30 Gourmet Sandwiches #3: Sausage and Peppers

This time im not just back from shops, its sunday i have all the time i need. and frozen paninis to defrost.

I dunno what american's "sweet italian sausage" is but i managed to find some sausages with red wine and garlic, if that aint what italians would put in a sausage then i dunno what. Also we got olive oil, mixed peppers and an onion.

First we pan-fry the sausages with a bit of olive oil. Im using my big-ass huge pan. You could make paella in this I reckon.

I slice the onion and peppers into thin strips and put them to one side while the sausages cook. I opted for a selection without green peppers, because in this country they suck ass and sometimes you get an ultra bitter one. Who invented eating unripe peppers?

once the sausages are coming along, we can make room for the veg.

we can thaw the paninis in the oven, then they'll be warm and hopefully a lil toastie.

hmm it feels wrong to cook so much vegetable without any seasoning... so im adding a generous sprinkle of orange pepper. it's got salt and black pepper, and the orange should add a fruity acidity.

Why does this smell so much like chinese stir fry? why does it smell like water chestnuts? That is not the smell i expected tbh.

Once everything is ready, we can start to layer up. The bread is warm all the way through, but it does seem like defrosting has made it more... delicate. it's softer on the inside and harder but more brittle on the outside. We must cram it carefully.

***

It's not bad... its sausagey, its peppery. It's quite oily. Very heavy, though i did use 2 sausages. Why no sauce?

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #2: Fig and Prosciutto

 My nearest and dearest supermarket didn't have figs in, but fortunately they should still be in season, so I went on AN ADVENTURE to waitrose, a half-hour trek each way after work. Better be worth it!

Success! Gorgeous. Fancy.

This will also be a great excuse to bust out my old toastie maker that mostly sits on top of the cupboards. It has changeable hot plates, I've never used the panini mode before!

Honestly? So i made a later recipe that you haven't seen yet, and the panini bread I got at lidl is noticeably better. This one even smells a tiny bit sour, maybe from preservatives?

These figs though, ooh thats good stuff. They seem a bit firm and underripe, but big and fresh. Underripe can be kind of a good thing for a more savoury recipe I think.

For the prosciutto, waitrose offered a staggering selection of different kinds. I don't know whats good, so I just went with some smoked prosciutto crudo. That's what I think of when you say prosciutto.

Half a ball of mozzarella, it says to grate it but that seems harder than cutting it into thin slices.

Americans call this stuff arugula, but in the uk we call it rocket. You knew that right? Well well well, let's toast to it.

Whoa! I'm surprised how thin i managed to squish this panini, it was really chunky. Hope its alright in there.

****

Not bad... I think the freshness really carries this sandwich, but it has this salty, olive-y flavour I can only really describe as "italian" or "french". You know what, not bad at all! I really thought the mild cheese and sweet figs would clash but they don't. I can't see myself adding this to a normal rotation, there are other ham-cheese combos out there more to my tastes, but im really pleased with trying it, it tastes like being on holiday.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #1: B.A.L.T.

 First recipe! B.A.L.T stands for Bacon, Avocado, Lettuce and Tomato. I'm a regular bacon sandwich enjoyer so this one's not too out there. I did just get back from the shops with the goods though and i'm RAVENOUS, so lets get to it.

I think my bacon usually comes out better when I grill it, but im hungry now and i want the control i want the power so ill fry them.

It doesn't say to toast the bread or not, but with all these moist ingredients it feels like toasted bread would make it way better. We're making GOURMET sandwiches here!

"mayo thinned with lemon juice" ok so ill just mix mayo and lemon together in a ramekin.

The ramekin was a bad choice... its a funny shape so its weirdly hard to get sauce back out of it with a knife, I ended up using a slice of tomato as a makeshift spatula.

Bacon layer! I'm going to do these in order of the acronym. It's not a TABL. I'ts not a LBAT. Dyslexics just trust me on this one.

I just bought this "ripe and ready to eat" avocado and you know what... its ripeness seems debatable.

These vegetables are fresh but also firm... im starting to regret doing these in the order, they are very slippery this way around.

I'm usually a "tomatoes in sandwiches" skeptic, i think it makes sandwiches too wet. But you can't have L.G.B.T. without the T. The same logic applies here.

****

It's the most unwieldy and slippery bacon sandwich i've ever made! I think it actually would have been improved if I changed the order of letters a bit. It was the right call to toast the bread, the tomatoes made the whole thing sooo wet. I'd have probably enjoyed it a lot less with soggy bread. Normally I have bacon sandwiches with lettuce/rocket and brown sauce which makes them more bitter and sweet... but this lemon mayo combined with all the fresh vegetables and tomato... it tastes so fresh and juicy! To me this is really like a club sandwich, its a more refreshing and zesty way to bacon sandwich, and I see the appeal.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches: "A sandwich for every day of the month"

So, indulge me. One of the things that inspired me to start this blog, besides all the massive food indexes in video games, was this particular viral list of sandwiches I once saw going around the internet. I dunno, it just seemed like it had some fun and unusual sandwich recipes, and sandwiches are delicious and... usually easy to make.

In fact, i had remembered it recently and i had a URL saved in some bookmarks folder, and to my horror, the uploaded image was deleted! I searched the internet for what I could remember and i couldn't find it. But, harnessing the power of the incredible wayback machine, we found an archived version and i've reuploaded it for myself. And i thought... why not do that next then? 

Anyway sorry its not video games or anime, but I do what I want.

Let's get that bread.

Delicious in Dungeon: The Monster Meshi - COMPLETE

We've cooked our way through every floor of the dungeon, now we're LORD OF THE DUNGEON! What? that's not how it works? Cmon. 

Things I learned:

- The unique flavours of a whole lot of different meats.

- Grilling and frying might be the same thing in japanese.

- The fairies are better cooks than me

- Demon actually doesn't pair well with apple at all

- I like making a medieval style banquet

- You can either bake a pumpkin whole, or use it as a serving bowl, you can't have it both ways.

- I got slightly better at making rolled omelettes.

Total Ratings:

*            x 4

**          x 9

***        x 13

****      x 26

*****    x 18

Average score: 3.64

Favourite Recipe: 

#8: Freshly Stolen Vegetables and Chicken Stewed with Cabbage Accompanied by Plundered Bread

This was a lot of work, making bread from scratch while stewing cabbage and grilling chicken. But it paid off, this just tasted great, wonderful hot crunchy chewy textures. A homely feast to eat with your hands. I feel sorta bad picking a recipe with non-monster ingredients, but... well, it was still an interesting and unique recipe I think.

Least Favourite Recipe:

#2: Man-Eating Plant Tart

uhh yeahh, i beansed this one so hard. Turns out citrus peel makes everything unbearably bitter. And it didn't hold together at all. Should have made a quiche. I did however manage to scoop out most of the vegetables and dilute the fruity sludge with a curry sauce and end up making a really nice curry out of the leftovers.

Special thanks:

Special thanks to the following resources:

Delicious in Dungeon fandom wiki

Shibuya Dungeon Meshi restaurant collab

DiD cafe Ikebukuro

Tobi - my spreadsheet legend, morale booster and master of the necromantic arts.

Delicious in Dungeon #70: Grilled Cockatrice

 Last recipe!!!! whoaaaoaoaoao

Remember the cockatrice? this ones a big one. So, this last recipe actually just features in a little bit of bonus manga content after the story. The official recipe was the previous one. But since it exists, we're doing it! Then we can round things off with a nice even number.

We got some yakitori paste which is perfect for this, as i think we're just effectively making yakitori. We got some breasticles for the white meat and some skin-on cockatrice legs for the skin and dark meat.

Separating the skin from the meat, and the meat from the bone. OMG what is the trick to getting meat off a thigh bone seriously, this took me way too long.

We have quite a lot of the chicken and not much of the marinade, so to stretch it out a bit im adding extra soy sauce and some ginger powder. To marinate i just add half of the yakitori sauce and those other things i just said, and we'll add the rest of the sauce during the grilling.

While the meat is marinating i thoroughly wash the chopping board and knife, because i forgot to chop the leek beforehand!

I had to use a keen eye to recognise which parts were breast and thigh meat, and separate the skin back out to try and get it on the skewer. It was a bit of work, but look! I totally succeeded.

When its looking mostly done I take it out, drizzle on the rest of the sauce and add a sprinkle of sesame seeds. The baking sheet under the grill will catch the excess and we can spoon it back on at the end if need be.

****

Wow!! Quite good actually. Nice flavours, and the different cuts add variety. I was worried the leeks would still be tough, but everything seemed well cooked. My mum was over and i think she liked it too, except the chicken skin. I thought it was nicely crispy though.

Delicious in Dungeon #69: Egg and Carrot Mush

Our final meat is all done! Now the penultimate recipe, a simple babymode food for eepy baby princesses

like that! This is supposedly a good meal for delicate stomachs, which checks out because i might be about to do the FODMAP diet myself and these are low-fodmap foods indeed.

I guess its just eggs and carrot. I saw a similar dish called ninjin shirishiri, its scrambled egg and shredded carrot, sometimes seasoned with sesame seeds. Sounds like a plan!

Going to town on the carrot with my julienne peeler, and then making sure the strips are a good bite-size length.

Then i can beat the eggs with seasoning. Just some of my paprika salt and mixed peppercorns. I'll add the sesame in at the end.

Frying the carrots with a bit of butter. I guess if you worry about dairy you can use vegetable oil.

After the carrots are softened I pour in the eggs and sprinkle some sesame seeds, I gotta keep it moving around the pan with a spatula to scramble the eggs.

***

Tasty! simple! A little bit bland though. Definitely a good idea if you're feeling so delicate, but im feeling like... wheres the rest of the stir fry?