Category Archives: Salt

Grilled Eggplant Crostini Appetizer

Inspired by Jamie Oliver’s book “Jamie’s Italy” this is one of our favorite appetizers so far this year. It also looks beautiful. The crunchy toasted pane siciliano bread and the smoothness of the eggplant (or Aubergine as we call it in Denmark), goes very well together and fills your mouth with flavor and adventure. Eggplant seems to be largely a forgotten vegetable in the US, at least in SoCal (Southern California), and really it’s a wonderful ingredient in many dishes. People, wake up and smell the eggplant!

Grilled Eggplant Appetizer
Grilled Eggplant Appetizer

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Caprese Panini Sandwich

We love caprese salads so much we had Phil’s BBQ change their menu and serve it at our wedding (They did a great job too). So, it should come as no surprise that we had to try and turn the art of the caprese into a sandwich. A panini sandwich to be exact. It has all the classic ingredients: Mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. For the bread we went with our own homemade pesto-sourdough bread, but any regular sourdough will do just fine.

Caprese Panini Sandwich
Caprese Panini Sandwich
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Appetizer of Avocado With Lemon/Olive Oil/Cilantro Dressing

Wendie bought these avocados for a salad, and I couldn’t resist the temptation to toast some bread and make a few avocado appetizers. Some would call them mini sandwiches. They’re dead simple and very refreshing when the weather is hot and you have a Sunday evening on the patio with a glass of red wine and Clapton and Bob playing in the background.

Salted Avocado With Lemon Appetizer
Appetizer of Avocado With Lemon/Olive Oil/Cilantro Marinade

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Rhapsody In Green: Grilled Zucchini Sandwich

Many of the sandwiches on this blog are the result of a specific plan and shopping trip to realize an idea that one or both of us have. I’ll be sitting at work and have an idea that just must be pursued. More often than not, this means I have to make a trip to the grocery store to purchase one of more of the critical component for the dreamed-up sandwich. Other times, a sandwich just sort of emerges from the ingredients on hand- it’s a case of just opening the refrigerator and pantry doors and letting our creativity run wild. In Jamaica, we have a saying for that: “tun yuh han’ an mek fashion”. I won’t bother providing the literal translation, since, as with all languages, much gets lost in that endeavor. I suppose the nearest English equivalent I can find is: ‘necessity is the mother of invention’. Hmm.. even that attempt seems to dilute the essence of this colloquialism.

Anyway, this sandwich was one result of us making fashion by sleight of hand. The ingredients – pugiliese bread, blue cheese and salsa verde left over from the much-mentioned recent wedding @ and zucchini left unused from recent stir fry.

Rhapsody in green
Rhapsody in green

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Pizza Recipe: Green peppers, Tomatoes, Olives, Parmesan/Pecorino Romano Cheese, Grilled Chicken

One of the pizzas from Wendie’s surprise birthday party, this one has some grilled chicken (with a very nice spice blend including smoked paprika), two cheeses, olives, tomatoes, green peppers and onions. The dough is a pizza dough with honey I sort-of invented (based loosely on our Lavash crackers recipe), and the tomato sauce has a wide range of spices, most noticeably a hint of fennel.  We had 13 guests and I made a total of 9 pizzas and I was stunned that there were almost no leftovers. I really had expects to fill the freezer too, but at least everyone had a great time. Next time I’ll make more!

Pizza: Green peppers, Tomatoes, Olives, Parmasan/Pecorino Romano Cheese, Grilled Chicken
Pizza: Green peppers, Tomatoes, Olives, Parmesan/Pecorino Romano Cheese, Grilled Chicken

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Chicken Salad Sandwich On Sourdough Bread With Anis Tomato Sauce, Fried Onions And Pepitas Seeds

Leftover chicken is fantastic. Carefully pick all the little pieces of meat off, and make yourself a nice chicken salad. It’s very easy and simple, and we quite frankly look forward to the day after the roast as much as the roast itself. We have fallen in love with pepitas seeds (aka pumpkin seeds): These seeds are fantastic on sandwiches, as they provide some ‘crunch’ and taste great on top. We find them to be very under-utilized and the next experiment will be to try them on pizzas. We already know they work wonders on Lavash crackers. Posting this recipe makes us long to have a kitchen again, as currently everything we have is torn out and dumped. Over the next four weeks, we hope our fantastic contractor will be done building it back up, with lovely Calacutta marble counter tops and custom cabinets. Ahhh dreams…

Chicken Salad Sandwich On SourDough With Anis Tomato Sauce, Fried Onions And Pepitos Seeds
Chicken Salad Sandwich On SourDough With Anis Tomato Sauce, Fried Onions And Pepitos Seeds

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Pizza Dough With Honey

Pizza Dough With Honey Recipe

Total time: 2 hours (including rising).

Will make enough dough for 4 pizzas.  The remaining dough can be frozen until your next pizza craving demands satisfaction. This is a variation of the basic pizza dough in that we have added honey and a little more yeast and salt. This makes the dough just a little sweet, and more tasty, which can be a fun variation when making homemade pizzas. Continue reading Pizza Dough With Honey

Corned Beef Burger with Mayo-less Coleslaw

Just for fun, we thought we would ask if Costco would publish one of our sandwiches. That was in November 2009.  Imagine our excitement when they said yes! So, due to their long production time, we were scheduled for the March issue of the Costco Connection magazine. The editor asked us if perhaps we could make a St. Patrick’s day inspired sandwich, with corned beef. Of course we could, and with a deadline of mid-january, our Christmas consisted of making several corned-beef adventures since none of us have ever really used it (turns out corned beef is quite tasty). Of our many corned beef sandwiches (some of which we have published already here), we had two favorites:

The winner was this one, a delicious burger with a side of mayo-less coleslaw. Costco unfortunately ran out of space, so the coleslaw couldn’t make it in the magazine. This is, however, the entire recipe. Let us know what you think.

Corned Beef Burger with Mayo-less Coleslaw
Corned Beef Burger with Mayo-less Coleslaw

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Burger with Roasted Garlic Mayo and Caramelized Onions

This burger looks quite simple, but the onions make it very moist and delicious while the roasted garlic gives it a great taste. This is definitely one of our favorite burgers so far. In the next few weeks our kitchen is being renovated, and we’re not sure how we can keep up our frantic sandwich making pace. We will have access to an outdoor BBQ with a side stove, and… restaurants. Idea for BBQ sandwiches/burgers that can be easily prepared with no kitchen would be highly appreciated 🙂

Burger with Roasted Garlic Mayo and Caramelized Onions
Burger with Roasted Garlic Mayo and Caramelized Onions

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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.