30 Gourmet Sandwiches - Challenge Complete!

Put the top slice on it, because this sandwich challenge is complete!

Things I learned:

- I tried a few new cheeses i've never had before!

- The difference between prusciutto cotto and crudo.
- German pumpernickel and American pumpernickel are different.

- Mustard goes with damn near everything.
- A clever use of fruit here and there can take a sandwich to the next level.

- Hard to beat a good ol' middle-eastern flatbread.

Total Ratings:

*            x 0

**          x 4

***        x 7

****      x 15

*****    x 4

Average score: 3.63

Favourite Recipe: 

#6: Grilled Cheese with Pears

Could have been any one of the 5* sandwiches really, but this one was a fun discovery. Elegantly simple, yet unusual and delicious. Weird fact, when I was younger i didn't like cooked fruit or pears... oh how the tables have turned. 

Least Favourite Recipe:

#22: Sushi Sandwich

OK so this actually tasted just fine. But there was something fundamentally humiliating about ordering an expensive japanese sashimi platter crafted by real chefs, taking it home, dismantling it, and popping it on a 0.10p store brand snack-a-jack. It's not even a sandwich, its a cracker! Does this list writer know they have real sandwiches in asia?

Special thanks:

Special thanks to the following resources:

MensHealth.com & Chow.com - alleged sources of the recipes

Waybackmachine / Internet Archive Project - for allowing me to find old posts

Tobi - my spreadsheet legend, morale booster and baguette boy

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 #29: Black Forest Ham and Caramelised Onion Grilled cheese

Black forest ham? Cambozola? Are these trendy new dog breeds?

I'll see what lidl can do for us... couldn't find cambozola, but apparantly its like a softer gorgonzola so i guess thatll do its getting grilled anyway. I couldn't find black forest ham, but i got some sort of smoked german offering. We've got a white onion, and wholemeal bread fresh from the freezer.

I'll slice the onions as thinly as I can.

I forgot to take the butter out of the fridge in advance... is this a perfectly reasonable way to butter the outside of the bread? No?

Ok enough nonsense, i'll caramelise the onions and then assemble it on the grill.

a smattering of this fluffy looking cheese. It'll all melt in there anyway.

I tried to cook the onions as low and slow as i could, but i foolishly used the beast hob so they might be a little bit burned here and there.

and a couple slices of nice looking hams, slap the top on, und auf geht's!

***

It's not as great as it looks, but its alright. Kinda smoky, hopefully not just from the burnt onion. Not quite as good as the croque monseiur, but not bad. I wish i'd made it more buttery, maybe even a bit more cheese? Mostly just tastes like cooked onion.

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 #27: Roasted Beet and Chevre Grilled Cheese

 Once again, im not having any goats cheese so I settled for cream cheese since ive got some right now.

Wholemeal bread (close enough to 9 grain? i dont know how many grains) cream cheese, and pre-cooked beetroots since they're as cheap and easy as raw ones and that saves a step.

We butter the outside of the bread because we're going to grill it again. I don't think cream cheese is a good grilling cheese, but we'll see what happens.

One beetroot will do, cut into slices. trying not to stain anything... its actually so hard...

cream cheesed the inside and then put the beetroots on, might as well assemble in the panini maker because the other sides buttered.

I forgot to get sherry vinegar, but cider vinegar will probably do.. just a light sprinkle of that and some salt & pepper

cheesed up the top slice and lets SLAM it on.

***

The buttery toasted wholemeal bread was sooo appetising. and then yeah, the filling was just alright. Bit plain. It's my fault for picking cream cheese to replace goats cheese, though I probably would have liked that less. Beetroot in a sandwich is ok, its got a nice texture, but a bit like avocado, on its own its just... earth flavoured. It's just no pear and cheddar basically.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #26: Grape and Taleggio Grilled Cheese

 I've made a calculated decision to venture to waitrose and get the correct cheese again. Partially because I just dont really know what taleggio is like.

But I found it! One fancy block of taleggio, red grapes, and for the "honey wholewheat" the closest i could find is a malted multi-seed bloomer. It seems like it would match well anyway.

Ugghh this bread is too soft and this butter is diabolically hard. I guess i should stop buying cheap butter? And yes its been outside of the fridge for over a day. I can't be bothered to microwave it though the grills gonna melt it anyhow.

Now for the exciting cheese reveal! It feels like im unboxing some premium ingredient. I've never had this before, i guess its prettymuch like a brie?

Thats probably enough to melt nicely on everything.

Now i just cut some grapes in half.

Looks kind of unsettling like that! Quick lets slam the lid on and squash it into a delicious lunch.

****

Very nice, the talegg seems like a good grilling cheese that goes well with the flavourful wholegrain bread. The grapes are fine, they dont clash but im not so sold on them, they add a bit of sweetness and a lot of wateryness to an already oozing kind of sandwich. I might try making this again later but with cranberry sauce (leftover from recipe #16!) instead of grapes.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #25: Roast Beef with Horseradish and Cucumbers

We're really in the place to be for a roast beef, horseradish and cucumber sandwich. It's not really a go-to sandwich recipe for me, but maybe it should be...?

We got that traditional german pumpernickel/rye, roast beef, cucumber, a red onion, rocket/arugula, mayo, and I couldn't be bothered to buy a whole jar of horseradish when i have a tube of wasabi, which is basically the same thing!

Like for real, most wasabi in the uk is secretly horseradish dyed green. Anyway is this a good ratio? i have no idea. We'll just find out.

Since I already got that loaf of rye for the smoked salmon one, I figure thats close enough for "seedy wholegrain" bread. It's quite a crumbly and brittle bread for a sandwich though.

 

Now I can just chop a bit of the onion and cucumber for the sandwich. Red onion is a good one to use raw, the brown onions are a bit too.. yknow, oniony.

Like a pair of beef curtains... hmm thats making me extra hungry...

The crunchy veg...

And lastly, the aroogla. irregular. amoogus. leafs.

*****

Damn this is hittin... the dry beef, peppery horseradish and onion, and crunchy vegetables are so perfectly balanced. I think i did this one just right. Even the bitter, seedy bread feels like a good match. This is a good sandwich.