Soft-Boiled Egg Sandwiches

This is one of the first breakfasts we made in our new place. We had fresh heirloom tomatoes (those yellow bits) from the Farmers Market, Joef hadn't started work yet, and this was just the perfect lazy morning meal.

There's a place in Boston called Clover Food Lab where we first had breakfast sandwiches like these, with pita and soft-boiled eggs. I don't know what they did to those things, but they were crazy delicious. And these were, too.
 
I had to learn how to make a soft-boiled egg. Thanks, Internet!: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Soft-Boiled-Egg. If you feel like yours end up too runny after following these instructions, you can pop them in the microwave for like, 10-20 seconds.

All you need is:
Eggs, poached (see link above)
Pita bread
Cheddar cheese, sliced
Tomato, sliced

Assemble! I'd recommend putting everything together, apart from the egg, first. Then you can pop the warm egg right in there and start melting the cheese a bit. Mmmm!

Bake Sale Betty's Fried Chicken Sandwiches with Jalapeno Slaw, and, Welcome to California!

(adapted from www.food.com) 

Phew, talk about a hiatus! We're back, folks! To remind myself how long it's been since I've posted, and therefore, how long it's been since I've cooked anything (new, at least, but pretty much just anything), this recipe is from MAY. Specifically, from Joef's graduation from the Yale School of Management (watch me burst with pride!). Since then, we've moved out of New Haven, CT, driven to Pittsburgh, Chicago, Madison, and Minneapolis; camped in the Boundary Waters; driven back to Chicago and St. Louis; flown to San Francisco; driven back to Minneapolis, back to St. Louis; and then driven all the way from St. Louis to Berkeley, CA, where we now reside (hooray!).

This first-recipe-back is appropriate, then - Joef requested it for his graduation because he'd gotten to know and love Bakesale Betty's, an Oakland favorite, during his internship last summer. And now, internship has turned into full-time position, and here we are, living in the East Bay. And I'm finally posting this recipe. It's like a welcome to the neighborhood. And WOW, is it beautiful here. The local grocery store has more (low-price!) fruits and vegetables than I could count, about half of which I've never even heard of before. But I digress...

What really makes these sandwiches (besides the delicious, delicious grease!) is the jalapeno coleslaw. That's right. It's wonderfully tangy and hot, and cuts the grease of the fried chicken just right. I borrowed the recipe from Food.com, and it was a crowd pleaser.

By the way, this makes a TON of coleslaw. Way more than you need. So you could halve that portion of the recipe, if you so chose.

CHICKEN
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (or however many sandwiches you want to serve - my memory is failing me, but I may have fileted the breasts in half, but that's up to you)
Salt
1 quart buttermilk

VINAIGRETTE
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp kosher salt
 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

SLAW
1 small red onion, very thinly sliced
1 cup red wine vinegar
2-4 jalapenos, seeded, cut in half and sliced crosswise
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
1/2 green cabbage, core and outer leaves removed, and very thinly sliced
Salt

BREADING
1 lb all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon salt (or more to taste)
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh ground pepper

AND
2 quarts vegetable oil for frying
4 rolls (or however many sandwiches you want to make)

Season chicken breasts with salt. Let sit at least 5 minutes. Fill a wide, shallow nonreactive bowl or casserole dish with buttermilk. Add the chicken and soak in the refrigerator for 1 hour. 

In the meantime, start on the vinaigrette: combine mustard, vinegar and salt in a bowl. Slowly whisk in olive oil until well blended.

Then, start on the slaw. Macerate onions in the cup of red wine vinegar, and let sit at least 20 minutes. (I had to look up what "macerate" means. It's the process of softening something by soaking it in liquid.) Remove onions and discard vinegar. Toss onions with jalapeno, parsley, cabbage and salt. Toss with vinaigrette until evenly coated. 

Ready to fry the chicken? Prep the breading by mixing flour, cayenne, salt and pepper in a wide, shallow bowl. Pour vegetable oil into a large stockpot. Do not fill up more than halfway, or the oil could splatter. Bring oil up to 365°, using a digital thermometer/candy thermometer to monitor the heat. Pull a chicken breast out of the buttermilk one at a time, letting excess drip off, and dredge completely in flour. Do not drain or shake off excess buttermilk or flour during the breading process. That's the yummy part!

When the oil is at 365°, carefully place chicken pieces into oil one by one. Let each cook for a minute before moving the piece, then help it “swim” in the oil with tongs, until it is evenly cooked, about 5-7 minutes. Remove chicken from oil and drain on paper towels. Season immediately with salt.

To pull it all together, place fried chicken breast on bottom of torpedo roll and top generously with coleslaw. DEVOUR!

"Mozza" Sandwich

What do you do when it's 90+ degrees, the house is a mess, and all of your cooking tools are packed up anyway, gosh durn it? Make a sammich!

Not just any sandwich, of course. And here I must digress to dwell upon the wonder that is Pizza Brutta, a phenomenal little Neapolitan pizza joint in Madison (remarkably good food = another thing to miss about this place, dammit). Their pizza is authentic, simple, flavorful, fast, perfect. In particular, their Prosciutto Arugula (surprise!), a "bianco" (no tomato sauce) with a little rosemary and fresh greens on top, is just...well, go try it.

Now, Pizza Brutta has always had fantastic-looking sandwiches, too. And it's been nearly impossible to-date to pass on the pizza and take a risk on a sandwich. Until this past Tuesday, when I was there for lunch and realized that this was, quite possibly, my Last Meal at Pizza Brutta, and I had to go for it. I got the "Mozza", and I was not disappointed. In fact, I continued to drool and blather over it all day.

And I continue to do so, apparently. So I made my own go at the Mozza this evening, amidst an obstacle course of cardboard boxes. In comparison to the original Mozza, it fell a little short (the fact that I bought bread instead of baking my own and serving it fresh out of the oven may have been one factor, my home-grown but parched basil may have been another, or it could have been the lack of house-made mozzarella) - but it was still extremely tasty, easy, and generally satisfying.

All ya need is: ciabatta bread, fresh basil, thinly-sliced prosciutto, sliced fresh mozzarella, a small clove or half clove of minced garlic, and olive oil (alt: garlic-infused olive oil). Drizzle the bread with the olive oil (don't be shy about it), spread on a little garlic on one side, then layer the remaining ingredients. (Come on, let's admit it's hard to fail with those ingredients.)

***

What other restaurants in Madison will I miss? Well:
-Osteria Papavero (Best Italian food outside of Italy - and in some cases, inside of Italy. Seriously.)
-Inka Heritage (Peruvian food is delicious. Lamb, seafood, ceviche, mmm.)
-Brasserie V (Particularly for the mussels and the selection of Belgian - and other - beer. Closest thing to Chicago's Hopleaf we've found so far.)
-Quivey's Grove (On Friday nights, for the fish fry.)
-Sophia's (Best breakfast in town, in my opinion.)
-The Old Fashioned (Mostly because it screams "Midwest" - could it be that they raffle off hams?)

"Nicoise" Sandwiches

More tuna tonight. And, somewhat predictably, more arugula and more goat brie. This is another recipe you can really play around with according to taste. For example, Joef always put olives (another theme!) - usually kalmata - on his. Tonight, I added hard-boiled egg. I also used the Hawkwind Heat mustard (see "Cheeseburgers!") - but usually I mix some stone ground mustard together with balsamic vinegar and use that on the sandwich. I like the Hawkwind mustard, but for this meal, I'm going to go back to the balsamic-mustard mix.

Anyway, that's a lot of preamble for a simple recipe:
French bread
Sliced tomato
Arugula
Goat cheese brie
Tuna in olive oil
Balsamic vinegar + stone-ground mustard
Kalmata olives, optional
Hard-boiled egg, sliced, optional

Sandwich it up and enjoy!

Endless Sandwich and Panino Combinations

For when we want something delicious and insanely fast. And we haven't done dishes in a week. By the way, the New Glarus Honey Bock is fantastic.

Usually we use arugula, but Target was out tonight. Here's what we made:

Joef:
French bread, goat cheese brie, prosciutto, lemon pepper tuna, mustard vinaigrette, romaine lettuce.

Julia:
French bread, goat cheese brie, prosciutto, mustard vinaigrette, spinach, tomato, rosemary - toasted in the panini press.

For the mustard vinaigrette, just combine white or regular balsamic vinegar with dijon or stone-ground mustard and mix it together.

Mmm, shoulda used the leftover pesto sauce...