Archive for the 'sandwiches' Category
I know it’s not quite asparagus time yet, but as a food writer I have lead time, and so generally I’m making back to school lunches before summer even arrives, and mincemeat pies on Canada Day.
Thus I have a glut of asparagus in the fridge from an asparagus story I was working on, and it is exciting to think that spring is technically here even if the green things haven’t quite caught up yet, and that these buds will be prodding their way out of the ground very soon. And when they do, we’ll be eating as many Alberta grown and snapped off by hand stalks as we can. Asparagus in its raw, natural state is surprisingly delicious – it tastes like freshly shelled peas – and it’s fabulous marinated and chilled, in a salad, dipped in hollandaise, sliced into ribbons and tossed onto a pizza.
I’ve seen shaved asparagus pizza (which triggers thoughts of a lady asparagus – dressed up Bugs Bunny-like – shaving her stalk) here and there, and yet my attempts at shaving my asparagus worked about as well as shaving my legs with an old razor in a stand-up shower. Sure, I got a few glamorous strips off, but wound up with a lot of annoying stubble. No matter; I tossed it all on the pizza with some goat cheese, purple onion and crumbled bacon in a very unladylike manner.
I never use a recipe for pizza – it’s a little like following one for a grilled cheese sandwich. Roll fresh dough out thin, any shape you like, put it on a cornmeal-dusted heavy baking sheet or some such, then spread it, top it, and bake it at 450F – the high temperature kindasorta simulates a pizza oven, which gets about twice as hot.
Yum.
April 10 2012 | one dish and sandwiches | 12 Comments »
I love my job. I really, really do. But most days are a Tasmanian devil-like whirling dervish of recipe testing and photographing, and usually what we wind up eating for dinner was left over from some show or had just been photographed for a magazine. Ironically as a food writer, I don’t often work with ingredients when they’re actually in season on account of the lead time. On Canada day this past July I was making gingerbread and mince tarts. Today I was working on Valentine’s day stuff.
Some days I just want to make dinner with no ulterior motives. Today I was working on a cocktail party story that involves meatballs, and so I took the opportunity to take a little detour and make pork meatball bánh mì – Vietnamese subs – that I’ve been wanting to try for about a year now. The recipe looks long but they’re simple to make – and in fact they could potentially be made ahead – the meatball part, anyway – which can be frozen for future sandwiches. I imagine some sort of miniature version would be pretty fab for a cocktail party. I may start packing them to take to lunch at my desk upstairs.
I skipped the spicy mayo, opting instead to spread on real mayo and add sriracha according to each taste. (I’ve a wimpier palate than Mike.) The baguette was pretty delicious, but a tad tough on the teeth; I may go for a softer roll next time. Or maybe not – I liked the chew, too. And it wasn’t too crumby; ideal for at-your-desk eating over a keyboard.
The meatballs made with fish sauce, garlic and fresh basil were divine. Totally. When our sandwiches were done I found myself nibbling at the meatballs, topped with a wad of pickled carrots. There must be salad potential here too. So yum.
Pork Meatball Bánh Mì
Adapted from Bon Appétit, January 2010
Meatballs:
1 lb. ground pork
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1-2 green onions, finely chopped
1 Tbsp. fish sauce
2 tsp. sriracha or other hot chile sauce (or to taste)
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
salt & pepper
Sandwiches:
2 cups coarsely grated carrots
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
4 10″ individual baguettes or four chunks of baguette
mayo
thinly sliced cucumber (use a vegetable peeler)
fresh cilantro
In a bowl, mix together the pork, basil, garlic, onions, fish sauce, sriracha, sugar and salt and pepper and mix it all up with your hands. Roll into 1″ balls and place on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake at 400F for 20 minutes, or until golden and cooked through.
Meanwhile, toss the grated carrot with the rice vinegar and sugar in a small bowl. Let sit until you’re ready to assemble your sandwiches.
To assemble, spread baguettes with mayo; top with a squirt of sriracha to taste, and stuff with pickled carrots, cucumber strips, meatballs and sprigs of fresh cilantro. Serves 4.
November 24 2011 | pork and sandwiches | 17 Comments »
Honestly, this comes across as far more upscale-sounding when I write it out than it actually was. In reality it was eaten in my Pepto-pink polka dot flannel PJ pants in the middle of the day after coming home from the sloppy, rainy dog park, and as you can see, I was impatient and totally burnt it. And I may have dropped a chunk of mine, and it may have landed goo-side down, and I may have called Lou over to lick it up. Grilled pears and brie are not our post-dog park norm, but there were leftovers to use up. Leftovers are great, aren’t they? Especially when they’re wedges of brie and chewy naan, which I really needed to get out of the freezer – much more badly than the frozen edamame and cauliflower soup. (Wanna see what else is in my fridge? And how I dress when I haven’t showered in two days? Take a peek.)
The leftovers are from last week. I held out on you – or more accurately the days slid by and I didn’t manage to keep you in the loop – a week ago I got to go hang out with my pal Paul (Rogalski) at Rouge (a few blocks away, it was recently named #60 in the top 100 restaurants in the world), which is co-owned by Paul and Olivier Reynaud. It’s a fantastic spot, in the former home of one of A.E. Cross, one of the Big Four, with a stunning backyard half filled with an organic kitchen garden and surrounded by high hedges, that takes over 6 city lots.
So last week – wait, the week before that – Paul was in Toronto at a grilled cheese-off. The Dairy Farmers of Canada brought a bunch of chefs together from across the country to come up with new ways to make a grilled cheese sandwich. A worthy mission if I ever heard one.
So Paul went, and came up with two recipes, but the other I’m saving for a special occasion – one that calls for meat, cheese, butter, garlic and caramelized onions. And when he came back he needed a little help with a bunch of media appearances, so I was his grilled cheese wingman.
(No, that’s not me. Sigh.)
This particular masterpiece is built on naan instead of regular sandwich bread – brilliant, no? He stirs curry powder into butter to spread on the outside, although it was so chilly our butter was less than spreadable, so instead he melted the butter in the skillet and sprinkled it with curry. Easy. You don’t really need a recipe – just slice brie and pears (I don’t bother peeling them) and go ahead and make a grilled cheese sandwich on naan spread with mango chutney. With curry in the pan. This would be great served in small wedges with wine at a cocktail party, if you do want to swank it up a bit.
Curry Me Brie
By Chef Paul Rogalski
Ingredients:
½ cup (125 mL) butter, room temperature
2 tsp (10 mL) mild curry powder
4 slices naan bread
4 tbsp (60 mL) mango chutney
6 oz (170 g) Canadian Brie, thinly sliced while chilled; discard the end cuts that contain the most rind
1 ripe pear skinned, seeded, and thinly sliced
In a small bowl mix butter and curry powder together. Spread on one side of two slices of the naan bread. Place one naan butter side down in a large non-stick skillet or panini press.
Spread 2 tbsp mango chutney and place half the sliced Brie, then half the sliced pear on naan. Cover with the second naan, butter side up. Cook first side over medium heat for approximately 5 minutes or until golden brown.
Using a spatula, flip carefully. Continue cooking on the second side for another 5 minutes or until golden brown and the cheese has melted.
Remove from heat and set aside for 2 minutes to cool slightly. Wipe skillet with a paper towel and repeat instructions for the second sandwich. Cut each sandwich in half and serve. Serves 4.
Paul’s and the other chef’s grilled cheese recipes -and photos- can be found here.
September 06 2010 | appetizers and sandwiches | 16 Comments »
Sorry, that’s Saturday morning breakfast, not Friday night dinner. Come to think of it, dinner was apple cider and Kinnikinick cookies at the very first Calgary Food Summit in honour of World Food Day, where I spoke a bit to the group of 130 and was involved in lively discussion/brainstorming session on the issues of food security and policy and everything related to creating a sustainable food system, trying my best not to touch anything or anyone and washing my hands so obsessively they now look like they should be attached to a 90 year old.
By the time I got home last night I felt on the verge of a full-on flu smackdown. (I couldn’t manage to hold myself upright at the computer, looking desperately around my cluttered office for something good to give away, and finally crawled into bed and called it Free Stuff Saturday mornings.) W is up and down, a little more feverish again last night and kept falling asleep throughout the day, and we spent another night with him twisted around me, hacking out a lung. Mike has gout again – there appears to be a connection with long car drives. Between us we’re a bit of a mess. (As I write this, W is trying to take Lou’s temperature – it’s a good thing he only knows the under-the-tongue technique.)
Since I was roused by phlegm and simultaneously pushed out the side of a king-sized bed at just slightly after 4 (!!) this morning, I decided I was in particular need of comfort food. Not scones, or a loaf, or oatmeal.. I needed something more. I needed a grilled cheese sandwich made with aged white cheddar on raisin bread. Guys, you have to try this.
The idea was still swimming around in my head after reading my Tell Simmer interview, in which I fessed up my most disgusting snack habit (it’s not the grilled cheese – you have to read it to find out). I answered all these questions in the motel in Salmon Arm en route back to Calgary the other night, drinking shiraz from a plastic Travelodge cup. At some point toward the end I managed to erase the whole thing (I blame the shiraz. And the cup) and I had to start over. (It would be interesting to see how I answered that same list of questions this morning, in an entirely new time and place!) Simmer till Done is on my short list of favourite, funniest food blogs. I have a ton of Marilyn’s recipes bookmarked to try. I wish I wasn’t still in a daze and could do it more justice with my description – suffice to say it’s well worth a read.
So for Free Stuff Saturday Mornings (we’ll resume our normal Friday programming schedule) would you take a new cookbook? I have a new, big chunky one from Readers’ Digest, which I’m sad is struggling (although the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing doesn’t apply to Reader’s Digest operations in Canada) – I’m hoping it isn’t at risk of going under along with Gourmet – news I’m still seriously stunned by.
It’s called Just 5 Things, because each recipe uses only 5 ingredients – seems like a good idea as we start to get into the busy season. It’s huge – 700 pages! – with a flexible hard cover, and EVERY RECIPE HAS A PHOTO. Each recipe is on its own page, and the facing page is a full-colour photo. It’s one of the best laid-out cookbooks I’ve seen.
So – I do want to know what everyone is eating – and you could in fact cheat and recount the best meal of the week – it doesn’t have to be last night! Do you have any 5 ingredient (and under) favourites?
October 17 2009 | sandwiches | 62 Comments »
A. brought tomatoes from her in-laws’ garden in BC. Mom brought a loaf of crusty sourdough. There was bacon in the freezer. We couldn’t rightly not have bacon and tomato sandwiches for dinner.
(Mike and I shared this – it’s enormous – I’m not a total glutton. Well, maybe a little bit.)
One Year Ago: Pulled Pork Pizza
August 27 2009 | sandwiches | 24 Comments »
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