Open faced sandwiches are a Scandinavian tradition that has evolved into an artform. Enjoy colorful and tasty creations, and get wild with your ingredients.
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
This is one of the three appetizers we plan on serving for Thanksgiving. The secret is to use freshly-made ingredients, and so we made our own pesto and used Super Sweet 100 tomatoes from our backyard garden. We used goat cheese, which blends very nicely with the tomato and pesto. For bread, we stuck to a baguette.
Appetizer goat cheese, pesto and cherry tomatoes on baguette
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
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
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.
We eat a lot of salmon in our house; smoked salmon, grilled salmon, and last night seared salmon. So we had to try and see if we could turn some of the leftovers into a delicious second-day sandwich (It’s what we do after all). In this case, we have a piece of seared salmon with black sesame seeds, fennel seeds, and spices. Since salmon is ‘light’, we decided to add a few grilled vegetables, a bit of cheese, and some thinly sliced pear. Of course, we used roasted garlic as a smear. This combination does hide the salmon taste a bit, but it brings out all the lovely nuances of the grilled veggies, and we were very pleased with the final outcome. Judge for yourself, try it, and let us know what you think in the comment section.
The Ultimate Seared Salmon Sandwich on a Sesame Bagel with Roasted Garlic, Roasted Vegetables, Shredded Primadonna Cheese and Pear
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.
Vegetarian Sandwich with Grilled Zucchini, Mustard, Olive Oil, Olive Tapenade, Grilled Bell Peppers, Pecorino Romano Cheese, Paprika and Tarragon Mustard
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
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 Chili Sauce, Lettuce, Yogurt Dressing, Lemon, and Green onions
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.
"Hallelujah" Cod Roe Sandwich with Parmesan Crisps
