Unusual Sandwiches

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Grilled cheese sandwiches are one of my go-to comfort foods, and I’m sure I’m not alone. We all know what our particular combo of breads & cheeses are. But occasionally, I like to branch out and try something a little different, just to see if I can find a more...adult? sophisticated?...take on a classic.

And today’s breakfast was one of those days.

I started with an onion roll, sliced & buttered. My cheeses were a nice provolone and Dietz & Watson steakhouse onion cheddar. I layered the cheddar between the slices of provolone, because I knew it would melt faster, encasing the cheddar.

The final twist was a generous smear of Maille Old Style mustard- one of those grainy style mustards- which has a more subtle flavor than a yellow, brown or Dijon.

The result was oniony (of course), cheesy (of course), gooey, and oh so slightly tangy. A winner!

Man, now I want grilled cheese!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I love a blackberry jam and spicy chicken oven-toasted sandwich.

Hoagie roll
blackberry jam or preserves
jerked chicken filets with hot red curry chili spice rub (red curry powder, cayenne, habenero salt, freshe-ground black pepper), then soaked in olive oil and low sodium soy sauce forhalf an hour or so, then pan seared and cooked.

Smear blackberry on both sides of the roll, stuff chicken into roll, wrap the lot in foil, stick in oven at 350 for 30 minutes.

Also, if you like thick chili, do the same thing with spicy brown mustard, hot links (cut in half down the length), and chili. Smear mustard lightly, it’s a subtle addition, not a primary flavor, here.

Also great with with smoked salmon, holondaise sauce, capers, and big chunks of havarti with crumbles of blue cheese.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I had an unusual breakfast sandwich this week.

Two soft boiled eggs, avocado, Alpha Tolman cheese, shakshuka sauce, in pita bread. Outstanding.

OK- you’ve stumped me with some of that! What is Alpha Tolman?

 

[Aeson]

OK- you’ve stumped me with some of that! What is Alpha Tolman?

The opposite of Omega Shortman?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

OK- you’ve stumped me with some of that! What is Alpha Tolman?

So I went to Cheese.com- YES, THAT IS A THING- and looked it up. Seems to be a Swiss varietal:

Alpha Tolman is an Appenzeller inspired cheese with buttery, fruity & nutty flavour when young, maturing into bold meaty, caramelized onion flavours as it ages. Made from raw cow's milk, the brine-washed wheels are matured for eight to eleven months resulting in a dense, crystalline and pliant texture.

Alpha Tolman melts beautifully onto plate of fingerling potatoes, cured meat and natural sour pickles. Try pairing it with an onion jam, good, hearty ale or a plumy red wine.

https://www.cheese.com/alpha-tolman/

From that description, I can see
1) why it would pair well with a shakshouka* sauce, and
2) I need to go cheese shopping.




* FWIW, something akin to shakshouka (sans nutmeg) can often be found being served in creole homes during the observation of Lent, served over rice. AFAIK, the dish has no special name beyond “eggs poached in a tomato sauce”.

 

[Umbran]

* FWIW, something akin to shakshouka (sans nutmeg) can often be found being served in creole homes during the observation of Lent, served over rice. AFAIK, the dish has no special name beyond “eggs poached in a tomato sauce”.

And there's the Latin-American huevos ahogados. Once folks learn you can poach eggs in a tomatoey sauce, they go all over the place.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Oh yeah!

Tangent: I’m a big soup-o-phile and egg-o-phile. Over the years, I’ve noticed a lot of soups using whole eggs in some way, shape or form, usually poached. One of my local Asian fusion joints serves an udon noodle soup with mushrooms & spinach, into which they drop a nice poached egg. Delish. I usually ask for a second egg...

But after becoming a HUGE fan of Hungarian goulash when I was a kid and our family was stationed in Germany, I returned to Europe for the first time as a teen. One stop was Budapest, and virtually every restaurant we hit that had it, I ate some. There were all kinds of variants, all tasty. One, however, stood out, and still does decades later. You see, what they brought to the table looked & smelled familiar enough...

Then the waiter cracked a raw egg in top.

Even our chaperone- a Hungarian National- was surprised.

Gotta say, after the initial shock, I dug in. It was almost...decadent.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Grilled cheese sandwiches are one of my go-to comfort foods, and I’m sure I’m not alone. We all know what our particular combo of breads & cheeses are. But occasionally, I like to branch out and try something a little different, just to see if I can find a more...adult? sophisticated?...take on a classic.

And today’s breakfast was one of those days.

I started with an onion roll, sliced & buttered. My cheeses were a nice provolone and Dietz & Watson steakhouse onion cheddar. I layered the cheddar between the slices of provolone, because I knew it would melt faster, encasing the cheddar.

The final twist was a generous smear of Maille Old Style mustard- one of those grainy style mustards- which has a more subtle flavor than a yellow, brown or Dijon.

The result was oniony (of course), cheesy (of course), gooey, and oh so slightly tangy. A winner!

That sounds absolutely delightful.

I'm making some chili for a company pot luck this week, and it's got me thinking of a rather unusual breakfast i had last winter. I'd made a ground turkey and pork chili with some non traditional additions like finely chopped yellow squash and mushrooms, and as always, a tablespoon of dutch baking chocolate. oh, and a slow cooked pork roast that i stabbed and scored, spice rubbed, seared in the pot with the onions and other starter veg and oil, and then simply cooked in the chili pot.

well, obviously, i had leftovers, and I had set aside a batch that I'd put extra heat in, in the form of habenero salt, and ground chili flakes. So, I took that, the thick and dense whole grain bread that I love for toast. and then i got weird. I took some dusseldorf mustard, an egg, and some butter, a little heavy cream, and whipped it into a spread, and spread it on the insides of the bread, then layered thin layers of roast with a spicy pepper jack from the farmer's market i've never found again, with a layer of chili and an egg in the middle

The bread outsides were buttered ahead of time, obviously. ANyway, grilled the thing, dusted more habenaro salt on the cooling buttered sandwhich, and dug in. The egg was still a bit runny, the salted buttered crust was just the right amount of crunch and spice, and the whole thing melted into my belly like heaven on toast.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Noice!

Fairly complex, that.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Grilled cheese sandwiches are one of my go-to comfort foods, and I’m sure I’m not alone. We all know what our particular combo of breads & cheeses are. But occasionally, I like to branch out and try something a little different, just to see if I can find a more...adult? sophisticated?...take on a classic.

And today’s breakfast was one of those days.

I started with an onion roll, sliced & buttered. My cheeses were a nice provolone and Dietz & Watson steakhouse onion cheddar. I layered the cheddar between the slices of provolone, because I knew it would melt faster, encasing the cheddar.

The final twist was a generous smear of Maille Old Style mustard- one of those grainy style mustards- which has a more subtle flavor than a yellow, brown or Dijon.

The result was oniony (of course), cheesy (of course), gooey, and oh so slightly tangy. A winner!

I forgot to mention... that sandwich was inspired by my previous night’s dinner, which was essentially a variant on the classic ham, egg & cheese melt.

Mom & I were dining alone, so I made grilled sandwiches. Hers was ham and the onion cheese on roasted garlic bread- as in, a bread that has whole garlic cloves in it- and an egg, lightly seasoned and over soft. I meant to make it over hard, but didn’t leave it on the heat long enough. While she’s not one for runny egg sandwiches, but apparently, it was good enough that she didn’t mind. And she sopped up the overflow...

Mine was similar, but on a sliced onion roll. Because Mom got the last of the ham, I took the last of the chicken (hence, the grilled cheese sandwich that followed on the AM). And like hers, my egg was slightly runny. And likewise, squeegeed off the plate with the last of my roll.