30 Gourmet Sandwiches #30: Banana and Fromage Blanc Grilled Cheese

 Last one! Lets end it on a sweet treat.

I got a cinnamon & raisin bread (is a fruit loaf the same thing?), i dont know what the closest thing to fromage blanc is but I got ricotta cheese, and then we got a banana, vanilla extract and icing sugar.

I've actually never had ricotta before. I thought it would be lumpy and sour like cottage cheese tbh but I guess its more like mascarpone? Thats nice. I'll mix up 3 tablespoons with a little bit of sugar and vanilla.

This is quite a small banana so ill just use it all.

Gently folding the banana chunks into the creems cheems. Could deffos use a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg but thats what the breads for i guess!

Bread! Its quite small but dense, and we're to butter just the outside!?

Once again, im using my tamagoyaki pan for crimes. This is how much I think I can fit into the sandwich, ill have to eat the rest.

Oh my goddd the leftover cream cheese and banana mix is soo good! I should just have a bowl of this for breakfast. Ok its probably toasted enough time to take a weirdly closeup photo.

****

Well im sold on sweetened ricotta and banana, thats very nice. I'll be honest with you though... I think maybe I liked the chilled leftover filling more than the warmed sandwich. Somehow the heat made it seem a bit... blander? I do like all the components though, its easy to like.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #28: Sweet Hot Mustard and Jarlsberg Grilled Cheese

Ohh these ingredients elude me, we have to improvise.

I just found out lidl discontinued pretzel rolls like a month ago. If I had known! Well they still have this cheese-topped pretzel log, itll have to do. Jarlsberg, i don't know her but they had Maasdam which looks like its basically just the same thing but dutch? Perfect. As for sweet hot mustard... I also don't know that. But once again, I reckon we can just wing it.

Honey, powdered cayenne pepper and swedish wholegrain mustard. That's sweet, hot, and mustard right?

I don't know whats a good ratio, but what could go wrong?

I've spread the mustard on the top, I reckon I can cram two slices of cheese in folded in halves.

I really hope this cheese on the outside doesn't burn... well i've already got a tray underneath if we did cram too much cheese in.

****

I just realised I didn't butter the outside or shred the cheese, I really wasn't paying attention. But... it turned out great! I think this type of swiss-like cheese works better melted, and mustard is a combination thats hard to beat. The subtle sweet and hot additions are nice. The roll was maybe a bit stale though, I guess it was at least a day old. If only soft pretzel bread was easier to come by... can we make that trending instead of sourdough maybe?

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #24: Bistro Baguette

 This ones sounds conventional. The first challenge was finding a beef skirt cut, but morrisons came through.

Beef skirt steak looks nice, (its cheap too!) a sweet white onion, tomato, watercress, and since it didn't specify the mustard I thought i'd mix it up a bit with this swedish mustard, which is kind of a wholegrain and ground mix.

I'm caramelising the onions with a bit of olive oil on one side, and cooking the steak with a bit of butter on the other side. I always think butter just kinda adds something with steak, I dunno. Should I have seasoned this? probably but it didn't say to... well maybe ill add the tiniest pinch of salt and pepper.

Chopped the tomato and pulled out the watercress pieces from the mixed salad bag. Yeah I know my leaves. Like a druid.

Chunk of baguettes sliced and ready. I think i'll spread mustard on the top side, so its next to the onion.

Trouble with white onions is I can't really tell when its peeled enough, so it looks like theres some harder bits in there, they become obvious when cooked.

w-cress is in, and ive tried to slice the steak diagonally. There's plenty of it, i think im maxing this sandwich out again. Is the hungry instinct taking over?

Tomatoes and onions are in.. can we squeeze it shut without spilling it everywhere?

***

It's good yeah. The steak really is a nice cut for a sandwich, its lean and not tough or chewy. I liked the mustard and onions with the steak. I dunno, its a bit boring? What if it had some like hot sauce or blue cheese sauce or something.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #23: Smoked Salmon and Dill on Pumpernickel

The classic gravlax combination sandwich. Gravlax, didn't i fight that wyvern in monster hunter?

I've got pumpernickel/rye bread, smoked salmon, cream cheese, a big bag of frozen dill, and a bit of lemon.

So I just learned that american and german rye bread are different? American style is sweeter and a bit more, well, bread-like in texture. This traditional german pumpernickel is dense and seedy, almost like an unsweetened muesli bar. Still, its fit for purpose. I'll slather plenty of cream cheese on it.

And smoked salmon, ive tried to bunch it up a bit to get some height in this sandwich, its gonna be really flat.

As for the lemons, it suggests to put in whole slices! I'll slice them as thin as i can manage, and cut the peel/rind off.

And the dill! I don't have big sprigs of this, but its actually quite a strong flavoured herb so i think this light sprinkle will be plenty.

***

Its ok... quite bitter... quite sour... the lemon pieces are way too strong, you should just squeeze some juice on the fish. Some black pepper or something would have helped this. And maybe bagel or tiger bread, something chewier.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #21: PB, B&B

PB, B&B stands for "Peanut butter, banana & bacon." A bold combination of sweet and savoury.

Grilled up some bacon. Smells good.

Sliced up one banana, its a fairly long one so thats plenty of banana.

It says to toast some white bread, ill give it a nice light toast.

Gotta stir up this big tub of natural peanut butter like its a can of paint! I think it is generously slathered.

And now it says to "build layers until the sandwich is a hunk a burnin' peanut-butter love" ok dude. So like 2 layers?

Yeah i'd say its hunky. Then it says "hit the gym youll need to work this one off" yeah ill just get on the treadmind your own business machine how about that.

**

Honestly? Not that great. I feel like I'm eating MASCULINE CULTURE: THE SANDWICH. It's the ladbible of sandwiches. Its sugary, but not sweet. It's salty, but not savoury. It's dense, sticky, cloying and unrewarding. It's got that forced baconification fetish applied to the beigest of foods. Like chicken & waffles with neither syrup not hot sauce.
Also I got curious and measured the calories on a website, it should be about 700-800 calories. So calm down.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #20: Pork Sandwich with Red-Onion Relish

 After that slightly sad processed turkey in the thanksgiving sandwich, I felt like maybe i haven't been putting in as much effort, and getting more sliced ham instead of a proper roast pork wouldn't do for this one.

So I am going... for it!!! I bought a whole-ass roasting pork joint. only £7.50 actually, pork has gotten really cheap here. It's a workday so I sneakily pop this in the oven a couple hours before I finish work, one of the many perks of work from home eh. Bit of red valkyrie lore for ya.

Still, it would be a crime to do all this and not give it some season. I've got a drizzle of olive oil, a splash of red wine vinegar (more on that later), paprika salt (mostly just salt at this point) and some chilli flakes. And then some fresh sage leaves from my herb planter!

A couple hours later and I've finished up at work, time to complete the dinner... I've got a big loaf of sourdough bread, red onions, olive oil and red wine vinegar, and some... ketchup for this? really?

I'll thinly slice 2 onions, thatll probably make me plenty.

I've already done a later recipe where i had to caramelise onions, and i cooked them too hard and fast and burned them a bit, so now im gonna try really hard to do it low and slow. They're sauteeing in some olive oil and then when they've softened I add in the red wine vinegar.

A nice chunky slice of the sourdough will do. I think sourdough is a bit overrated, this bread looks a little dense and cakey. Never seemed worth the hassle to maintain all that starter stuff, just to make a slightly worse and more sour bread than yeast can do. Still better than any bread ive ever made.

These are looking much better! And as for the pork?

That's looking great! I've tried to slice it as thin as I can.

Nicely proportioned and smells so good.

The onion relish goes on top, there'll be plenty of both for leftovers.

And lastly. perhaps controversially.. I must admit, even as a big ketchup kid this wasn't my first thought to pair with pork and onions! But i love sauce on my sandwiches, i couldn't help but want to try it. Is that a good idea though...?

*****

This is sooo good. It's mainly the roast pork that tastes soooo goooood. It pairs surprisingly well with the sourdough, and the ketchup really doesn't clash with the vinegary onions after all. I should definitely make roast pork loin more often, sandwich or otherwise.