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Hot Italian Beef Sandwich

2 Sep

Hot Italian Beef Sandwich

Hot Italian Beef Sandwich

(published in Chile Pepper Magazine)

Serves: 1 * Zest Factor: Medium

I’m a convert to Gardinera, the spicy pickled vegetable mix that’s all Italian and all delicious.  The gardinera blend on this sandwich packs on the flavor and the spicy garlic bread seals the deal.  Super crunchy, super beefy, nicely spicy—it’s a win win situation.

4 garlic cloves, crushed

3 tablespoons butter, melted

½ teaspoon favorite hot sauce

1 Italian roll

2 tablespoons parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

½ pound rib eye steak, thinly sliced

salt and freshly ground pepper

1 tablespoon red pepper flakes, divided

¼ cup Gardinera (best is if you can find a mix with Serrano pepper), chopped finely

1 tablespoon sliced banana peppers

1 tablespoon sliced pepperoncini

1 tablespoon fresh Serrano peppers, sliced

1 teaspoon dried oregano

Preheat oven to 350.  In a small bowl mix garlic cloves, melted butter and hot sauce. Slice your Italian bread in the center to open but not separate sides and coat with spicy garlic mixture.  Top with parmesan cheese and toast in oven for 6-8 minutes until golden brown and crunchy.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet on medium-high heat, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and thinly sliced rib eye.  Sauté till browned, about 4-6 minutes, topping with red pepper flakes.

In a small bowl, combine chopped gardinera, banana peppers, pepperoncini, Serrano peppers, oregano and 1 tablespoon of olive oil.

To assemble your sandwich, fill your zesty garlic bread with browned rib eye and top with gardinera blend (add as much as you like—3 tablespoons works well).  Crunch, savor, enjoy!

Philly Cheesesteak Melt

1 Sep

Philly Cheesteak Melt


(Published in Chile Pepper Magazine)

Servings: 1 * Zest Factor: mild

If you are an Eagle’s fan you know that cheesteaks are an absolute game day MUST.  Now if you know and love McNally’s (and we do) you’ll savor twice the sandwich if you add additional deli meats to your cheesteak and go for the goal with the cheese.  Here is our philly cheesteak melt, an ode to McNally’s Schmitter.

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon sugar

salt and freshly ground pepper

1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced

½ pound rib eye steak, cut thin to win

1 tablespoon red pepper flakes

3 slices thick cut sopressata

brioche bun, toasted

2 slices provolone cheese

2 beefsteak tomato slices

2 tablespoons ranch dressing (see below)

Recipe:  Hot Ranch

In a large heated skillet on medium-high heat, add 2 tablespoons olive oil and sliced onion.  Caramelize onion 3-4 minutes and then add red wine vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper to flavor.  Cook until sugars have caramelized, about 8-10 minutes and then remove onions from pan.  Next add thinly sliced rib eye to your hot pan and immediately top with red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.  Continuously stir the sliced steak until browned, 4-5 minutes, and remove when just browned.  Next add your sopressata to the hot pan, frying each side for about 1 minute.

To assemble: top each side of the bun with hot ranch then start stacking the bottom bun with soppressata, a slice of provolone cheese, your browned rib eye, ½ cup of caramelized onions and the remaining provolone.  Toast these ingredients in for 3-4 minutes until cheese has melted.  Top toasted ingredients with tomato slices and bun top. Crunch down and enjoy your philly cheesesteak melt. Beefy!

Curry Chicken Salad Sandwich

10 Aug

Curry Chicken Salad Sandwich

With the emergence of fast and healthy lunch options like Wichcraft and Chipotle popping up all around us, it is very easy to get in the habit of constantly buying lunch out.  However if you adopt this policy, you are looking at $2,300 just for lunch throughout the year.

A great way to budget your money a little better but still get a variety to your meals is to start packing–your lunch that is.  Who said lunch had to be a simple PB&J?  Walk on the wild side and spice things up a bit.  A healthy sandwich is easy to create and most sandwiches can easily be changed into salads as your moods dictate.  So plan ahead and save a ton- You will reap not only monetary rewards but also find your self on the path to culinary nirvana.


Curry Chicken Salad Sandwich

Serves 6-8

3 cups chicken stock

1 pound chicken breasts, diced (about 3 large cups)

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon curry powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon ginger powder

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

1 cup sliced celery

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup chopped green apple

a loaf of whole wheat bread

1 cup of arugula

In a medium stock pot over high heat, add chicken stock and bring to a light boil.  Add chicken and cook for 3-4 minutes then strain and reserve broth (great for making soup later) and allow chicken to cool.

Next, in a small bowl, combine mayonnaise with curry, onion powder, garlic powder, ginger, and lime juice.  Mix well.

In a large bowl, add your cooled chicken, celery, raisins, walnuts, and apple.  Add curried mayo and mix well.

To assemble sandwiches, top wheat bread with a generous helping of curried chicken and top with several arugula leaves.  Slice on a diagonal and serve.

Optional: this salad can also be served alone (it makes for a great midday snack). Also, this sandwich makes a fantastic tea sandwich and in that case simply remove the crusts and cut into 1/4s.  Enjoy!

Pork and Poblano Paninis

6 Jul

Pork and Poblano Paninis

(published in Chile Pepper Magazine)

Yield: 4 paninis * Zest Factor: Mild

Who doesn’t love a nice and crunchy panini? The marinated pork is good enough to eat alone but paired with the poblano and manchego cheese you have a killer sandwich and plenty to go around.


6 medium tomatillos

1 cup cilantro leaves

2 limes, juiced

3 tablespoons scotch bonnet hot sauce

salt and freshly ground pepper

2 large pork loin chops, boneless

2 poblano peppers

8 slices manchego cheese

A long baguette divided into ¼’s, sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

On a preheated grill, cook tomatillos for 5 minutes per side.  In a blender, combine grilled tomatillos, cilantro, lime juice and hot sauce. Pulse until smooth and season with salt and pepper. In an 8 inch square casserole dish, place pork chops and coat with tomatillo purée. Marinate for 30 minutes.

After pork has marinated, wipe off remaining tomatillo purée and grill pork for about 4-5 minutes per side until internal temperature registers 145°. Grill poblano peppers for about 6 minutes per side. As pork and poblanos are grilling, reheat tomatillo purée in a small sauce pan. Bring to a boil and maintain boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

To assemble paninis, slice pork into thin strips and spread over the bottom of baguette rolls. Slice poblano pepper and remove seeds. Top pork with grilled poblano pepper slices, fresh manchego cheese and a spoonful of tomatillo purée. Cover with baguette top, brush with olive oil and grill for about 2 minutes per side. Serve warm.

Barbecue Meatloaf Sandwich (Published in Chile Pepper Magazine)

12 May

Barbecue Meatloaf Sandwich

(published in Chile Pepper Magazine)

Zest Factor: Mild * Yield: 4 servings

Who ever thought leftovers could be so appealing? This sandwich is best on the second day and is as hearty as it is delicious. Meatloaf never looked so good.

½ cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons sriracha

1 tablespoon lemon juice

salt and freshly ground pepper

1 carrot, grated

1 cup shredded Napa cabbage

4 sandwich buns (brioche, egg or sesame all work well)

4 (1 inch slices) barbecue turkey meatloaf

barbecue sauce- to spread on sandwiches in place of ketchup

In a small bowl mix mayonnaise, sriracha, lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.  In a medium bowl mix carrot and Napa cabbage. Add wet mixture to coleslaw and mix until desired consistency is reached (you may have extra spicy mayonnaise). Reserve for later.

Toast sandwich buns and re-warm meatloaf. Spread extra barbecue sauce on the buns and top with turkey meatloaf and spicy coleslaw. Enjoy your meatloaf sandwich!

Classic Fried Egg Sandwich

23 Apr

Here is a Nessly breakfast staple to set you up to be ready for a long day’s work.  And this one goes out to one heck of a Nessly, Orion Nessly, who just passed the Oregon Bar!!!

A fried egg sandwich literally bursts in your mouth as the egg yolk breaks and cheese and yolk dribble down to your chin.  That’s the test of a good sandwich, it’s messy.

Classic Fried Egg Sandwich

Servings: 1 fried egg sandwich

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/4 cup yellow onion, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1 egg

salt and freshly ground pepper

1 hearty slice of sharp cheddar cheese

2 slices good bread, toasted

whole grain mustard

1 thick slice red vine tomato

This is really cake to prepare and serves as a good impromptu breakfast or even dinner.  To start, warm 1 tablespoon olive oil over high heat on a medium saute pan.  Add onions, reduce heat to medium, and begin to caramelize.  Add red wine vinegar and sugar to onions and cook until fully caramelized (about 6-8 minutes).  Remove onions from pan and and add remaining olive oil to pan and place back over high heat.  Crack your egg into the pan and cook about 2 minutes on the first side, season, and then flip.  Add slice of cheddar cheese and cook for another 2 minutes.  Cover with pan lid to melt cheese, remove from heat.  To assemble your sandwich, coat your toasted bread with mustard, place your cheesy fried egg and caramelized onions on one piece of toast, add a slice of tomato, and top with remaining toast slice.  Bite, dribble, and enjoy!

Heirloom Tomato Sandwich

22 Sep

Ingredients:

4 slices toasted whole grain bread

1/4 bunch fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup Hellmann’s mayonnaise

2 eggs

2 slices of your favourite cheese (Asiago/herbed gouda/fresh mozzarella)

2 thick round slices of a red heirloom tomato

Salt and Pepper to taste for your egg

Begin by creating your basil mayonnaise.  Blend Mayonnaise with fresh basil leaves in a Cuisinart (I also added 2T artichoke tapenade but good basil will suffice to create a wonderfully flavorful mayonnaise).  You could also do your mayonnaise from scratch but if you’re a little hungry and you have Hellmanns anyway…why bother

I blended my mayonnaise until it was mostly smooth but still a little chunky because I wanted to keep things simple.

Next, I toasted my bread and fried my egg.  Let the cheese melt on your egg (you can speed this along by covering your frying pan with a lid and removing it from the burner to let the heat in the pan finish melting the cheese).

Assembly is as simple as it seems.  Spread the basil mayonnaise on all four pieces of the toasted bread .  Top two slices with a fat tomato round and cover the tomato with your delectable fried egg (go for a light fry so that when you take your first bite the egg yolk breaks and oozes all over–my Father’s test of a good sandwich is one that makes a mess as you eat it).

This is a breakfast sandwich for me that just says “good morning!”  The yolk oozes, the tomato is sweet and satisfying and if you sit outside with a strong cup of espresso, this just may be the best way to greet the morning.

Summer Chicken Sandwich

2 Jul

chickensand

Delicious, easy, and great to pack on a picnic this dish is a treat to share.  Other benefits are a day free to lounge away from a hot stove on a gorgeous Summer day.  This dish is also a wonderful basic recipe that can be used again for several other meals including a fabulous pasta salad or even a simple tossed salad with the extra romaine.

Ingredients:
homemade buttermilk ranch dressing (see note)
homemade pesto (see note)
Herb infused olive oil
four chicken breasts
several slices Monterrey jack, mozzarella, or pepper jack cheese
half a white onion
yellow pepper
zucchini
romaine lettuce
crusty French baguette

I guess this recipe could be a slight homage to Costco. Earlier I was fortunate enough to be gifted some wonderful food staples from my parents, including these delectable mini mozzarella balls stored in a tub of olive oil infused with cilantro and other fresh herbs.  Delicious!  Now the cheese itself was long gone–devoured on several other occasions–but I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of the wonderful oil.  So it had been sitting in a tub taking up way too much space in my NYC refrigerator until today.  What a perfect base marinade for my chicken breasts and some wonderful vegetables just begging for a grilling.

So, as my George Forman Grill was warming up I dunked the chicken in the oil and stirred it around to catch the flecks of parsley and other herbs.  Then it was a quick journey from the oil in the tub to the heated grill.  Chicken in, I quickly sliced my zuchini lengthwise into narrow strips, then dunked them in the oil awaiting their turn at the grill.  Onward to the yellow pepper and onion I went, slicing, marinating, and grilling.

As my last vegetables were grilling to perfection on the Forman, I quartered a long French Baguette and sliced each quarter in half again to toast upright in my mini toaster oven.  Nothing better than warm, crusty, French bread.

Always a stickler for time–I decided to melt the cheese on top of the chicken in the microwave instead of risking burning the bread.  This is such a quick solution that makes the cheese nice and gooey and only dirties one extra plate.

As the toasted baguettes were ready, I smeared one side with homemade pesto (which I make in batches when I have extra basil and freeze–it is so great to have around for pasta, sandwiches, or even over eggs in the morning).

homemade pesto:

The recipe is very simple.  I thoroughly wash basil leaves–the worst thing is a grainy pesto and basil leaves from the store often contain a lot of dirt in the leaves.  Then I blended the leaves in a Cuisinart with a good olive oil–I love extra virgin- next I toss in pine nuts, and Parmesan cheese.  More oil makes the pesto thinner and less keeps it more dense–I usually err on the side of a thicker pesto because it is nicer to freeze and it is very easy to add olive oil later.

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing:

As for the buttermilk Ranch, this couldn’t be simpler but couldn’t taste more divine and decadent.  Take a hidden valley ranch packet and mix with one cup buttermilk (I do the lower fat version), half a cup of mayonnaise, and half a cup non-fat sour cream (I love non-fat sour cream because it is so rich tasting that you don’t miss the extra fat).  And that’s it.  Now you have a delicious salad dressing or even in this case a delicious spread for a yummy sandwich.

Now–spread one side of your baguette with ranch and the other side with pesto.  Then start to lay down your chicken breast with its lovely melted cheese, next layer your grilled onion, zucchini, yellow pepper, and top with a crisp leaf of romaine lettuce–taken from the heart of the lettuce is best.

Take that first bite–savor the creamy ranch, the warm herbed chicken and its melted cheese, the crunch of the romaine and the toasted baguette and the sumptuous vegetable hints that change with each bite.

Save extra chicken–I often grill up several breasts more than I need because if I cook on the weekends it is so easy to add chicken to salads or sandwiches throughout the week.  And definitely save the extra vegetables–with the addition of pesto and some cooked penne–you have a delicious summer pasta salad.  Add chicken and you are coming closer to another full and delicious meal.

I made fresh guacamole to go with my sandwich and if I wasn’t so full I would have gone back for seconds.  I did scrape my plate clean though–down to the last drop of buttermilk ranch.

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