Tag Archives: Sandwiches I Have Made

Chicken & Black Bean Hummus – Made at Home

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This number started from the avocado and grew outwards. I’d had a sandwich with black bean hummus last time I was at Press 195, and it was tasty as all get out. So I whipped up a batch of my own, toasting some garlic in a skillet then combining it with black beans and running it through the food processor. It ended up a little loose, but cooking it down took care of that. A layer of that was spread on the bottom, some shredded chicken thighs tossed in lemon juice went on top of that, followed by red pepper, cilantro, avocado and Oaxaca cheese. The whole thing came together fairly well, although my construction wasn’t spot-on. Next time I think I’ll layer the red pepper under the chicken. Direct contact with the roll will give it less of a chance to roll around, and everything else will be held together by the pressure. A few stray bites aside, this was a delicious sandwich. It occurs to me that it’s not particularly adventerous; each ingredient seems like an almost obvious extension of the one preceding it. Is that such a grand crime, though? Sometimes we are sharing a sandwich with an associate and we want to take no risks, leave no chance that we will need a fumbling explanation about how sardines and sweet potatoes seem like a natural pair, if you just look at it from this particular angle. No, some days that’s simply inappropriate, and it’s better to go with something you know will work.

Kimchi Grilled Cheese, Take Two – Made at Home

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Some time ago I made a kimchi grilled cheese that involved two types of cheese and an additional layer of macaroni & cheese. I found it to be a delectable sandwich, and it quickly received a place in my regular lineup of sandwiches that I may make as the mood strikes. The only issue is that macaroni & cheese is not something I regularly consume, and if I’m just trying to put together a quick sandwich I’m unlikely to cook up a whole pot of it. Even when simply using what is on hand, though, the kimchi grilled cheese has treated me well. Even when not great, it rests comfortably at good. If it sounds like something you might like, I give it a strong recommendation.

As with any sandwich one makes regularly, there’s always a bit of tinkering going on. Most recently, I had some bacon on hand and decided to see how it would fit. I fried up a few slices and added them to some minced kimchi, provalone, and smoked gouda. (The macaroni & cheese was absent for the reasons mentioned earlier.) The resulting sandwich was a bit surprising, in that it wasn’t particularly great. Good, but not great. I’m not one of those persons who wants to take a slab of bacon to bed with them, but I’m not going to deny that it is a mighty tasty, fairly powerful item. And yet, in this sandwich it didn’t make much impact one way or the other. You could tell it was there, but it hardly shined. I imagine I’ll make this sandwich again before too long, and when I do I won’t be wasting any time or bacon when I know it won’t make a difference.

Tortellini Sandwich — Made At Home

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Yet another experimental sandwich this week, hastily thrown together using the leftover ingredients at hand. We’ve got this recession on, you see, and sometimes the desire for a sandwich will overlap with a lack of funds and motivation, resulting in a segment of the Venn diagram that come sometimes lead to regret and embarrassment. Such was the case a few evenings ago, when some leftover seven-cheese tortellini found its way onto a couple of slices of toasted wheat bread, along with Swiss and Parmesan cheeses and a healthy dose of garlic-rosemary pasta sauce.

I am pleased to say that in this case, there was a minimum of both regret and embarrassment. In fact, I consider the experiment a rousing success, at least in the sense that I took the road less traveled and saw my vision through to the end. For some reason, as I was building the sandwich, I was anticipated a warm sandwich in the vein of a meatball sub or a chicken parm. I neglected to realize that cheese tortellini is not a meat product. In fact, it’s already a tiny cheese-filled bread. So the overall experience was somewhat akin to eating a sandwich with bread as the filling, but was much more pleasing than that sounds.

It’s not something I think I would ever try again, but it wasn’t awful, and it was certainly interesting. It wasn’t a bad sandwich, but I don’t know whether I would go so far as to call it “good.” It simply was. Considering the strangeness of this sandwich, I would chalk that up as a worthwhile experiment.

Turkey and Black Bean — Made At Home

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A while back, I had an amazing sandwich from Porto’s that featured a black bean spread. At the time, I was struck by the simple elegance of an ingredient that I had never before considered. Recently, finding myself with a small quantity of leftover black beans, I was suddenly moved to try a small sandwich experiment. Hastily thrown together with what I had at home, I ended up with toasted wheat bread, deli sliced turkey breast, sweet hot mustard, the reheated black beans, and some Bermuda onion.

The experience was perfectly fine but nothing too great. The failure of this sandwich was the thrown-together nature of the sandwich. An attempt to make the ingredients at hand adhere to an experimental base could have gone much, much worse. As we have mentioned here before, the journey of your life’s greatest sandwich often begins at home on a lazy afternoon, tinkering with this and that.

 

Grilled Gouda — Made At Home

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A couple of weeks ago, my closest associate suggested grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, and of course I agreed at once. After preparing the ingredients, I learned that the sandwiches were intended to be grilled…on a grill. I was game, of course, but very intrigued as to the result of a grilled cheese sandwich prepared out-of-doors.

I am extremely pleased to say that the results were very pleasing indeed. The bread had ample crunch, the red onion had ample snap, the smoked Gouda was neither too mild nor too overpowering, and the fresh tomato added just a bit of sweetness and moisture to the affair. Of the two sandwiches I consumed, the crisper of the two was preferable. All in all, a worthwhile experience that I heartily recommend.

Bacon and Lettuce on Bagel — Made At Home

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Sometimes a sandwich can taste great and still be frustrating. This is what I encountered during my latest foray into the wonder of bagel sandwiches.

The bagels in this case were the slim pickings of a mid-afternoon supermarket bakery. My first attempt at a simple bacon sandwich was on a toasted cheese bagel, and it was exactly what I hoped it would be. Delicious bacon and mixed greens blended well with spicy mustard and combined well with the greasy cheese bagel. It was a great sandwich. And yet…

The slight toasting of the bagel had fried the cheese on all sides of the bagel to a crisp. Eat bite and each squeeze sent shards of cheese and bagel flying everywhere. It was a messy and annoying enterprise. Although the sandwich was tasty and satisfying, I was left strangely morose by the experience.

I repeated the same ingredients on an untoasted wheat bagel a short time later.

This second sandwich, although very nearly identical in all ways to the first, was endlessly more enjoyable. Sometimes the full enjoyment of a sandwich is a very precarious thing. Everything can be in place, everything can taste great, but one tiny little thing can ruin your sandwich experience. What a delicate life we lead.

Tandoori Chicken & Sweet Potato – Made at Home

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When I first bit into this sandwich my immediate reaction was one of disappointment. I had thought on this sandwich for months, never getting around to making it and always tinkering with the ingredients, taking a small set towards a more delicious sandwich. By the time I actually made the sandwich it had already been through several revisions, ending up with roasted garlic, red onion, tandoori chicken, sweet potato and pickle relish. Frankly, I knew I had a winner. And despite my disappointment, my first bites into the sandwich validated that confidence. My disappointment, you see, came not from the sandwich I had planned but from a simple poor choice at the market. I picked up a new type of roll that morning, and upon taking them from the package they seemed much sturdier than they had initially seemed. In eating I caught only hints of the sandwich I had made, each bite being overwhelmed with bread. I’m not opposed to a quick bit of on-the-plate surgery when the situation calls for it, though, and I took a knife and hollowed out most of the top half of the roll. That brought things perfectly into line, and the delicious sandwich I had envisioned emerged. This was one of those sandwiches where the ingredients seem to dance, each one stepping forward for one bite and back for another. One bite was mostly chicken and relish, the next garlic and sweet potato. The red onion was raw and brought the strength you expect from such an item, but there was enough going on in the rest of the sandwich that it wasn’t even close to overwhelming. It’s always nice when things come out as you’d hoped they would, and that’s exactly what happened with here. I set out to put together a delicious sandwich, and that’s exactly what I got.

Turkey Mac & Cheese — Made At Home

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Every truly great idea begins with but a germ of that idea, and perhaps this meager sandwich can serve as a jumping-off point for further experimentation at this humble blog.

While preparing a box of “homestyle” macaroni & cheese for dinner (“homestyle” is the type that comes with a small packet of bread crumbs for sprinkling atop the finished product), I decided to make it a slightly heartier meal by shredding a quantity of deli turkey into the mixture. As I prepared to spoon the finished product onto my plate, I realized this might actuality be an opportunity for sandwich making.

Unfortunately, due to available materials, said sandwich would have to be a couple toasted slices of whole wheat bread, onto which the turkey mac and cheese was foisted and bread crumbs added from their packet. The end result was pleasing, but obviously, sorely lacking. I feared the bread crumbs would be lost at best, and wholly unnecessary, but they provided a pleasing added crunch and grit. The turkey married well with the mac and cheese. If I were to do this again, it would certainly be a grilled cheese sandwich. But it needs something more, and it’s my duty to determine what that should be.

With sandwich creation, as in all things, one must live and learn. It is our duty as sandwich enthusiasts to try, and fail, and try again. Anyone can make a sandwich, but the question must always be: “How can I make this better next time?”

Bagel Egg Sandwiches, Round Two — Made at Home

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The single most popular thing in all of America is football. Specifically, the NFL. In honor of the first Sunday of the regular football season, the day was spent watching the sport on television while making an assortment of bagel egg sandwiches. You will recall that I have touted the glory of sandwiches made on bagels, and this was a great opportunity to stretch that experience out over two meals while watching some sports.

My first attempt, pictured above, was sausage and egg on a cheese bagel. Chicken apple sausage was cut lengthwise, then again cut in half and pan-fried.  Eggs were fried, white onions seared in a pan, and combined on the bagel along with fresh avocado, medium cheddar cheese, and tomato. The end result, although of a pleasing taste, ended up being frustrating to eat. The toughness of the sausage casing and the shape and positioning of the quartered sausage caused no end of filling creep. The sandwich nearly fell apart in my hands as I struggled to hold it together. A lovely sandwich completely undone by the method in which I chose to include the sausage. Had I the opportunity to do this over, I would have cut the sausage into much smaller half-circles or cubes, which I would have then dropped into the egg as it finished frying in the pan. Hindsight, however, is 20/20, and I was left with a good-tasting but frustrating sandwich.

The second sandwich was nearly identical, served on an “everything” bagel, but with one all-important difference: instead of sausage, freshly-prepared bacon was included. This, my friends, was a road well-traveled, but made all the difference. One cannot deny the allure of bacon, but it is with good reason. The bacon was the perfect meat for this sandwich. It added smokiness, saltiness, and crunch, but more importantly, it yielded perfectly to each bite, adding substance without resistance.

A sandwich that holds together is a good sandwich, and sometimes it all comes down to what best makes the center hold. As you can imagine, this is especially true of sandwiches prepared upon a bagel.

Bagel Egg Sandwiches — Made at Home

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One of my greatest simple pleasures in life is making a sandwich on a bagel. It usually doesn’t matter what type of sandwich. I don’t care for cream cheese, so no matter how much I love bagels — and I do love them — my options for consuming bagels usually comes down to “plain bagel,” “toasted bagel,” or “bagel sandwich.” As you can see, one of those options is clearly head and shoulders above the rest.

I found myself with a few bagels over the weekend and no lunch meat. I briefly considered making a grilled cheese or a peanut butter sandwich before remembering that I had eggs, and so I made a monster bagel egg sandwich. I split and toasted an “everything” bagel, to which I added margarine. To this, I added two fried eggs and a slice of muenster cheese. The end result was quite pleasing, particularly with the bits of onion on the bagel adding a welcome, savory saltiness. The margarine was a bit lost, and had I used butter, I feel it would have been lost as well.

The following day, I decided to revisit the experiment with a couple of significant changes.

This time using a sesame seed bagel, I again fried two eggs and added a slice of cheese, but instead of butter or margarine, I went with apricot preserves. Although messy (due to the hole in the bagel), the combination of jam and egg is always welcome, and paired better with the sesame seed bagel than it would have with the “everything” bagel. I feel I made the correct choice with both bagel sandwiches. The only thing I would do differently next time is giving the eggs a liberal dose of pepper. If you find yourself with a bagel, a couple of eggs, and five minutes, you would certainly be doing yourself a favor if you whip up a quick and satisfying sandwich.