30 Gourmet Sandwiches #16: Thanksgiving Sandwich

 Happy thanksgiving! Hang on we're a month early.

I was hoping they'd have some chunky pre-cooked turkey in the deli meats, I wasnt planning on cooking a whole one for this. They had chunky chicken, but I was stubborn about the turkey thing so we've ended up with some slightly sad wafer turkey. We also have whole-wheat bread, cream cheese, bacon, avocado, and cranberry sauce.

I managed to get pre-cooked turkey, but not pre-cooked bacon, so we're still gonna make our own bacon bits, despite it being such a minor sandwich feature.

Crispy! This should be perfect for making little bacon bits.

I'll slice the avocado, its got a bit of a bad spot but just less than half a'cado is plenty.

We toast the bread for this one. I should probably de-crumb this toaster sometime.

We're ready to assemble! Beautiful toast.

Cream cheese layer. Honestly? turkey and cranberry is a pretty normal combination to me, but cream cheese and avocado is a bit out there.

since we don't have proper leftover turkey breast meat we'll make do with a generous stack of slices.

The avocado and the bacon bits. This looks so much more colorful than the reference image! Where are all these supposed ingredients hiding?

Finally, a generous slather of cranberry sauce. 

***

Hmm. It's very sweet and jammy, quite salty and a little creamy. Odd. I think you'll get a very different effect from different types of cranberry sauce and cheese, as well as the turkey to avocado ratio. Maybe I didn't make a good example of this, despite following the instructions technically. I don't dislike it though. But it's a bit like... random.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #15: Croissant with Herbed Goat Cheese and Spinach

 I kinda hate goat cheese it tastes like armpits, so im gonna get some sort of feta-like instead.

We have the croissant, some sort of feta-like, thyme and oregano from my windowsill planter, spinach, roasted peppers, and the "optional" turkey slices.

Good croissant from the bakery, I almost accidentally bought a sweet almond one!

I will just chop/crumble as much of the cheese as I need. I think its a non-traditional cow milk cheese in a feta style, cheap and i prefer it tbh. Sorry greeks. I mix in the fresh thyme and oregano leaves too.

Also sorry greeks, I HATE olives, but this recipe also suggested roasted red peppers as an alternative.

They had a big ol' jar of them at the store. They're vinegary as well so I think that should make it a nice flavourful olive replacement.

a single wafer of this turkey is plenty, now we top with spinach and its ready! Nice quick one.

****

Bit of a choose your own adventure type one. But I think i chose well for my tastes. The croissant is dense and delicious and the filling is herby, cheesy and sour. Nice and easy to prepare, too.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #14: Spicy Crab-Salad Sandwich

Time for crab!

We have a tin of good quality crab meat, garlic, red chillies, spring onion, lime, sesame oil and some type of cabbage called "sweetheart" cabbage. It looks like a gnome hat.

I get no hints from the label if the crab meat is cooked or raw... i expected cooked when i bought it but.. well i dunno. I think ill give this a little sautee. Drained off the excess water of course.

Honestly, i think garlic, onion and chillies are all best with a little sear so let's just toss these all together with some sesame oil IN A HOT PAN

They are cooking in toasted sesame oil which also acts as a dressing, and we get to add some salt as well.

Will this be it? will this finally be the recipe where i learn to hold back on overstuffing the sandwich with too much greens? I think so.

Oh! I forgot to show what bread I acquired. I really wanted to find any type of non-crusty baguette or soft roll. Lidl was out of almost everything except these brioche buns, but you know what? Not the first time ive heard of crab/lobster in brioche rolls, I think its kind of a thing around here. Anyway look away while I do some unethical fire hazard things to lightly toast the bread.

I think the crap looks reasonably cooked?? Sits nicely in there.

Some cabbage on top and squeezing the mini lime wedges, and we're good!

****

Quite nice, fresh tasting, the lime adds a lot. There's some grit in there though, maybe I needed to rinse the crab? Not all that spicy, I didn't need to hold back on those pretty mild chillies. It's nice but its not amazing or anything.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #13: Nut-wich

 Ooh its just in time for NUTTING SEASON. Heh. hehe.

This one's a bit of a choose your own adventure. It's like, pick a high beta-carotene fruit/veg, pick a nut, and maybe a bit of honey. I thought sweet potato + hazelnut sounded fun, so I got just that. Plus for some reason I had "crusty roll" written on my shopping list even though it says toasted bread. Whatever.

I peel and slice the sweet potato...

In my mind that would help it cook way faster, but honestly it kinda made it a bit dry and tough so in retrospect maybe i should have steamed or microwaved it.

Anyway once its soft enough, we will salvage it with some butter and a glob of honey for extra sweetness. it doesnt have to be a smooth mash anyway, in fact it says "lightly mash"

Nice chunky mash. Good orange.

Then as it gently implies, we can fold the nuts in at the end, so we dont have to try to "mash" them. Pre-chopped roasted nuts are quite handy here.

Because its a bit of a dry mix i decided to spread a bit of extra butter on the lightly toasted halves of the roll, and then lastly we just sprinkle it with more nuts!

****

I feel like it would make a great breakfast food as its midly sweet and stodgy, like a danish pastry. I dunno if it is, but it tastes kinda healthy because its a bit fibrous and chunky and satisfies some kind of mineral craving. Who doesnt love a big mouthful of warm buttery nut and so forth.
Get it? like the sex word.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #12: Open-Faced Prosciutto and Asparagus

Another idea I've never considered, but it sounds pretty normal.

Got a really nice looking artisanal baguette. Or a xenomorph head. You decide. Also prosciutto cotto, asparagus, and some of the usual suspects for garnish.

I'm going to fry the asparagus spears with a small puddle of water and a bit of butter so they kinda half-steam but brown a tiny bit at the end.

This time i found a mixed bag that has a bunch of greens, im just gonna pick out some rocket(arugula leaves) from it, since ive been in the habit of putting massive fistfuls of garnish on my other sandwiches thus far.

Which means we only really need the tiniest bit of olive oil and lemon juice to toss it in, I reckon i can just stab the lemon with a fork and squeeze out a few drips.

Nice looking half a piece of baguette and some mustard. This sandwich list really loves dijon mustard. 

Layered on 3 folded slices of the proscuitto.

And the cooked asparagus fits on nicely too, now we just top with the garnish and eat! Easy peasy lemo- no wait... easy forky lemon porky.

**

Its alright. It's an annoying way to eat asparagus compared to picking it up and dipping it, since everything on this is so fibrous. The flavours go fine together, but I dont really like the flavour of prosciutto that much unless its been crisped up a bit and combined with some stronger flavours. The bread is really nice.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #11: Turkey Apple Burger

 Wouldn't you know it, my mum dumped a bag of cooking apples (from her friends garden) on me, just at the right time! Well i used most of them for apple pies, but I saved a couple for this recipe here.

I've got turkey mince, onion, apple, mustard, rocket, sage and burger buns.

I start by chopping some onion as fine as I can manage.

and same with the apple, I ended up just doing one apple, it looks like plenty to me.

And then the turkey mince, chopped 3 fresh sage leaves, and seasoned it all with salt & pepper. Now to get my hands really messy and make the patties.

Ah, its so much easier when you don't have to take photos halfway through. Oh, also I remembered i had half an egg in my fridge so i've added that to the mix. Honestly i would reccomend using a whole egg because there's not gonna be a lot to help bind these. Im also frying them with a bit of butter in my big pan.

While thats cooking we can get the burger bun ready. I toasted it a bit and i add a generous spread of dijon mustard and a handful of rocket, aka arugula.

These might come out a bit dry honestly, but they should be cooked through. And hey, they stayed together just fine. Sorry i rammed too much rocket in there it kinda ruins the presentation a bit but I didnt wanna make a bigger mess trying to take half of it out.

****

I like it. The peppery rocket and mustard make the whole thing, well, very peppery. You can't taste the burger quite so much under all that, maybe its a bit sour and oniony? Mostly the turkey mince is a bit dry, i think thats just how turkey works. Maybe it would be better with more sauce, but no complaints, its a perfectly fine turkey burger.