Ciabatta Goodness

Can you pronounce ciabatta?

It’s a tricky one – the ‘ci’ is actually pronounced like ‘chi’, so to say the name of this lovely bread correctly, try ‘chi-batta’. I actually looked up how to pronounce it – thank you Macmillan Dictionary and your audio clips for pronunciation!

Fresh Ciabatta Goodness!

This sudden attention to the pronunciation of foreign words is a result of the intensive English Teacher training course I recently completed at the International Language Center in Paris. I can now apply for English teaching positions and the world is wide open to me once again!

During my course, I brought my lunch from home as much as possible. This was helpful to save money, since buying lunch everyday can be expensive, and to save time, especially on those afternoons when I was teaching. I often brought homemade sandwiches made with ciabatta bread and stuffed with my favorite sandwich innards: multiple types of meat and cheese, veggies and mustard.

Stacked and Packed!

I can get fresh ciabatta bread  at my local grocery store and one loaf can make multiple sandwiches, depending on the size of my appetite: 3 small or 2 large. Ciabatta is lovely bread, crusty on the outside, soft on the inside, with lots of nice little nooks and crannies to hold reserves of mustard. It’s a worthy alternative to the baguette and it makes some pretty amazing sandwiches, both fresh and toasted.

A medley of goodness and ingredients

Possible ingredients for some Ciabatta Goodness include:

Meat: Ham, salami, sausage, roast beef, roast chicken or turkey

Cheese: Emmental, gouda, camembert (so good!)

Veggies: Feuilles de chêne (salad greens), arugula, spinach, avocado, red pepper, tomato, etc.

Condiments: Butter, mustard (multiple kinds in the same sandwich!), mayo

Prep:

1-Cut a fresh ciabatta loaf in half, length wise.

2-Spread butter and/or mustard on the halves, alternating or combining as per your tastes.

3-Pile on your choice(s) of meat(s) and cheese(s).

4-Top with veggies.

5-Assemble the top half of the loaf.

6-Cut to your desired size and number of sandwiches.

7-Serve and enjoy!

One Ciabatta Loaf = Multiple Sandwiches!

To create a tasty toasted ciabatta sandwich, place both halves of the bread (after the meat and cheese are in place, but before adding the veggies) in the oven under the broiler for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat, top with veggies, cut and serve!

Tasty and Toasty Ciabatta Sandwich

This sandwich was a conversation starter among my new classmates during my course and it was extremely filling to eat for lunch. It also works well at sandwich parties or potlucks, where there are lot of fun ingredient combinations to play with. We brought some ciabatta to a recent gathering of sandwich lovers (friends) and they were a big hit there too.

So give it a try with your favorite ingredients and when someone asks you about your sandwich, because they will, tell them it’s all in the ciabatta bread and help them pronounce it correctly.

Just don’t talk with your mouth full!

Upside-down Ciabatta Goodness.

Marghertia Pizza Grilled Cheese

I love pizza almost as much as I love sandwiches.

The combination of melted cheese, chewy crust and meaty toppings get me every time. Note that I said meaty toppings.  As a reformed picky-eater, I have come a long way in trying and liking many new foods but try as I may, I can’t quite seem to like vegetables on my pizza.

I know it’s weird. People swear I’m missing out on so much.  If I judged pizza on looks alone, I would be all for the beautifully topped Hawaiian or Vegetarian pizzas, but they just don’t do it for me taste-wise. Give me a classic pepperoni, or one topped with multiple kinds of meat (like ham, salami and bacon), a cold beer and a stack of napkins and I’m all set for pizza night.

Who knew Scotland would have the best Margherita pizza?

The one exception to my meat-only pizza preference is the Margherita Pizza.  It’s the simplest pizza out there: basic tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, fresh basil and sometimes chopped cherry or grape tomatoes. Nothing that fancy  but when it’s baked fresh on a thin crust, with the cheese hot and bubbling, mixed in with the invigorating scent of basil, Margherita Pizza has the power to trump my cherished pepperoni any day.

Week Two of National Grilled Cheese Month inspired me to forge a bond between two of my great loves - pizza and sandwiches – in trying out a Margherita Pizza Grilled Cheese. The result was molto bello!

As for any good pizza, use simple, sweet, fresh ingredients.

You will need:

Sourdough bread or Italian baguette

Slices of mozzarella cheese

A handful of grape tomatoes, sliced

2-3 medium leaves of fresh basil

Butter (Garlic butter would be excellent for this sandwich)

A skillet, lid and spatula

Spicy pizza oil for dipping

1-Spread the butter on the outsides of the bread.

2-Place the cheese slices, tomatoes and basil on the non-buttered side of one bread slice.

3-Cover with another layer of cheese (this ensures the sandwich and all the fillings will melt together). 

Layering the cheese is key for maximum melting.

4-Assemble the sandwich with the other piece of bread, buttered-side out.

5-Place the sandwich carefully in the middle of the skillet on medium heat.

6-Cover with a lid and let it grill 4-5 minutes (remember: low and slow) before carefully flipping it over. Try not to lose any tomatoes in the flipping process!

7-Press down on the sandwich with the spatula as the second side grills and the cheese begins to melt everything together.

8-Remove from heat, slice and serve with some spicy pizza oil for dipping.

Spicy pizza dipping oil and a herb garden view!

What I enjoyed most about turning one of my favorite pizzas into a sandwich was how each bite was a different surprise: a juicy mouthful of grilled tomato, a sweet nibble of basil leaf, slightly crunchy from the heat, or a warm bit of melted mozzarella. No ketchup for this sandwich; spicy pizza oil is the appropriate condiment for this pizza-turned grilled cheese creation.

Any kind of pizza would make a tantalizing grilled cheese incarnation, so I challenge you to forego the pizza delivery one night and get creative with the pizza-sandwich possibilities instead. Just as I was pleasantly surprised to find the best Margherita Pizza in Scotland, of all places, you may surprise yourself with what you create right at home.

Margherita Pizza Grilled Cheese

Pizza Postscript:

The best Margherita Pizza I’ve ever had was at Di Maggio’s, in Glasgow, Scotland.  Sit on the patio outside and admire the view of the Modern Art Gallery across the street while you eat.

My Top 3 Pizza Places in Edmonton are:

1-Millcreek Pizza – Just south of the Whitemud, this is a little gem of a neighborhood pizza place. Their menu has all the classics, plus some India-spirations, like Butter Chicken, Shahi Paneer and the Trucker (pepperoni, ham, salami, Italian sausage and jalapeños!). The pizza is exceptional and the service is lovely; we order from them so often, they recognize us and treat us like family.

2-Parkallen Restaurant – The Mediterranean and Lebanese cuisine of this place is hard to beat but the pizza is truly legendary.

3-Royal Pizza – I’ve included this place mostly for sentimental reasons as it’s where my husband and I had our first official date. We met halfway between our places at the Calgary Trail location and split a large pepperoni pizza. True love at first pizza slice!

National Grilled Cheese Month - A Teaser

Grilled Cheese is sheer sandwich excellence.

The concept of cheese – any cheese – on beautiful bread, grilled to buttery, golden, melted, oozing perfection is simple and brilliant.  It’s messy, melted goodness is appealing to even the most picky of eaters, like I was as a kid.  It’s still a favorite among grown-ups – especially when fancy grown-up cheeses like Brie or Gruyere are the ones to be grilled.

A grilled cheese sandwich comforts, satisfies,  delights and inspires creativity like no other kind of sandwich. In my research, I've  bookmarked countless pages of grilled  cheese recipes, utterly mesmerized by  beautiful images of the melted cheese spilling  forth from the crispy, golden bread, like a  welcome banner, each more mouth-watering  than the last. It’s exciting,
overwhelming and  absolutely impossible to do justice to this  idolized sandwich in one or two
blog posts.

A good skillet is a must for stove-top grilled cheese.

A great tool to invest in is a small panini grill.

Seriously – it’s hard to even know where to begin!

So I’m beginning at the start of the month, which is fitting since April has actually been declared National Grilled Cheese Month. No, it’s not an April Fools thing, it’s true! There’s even a Grilled Cheese Invitational in Los Angeles on April 12, also known as National Grilled Cheese Day, where amateur and professional chefs come together to battle it out for bragging rights and Grilled Cheese Supremacy. Who knew this little sandwich could evoke so much in so many?

Throughout the next few weeks, I will be sharing my favorite grilled cheese finds - some old, some new, some weird but all wonderful.  I have lots of ideas but I’m also extremely open to hearing from you, my fellow Grilled-Cheese Connoisseurs.  Feel free to comment or message me any of your ideas, tips or feedback and we will celebrate this amazing sandwich together!

Here’s a tease of some of what’s to come:

Brie...Cheddar...Bacon...Sourdough...Apples...Mozzarella...Potatoes...Jalapenos...Gouda...Tomatoes...Baguette...Raspberries...Onions...Classic...

April is shaping up to be a great month.

Grilled Cheddar, Turkey and Apples. 

Thinking Outside the Bread Box - The Bagel

Fresh from my inaugural visit to the New York Bagel Café, I am inspired by bagels and their sandwich-making possibilities!

  

Toasted, untoasted, with cream cheese, jelly, butter or bare, open or closed faced - what I love about bagels is how limitless they are!

Check out any bagel shelf of any bakery and chances are you won’t see just one kind of bagel - there’s whole wheat, sesame, cinnamon-raisin, pumpernickel, poppy-seed, onion...full-sized or mini...assorted. It’s so hard to choose just one kind!

Exquisite Hendrickson Bagels!

Thankfully, the Everything bagel takes care of that. 

With a crispy topping of poppy-seeds, chunks of garlic and onions, it really does have a bit of everything, just like the name suggests. It’s great with plain butter or cream cheese alone, or piled high with meat, cheese, veggies or all of the above. It is definitely my go-to bagel but for this bagel-sandwich to be truly blog-worthy, it couldn’t be just any Everything bagel…

It had to be a Hendrickson Bagel, known more generally as an Old Strathcona Farmer’s Market Bagel!

I love the Farmer’s Market bagels! You may have to fight your way through the packed Saturday-morning crowds to get their stall, but once you do, they are so worth it! They are fresh from Sherwood Park, contain no artificial additives and no nuts! So stock up on these beauties, my fellow nut-allergy people!  Eat them with total peace of mind!

The Hendrickson version of the Everything Bagel is simply titled ‘Onion, Garlic, Sesame, Poppy’ and they have big hunks of all these great things on their golden tops. They smell so good and are soft and chewy, even when toasted. Eat them within three days of buying, or pre-slice and freeze them to extend their shelf life.  And don’t forget to grab an exciting flavor of fresh cream cheese while you’re there!

From the six bagels I bought, two had the honour of becoming beautiful sandwiches of different varieties: two open-faced, one closed.  All three are delicious bagel options I am proud to recommend to you!

2 Bagels, 3 Different Bagel-Sandwiches needs:

-2 Bagels

-Mustard

-Mayo

-Spicy pastrami

-Smoked prosciutto

-Provolone

-Strong Cheddar

-Hot Banana Peppers

-Cream cheese: spinach and feta from Hendrickson’s and the plain Philadelphia kind

-Carrots, shredded

-Red Pepper, sliced

-Red Pepper and Garlic Jelly (mine was homemade by my mother-in-law! Check out the jams and jellies at Anneliese’s Crafts at the Farmer’s Market for something similar.)

-Fresh-ground Pepper and Sea Salt

Toasted bagel, two meats and two cheeses goodness!

#1 -Toasted Pastrami, Prosciutto, Cheddar and Provolone

1-Slice a bagel and spread one half with mustard and mayo

2-Pile on the spicy pastrami, provolone, prosciutto and cheddar

3-Toast both halves in the toaster oven on medium, until cheese is melted and the other bagel half is golden brown

4-Add some hot banana peppers, combine the bagel halves, cut and enjoy!

This is a very nice combination of spicy, smokey and salty meat with the sharp provolone and strong cheddar. The peppers add some heat to a pleasantly warm and gooey blend of meat and cheese.  

#2 and #3 - Open-Faced Veggie and Meat Bagels:

Veggie:

1-Toast the bagel

2-Spread one half with a thick layer of spinach and feta cream cheese

3-Top with shredded carrot and slices of red pepper

4-Sprinkle some fresh ground pepper and sea salt on top

Meat:

1-Spread one half with plain cream cheese

2-Top with red pepper and garlic jelly

3-Fold a piece of prosciutto and place on the cream cheese and jelly spread

4-Enjoy!

The cream cheese has big pieces of spinach, which adds a different texture to this bagel.  The spinach and feta is a bold flavor combo that’s balanced out by the crisp veggies. The pepper and salt on top add a nice tang to the vegetables as well.  A thick slice of beefsteak tomato would also do nicely instead of, or in addition to, the red pepper. 

Can't go wrong with half veggie, half meat!

On the meat half, the jelly is both sweet and spicy and works well with the smoky prosciutto. The cream cheese and jelly melt well together on the toasted bagel half, so it’s a bit of a gooey, and chewy but tasty mess. 

So for your next sandwich, bypass the standard bread and go for something a bit different instead. These three bagel sandwiches show that with some creativity in mixing and combining your ingredients, you can have your bagel and eat it too!

Some extra Bagel facts to snack on:

-The bagel’s holey design suggests a desire to make this kind of food easily transportable as “it's possible to thread such a roll on a stick or a string” and take it to-go. (A Short History of The Bagel, www.slate.com)

-Bagels are boiled and then baked, a process which helps them to last longer because their exteriors become harder than other breads. (A Short History of The Bagel, www.slate.com)

-Bagels are delicious but slicing them can also cause severe injuries if you’re not careful!  Apparently, “1,979 people [went to emergency rooms] with BRI (bagel related injuries)…in 2008”!  (Newman, Barry. To Keep the Finger Out of Finger Food, Inventors Seek a Better Bagel Cutter, The Wall Street Journal, December 2009)

-If you enjoy kitchen gadgets, you may want to invest in a bagel slicer to minimize your risk of BRI. But if slicing a bagel without one really makes you feel alive, at least be smart about it and don’t hold it in your hand while you cut!  Place it on a flat surface, hold it down with one hand and carefully slice through the bagel horizontally. (http://homecooking.about.com/)

Portobello Fun on a Bun

Where’s the meat? 

Not here…not this time!

This is a big deal because there once was a time when sandwich meat was the be-all for me; maybe I’d have some lettuce, but that was the extent of me eating vegetables on sandwiches.  The year I lived in Res at U of A, I ate a lot (a lot!!) of Subway but after my third or fourth Cold-Cut Combo in a row, it was getting old, so I slowly added more vegetables…some tomatoes, some cucumbers, etc.  Nothing really that adventurous but it was the beginning of a scrumptious turning point…

The first time I tried spicy banana peppers, it rocked my world - who knew??

Red peppers – so sweet, fresh and crunchy! 

Avocados - just like tree-butter – brilliant!

Sea salt and fresh ground pepper on a thick, juicy tomato slice – where had it been all my life?!

An abundance of vegetables on sandwiches adds beautiful colour, texture and flavor.   They can be chopped and added as-is, or grilled, spiced, or sautéed, depending on the sandwich’s needs and your own desires.  And finally, they are just plain good for you!  The Canada Food Guide recommends that women between the ages of 19 - 50 consume 7-8 servings of fruit and vegetables a day; men are recommended to consume 8-10 servings a day, so packing your sandwiches full of vegetables can help you get in some of those servings.  For more info, check out the Canada Food Guide website.

Gorgeous colours! 

Eating enough vegetables is still something I’m working on because at my core, I am truly a carnivore and my go-to strategy when sandwich pondering is to choose a meat and build the rest around it.  It’s a good tactic that’s worked well for me for a long time, but in keeping with my New Year’s goals to experiment, create and write about new, interesting and appetizing sandwiches (not just the same old meat and standard lettuce/tomato combos) and to eat more vegetables, I’m very excited to share one of my favorite all-vegetable sandwiches, the Portobello Mushroom, Veggie and Feta Bunwich.

You will need:

2-3 Portobello Mushroom caps, sliced

1 tbsp Minced Garlic

1 tbsp Balsamic vinegar

Calabrese Dinner Rolls, split

3 Large Carrots, grated

2 Red Peppers, sliced

A handful of sliced Grape Tomatoes

Big handfuls of Baby Spinach per bun

Crumbled Feta Cheese, a large spoonful per bun

Fresh Ground Pepper

Recommended condiments: lime mint jelly, spicy red pepper jelly, dill mayo, mustard, baba ghanoush, tzatziki

Portobello or Portabella?  Spelling doesn't count! 

Creation Tips: 

1- Sautée the mushrooms in the garlic and vinegar over medium heat for 3-5 minutes.

2-Slice and grate the peppers, tomatoes and carrots, respectively.

3-Spread your chosen condiment on the bun and pile on the mushrooms and peppers. 

4-Sprinkle a spoonful of feta and top with the grated carrot to keep the cheese in place.

5-Top with tomatoes, fresh ground pepper and spinach. 

6-For a slightly tidier eating experience, I recommend slicing the entire bunwich in half.  Or if you like it messy, just give’r!

Portobello packed and stacked just like a burger!

This extremely filling bunwich can please all sizes of appetites – hence how I ate one and my husband ate three.  The great thing about Portobello mushrooms is their meaty texture and taste, which is no surprise since they are commonly used as a substitute for meat. Even The Works Gourment Burger Bistro of a few posts ago offers a Portobello cap as one of its many patty options. The trick with sautéing mushrooms is not to go overboard with the vinegar so that they still retain some of their original earthy, mushroom flavor. The feta also gives a tangy, salty flavor to the overall bunwich and the piled-on veggies adds satisfying crunch and vibrant color.  

The possibilities of different condiment combos are also very exciting.  I tried the Lime Mint jelly for something slightly sweet and different and I want to keep changing it up the next few times. I have a sneaking feeling that baba ghanoush and tzatziki will be excellent…

Here’s to many more healthy and exciting sandwich creations in 2014! 

Happy experimenting and leave me a comment on how yours progresses!

Weekend Breakfast Sandwich

I am very bad at breakfast.

During the week, that is.  I have always been the kind of person who can’t eat a meal as soon as I get up in the morning and it used to drive my parents crazy when I was growing up.  I just couldn't do it though and we eventually figured out that if I ate something later in the morning, I would be just fine.

Now in my adult life, the breakfast battle continues.  I’m not proud to say that I’ve often skipped it entirely, but since working on an empty stomach is really not fun or healthy, I’m back to my practice of the morning snack.

But weekend breakfasts...I've never had a problem there.  I look forward to them!  I like to start my weekend off right by making a pot of coffee and cooking a nice, big breakfast.  This morning as my coffee brewed, I created my own version of a sausage and egg breakfast sandwich.

Ingredients:

Toasted rye bread
Tomato, cut into thin slices and fried
Piller’s Turkey Kolbassa Sausage, sliced up and fried with the tomatoes
Scrambled eggs, divided into sandwich-sized portions (for two sandwiches, I used four eggs)
Dill and Cayenne Pepper seasoning on the eggs
Havarti and Cheddar cheese

Timing and Assembly Tips:

1. To avoid that burning-egg residue on your skillet, fry the tomatoes and sausage first and keep them warm on a plate while you scramble the eggs.
2. Use a medium heat setting for the eggs and constantly stir them as they cook to prevent both sticking and burning.
3. Season each side of the egg portions to your desired spiciness and flip them to seal it in.
4. Toast the bread during the eggs’ last few minutes to avoid drying it out.
5. For easy assembly, pile the eggs and sausage on one bread slice, the cheese and tomato on the other, and combine the two.
6. Serve with ketchup, hot sauce or salsa.

The result is warm and melty, with just enough crunch and spice to be unique!  This sandwich will definitely make another appearance on a chill weekend morning.

Or as my husband praised: “This would be really great for a hangover breakfast!”

Good to know; I’ll make sure the ingredients are stocked come New Year’s Day.

Epic Sandwiches 101

One of the great things about sandwiches is how easy it is to create a great tasting sandwich with whatever's in the fridge at a given moment.  The standard combination of meat, cheese, vegetables and condiments is pretty hard to mess up and can be huge time-saver when it comes to making a quick snack or lunch on the fly.

But there is something to be said about making a sandwich with true care and deliberation.  The extra special planning that goes into selecting, purchasing and combining the ingredients is what can turn an ordinary sandwich into an Epic Sandwich.

There is nothing random about the creation of an Epic Sandwich.  Consideration must be taken when assembling the following components:

1- Bread
2- Vegetables
3- Cheese
4- Meat
5- Condiments

When you mix and match, play and experiment with these elements, the results can be amazing.  The sandwich below is a lovely combination of  toasted Dempster's 100% Whole Wheat Bread (a basic grocery store bread), mixed greens (lettuce, baby spinach and arugula), tomato, red pepper, spicy banana peppers, smoked turkey breast and for something special, although not particularly healthy, some juicy bacon.  For condiments, I used classic mayo and some spicy Dijon mustard to give it some kick.  It may seem basic but I chose each item carefully and I was extremely satisfied with the result: a delicious Epic Sandwich.

I'll be exploring the elements of Epic Sandwiches, some of my favorite picks, and much, much more in later posts.