Category Archives: Paprika

Beef Round Steak Sandwich with Cuban-Inspired Dipping Sauce And Blue Cheese

While driving home from an exhausting day shopping for a new kitchen (who knew there were so many options for beveling), we passed Miami Grille. Well, we passed were it used to be before it went out of business. I guess Poway wasn’t the right place for a $15 sandwich place after all (and let’s not forget tax and tips!). Anyway, this gave us a sudden craving for a Cuban sandwiches, which as we neared our home faded into a craving for ‘something Cuban inspired.’

So, browsing the web for a couple of base sauces, we read them, ignored most, and invented our own. We made both a marinade and a dipping sauce, marinated the meat overnight, and put together this sandwich the next day. It was moist, tender, and awesomely garlicky. Love it.

Flank Steak Sandwich with Cuban-Inspired Dipping Sauce And Blue Cheese
Beef Round Steak Sandwich with Cuban-Inspired Dipping Sauce And Blue Cheese

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Lavash Crackers With Falafel, Pesto And Grape Tomato

We love to make lavash crackers, they are fun, fairly easy, and you can use them for appetizers like this one. This is very simply just two of our own crackers with a falafel, homemade pesto, and sprinkled with smoked paprika. We had this around midnight while watching the episode of Lost where Locke stops the islands time-switches. It was an on-the-spur of the moment little snack we just improvised with what was available, but it turned our really good. In fact, we’re now considering if these may be worth serving at our wedding reception in April (Yeah, we’re getting married). Well done Locke, we salute you with falafel !

Lavash Crackers With Falaffel, Pesto And Grape Tomato
Lavash Crackers With Falafel, Pesto And Grape Tomato

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Chunky Chili with Lima and Black Beans, Fennel, Tomatoes, Red and White Wine

If you want to make a ‘Sloppy Joe’ style sandwich, you must first make the chili. This is how we make ours! The recipe has evolved over years, since the college days when chili was the preferred antidote to pizzas. Back then, the chili was mostly meat and beans and tomatoes, but today there are a number of different beans and veggies, as well as more advanced tastes going on. We started adding wine last year, which adds a very nice flavor, and 6 months ago we started adding the sugar after we discovered that is the secret ingredient in most BBQ sauces.

Chunky Chili with Lima and Black Beans, Fennel, Tomatoes, Red and White Wine.
Chunky Chili with Lima and Black Beans, Fennel, Tomatoes, Red and White Wine.

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Pizza Tomato Sauce

You need pizza sauce to make pizza, and this is a simple and good recipe for making your own homemade pizzas.

Pizza Sauce Recipe

  • 2 cans of skinned tomatoes
  • 1 tbs fennel seeds
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp curry
  • optionally: 1 tsp rajma masala

Heat all the ingredients in a pot, stirring until boiling. Turn the heat down, and let it simmer for half an hour simmering on low. If it is too wet to add to a pizza, either remove the extra liquid, or add a teaspoon of corn starch and stir it in, leaving it simmering until the liquid becomes thicker.

Pork Sandwich with Muffaletta, Pecorino Romano Cheese, Paprika, Yellow Bell Pepper and Sautéed King Mushroom

The day before we made this sandwich, Wendie cooked an amazing pork tenderloin based on an Alton Brown recipe. It is perhaps the best tenderloin I’ve ever had. Having also recently visited a Chinese grocery store, we had a few king mushrooms in our refrigerator, so we thought they would go brilliantly with the pork. We chose the pecorino romano cheese to add a little saltiness, the vinaigrette dressing to make it a bit more moist. And so, one thing led to another, and we ended up with this fantastic sandwich. It’s messy to eat, but it really brings out the best in the leftover pork. Enjoy.

Pork Sandwich with Muffaletta, Pecorino Romano Cheese, Paprika, Yellow Bell Pepper and Sauteed King Mushroom and Vidala Onion Dressing
Pork Sandwich with Muffaletta, Pecorino Romano Cheese, Paprika, Yellow Bell Pepper and Sautéed King Mushroom and Vidala Onion Dressing

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Butternut Squash Ravioli Sandwiches – an Experiment in Futility

Wanting desperately to create something fantastic, our recent endeavors into the world of pasta-making inspired these two sandwiches. Well actually, it was perhaps one part inspiration and two parts madness (at least, according to Wendie).  She thinks that this was a waste of perfectly good ravioli but I was not to be deterred on this quest.  The sandwiches were both reasonably tolerable, but they were neither great nor amazing. However, in the interest of full disclosure, they do warrant a cautionary mention on the blog.

Perhaps some of you have ideas for improvements, or just need a extreme discouragement from taking this culinary road less travelled.  In either case, I present the result of two days of making homemade pasta (an otherwise fantastic butternut squash reduction inside our own ravioli) that resulted in these two extra extra large raviolis on sandwiches.

Pasta Sandwich with deep fried sage and paprika
Butternut squash ravioli sandwich with fried sage and paprika
Pasta sandwich with Asian pear and balsamic vinegar reduction
Butternut squash ravioli sandwich with Asian pear and balsamic vinegar reduction

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Turkey Sandwich with Lettuce, Fennel Seeds, Muffaletta, White Bean Tuscan Paste, Paprika, Fresh Sweet Basil Leaves and Saint Faron Cheese

We recently discovered a great food store in Little Italy in San Diego. It should be noted that Little Italy is very aptly named, since it’s basically just one street. You blink, you miss it. If you are of Italian descent, please move to San Diego so we can add a couple more streets. In Little Italy, we found Assenti’s Pasta, a wonderful little delicatessen shop where you can get fresh pasta of all shapes and forms. Arriving there at 5:59pm we were simply happy traffic had not delayed us more, and positively exuberant that Assenti let us in. Yes, we had a rushed 5 minute shopping spree, but it was great. Here we found muffaletta and tuscan bean spread as well as fresh pasta (which weren’t really for sandwiches, although Anders tried and failed).

This sandwich is our first using the muffaletta, is was delicious. It  fell a bit apart due to the iceberg lettuce, which became very  slippery with the oil from the muffaletta and the melted cheese. We had to add toothpicks to hold it all together long enough to take pictures.

Turkey Sandwich with Lettuce, Fennel Seeds, Muffaletta, White Bean Tuscan Paste, Paprika, Fresh Sweet Basil Leaves and Creamy Cheese
Turkey Sandwich with Lettuce, Fennel Seeds, Muffaletta, White Bean Tuscan Paste, Paprika, Fresh Sweet Basil Leaves and Creamy Cheese

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

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

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

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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