Category Archives: Dressings

Tarragon Salad Dressing

Salad dressing, you say, how does that have anything to do with sandwiches? Well, one of our culinary experiments resulted in a delicious ham sandwich using this dressing as a spread.  Anders loves tarragon. I mean, he really loves it. In our love of gardening, we’ve made many attempts at growing this delightful herb but to no avail. As I write this, there is a plant languishing on our patio in complete defiance of all the love, attention and desperate hope that has been directed at.  But I digress. Lucky for us, we live close to a neighborhood grocery that sells fresh tarragon when in season, and when not, they sell huge bags of the dried stuff.   And when life gives you tarragon, why not make a tarragon salad dressing?

So here’s the recipe:

  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tsp whole grain mustard
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tsp dried tarragon
  • 1 tbs honey (or to taste)
  • kosher salt
  • fresh pepper

In a small bowl, combine vinegar, mustard, garlic and tarragon.  Mix well and taste. Depending on how well aged your balsamic vinegar is, you might not need the honey. The one we use is on the lower side of the price point and so does need a little help to soften the flavor.  Add honey, if needed.  Slowly drizzle in the olive oil, whisking continuously. That’s it. We’ve make this dressing quite a lot and find that as good as it is freshly made, it tastes even better the next day after the tarragon has a better chance to infuse the dressing with its flavor. It works great as a dressing, tossed with boiled/baked new spring potatoes, grilled veggies and so many more.

But since this is a sandwich blog after all, the sandwich incarnation can be found here in this “Pepper Ham Sandwich With Tarragon Salad Dressing, Cheese, Roasted Garlic And Smoked Paprika.

Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Hummus Recipe

It’s easy to buy hummus in a store, but it’s almost as easy to make it, and much more fun. This is a call to action; stop buying hummus!

All it takes to make are chickpeas, lemon juice, olive oil, tahini and garlic. Plus, add sun-dried tomatoes and you have sun dried tomato hummus. We use fresh cilantro or parsley as a topping, with a few roasted pine nuts, and you got yourself a really affordable and amazing appetizer dip. Naturally, we will be using some of this on our upcoming sandwiches :-).

Hummus with Sun Dried Tomatoes, Parsley and Roasted Pine Nuts
Hummus with Sun Dried Tomatoes, Parsley and Roasted Pine Nuts

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Sautéed Zucchini with Garlic and Lemon

This being winter, we thought we would provide a recipe for a summer garden favorite. And no, we do not find anything incongruous about this. What better time to start dreaming about the goodies of summer than now when the cold seems interminable. Okay, so as people lucky enough to live in San Diego which is as close to weather perfection as it ever gets in the US, we do not really experience winter – at least not of the snowmageddon variety.  Anyway, one of the veggies that will reward you with copious production is the zucchini. Two plants can produce enough for a family of four for the growing season. With our limited space, we’ve regretfully stayed away from it. Our rationale – we have a well stocked market within 2 minutes walk of our house and it’s pretty hard to give up tomato space.   So since we love zucchini but don’t always have it growing in the garden, we are so happy to be able to purchase was needed.

This little side dish is so simple, tasty and healthy. It is just bursting with flavor that we almost want to do a little dance as we eat it. Yes, it is that good.

Lime Squash Sauteed in Olive Oil and Garlic with Parmesan
Lime Squash Sauteed in Olive Oil and Garlic with Parmesan

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Pepper Ham Sandwich With Tarragon Salad Dressing, Cheese, Roasted Garlic And Smoked Paprika

One of our crazy experiments finally paid off. The addition of the salad dressing to this bread takes this simple sandwich to a whole new level. The bread, after toasting, is moist but yet crunchy. The dressing adds a ‘zing‘ to the ham. This sandwich reminds us of Woodstock: a mixed bag of nuts making sweet music together. Feel the love, add the dressing!

Pepper Ham Sandwich With Salad Dressing, Cheese, Roasted Garlic And Smoked Paprika
Pepper Ham Sandwich With Salad Dressing, Cheese, Roasted Garlic And Smoked Paprika

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Ciabatta with Rembrandt Extra Aged Gouda, Jamaican Logwood Honey And Smoked Paprika

Combining something sweet with something spicy is an old tradition that has come back into fashion. It is no longer uncommon to see chili-infused chocolate in grocery stores, and the reason is of course that it works. We bought some amazing honey in Jamaica, which brings the best out in this great cheese, the Rembrandt extra aged Gouda. The smoked paprika takes it up a notch. The simple life.

Ciabatta with Rembrandt Extra Aged Gouda, Jamaican Logwood Honey And Paprika
Ciabatta with Rembrandt Extra Aged Gouda, Jamaican Logwood Honey And Paprika

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Meatball Sandwich With Tomato Sauce, ‘Præstost’ Cheese – On Demi-Baguette

When I was a kid, one of my absolute favorite things about visiting our summer cottage in Sweden was the prospect of Swedish meatballs. Not just any Swedish meatballs, but a specific brand. We would always stop on the way to the house to get provisions at the local grocery store chain, and I remember running down the aisles to find the meatballs. My mother would cook them on a frying pan until they were quite dark, but not really burned. She would use lots of butter (where we use olive oil), and we would all sit and munch on meatballs and mashed potatoes while the house warmed up. Good times!

So, it was with great surprise I found one day these very same meatballs were being sold in the local Ikea in San Diego. What are the odds! Celebrating my Swedish childhood, I decided to create a Swamerican (Swedish-American) sandwich. I still prefer the meatballs without condiments – just by themselves, but as sandwiches come, this wasn’t half bad at all !

Meatball Sandwich With Tomato Sauce, 'Præstost' Cheese - on Demi Baguette
Meatball Sandwich With Tomato Sauce, 'Præstost' Cheese - on Demi Baguette

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Chicken Sandwich with Potatoes Au Gratin And Fresh Horseradish

Potatoes are probably the national vegetable of Denmark. In fact, every year every Dane consumes on average 73 Kg potatoes (160 pounds). Potatoes au Gratin is one of our favorite ways of cooking potatoes, and one of the few ways that Wendie actually likes. It is of course a rather creamy affair, so we don’t do it very often. Recently we indulged ourselves, which left us with a bit of leftovers. Undaunted by the scornful look from Wendie, I went ahead and created this little beaut, a potato au gratin sandwich. What’s not to love when it comes to starch on starch?

Chicken Sandwich with Potatoes a Gratin And Fresh Horseraddish
Chicken Sandwich with Potatoes a Gratin And Fresh Horseradish

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Chicken Salad

Chicken Salad Recipe

  • 4 roasted garlic
  • 3 tbs Mayo
  • 1 tsp fennel seeds (anis)
  • 1/4 grated onion
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 grated garlic
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 tsp Salt
  • 2 tsp Tarragon Mustard
  • 5 oz chicken pieces (picked from roasted chicken)

Mash the roasted garlic to a pulp with a fork, then mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Rejoyce, you are done!
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Ham And Tomato Pizza With Italian Salsa Verde Sauce

The Little Pizza That Could!

This is a pizza made from leftovers in all aspects. The dough is actually from our lavash crackers, so it’s a little bit sweet from the Jamaican honey. The Italian Salsa Verde is from a tasting we did with a caterer for our upcoming wedding. The ham is the last of our Jamaican pineapple Christmas ham. Basically we got one of those inexplicable pizza-cravings while making lavash crackers and quickly improvised the little pizza that could.

Ham And Tomato Pizza With Pesto
Ham And Tomato Pizza With Italian Salsa Verde Sauce

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