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 Sautéed King Mushroom and Vidala Onion Dressing
During a recent weekend getaway to San Francisco, we ran into the very nice Cowgirl Creamery, which is an actual real cheese shop. These are a rarity these days, as the business of cheese has been largely delegated to supermarkets, and somehow the rather bland cheddar has been the victim of a marketing blitz turning it in to the star of California cheeses. Not that we don’t enjoy a good cheddar, but there are soooo many more fantastic cheeses that the general populous are missing out on. At the Cowgirl Creamery, we found the Red Hawk, “… a triple-cream, washed-rind, fully-flavored cheese made from organic cow’s milk from the Straus Family Dairy. Aged six weeks and washed with a brine solution that promotes the growth of a bacteria that tints the rind a sunset red-orange…” Indeed, this little gem is very tasty, and forms the base of the taste experience with this simple sandwich. A warm gently toasted baguette, Tuscan bean paste, Red Hawk and Genoa salami. That’s it.
Italian Salami Sandwich with Red Hawk Cheese and Tuscan Bean Spread
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.
Butternut squash ravioli sandwich with fried sage and paprikaButternut squash ravioli sandwich with Asian pear and balsamic vinegar reduction
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
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
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
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
Sometimes a simple sandwich is the best; this one has Maria’s liver pâté, onion, creamy garlic paste and a little onion. A perfect combo, so despite an urge add more, we stuck to ‘simple’. After being sick with the cold for 5 days, this was also pretty much what we could handle, as we were both exhausted. It’s nice to recover with a great sandwich, and we hope to get back to creating some great new ones this upcoming weekend. Thanksgiving is also approaching, so if anyone has great turkey sandwiches, let us know and we just might give them a try!
Liver Pate Sandwich with Onion and Garlic Spread on Sesame Bagel
Lingonberries are small red slightly sour berries that are famous throughout Scandinavia. Lingonberry bread, as the one we have here, is a mix we got at the local Ikea. It is a dark bread, almost rye, with a minimal amount of lingonberries (We found 3), and decent if you’re in a rush (and for just a couple bucks, it’s very well priced). However, we won’t be trying it again, at least not without some augmentation. This sandwich was made on our first lingonberry bread ever, fresh out of the oven (and that’s always good). Sliced turkey from the local deli, creamy garlic paste from the local farmer’s market and fresh avocado and red bell peppers makes up this little adventure. The creamy garlic paste we found is amazing on sandwiches, and we highly recommend it. It’s from ‘The Majestic Garlic”.
Turkey Sandwich with Creamy Garlic Paste, Avocado, Red Bell Pepper and Onion.
Living in San Diego means being influenced by Mexican cooking. Each street corner seems to sport a Mexican fast-food joint. Our cooking regularly employs cilantro and salsa, bothView Post of which can be tasty new ingredients to familiar meals. In this sandwich, we use both, and with the French bread, this becomes an international affair. Danish meatballs (frikadeller), Italian mozzarella, cilantro and salsa, made by a Dane and a Jamaican living in the US. It is a small world these days.
Meatball sandwich with grilled veggies, fire-roasted salsa, mozzarella cheese, roasted garlic, cilantro, green pepper, roasted tomatoes
