Tag Archives: Vegetarian

Mushroom Sandwiches – Made at Home

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mushroom1-5The whole reason this blog exists is that sandwiches don’t get the attention or respect that they deserve. Why not, then, turn my attention to ingredients that don’t get the respect or attention they deserve. I’ve featured a number of mushroom sandwiches on this blog, most of them quite delicious, but in my experience when most people go looking for sandwich ideas, mushrooms aren’t the first thing that come to mind. That’s a pity. I recognize that the above mass of sauteed mushrooms and caramelized onions isn’t going to appeal to everyone, but in the event that it doesn’t I’d say you’re missing out.

The above is two of the three layers in a grilled cheese sandwich, which feature what I would refer to as Drunken Mushrooms. The final product:

mushroom1That’s a layer of extra sharp cheddar cheese on the bottom, the drunken mushrooms, and a layer of toscano cheese with peppercorns. The mushrooms were sauteed with onion until they were fairly well cooked, to which was added a bit of garlic and some rosemary. Finally, about half a bottle of beer was poured on, and the whole thing reduced until there wasn’t any loose liquid. That last bit is important, because soggy mushrooms are likely to ruin a grilled cheese. The bread involved was a dill rye bread, and I have to say that overall this was quite good. The toscano cheese is nutty and brings a nice depth of flavor, while the mushrooms took on an extraordinarily complex flavor from the reduced beer without losing their own, earthy essence. This was tasty, but making a good grilled cheese is a fairly low degree of difficulty, and in any case it’s more cheese sandwich than mushroom sandwich. I like mushroms a good deal, and they deserve more.

mushroom2That’s a roasted portobello mushroom stuffed with Italian sausage and ricotta cheese, with a layer of red leaf lettuce added into brighten things up a bit. Roasting a portobello is little trouble: Cut a cross-hatch into the bottom, brush a little olive oil on it, put it into a 400 degree oven for 8-10 minutes, flip it and give it another 8-10. Take it out, stuff it with whatever you like, and put it back under the broiler until whatever you’ve got on top is melted or crisp or however it may be to your liking. I used pre-cooked chicken sausage here because I wanted to see how things would come out without going all out, how it might look if this was just something I ended up throwing together. The answer is about what you’d expect: good, but not great.

The portobello is the star of the mushroom sandwich world for a reason, beyond the fact that it stays on the bun much easier than the rest of its fungal brethren, it’s meaty and dense and packs a good deal of the umami flavor that makes mushrooms so good. The scoring and the roasting takes a lot of the moisture out of it, and that’s the key. All in all, I’m a bit disappointed in myself with this one. This could really sing with some pork sausage and some tastier cheese, or some chorizo and potato, or shredded chicken and roasted poblano chilies, or really any number of combinations. Instead I aimed for somewhere in the middle, ended up exactly there, and it was a bit lackluster. Little surprise.

(A note: I sliced the above for the purposes of the photo, but should you try your hand at this one don’t bother. Let the natural bowl of the mushroom work for you, and don’t open yourself to the risk of the whole thing falling apart.)

mushroom3  Back to the smaller crimini mushrooms, this sandwich is something like duxelles on rye. Duxelles is minced onion and mushroom, sauteed with herbs and more butter than is sensible until it’s something like a paste or mash. The incredibly rich, savory end product makes its most notable appearance in beef wellington, and in things like mushroom pithiviers but there’s really no reason it can’t be used to its own end. Here I paired it with red leaf lettuce and red onion, along with a layer of sweet mustard. This was quite tasty, although I would warn you that a light hand with the onion is required.

Ultimately, I’m quite satisfied with two of the sandwiches, and the third could be quite a bit better with a little more effort. That’s a decent outcome, but I know that there are other, greater sandwiches to be had down the road. I can only hope that when I find them I can give mushrooms the treatment they deserve.

Mushroom Pepper Sandwich – Little Chef Counter, San Pedro Square, San Jose, CA

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lilchef-mushroom

I had occasion to be in San Jose recently, and that meant another visit to Little Chef Counter. The menu there is constantly rotating, and the upside of this is that there’s always something new to discover. The downside of this is that sometimes something you love is sidelined in favor of something sub-par, as was the case when the mushrooms on toast was phased out and the smoked salmon sandwich appeared. That was a great loss by my estimation, as mushrooms are quite close to being a perfect food and are woefully underrepresented in the sandwich world. And so it was that I was delighted to return in the new year and find the mushroom pepper sandwich on the menu, a simple number consisting of cremini mushrooms, roasted red bell peppers and arugula in a marscapone sauce on a toasted baguette.

In the event that you’re one of the unfortunate souls who doesn’t care for mushrooms, I don’t imagine there’s much I can say to sell you on this sandwich. If you’re an enlightened type, I don’t imagine there’s much I need to say. The mushrooms are the star here, and deservedly so. The sauce could easily have been heavy and out of control, but it’s light and playing carefully in the background with a noticeable bit of spice to it. The peppers are sweet, the lettuce peppery, and the baguette is toasted such that each bite is yielding and there’s little need to go chasing stray mushrooms across your plate. In short, it is a well conceived, well executed sandwich. That’s exactly what I’ve come to expect from Little Chef Counter, and I’m delighted to report that they deliver.

Sweet Potato Sandwich – Simple Things Sandwich & Pie Shop, W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA

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simplethings-sweetpotato

The sweet potato sandwich at Simple Things is a pretzel roll holding grilled sweet potato, apples, jammy onions, chevre spread, avocado and cumin coleslaw. That’s a bit of an odd lineup, to my eyes, and I was curious to see if it would work. There’s nothing specifically jarring about it, it just seems a bit jumbled. The apples and the chevre fit well together, but they don’t exactly match the avocado. The avocado seems like it would go well with the cumin coleslaw, but then where does the chevre fit? It’s almost two sandwiches in one.

But enough about concept, sandwiches ultimately matter only in execution. With that in mind, this is a significantly smoother sandwich than it is on paper, but it’s far from perfect. The dominant notes in the flavor profile are the sweet potatoes, the cumin cole slaw, the avocados and the pretzel roll. That’s too bad about the roll, because it’s the breading that ultimately hamstrings the sandwich. With a fairly tough crust, the pretzel roll gave this sandwich an unacceptable level of filling creep, with large chunks of sweet potato diving from the sandwich to the plate. Sliced bread would have been my play here, something soft and yielding.

So what we’re left with is another strong example of the complexity of sandwiches. There are hazards in concept and even more in execution, and it takes a skilled hand to navigate them all and arrive at a truly excellent sandwich.

Portobello and Sausage Burger – Native Foods Cafe, Gayle Ave, Los Angeles, CA

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portobello and sausageI’m not certain how much of my audience I’m going to be addressing here, but I feel this is something worth saying all the same: Go eat some meat-free sandwiches. Eat ones with fake meat, eat ones that are just straight-up vegetables, eat ones with cheese and ones that are proudly vegan. It’s an entirely world of sandwiches, one that you miss out on if your primary conception of a sandwich is the meat/greens/cheese archetype.

In this case it’s a grilled portobello mushroom, house-made seitan sausage, caramelized onions, pomodoro, roasted garlic, pumpkin seed pesto and mayonnaise. That’s a symphony of flavor, and while I will be the first to admit that seitan isn’t actually that close to actual sausage, that doesn’t mean it isn’t tasty. In fact, it was quite tasty here, and given the strong base that is a well-cooked portobello, this was another delightful sandwich. (Mushrooms, as we know, are very close to being the perfect food, and as such you can do a lot worse than to start a sandwich from such a base.)

I’ve had some really good vegan food and some pretty bad vegan food, but the key thing is that it has never been boring. It’s always worth having, and I suggest to you that you seek out your local meat-free scene and see what they have to offer.

Pesto Veggie Panini – L.A. Cafe, Spring St, Los Angeles, CA

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lacafe-vegMy previous experience at LA Cafe was somewhat mixed, the lobster grilled cheese that could have been spectacular but was a bit hamstrung by the unyielding matters of cost control. So when I found myself downtown and on the hunt for a sandwich, I dithered on whether or not they were worth a revisit. Ultimately I figured they were. This time I went for the veggie pesto, a pressed matter of spring mix, avocado, tomato, cucumber, basil, cheddar cheese,and a basil pesto spread.

The bread for a pressed sandwich tends to be on the minimal side, just by virtue of the pressing. That’s expected, but the veggie pesto at L.A. Cafe stood out even by the standard of a panini. It was nearly paper-thin, and the pressing had rendered it to maximum crisp, almost to the level of crackerdom. I felt this was to the benefit of the sandwich, as the bread became solely a textural component (rather than both textural and flavorful), and that left the vegetables front and center. The pesto wasn’t applied too heavily, which I think also did the sandwich a favor. Avocado and pesto don’t stroke me as a natural pairing, but to my surprise the match was unobjectionable. All together it made for a tasty sandwich, and when next I find myself strolling downtown, I won’t hesitate to head in the direction of L.A. Cafe.

Kale Sandwiches Four Ways – Made At Home

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I happen to find kale to be delightful. I recognize that it’s not for everyone, but it suits me just fine, and my diet and sandwiches are so much the richer for it. It’s not just one of those good-for-you-might-as-well-eat-it foods, but an earthy, full flavor that works well with a great number of things. Three of the sandwiches here are built to star kale, but it goes just as well in a supporting role, working behind other ingredients. It’s versatile and delicious, and what more could you want from a sandwich ingredient?

To start with, my method for all of the following was to separate the leaves from the stems, discarding the latter. The kale is blanched in boiling water for 4 minutes or so, then run under cold water until cool. You can eat it right then and there, if you prefer, or you can put it in a pan with a bit of fat, some spices, and some liquid (broth, wine, water all work) then cover it until the liquid is absorbed. That gives you a batch of kale ready to be deployed in virtually any instance.

First up, kale with hash browns and a fried egg. This went on sourdough, and is a good example of the sum of the parts being enough. Kale, hash browns and fried eggs are all delicious, and putting them together simply makes for a delicious combination. It’s not more than what you would expect, but since what you would expect is pretty stellar, there’s not much to complain about. Some hot sauce or a good dose of black pepper would also go well here, and adding onions, garlic, peppers or whatever else you like to the hash browns couldn’t hurt.

This is kale with roasted garlic, sauteed red onion, and a mustard vinaigrette. This wasn’t bad by any stretch, but it’s the runt of the litter. It’s tasty, with a nice savory profile, but it doesn’t feel like anything special. The main advantage here might be that depending on what kind of pantry one keeps, this might be the easiest one to put together at a moment’s notice, especially if you just go with straight red onions and not ones that have been cooked down.

This is ricotta cheese and kale that’s been sauteed with butter and red pepper flakes. The idea for ricotta came not from the artichoke hearts sandwich, but was simply jacked whole from a Scanwiches post from some years back, which they credit to BKLYN Larder. Regardless of its providence, it is a fantastic concept. Simple, rich and creamy, this is the best way to highlight the kale. Ricotta is flavorful but not assertive, and it forms a spectacular background with which the greens can work.

Now, Kale not need be the exclusive providence of the healthy eating crowd. There’s no reason one can’t get some fresh chorizo, fry up a sausage patty, saute the kale in the sausage fat, and pile it all on some sourdough with some caramelized onions. There’s nothing preventing that at all, and I’m happy to report that if one does just that, one ends up with an incredibly tasty sandwich. The kale is as rich and earthy as ever, and the spicy sausage cuts through that just beautifully.

There it is. Ways to celebrate a delicious green in ways from fairly-healthy to not-so-much. It’s a delicious food in and of itself, and as is so often the case, that just means it’s capable of carrying some pretty tremendous sandwiches.

Wild at Heart – Kafe K, Main St, Santa Monica, CA

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I picked this up not at the cafe itself but their farmer’s market outpost, and I must say it’s exactly the sandwich that fits with that environment. Everything involved was fresh and bright, an intermingling of flavors that carried a brightness and a vibrancy a good number of sandwiches lack. A well-baked ciabatta roll held artichoke hearts, arugula, fresh ricotta cheese and pesto. That’s a fine lineup, particularly the ricotta. Ricotta is an underused sandwich ingredient, but that’s not without cause.

The roll was well baked, giving it a pretty substantial crust. That’s the mark of a baker who knows what they’re doing, but it also means I’m going to have to give it a pretty substantial bite, and sadly that sent quite a bit of the ricotta out at the edge. This isn’t enough to get me to dislike a sandwich, it’s just a regrettable part of some sandwiches. Consider what might have happened if this establishment had gone with sliced bread, rather than a crusty roll? The pesto soaks in, the cheese soaks in, and then you’ve got a much better contained sandwich, only one you have to hasten to eat. There’s a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t dynamic at play here, and Kafe K elected to go with the tricky but quality ingredient, a fine choice. Besides, what kind of enthusiast would I be if I let a little sloppiness keep me from enjoying a delicious sandwich?

Clementine, Ensley Ave, Los Angeles, CA

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The Tony’s Veggie-Luxe at Clementine is corn, red and yellow peppers, mushrooms, garlic and three cheeses grilled on sturdy slices of whole grain bread, and it’s delicious. I was reminded of the sandwich I had at Bread Nolita, the one where the eggplant and the zucchini were hopelessly lost in the cheese. This sandwich was everything that that one could have been, a delightful melange of vegetables, heavy on the sweet but with mushrooms to provide a grounding influence. The cheese was present but restrained, and the bread grilled in a way that walks just to the edge of burnt and stops, peering over that line. That might not be your thing, but I think it provides a wonderful depth of flavor. There’s nothing fancy about this, it’s just a delicious sandwich.

The Fernando doesn’t disappoint either. A toasted ciabatta roll held tinga de pollo, coleslaw, avocado and something they claim to be a secret sauce, but whatever it is it’s lost behind the smokey adobo flavor of the tinga de pollo. There’s spice here, but not too much of it, the coleslaw has a fresh snap, the avocado is as wonderful as avocados are, and the chicken was moist and flavorful. I don’t know that there’s much of anything you could do to make this a better sandwich, and that’s a rare feat. It’s balanced, complete, and tasty as all get-out.

Fontina & Grilled Eggplant – Bread Nolita, Spring St, New York, NY

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Bread Nolita is another place with quite a reputation, although not quite on the level of City Sandwich. But while City Sandwich lived up to the hype, Bread Nolita was no small disappointment. I went with my standard procedure of ordering the first thing listed on the menu, as explained in more detail here. In this case, that got me a sandwich of Fontina cheese with grilled zucchini and eggplant, arugula and sun-dried tomatoes with balsamic vinaigrette on a baguette. That’s not a bad lineup, and indeed could be quite promising, but the flavors were out of proportion. Eggplant and zucchini are delicate flavors, and they were overwhelmed by the cheese. It’s tough to tell from the photo, but this really came of as more of a grilled cheese sandwich, when it really needed to be a grilled veggie sandwich with cheese. The Baguette had a very hard crust, as quality baguettes do, but in this application that just meant a lot of squeezing. That wasn’t so kind to the eggplant, slippery as it is.

So here again we find a sandwich that could have been spectacular, but wasn’t. The balance and harmony involved in a great sandwich is a fragile thing, and it’s genuinely difficult to achieve. I wanted to like this sandwich, I really did. But should you be put in charge of a Philharmonic, you should hardly expect applause if the best you can muster is a meager scale.

Roasted Beets – Sullivan St Bakery, W 47th St, New York, NY

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Sullivan Street Bakery puts out a number of sandwiches around midday, and all of them follow a basic sort of bit-of-this, bit-of-that style. Nothing piled high, just a few things that go well together on a really good bit of bread. In this case it was roasted golden beets, goat cheese, marinated onions and arugula. All of those go quite well together, with the sweetness of the beets playing off the tangy goat cheese. That said, it was the bread that was the standout here. It had a deep, complex flavor and a chewy crust that lent itself to savoring. It would be easy for a bakery to rest on its laurels when it’s putting out really good bread, to just load a sandwich up with some cold cuts and yellow mustard and say that was good enough. But sandwiches are more than bread, even when the bread is stellar, and thankfully the folk at Sullivan Street Bakery understand that.