornings, I add a couple spoonfuls of sugar and throw in some fresh or frozen (unthawed) berries, or raisins, or chopped dried apricots and ginger. Brushing the top with a little milk will make them brown nicely. If you are making a sweet version, some plain or coarse sugar scattered on top is also a Good Thing.
Whole Wheat & Olive Oil Biscuits
These are made healthier with the addition of olive oil and whole wheat flour, but you can use all white flour if you like. To flavor the dough, add grated lemon or orange zest, ginger, fresh or dried herbs (such as basil or rosemary) or spices (such as cinnamon, star anise or fennel seed), or stir in a handful of grated cheese or fresh, frozen or dried berries.
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp. sugar (optional)
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter, chilled and cut into pieces
1/4 cup olive or canola oil
3/4 cup milk or buttermilk
Any additions you like (optional)
Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray.
Put the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in the bowl of a food processor or into a medium mixing bowl and pulse or stir until well blended. Add the butter and oil and pulse or stir with a wire whisk or fork until crumbly. If you’re using a food processor, transfer the mixture to a medium bowl.
Add the milk and stir gently until the dough begins to come together. Add any additions (cheese, raisins, nuts, fruit etc.) as you stir the dough together.
For wedge-shaped biscuits, pat the dough into a circle that is about 1” thick and 8”-9” in diameter on the cookie sheet. (If they are sweet and you want a brown, crunchy top, brush them with a little milk and sprinkle with sugar.) Cut the circle into 8 wedges with a knife or pastry cutter and separate them on the sheet so that they are at least an inch apart. For round biscuits, pat the dough about 1” thick and cut it into rounds with a biscuit cutter, glass rim or open end of a can, rerolling the scraps only once to get as many biscuits as possible.
Bake for about 20 minutes, until golden. Serve warm. Wrap well and freeze any you don’t eat the same day. Makes 8 biscuits.
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March 03 2008 | beans and bread and pork and sandwiches | 1 Comment »
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