Mmmozzarella Meatball Subs

Remember when Joey on Friends swore his meatball sandwich was “the greatest sandwich in the world”? He loved it so much he even dove to ‘protect it’ from what he thought was gunfire, prompting Chandler to think he cared more about Ross, who was next to the sandwich, than him. 

Turns out it was actually a car backfiring and nobody and no sandwiches were ever in any danger but whatever - to Joey, it was worth taking a bullet for.

To quote Chandler, could there be any higher compliment paid to a sandwich?

Ever since I started this sandwich blog, I’ve wanted to make a meatball sub-style sandwich and revisiting this Friends episode reminded me that our previous attempts, while commendable and tasty, just weren’t quite blog-worthy yet. I knew we were close to something great; we just needed a little something extra…

So I consulted one of my new Jamie Oliver cookbooks and found the answer – our meatballs needed to be a mixture of beef AND pork. Another burst of inspiration had us tossing in some sautéed green peppers for another layer of flavour and with a side of Crunch Veggie Salad, we’d finally done it – our Mmmmozzarella Meatball Sub was ready to meet the world.

Mmmozzeralla Meatball Subs

You will need:

Ground Pork

Ground Beef – I’d recommend getting lean ground beef since ground pork is usually higher in fat content

Bread crumbs – we used our immersion blender to crumb-ify half a dried baguette; worked great

One egg

Minced garlic or garlic powder – we didn’t measure specifically but it looked to be around ½ - 1 Tbsp

Minced rosemary – around 1 tsp-ish

Fresh baguettes or sub-style loaves, 1-2 depending on how many sandwiches you want to make

Mozzarella cheese, torn into chunks

A jar of your favorite tomato-based pasta sauce – after experimenting in our previous attempts, we recommend one with a bit of a spicy kick, like our favorite Arrabbiata sauce from Barilla

One green pepper, sliced and sautéed

Process:

1-Combine the pork and beef in a big bowl and use your (clean) hands to mix it all together.

2-Add the egg and bread crumbs and keep mixing until the meat sticks together but isn’t too wet; add more crumbs to achieve this and add the spices.

Meatball process

3-Shape the meat into balls; try to make them the same size so they cook evenly.

4-Place the meatballs into an oiled pan and bake in the oven until they’re cooked all the way through. (You will probably have to sacrifice one to check, but you can still use it in your sandwich.)

Watching and waiting for meatball goodness

4.5-Make the Crunchy Veggie Salad:

            -Chop and combine red and yellow peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, celery and crumbled goat/feta cheese in a bowl

            -Mix olive oil, cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar and oregano and pour over salad 

(Tip: If you make a big batch and know it will all get eaten, pour it over everything. But if you plan to eat this salad with a few meals, only pour the dressing over your individual serving to avoid it turning into a soggy mess.)

Crunchy Veggie Salad

5-Cut the baguette in half, length-wise and fill with meatballs and green peppers.

6-Pour pasta sauce on the meatballs and top with chunks of mozzarella.

7-Bake or broil the sandwiches in the oven, around 3-5 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the bread is golden.

8-Serve with a side of Crunchy Veggie Salad.

Mmm!

Definitely one of the most photogenic sandwich creations we’ve made.

The pork and beef combo work so well together, I can’t believe it took us this long to figure it out. One fun variation to try is to stuff the meatballs with mozzarella before you bake them. This makes for some oozy, cheesy meatballs, if that’s your thing. I could go either way on this, but the pork and beef togetherness are a must.

Meatballs are actually quite easy to make and there are so many recipes out there to experiment with, so don’t be afraid to roll up your sleeves and get in there.

Here are some meatball recipes to get you started – have fun! 

http://www.food.com/recipe/authentic-italian-meatballs-92095

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/meatballs-and-pasta/

http://www.citrusandspice.ca/pitas-with-lamb-goat-cheese-and-rosemary-meatballs/

Joey would certainly approve.

Pulled Pork Perfection

Pork is a great sandwich staple and I enjoy a good ham sandwich as much as the next person. It’s classic, straightforward, no-nonsense meat that pair well with all kinds of mustards, cheeses and pickles. For a refresher on this concept and some inspiration to get you started, check out an earlier post from 2014, 3 Parts Mustard/2 Parts Pickles/1 Part Ham.

But it’s always fun to change it up and try something different and it’s even better when you have some outside help. So I must give the majority of the credit for this sandwich creation to my husband Mike, since it was his kitchen-wizardry that came through in a big and tasty way when we made our own Pulled Pork Sandwiches, on some fresh-from–the-bakery bread, topped with some lovely caramelized onions.

Pulled Pork Perfection, in 3 stages

To make your own Pulled Pork Perfection, you will need:

Leftover Pork Shoulder Meat, shredded

1/2 cup White Vinegar

1/4 cup Red Wine or Cider Vinegar

1/4 cup Balsamic Vinegar

1/4 cup Brown Sugar

1/2 cup Water

1/4 cup BBQ Sauce

1/4 cup Ketchup

2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 Tbsp Spicy Mustard (heaping)

Fresh Ground Pepper, to taste

Caramelized Onions (optional)

Sandwich Bread, thickly sliced

Smells so good!

Prep:

1-Shred the pork meat with two forks and put in a pot on the stove.

2-Add the three kinds of vinegar.

3-Mix the water and sugar together and pour over the meat and vinegar.

4-Bring to a boil, uncovered for 10 minutes.

5-Turn down the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Uncover and let out the steam. Your kitchen will smell amazing at this point.

6-Mix the BBQ sauce, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and mustard.

7-Pour sauce over the pork, mix and reduce heat.

8-Top with some fresh ground pepper and caramelized onions. They’re optional, but a very nice touch. Simply heat the sliced onion in a skillet with some olive oil and stir until they soften and brown slightly.

9-Assemble the pork and onions into sandwiches.

10-Serve warm and enjoy!

This pulled pork is tangy, sweet and just a touch spicy. You can always adjust the quantities of the vinegars to suit your tastes and play with different types of mustards and breads. It would pair really well with a cool, crisp coleslaw or salad. Think classic deli-style. Yum.

This is a great way to use up leftover pork shoulder meat from a Sunday dinner. It works well with bread and wraps stuffed with whatever you like. And it freezes well too. So with all that going for it, what’s not to be excited about?

Homemade Tim Hortons Breakfast Sandwich

Being the good Canadians we are, my husband Mike and I suffer from the occasional bout of Tim Hortons withdrawal.

For those readers who are unfamiliar with the institution that is Tim Hortons, allow me to educate you: Tim Hortons is the largest fast-food chain in Canada and it specializes in doughnuts, coffee and sandwiches. It was founded by Canadian NHL hockey player Tim Horton in the 1960s and there is a Tim Hortons in virtually every Canadian city, post-secondary campus, airport, community sports complex and corner gas station.  It’s known as Tims, Timmie’s, or Timmy Ho’s, in various communities. Their ‘Rrrroll up the Rrrrim to Win!’, ‘Camp Day’, Double-Doubles, Timbits doughnuts and the Timbits hockey teams (both of my nephews have started their hockey careers as Timbits, as well as NHL superstar Sidney Crosby), and their many other marketing tie-ins are extremely popular throughout my home and native land.

My Grandpa goes to the Tim Hortons in Olds, AB almost every day to visit with whoever’s there. My father-in-law makes daily runs into the Stettler, AB Tims for his large, black coffee. When we visit them, he often brings me back a small pack of Timbits, which I have to hide from the dogs. The chocolate ones are my favorite. Friends of mine swear the ultimate hangover cure is a large order of Tim Hortons chicken noodle soup and Mike has a soft spot for their iced-cappuccinos, no matter the outdoor temperature. I’ve often picked up coffee and snacks for my friends and coworkers as fuel during report card time, and almost every staff meeting or potluck lunch includes a box of Tim Hortons doughnuts.

So you can see how we would miss it occasionally.

In the winter, Mike and I would often pick up two sausage breakfast sandwiches, hashbrowns and orange juices on our way out to the cross country ski trails. Admittedly, not the most healthy pre-skiing breakfast, but it always hit the spot and gave us motivation to ski harder to burn it off.

The snow is scarce here in Le Plessis-Robinson, France and so are the fast-food places, which is actually a really good thing. But not when you’re missing a taste of home.

So we created our own, Homemade Tim Hortons Breakfast Sandwich and now you can too.

Ingredients:

-Half a pack of ground pork

-1/2 teaspoon each of paprika and cayenne pepper

-Cheddar cheese slices

-Eggs (1 per sandwich)

-Homemade dinner biscuits, which I made using butter instead of shortening, from this good recipe

Prep:

1-Mix the paprika and cayenne pepper in with ground pork.

2-Shape the pork into small patties and grill on a hot skillet. 

3-Make the biscuit dough and cook them for 13-15 minutes, as per the recipe. For a convection oven, set the initial time for 10 minutes and check them periodically to avoid burning. Allow them to cool a few minutes before assembling the sandwiches.

4-Whisk the eggs individually and pour each egg into a small, greased, microwave safe dish. 

5-Microwave the egg on a low setting, and check/pause it regularly to prevent mess and overcooking. Or cook them in the pork grease, if that’s what you fancy.

6-Slice the cooled biscuits in half and assemble the sandwich. Our order was egg, cheese, meat, top.

7-Pour yourself a Double-Double or a glass of orange juice and enjoy.

The result for us was a welcome taste of Canada on a balmy, French winter day. 

I’ll leave you to your sandwich making now, along with one of my favorite Tim Hortons commercials, featuring Sid the Kid himself and a nation of hockey-crazed Canadian folks.

Enjoy!

Sandwiches of Denmark

Denmark is a delightful country to visit: its capital Copenhagen has a relaxed atmosphere, friendly people, brightly coloured architecture, a rich history, and – my marker of anywhere worth visiting - delicious food and drinks.

We discovered some of the excellent food, specifically sandwiches, on our recent visit to this beautiful Scandinavian country. We tried out as many different dining experiences as we could, from the take-out sandwich place on a busy street, the cozy sit-down lunch restaurant, to a bustling street-food market. With this much variety, each experience was unique and enjoyable and gave me lots of fun material to blog about.

The iconic and colourful Nyhan, which means 'new harbour'. 

Blue House:

After an epic trek up the 400+ steps of the Church of Our Saviour, we’d worked up quite an appetite and needed something quick and filling.  

The Church of Our Saviour: who wouldn't work up an appetite climbing that spire? 

So we decided to check out the nearby Blue House. The giant sandwich outside this tiny take-out restaurant on Market Street caught my eye – how could it not? 

Blue House: the giant sandwich is excellent marketing for hungry passers-by

The menu was written in Danish but since Danish is a cousin of English, we could pick out some key words, like roast beef, remoulade sauce and tomatoes. So that’s what we ordered. While we waited, we watched their high-lite promo video and learned more about their interesting sandwich-making process. First, they panini-grill the dough in individual sandwich-sized loaves, then they cut it lengthwise and assemble the sandwich directly inside the freshly grilled loaf. Finally, they re-grill the whole thing and serve it immediately. The result is a very fresh, very warm and toasty sandwich that we ate on a bench overlooking the canal.

The roast beef was quite rare, which tasted good but was a bit chewy and caused some messiness but overall, it was satisfying lunch on our first day in the city.

Roast beef from Blue House. A solid introductory Danish sandwich.

Spiseriet:

We took a day trip to Helsingør, where we spent the better part of an afternoon exploring Kronborg Castle, the setting for Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It was a slightly windy and chilly day, which only added to the atmosphere of our tour, led by Horatio himself. Afterwards, as we were wandering the streets in search of a lunch place, we found Spiseriet, a little restaurant tucked away at the end of a cobblestoned alley. 

Spiseriet, in the town of Helsingnor

Its lunch specialty was smørrebrød, the Danish word for an open-faced sandwich. Denmark has a long tradition, dating back to the Middle Ages, of serving smørrebrød as a light meal and who were we to argue with tradition? When in Denmark, do as the Danes do.

I enjoyed two smørrebrød: first the Roast Pork and then the Potato. The Roast Pork consisted of thin slices of rye bread, topped with two thick pieces of roast pork, pickled red cabbage and cucumber. The meat was warm and the cabbage was similar to a nice, non-mayo based coleslaw. Since the portions were small and the first round was so good, we each ordered another: the Potato for me and Mike, and the Mustard-Herring, topped with watercress and fried capers for my uncle. My auntie ordered apple crumble for dessert.

The Roast Pork

The Mustard Herring

The Potato

The Potato smørrebrød was two thin slices of rye bread with warm, thick slices of potato, sprinkled with crisp bacon, fresh dill, red and green onion, and topped with a dollop of smoky cream cheese/sour cream. Divine! It was my favorite – a warm, fresh, dill-pickle potato chip sandwich.

For more information about smørrebrød, check out this excellent blog I found on the subject: 

http://www.danishsandwich.com/

I know I’ll be searching it for new recipes and sandwich-spiration.

Copenhagen Street Food:

This bustling street food market was a super fun experience on our last day in Copenhagen. Located across the harbour from the Opera House, near Nyhan (the beautiful harbour of colourful buildings and boats) and Christianshavn in an old paper-manufacturing warehouse, the Copenhagen Street Food market is home to over 30 unique food trucks and stalls. You can try everything from traditional Danish sandwiches and burgers, to butter chicken, fancy spring rolls and Brazilian BBQ. There are even a few different bars to try, if you want to get your wine/beer/cocktail on. The food is well-priced and decently portioned so you don’t have to spend all your Kroner at one place – and nor should you!

It was hard to narrow down all our options but we managed somehow and trust me, that’s the #firstworldproblem you don’t mind having on vacation. After a quick initial pass through the warehouse, we decided on DUCK IT, the burger place near the front, for a completely satisfying pulled-duck burger served hot off the grill, stuffed with red onions and salad greens. 

Pulled Duck Burger from DUCK IT

To keep our duck-trend going, we paired our burgers with paper cones stuffed to overflowing with Belgian frites double-fried in duck fat from Copper and Wheat. There was greasy-ducky gloriousness in every bite, enjoyed at one of the indoor picnic tables under the twirling cow-shaped disco ball.

Belgian frites double-fried in duck fat from Copper and Wheat

Groovy Disco-Cow

Visiting Copenhagen was definitely one of the highlights of my summer and I hope that wherever you traveled, you were met with similar positive experiences: friendly people, interesting sights and as always, unique and delicious food.

Cheers to you, Copenhagen, and to your beautiful sandwiches! Skål!

Downtown Drift

Spring is here and the sun is out, so bring on the Food Trucks!

I kicked off my May Long weekend by checking out a particular food truck: Drift. A friend from work was raving one day about their Pork Belly sandwiches and when he found out I’d never eaten from a food truck before, he was thrilled that my first experience would be at the Drift Truck.

The line up moved quickly!

Seeing as how I never get to experience my lunch hour downtown, I took advantage of my holiday Friday, called another friend and braved the intense traffic and parking-spot hunt to seek out this new sandwich place.  What I found, in addition to literally a meal on wheels, was a new experience of downtown Edmonton on a weekday, when the streets come alive, bustling with people, music and the colourful and tantalizing food trucks.

Drift’s Friday location was tweeted in the morning as being between Bay Enterprise and Commerce Place. As I was making my way there, I must have passed at least eight other food trucks, most notably the bright pink Perogy Princess and the mobile burger joint Street Eats.  My friend was already there when I got to Drift’s spot and the line moved quickly. Apparently, the Pork Belly sandwich is ‘the usual’ of many others and I was eager to find out why. 

Drift's green truck is a favorite among the food truck scene.

After our sandwiches were ready and they called our names for pick-up, we headed east to Churchill Square to enjoy our food and some overdue catching up. It’s a testament to Drift that the sandwiches stayed warm during our multi-block trek to the table in the Square where took our first few bites.

Mmm…

Juicy, tangy pork belly on a crusty roll, topped with a coleslaw-type mix of pickled carrots and a truly special herb: cilantro. Some people have to work up to enjoying its powerful, punchy flavor but for others, the more cilantro, the better. I am in somewhere in the middle of the two extremes and I thought Drift’s Pork Belly Sandwich was fully enhanced by the cilantro and carroty mix. This is a great sandwich to make your ‘usual’ at Drift. 

Drift's Pork Belly Sandwich. 

Between bites of our sandwiches, my friend and I got caught up on each other’s busy lives and took in the action of Churchill Square: the outdoor salsa lesson in progress, the kids playing at the Ping-Pong tables, the bells of City Hall chiming at 1PM. I had no idea any these things took place there regularly, but now that I do, I’m going to make sure I find my way back. It’s a great space to gather, enjoy the different people and take in those rare moments of blue Edmonton sky and bright spring sunshine.

Blue sky above one of my favorite buildings:
the Edmonton Art Gallery

I sure did and I have the sunburn on my forehead to prove it; rookie mistake to forget the sunscreen but so what? Not not only did I get to try out a delicious, local food truck, I got to spend some special time with a good friend and, ultimately, with my city.

Thank you, Drift and Downtown Edmonton, for a great way to spend a holiday Friday lunch hour. I will be back!