While we do enjoy making falafels from scratch, it is a lot easier to buy them pre-made. So after an on-the-spur-of-the-moment shopping spree in the local grocery store, we found ourselves with a packet of falafels. They are quite acceptable in taste, a little wet in consistency (it’s not easy to preserve crunchiness after freezing), and overall a good experience. If you have fresh ones, by all means do use them, but for a Thursday sandwich without too much work involved, just get something like these. We find that falafel can be quite a nice change to a lot of dishes, such as salads or on sandwiches (like here).
Falafel Sandwich with Garlic-Yogurt Dressing, Lime, Pesto, Spinach and Grape Tomatoes on Ciabatta Bread
We do love smoked salmon in our house, and it makes for great appetizers or snacks. Salmon is also fairly easy to combine with other ingredients, as long as you keep the taste influences light so as not to overpower the subtle fish taste. It works particularly well on fresh bread, or lightly toasted older revived bread.
Appetizer: Homemade Pesto, Greens, Smoked Salmon and Grape Tomato
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.
The most common sandwich in Denmark is probably the liver pâté Sandwich. Every school kid knows it, and often hates it due to the sometimes bare-bones minimum effort put into making it. This sandwich here we call “The Grey Lady”, and it’s a play on the traditional liver pâté ‘blah’ version – A serious upgrade if you will. It is not the most attractive sandwich, but it taste awesome. One last upgrade we could still add is using goose liver pate, but we couldn’t find any locally so that will have to wait.
The Grey Lady: Truffle Pate on Dark Rye Bread with Ducks Fat, Topped With Onions and Olive Oil
This sandwich is one of the many that can be created almost entirely from Costco. No, they don’t sponsor us. We just like a lot of their foods (psst, Costco, if you read this, get in touch!!). We particularly love it when they feature cheeses on the tasting floors. In fact, we get practically giddy like children in a candy store. This past weekend, we walked in and were greeted with the sign announcing “Cheese Tour”. Now, this always puts us in a quandary as we struggle to justify the purchase of yet more cheese. At any given time, our refrigerator is home to at least four different varieties of cheeses. After this weekend’s purchase, we now have 7. We are such cheese maniacs that we purchased Parmesan Reggiano even though we had a big block at home. There is something just more intense about the flavors and textures of a freshly cut cheese. The cheese guy was kind enough to yield to Wendie’s pleading that he cut her only the teeniest of pieces since this was to be eaten right away. If you are familiar with the family (nay, restaurant) sized packages at Costco, you know how absolutely sweet it was of him to oblige her.
So it was home to make the most elemental of sandwiches – potato rosemary bread with freshly cut Parmesan Regianno cheese. Yum. That was the appetizer which was quickly followed by another made with cilantro-lime shrimp, another Costco food that we have grown to love and find multiple applications for.
Large and succulent, they don’t need much else, so we try to limit the extras. On this particular sandwich, the most significant other ingredient is a small amount of mustard, so be very careful to measure that exactly, or it will completely overpower the taste of the shrimp.
Shrimp Sandwich With Potato Rosemary Bread, Romaine Lettuce, Vodka-Mustard, Gravlakssås, Lemon and Dill
Another trip to good old Trader Joe’s on a rainy Friday afternoon yielded some new ingredients for sandwiches that we just had to try. Here is our first go at a chicken truffle mousse Pâté, which almost melts when heated, but tastes quite nice. The scrambled eggs was of course the brainchild of Wendie, who every few weeks has urgent cravings for scrambled eggs. And if you wonder what the letters in the background of the pictures says, this is an old Swedish container called Madam Blue used for soap (sæbe). We got these from Anders’ mother, some of the last memories of his Swedish childhood cottage near Hyltebruk.
A fresh little appetizer for parties or just for Wednesday night. It’s so easy to make, there really is no reason not to make everyday food a little more interesting. This is also our first ‘sandwich’ without bread, so we’re now starting to push the envelope of our sandwich blog :-).
Surprise your loved one with appetizers after a long day at work, and you’ll be the star of the evening.
Cucumber With Smoked Salmon, Curry Mayonnaise, Capers and Dill Appetizer
After Thanksgiving, it’s time for the leftover turkey to reign supreme. Truth be told, we celebrated thanksgiving with friends, and forgot to bring home leftovers, so, undeterred, we cooked another turkey the next day. Just for sandwiches. Is that dedication or what !?
If there is one thing we can’t figure out when it comes to pizza, it’s how to make them round. Tossing them in the air is a mystery which has resulted in much swearing. We’ve finally given up, and simply roll them out. This dough pizza we wanted to make extra thin crust, but the middle of the dough got stuck while rolling. After a recovery operation, folding the dough over itself and rolling again, we ended up with this half-moon shape. Looks don’t matter, taste does (or so we tell ourselves, over and over).
Half-Moon Vegetable Pizza with Green Peppers, Grape Tomatoes and Onion
This is quite similar to a pepperoni pizza, the favorite pizza of the US. We changed it up a bit and used a local organic sausage from the local Poway farmer’s market. We also added blue cheese and onion to give the mouth a kick to the teeth. It works brilliantly, and is one of our favorite foods.
Pizza: Blue Cheese, Parmesan, Organic Sausage and Onion
