Category Archives: Spices

Breads, Cheeses, Chili flakes, Food, Ingredients, Lingonberry, Mushrooms, Open Faced Sandwiches, Roquefort, Sandwiches, Spices, Vegetables

Sauteed Mushrooms and Roquefort Sandwich on Lingonberry Bread

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There’s something to be said for simplicity, and when we cook it is usually Wendie saying it. After we baked our Lingonberry bread, Wendie made this sandwich and I made the “Turkey Sandwich with Creamy Garlic Paste, Avocado, Red Bell Pepper and Onion on Lingonberry Bread“. Both were good, but given the exuberant amount of toppings on mine, it should have been 4 times better. However, this simple construction proved to be a worthy contender in our internal struggle for sandwich supremacy. The slight chewiness of the mushroom goes really well with fresh bread. Wendie’s genius is of course to sauté the mushrooms in olive oil with a hint of chili, which really pops out your taste buds so they can pick up the flavors of the wonderful Roquefort.

Mushroom and Roquefort Sandwich on Lingonberry Bread
Mushroom and Roquefort Sandwich on Lingonberry Bread

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Asian Pear, Avocado, Breads, Closed sandwiches, Coconut oil, Fennel, Fish, Food, Fruits, Herbs, Iceberg, Mayonnaise, Olive Oil, Pandesal roll, Sandwiches, Sesame seeds, Soy Sauce, Tandoori, Tuna

Seared Ahi Tuna Sandwich with Roasted Garlic Mayonnaise and Lettuce, Asian Pear, and Avocado on a Pandesal Roll

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Since his birthday lunch of seared tuna at Blue Water Seafood Market and Grill, Anders has been dreaming about making a tuna sandwich.  But the price of fresh tuna and our relative inexperience with cooking it has served as  a big deterrence.  You don’t want to ruin a $14/lb tuna steak!  Anyway, this weekend he could not be stopped. We finally succumbed and  bought a ginormous ahi tuna steak at Costco. This was one fantastic looking steak – probably big enough for 4-5 tuna rolls.  So the plan was to sear the tuna, and, borrowing inspiration from Blue Water Seafood, serve it on a soft bun, rather than the artesan-style breads and rolls we typically use. 

With a game plan in mind, the search was on for an acceptable roll. Anders just happened to be shopping at Lucky Supermarket – one of the 6 supermarkets that we just had to visit this weekend to satisfy our finicky grocery needs – when he happened upon: Pandesal rolls. Slightly sweet Filipino bread rolls which are very soft. Getting home with the unexpected find, it was time for the searing. A quick Google search, and a plan were laid to do one steak with sesame seeds, and one with a spice rub. From this point on we basically improvised the recipes below based on the content of our pantry, and the rest was… well see for yourselves.

Seared Ahi Tuna Sandwich with Roasted Garlic Mayonnaise and Iceberg Lettuce, Asian Pear, and Avocado
Seared Ahi Tuna Sandwich with Roasted Garlic Mayonnaise and Iceberg Lettuce, Asian Pear, and Avocado

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Balsamic vinegar reduction, Breads, Cheeses, Ciabatta Roll, Closed sandwiches, Cress, Dressings, Food, Horseradish mayonnaise, McCormick steak seasoning, Mustard, Rib eye steak, Roasted garlic, Roquefort, Sandwiches, Watercress

Steak Sandwich with Blue Cheese, Roasted Garlic Mayonnaise and Balsamic Vinegar Reduction

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About two weeks ago I promised Anders that I would make him the perfect steak sandwich. His raised disbelieving eyebrows might have been because I am frankly not a fan of beef. I mean, I don’t get it – what is the fascination?  Still, a promise is a promise so I determined that this would be the day.

I left work with the plan in mind: rush to Trader Joe’s to buy ciabatta bread, watercress and the requisite rib-eye steak and get home and get down to business. Alas, the steaks at Trader Joes were disappointingly thin – a setback that resulted in a trip to two more supermarkets before I found the perfect steak.  Two hours later, I finally made it home, tired and with some of the wind gone from my sail.  Still, the look on Anders’ face when he bit into this sandwich made the evenings’ frustrations well worth it.

Steak Sandwich with Blue Cheese, Roasted Garlic Mayonnaise and Balsalmic Vinegar Reduction
Steak Sandwich with Blue Cheese, Roasted Garlic Mayonnaise and Balsalmic Vinegar Reduction

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Breads, Closed sandwiches, Creamy garlic paste, Dukkah, Egg, English muffin, Food, Garlic, Green Onion, Sandwiches, Tomato, Vegetables

Egg Sandwich with Tarragon Infused Creamy Garlic Paste and Tomatoes

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I love eggs. I know there are people who can only enjoy eggs if it is combined with mulitiple other ingredients that camouflage the taste of the eggs themselves. Anders is one of those and for him, omelets is the solution. But for me there are those evenings when all I want for dinner is a meal of well-scrambled eggs. This was one of those times. This little delight was paired with a creamy garlic paste and served with tomatoes on lighty toasted English muffin.

Egg Sandwich with Tarragon Infused Creamy Garlic Paste and Tomatoes
Egg Sandwich with Tarragon Infused Creamy Garlic Paste and Tomatoes

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Basil, Breads, Cheeses, Closed sandwiches, Dressings, Food, Herbs, Kafta Patty, Lettuce, Meats, Mozzarella, Paprika, Paprika yogurt dressing, Roasted garlic, Sandwiches, Sourdough, Spices, Tomato, Vegetables, Yogurt

Cheese Kafta Burger with Grape Tomatoes, Roasted Garlic, Olive Oil, Thai Basil, Grape Tomatoes and Spicy Light Yogurt Dressing

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A Kafta (or Kofta or kūfta, is Persian in origin. کوفتن (Kuftan) means “to beat” or “to grind”, according to WikiPedia. One could say that a Kafta patty is like a spicy meatball. In any case, it’s delicious, and since we recently made some, a wonderful Kafta Burger (ok, maybe more of a sandwich, given the bread) is in order. We made our own version of the traditional yogurt dressing, because we can. We love this Middle Eastern food so in the future expect to see more recipes like this. We think Middle Eastern food should be a food group!

Cheese Kafta Burger with Grape Tomatoes, Roasted Garlic, Olive Oil, Thai Basil, Grape Tomatoes and Spicy Light Yogurt Dressing
Cheese Kafta Burger with Grape Tomatoes, Roasted Garlic, Olive Oil, Thai Basil, Grape Tomatoes and Spicy Light Yogurt Dressing

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Bell Pepper, Breads, Cheeses, Dressings, Food, Fruits, Ingredients, Mustard, Olive Oil, Open Faced Sandwiches, Paprika, Pecorino romano, Roasted pine nuts, Rustic white bread, Sandwiches, Smears, Sourdough, Spices, Toppings, Vegetables, Zucchini

Veggie Sandwich with Grilled Zucchini, Mustard, Olive Oil, Olive Tapenade, Roasted Bell Peppers, Pecorino Romano Cheese, Paprika and Tarragon Mustard

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Wendie said: “This is the ultimate vegetarian sandwich.  I have been threatening to make this for Anders since our recent trip to Denmark inspired us delve more deeply into the world of sandwiches.  While I am convinced that Anders’ Y chromosome predisposes him to a love of all things meat, I was convinced that even he would be wooed by the taste of freshly grilled veggies united with homemade tapenade on a lightly toasted roll. What else could you ask for?”

Anders replied: “Meat!”

That’s how our discussions sometimes goes, but Wendie always wins of course. 🙂 This is, however, a great meal. We highly recommend that you take the time to go shopping for tarragon mustard, as it works much better on this sandwich than regular plain mustard. Anders loved this sandwich, so it’s not just for vegetarians.

Veggie Sandwich with Roasted Zuchini, Mustard, Olive Oil, Olive Tapenade, Roasted Bell Peppers, Pecorino Romano Cheese, Paprika and Tarragon Mustard
Vegetarian Sandwich with Grilled Zucchini, Mustard, Olive Oil, Olive Tapenade, Grilled Bell Peppers, Pecorino Romano Cheese, Paprika and Tarragon Mustard

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Bell Pepper, Breads, Cheeses, Chicken, Ciabatta Roll, Closed sandwiches, Dressings, Eggplant, Food, Fruits, Ingredients, Meats, Mozzarella, Mustard, Pepper, Roll, Sandwiches, Smears, Spices, Sweet dill pickles, Sweet Pickles, Toppings, Vegetables, Vinaigrette

Fried Chicken Sandwich with Mozzarella Cheese, Roasted Red Bell Pepper, Mustard, Roasted Eggplant, Sweet Dill Pickles, Pasta, and Salad Dressing

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What do you do when life gives you fried chicken? Well, our answer is to make fried chicken sandwiches of course (What else would you expect from this blog). This is a great ‘leftover’ sandwich for the day after, and as you can see we added a little bit of everything (including pasta, which we can consider optional, but we had to try). If you wonder why the cheese is melting up, it’s because we toasted the bread opened, and then put the top on :-). This is also one of those sandwiches that require an extra hour on the treadmill afterwards, so proceed at your own risk.

Fried Chicken Sandwich with Mozzarella Cheese, Roasted Red Bell Pepper, Mustard, Roasted Eggplant, Sweet-Dill-Pickles, Pasta, and Salad Dressing
Fried Chicken Sandwich with Mozzarella Cheese, Roasted Red Bell Pepper, Mustard, Roasted Eggplant, Sweet-Dill-Pickles, Pasta, and Salad Dressing

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Bell Pepper, Curry, Dairy, Dressings, Food, Fruits, Herbs, Ingredients, Mustard, Paprika, Paprika yogurt dressing, Parsley, Pepper, Salt, Sandwiches, Smears, Spices, Yogurt

Paprika Yogurt Dressing with Red Bell Peppers, Curry, Mustard and Parsley

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This is an old favorite of mine, going back to my college years. At my dorm, one of my friends’ dad worked for a large company that delivered meats and groceries for supermarkets. As a result, they were sent huge amounts of samples, which they stored in two large freezers. When he visited the dorm, he filled his car with samples for us all to enjoy. This included giant steaks, fast food pizzas, and meats of all types. So while my life up until then consisted of pizzas and chili, this was a challenge. You can’t just plop a steak in the microwave and eat it, so all we could really do was learn how to cook it right. As a consequence, our ‘kitchen’ began evolving some pretty advanced culinary tastes, and soon started to realize that there is more to life than fast-food pizza, and cooking is not really all that hard. One of the results of that time is this dressing, which we made to accompany a batch of frozen falafel. It’s easy, and complements both the falafel, but also meats very well. We will be using it in a few sandwiches soon to be released.
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Black bean chili sauce, Breads, Food, Fruits, Green Onion, Ingredients, Kafta Patty, Lemon, Meats, Onion, Open Faced Sandwiches, Paprika yogurt dressing, Pepper, Sandwiches, Smears, Sourdough, Vegetables

Spicy Kafta Sandwich on Sourdough Bread with Black Bean Chili Sauce, Lettuce, Paprika Yogurt Dressing, Lemon, and Green onions

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This kafta sandwich is very spicy due to the black bean chili. We wanted to create something with more ‘umph’ to it, but also something fresh. So we came up with adding lemon and yogurt dressing to take the edge of the chili, and the combination really worked well. This sandwich will make your hair grow long and strong, and turn boys to men and men to sheep. It also goes well with any episode of Law & Order.

Kafta Sandwich on Sourdough Bread with Black Bean Chilli Sauce, Lettuce, Yogurt Dressing and Green onions
Kafta Sandwich on Sourdough Bread with Black Bean Chili Sauce, Lettuce, Yogurt Dressing, Lemon, and Green onions

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