Category Archives: Sourdough

Veggie Sandwich with Grilled Zucchini, Mustard, Olive Oil, Olive Tapenade, Roasted Bell Peppers, Pecorino Romano Cheese, Paprika and Tarragon Mustard

Wendie said: “This is the ultimate vegetarian sandwich.  I have been threatening to make this for Anders since our recent trip to Denmark inspired us delve more deeply into the world of sandwiches.  While I am convinced that Anders’ Y chromosome predisposes him to a love of all things meat, I was convinced that even he would be wooed by the taste of freshly grilled veggies united with homemade tapenade on a lightly toasted roll. What else could you ask for?”

Anders replied: “Meat!”

That’s how our discussions sometimes goes, but Wendie always wins of course. 🙂 This is, however, a great meal. We highly recommend that you take the time to go shopping for tarragon mustard, as it works much better on this sandwich than regular plain mustard. Anders loved this sandwich, so it’s not just for vegetarians.

Veggie Sandwich with Roasted Zuchini, Mustard, Olive Oil, Olive Tapenade, Roasted Bell Peppers, Pecorino Romano Cheese, Paprika and Tarragon Mustard
Vegetarian Sandwich with Grilled Zucchini, Mustard, Olive Oil, Olive Tapenade, Grilled Bell Peppers, Pecorino Romano Cheese, Paprika and Tarragon Mustard

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‘Bambi’ – Mashed Potato Sandwich with Sun Dried Tomato Pesto, Green Onions, Sweet Basil Leaves, and Parmesan Crisp

After making Parmesan crisps a few days ago, I had a visions of sandwiches all somehow incorporating the crisps. Well, some turned our better than other, and here we stick to what we think are the amazing ones. This one is with a favorite ingredient, mashed potatoes, topped with a bit of sun dried tomato pesto we threw together (recipe to come), green onions, a few leaves of sweet basil from the garden, and of course the Parmesan to top it off.

By the way, if you have read a lot of our recipes, you’ll notice quite a few are on ‘rustic white bread’. For us, this means homemade bread made from more than 90% white flour. It may have extras, such as olives, cumin seeds, blue cheese, etc, but it’s essentially a white bread. What makes it rustic is that it looks, well, rustic. We’ll post a recipe later, but it’s quite involved and usually takes between 1-3 days to make, including sometimes pate fermente, biga or levain.

This sandwich we have named “Bambi” because she seems to be strutting her stuff all over the place, hoping to get picked up.

Mashed Potato Sandwich with Sun Dried Tomato Pesto, Green Onions, Sweet Basil Leaves, and Parmesan Crisp
Mashed Potato Sandwich with Sun Dried Tomato Pesto, Green Onions, Sweet Basil Leaves, and Parmesan Crisp

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Spicy Kafta Sandwich on Sourdough Bread with Black Bean Chili Sauce, Lettuce, Paprika Yogurt Dressing, Lemon, and Green onions

This kafta sandwich is very spicy due to the black bean chili. We wanted to create something with more ‘umph’ to it, but also something fresh. So we came up with adding lemon and yogurt dressing to take the edge of the chili, and the combination really worked well. This sandwich will make your hair grow long and strong, and turn boys to men and men to sheep. It also goes well with any episode of Law & Order.

Kafta Sandwich on Sourdough Bread with Black Bean Chilli Sauce, Lettuce, Yogurt Dressing and Green onions
Kafta Sandwich on Sourdough Bread with Black Bean Chili Sauce, Lettuce, Yogurt Dressing, Lemon, and Green onions

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‘The Hallelujah’ Cod Roe Sandwich with Parmesan Crisp

Open faced sandwiches can be beautifully stacked creations, but when squeezed into a lunch-bag, carried by 10-year olds biking to school in a backpack and thrown in a community refrigerator, open-faced sandwiches may not be the first choice of lunch.

Not so for my mom. She was a firm believer in open-faced sandwiches and made them as if I was eating at home, except, she wrapped them tight in cellophane wrap before stacking them in my lunch box.

As you might image, the end result was not always… appetizing. Cod roe sandwiches with remoulade and fried onions turned into cud roe salad with wet soggy onions. A once tantalizing potato sandwich with mayonnaise and green onions turned into something wet and soggy, almost like paste.

This sandwich, a cod roe creation, is my own personal rebellion against my childhoods school sandwiches. I reject the cellophane wrap method, and embrace exuberance.

"Halleluja" Cod Roe Sandwich with Parmesan Crisps
"Hallelujah" Cod Roe Sandwich with Parmesan Crisps

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The ‘Not Quite a Panini’ Ham and Cheese Panini Sandwich with Roasted Garlic, Onion, Sun Dried Tomato Pesto, Blue Stilton and Feta

Excited about the prospect of making paninis, and after holding out for a few weeks, we finally decided to get a panini press (well, Anders decided :-)). So down to the nearest Target and what do they have? Shelves up and down stacked with George Foreman grills. Now I didn’t grow up in the US so I don’t really know George Foreman, but he is certainly a very prolific grill maker. So, without a choice, we got a George Foreman grill which we put up next to Alessi wine bottle opener and the Georg Jensen beer bottle opener. After all, if you can’t name your kitchen equipment by name, how will you tell them apart?

Well, the grill is clearly no panini press. The bread barely got any of those distinctive grill stripes, despite a very long grilling session. It did taste great however, so we decided to add it to our growing sandwich collection anyway. You can’t argue with good food. However, we also decided it’s a borderline panini, hence the name.

The 'Not a Panini' Ham and Cheese Panini Sandwich with Roasted Garlic, Onion, Sun Dried Tomato Pesto, Blue Stilton and Mozzarella
The 'Not a Panini' Ham and Cheese Panini Sandwich with Roasted Garlic, Onion, Sun Dried Tomato Pesto, Blue Stilton and Mozzarella

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Ham and Mozzarella Cheese Sandwich with Sweet Basil Leaves, Steamed Asparagus, Tomato, Dukkah and Mustard

Growing up, I believe I had ham and cheese sandwiches maybe three times. My mom had found a recipe in a cookbook, and one day she announced she was going to make me a Hawaiian sandwich (The recipe included a piece of slices pineapple from a can, thus Hawaii). It was great, but once you open a can of pineapples you are committed to doing something with the remaining 9 slices, so my mom quickly stopped making the sandwich. A couple of weeks ago I had a dream about it (the dream also involved Jay Leno having purchased a personal Nuclear Missile painted bright red with warning signs, which was bolted down in his back yard with chains. Don’t ask, it was a dream). As you can imagine, it got stuck in my subconsciousness. I know, dreaming of sandwiches probably means we’re spending too much time writing this blog. Anyway, here is my variation of a Ham and Cheese Sandwich, without the pineapple.

Ham and Mozzarella Cheese Sandwich with Sweet Basil Leaves, Steamed Asparagus, Tomato, Dukkah and Mustard
Ham and Mozzarella Cheese Sandwich with Sweet Basil Leaves, Steamed Asparagus, Tomato, Dukkah and Mustard

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Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Cheese Sandwich with Squash, Onion and Fennel Seeds

We love grilling on the BBQ, and we love sandwiches (obviously), so this sandwich was bound to come about sooner or later. Neither of us has done a lot of grilling growing up, so we’re discovering the joy of barbecuing together. We frequently use chicken, and have learned (after a few… mishaps) to get it moist and tender. Grilling chicken usually involves a marinade or a rub, since chicken by itself can be a bit bland. This particular recipe calls for teriyaki sauce, which is great for marinades.

Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Cheese Sandwich with Squash, Onion and Fennel Seeds
Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Cheese Sandwich with Squash, Onion and Fennel Seeds

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Tuna Salad on a Roll with Chili-lime Shrimp, Grape Tomatoes, Lettuce, Mustard and Green Onions

This sandwich blog is getting to me. For almost a week I’ve been anticipating a convenient time to make my famous (20 years ago in college at least) tuna salad. Each time I was about to make it, some other sandwich had to take priority (since we’re on a budget, we can’t just keep making new stuff without first eating all of the old). So, today I finally got to make it and what a blast. I got to use it on 3 different style sandwiches in just one day, and I still can’t get enough of it.

This one is a tuna salad sandwich with chili-lime shrimp and fresh lettuce and cucumber. Topped with a few cuts of green onion and 2 grape tomatoes cut in half. A bit of stone ground mustard adds the zing to the zong to the ramalamadingdong.

Tuna Salad on a Roll with Chili-lime shrimp, grape tomatoes, lettuce, mustard and green onions
Tuna Salad on a Roll with Chili-lime Shrimp, Grape Tomatoes, Lettuce, Mustard and Green Onions

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‘Helge’ Cheese sandwich with Italian Salami

Contrary to what you might believe from reading the rest of this blog, sometimes we do enjoy the simple sandwiches. This one is about as simple as it gets: Bread and butter, salami and cheese. The only trick is to get good quality ingredients, freshly made bread, Italian salami with a great taste, and a fantastic cheese such as this Danish one called “Helge”. Yes, in Denmark cheeses have people-names. Go figure. Don’t even attempt this one if your bread is not fresh by the way, it will ruin your day.

'Helge' Cheese sandwich with spicy salami
'Helge' Cheese sandwich with spicy italian salami

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Breakfast Sandwich with Tomato, Egg and Salami

I loooove Saturdays. They are rife with possibilities. After a long work week devoted to other people’s pursuits (namely those of my job), I look forward to enjoying the simple things that bring me pleasure. Chief among them is lazily meandering through one of  the many farmers’ markets that dot the San Diego landscape. Last weekend, it was time to revist my local market in Poway.  For me, the market is all about the fresh fruits and veggies… and the Thai coconut pancakes  – conveniently sized to be just about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, I can pop them in my mouth and eat them whole. Yum, that’s the way to start a weekend. For Anders, the market is most pleasurable when it involves the pursuit or serendipitous discovery of meat. This week, he found some salami made from locally farmed pork.  Nothing like supporting the local farmers…makes me feel connected not just to my food, but also to my community.  So in a complete diversion from my normal breakfast fruit bowl, Sunday morning’s breakfast was a tomato and hard boiled egg sandwich topped with salami slices.

Tomato Egg Salami Sandwich
Tomato Egg Salami Sandwich

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