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 #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 #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.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #19: Nicoise Hero

This ones another "not really my thing" type and we're about to go make do with a lot of compromises. Yay.

Got a nice small baguette, lettuce, tomato, lemon... went ahead and boiled some eggs earlier. I HATE olives so no olives i'm just gonna go with the capers instead. They were out of green beans so i got mangetout beans, those are good salad beans anyway. And lastly, tuna... im quite fussy about tuna so i wanted to get some frozen tunasteak and cook it myself but they were FRESH OUTTA THAT TOO so instead we really are getting canned. At least its in olive oil.

Mm yes. not bad. It smells like cat food most certainly, but like, good cat food i guess? I can eat this.

Looks like its got lettuce on the bottom. sure. already I know its gonna be an unwieldy one.

All the tuna and plenty of capers. Wait, how many capers is plenty of capers?

I just need to chop up a little bit of tomato and beans.

veggies in and a good squeeze of lemon over it all. No sauce or anything I guess. Actually that's probably for the best, theres a lot going on here.

And lastly, the sliced boiled egg. Is it me... or is trying to close these sandwiches a whole art? How do they do it? I'm too european for this. I just put some cheese between breads and call it a day.

**

It's edible. It's like a... plain undressed but relatively upmarket cat food salad. This one goes out to people who choose tuna sandwiches when there's options for literally any other sandwich on the menu. You're so mysterious. Couldn't be me.

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 #9: Lyonnaise Sandwich

"you'll never eat another egg mcmuffin" doubt mate. doubt. that's like saying oh you like miso ramen, you'll never eat a slightly stale sausage roll at some kids birthday party again.

We've GOT: streaky bacon, egg, i couldn't find frisee but i got some bitter looking leaves. The bread wasn't very specific but i finished that other white loaf so i thought id treat myself to a tiger bloomer, thats always nice.

bacons cooking on the grill

breads in the toaster

eggs frying, still havent cleaned my hob

we can add a little dressing, if we like. I do like. I've got olive oil, dijon mustard, and cider vinegar instead of wine vinegar.

its so bubbly then i mix it up. it looks like frogspawn.

We can assemble, toast and greens look good.

I should have really put the dressing drizzle on this layer, on top of the egg it looks gross with all the bubbles. In the graphic they clearly added a sprinkle of pepper instead of a dressing, which they did NOT mention.

***

It's mid. Again, i find myself enjoying the freshness and quality of the individual ingredients, but it's not really the sum of its parts. It's just another bacon sandwich with vinegar instead of sauce. Is this really lyonnaise style?