Enjoy the Delicious

The BLT is the quintessential American sandwich and on what better a day to devour one than the 4th of July?

All the usual suspects are here: fresh, ripe tomatoes, crispy bacon, leafy green lettuce and toasted bread slathered with mayonnaise.  We even have a guest star: slices of luscious, creamy avocado.

Assemble it all together, grab a bottle of beer and dig in.

When you are so hungry you can barely see straight, this is your go-to meal.  It takes all of 5 minutes to make and the best thing about it is that it can be breakfast, lunch or dinner!

On a tortilla, spread out some grated pepperjack cheese, black beans and a few dollops of Goya Recaito.  Place on a sprayed baking sheet and pop in the oven at 350F until cheese is melted - about 5 minutes.  Before devouring, add some sour cream, fold it up and presto!  It's gone.

I had the most divine sandwich the other day.  Egg salad on wheat bread but this was like no egg salad I've ever had before.  The bread was moist and chewy, the egg was sliced not mashed with tons of mayo and there were some surprise ingredients that wowed me.  I gathered my goodies and went to work creating this gorgeous sandwich.

Egg Salad on 12 Grain Bread

Ingredients:

2 slices of 12 grain bread

2 hard boiled eggs, sliced

2 slices of fresh, ripe tomato

1/4 teaspoon Dijon Mustard

1 teaspoon mayonnaise*

1/2 shallot or equal measure red onion - finely chopped

Parmesan Cheese sliced with a potato peeler

1 handful of fresh arugula

Salt and Pepper

Preparation:

Mix together the mustard, mayo and a pinch of salt and pepper and very gently fold the eggs into this mixture.

Create your sandwich as follows:

On one slice of bread place the arugula, top with the egg salad, a sprinkle of finely chopped onions, grating of cheese and the tomato.  Add a grind of freshly cracked black pepper top with the other slice of bread, cut your sandwich and enjoy!

So utterly simple yet so delicious.

PS: Sorry for the horrid lighting on the picture.  The flash washed the egg out so I decided against it all together and photographed it by candle light.

* I ran out of mayo and used Caesar dressing instead.  It was good!

I am of the mind that the best things in life are simple and very easy to attain.  That's always been my philosophy with food too; for an amazing meal I say, the simpler the better.  Dinner tonight was the leftover bean soup, but looking for additional sustenance, I decided I needed a side dish.  Looking around my kitchen I found all the makings for Molletes Bolillo. This traditional and exceedingly simple Latin breakfast of bread smothered with black beans and creamy cheese partnered with the earthy soup was a perfectly delicious pairing.

Ingredients:

2 open faced pieces of crusty bread

1 can of black beans

Shredded monterey jack cheese

Sprinkle of queso fresco

Preparation:

Heat up the beans.

Lightly toast the bread place, buttered, on a bake sheet and cover with a spoonful of black beans and top with a generous dose of the jack cheese.  Sprinkle the queso fresco over it and place in a 375F oven for about 10 minutes or until cheese is gooey and melted.  Pair with your soup and enjoy.

When it comes to food, I never like to be caught out.  There are certain things I like to keep stocked in the pantry just in case I need to whip up a simple, no-thought meal.  This week is very busy and I feel a cold coming on so I needed to throw some comfort food together that will yield a couple of days worth of leftovers.

In my kitchen you will usually find a few things that I stock all the time: bags of beans, boxes of stock and liquid concentrate stock, tubs of prepared mirepoix...on days like today I can just rummage around and usually I will find some inspiration for a one pot meal.

Bean and Mushroom Soup

Ingredients:

8 cups of chicken or vegetable stock

1 lb of navy or cannellini beans

4 oz. of chopped pancetta

I tub of sliced baby bello mushrooms

1 cup of mirepoix

6 cloves of smashed garlic

2 shallots, chopped

8 sprigs of thyme

1 sprig of rosemary, chopped

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Red Devil hot sauce

1 lemon, zested and juiced

2 tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar only if you have it

Preparation:

Start by preparing the beans. Add the beans to a large pot of water and bring it to a rolling boil.  Cook on low for 10 minutes and then take off the heat, cover and let sit for an hour.  Drain and rinse.

Coat the bottom of a large soup pot generously with olive oil. Once the pan is heated add the pancetta and cook for a couple of minutes and then add the mirepoix, shallots and garlic.  Cook together for about 15 minutes.  Add the stock, herbs, salt and pepper and lemon zest and juice.  I also add the lemon rind to the pot for flavor.

When it comes to adding extras to soup I say it's all about your taste.  I love spicy food and I adore hot sauce.  I specifically like the Red Devil brand hot sauce but Tobasco or any other brand is fine.  I add several shakes of hot sauce and about 3 tablespoons of the vinegar.  Add your beans and cook, covered on low heat for 45 minutes.

Taste the soup and add any extra flavor then add the sliced mushrooms.  Cover again and cook for an additional half hour.

Presentation:

Spoon out into a soup bowl and serve with a huge piece of buttered crusty bread.

Growing up in England I was lucky enough to be openly exposed to it's carb-heavy, artery clogging and delightfully named cuisine.  I grew up consuming Toad in the Hole, Sheperds's Pie with Mushy Peas, Bangers and Mash, Saveloys with Chips, oh the list goes on and on...Not only is the cuisine exceedingly different than in America but the actual names of the mealtimes differ too.  Breakfast was brekkie, lunch was dinner, dinner was tea or supper.  Your midmorning snack would be called elevensess based of the hour of consumption.  Sunday was a different animal altogether.  It was breakfast, Sunday lunch and then tea.  This was my favorite meal day.  I loved Sunday lunch as I have expressed to you before.  Of course, I would go crazy for the roast and all it's accoutrement but, my favorite part of the day was tea time.  Since lunch was so big and filling, teatime would be a light snack of nibbles, just something to tide you over.  Plates of cakes, sandwiches and possibly pancakes (crepes) smothered with butter and lemon juice.  Oh the memories.  In England, a perfectly fine teatime dish would be beans on toast.  This would be a standard for me, I loved it. The perfectly crisp bread laden with butter and smothered in creamy beans.  I couldn't get enough.

Not long ago on a night by myself, not wanting to cook, I provided myself a little trip down memory lane.  While heating up the beans I thought to myself, I want something more, something to add a little pizzazz.  That's when it hit me: add an egg! I pulled an egg out of the fridge and fried it up.  The beautiful white surrounding the creamy, gooey, sunshine orange center.  I placed this perfect food atop the beans on toast and I was in business.  It was pure heaven, the yolk melding with the beans, the grainy, chewy bread, a perfect vehicle for consumption.  Last night, I had to have it.  And I did.

Delightful Tea: Beans on Toast

Ingredients:

2 slices of bread

1 can of baked beans

2 eggs cooked sunny side up

Preparation:

Toast the bread, heat the beans and fry the eggs.  Place the beans on the toast and top with an egg.  Prepare yourself a cup of tea and there you go, Bob's you're uncle.

My friend came over last night. "How was your day?" I asked as he walked in the door. "Swell" his clipped reply. Funny hearing the exact exchange while watching Jaws just half an hour later. We chuckled, engrossed in the Dreyfuss, Scheider banter. I'm 37. Jaws is the Saw of my generation. As a child, I remember when it started playing on cable or was it just being played on Beta? It was huge. During sleepovers we would have random bed checks from parents worried that we were watching; worried that the sheer primal subject matter would manifest itself into nightmares. There was something so ordinary about it though, Scheider, ranting while swinging around a wine bottle, Dreyfuss, reasoning while munching on a pretzel. Scheider, in a life jacket, Dreyfuss, in a jean jacket. Dreyfuss, Scheider and The Crew sitting around and singing "Show me the way to go home" just before the panic sets in. The beach, the sun, the shark!

For lunch today we decided on seafood. "Lobster Rolls!" I exclaimed. I love lobster rolls and was reminded of this by a friend that recently reported on her Facebook status that she had just eaten 4 in 2 days. I remember the last time I had one. It was much too long ago. I was starving and ready to indulge. "Have you ever made them?" he asked. Oh shit. That's the thing when you love to cook. People just assume that you always want to do it yourself. No, I have not. "Let's try it" he said. OK, I guess. This is probably the only time that you will get a traditional "recipe" from me so heed well:

about 1 pound of cooked lobster meat
about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of mayonnaise. Start with less, adding more as necessary but don't drench the meat
A dash of Dijon mustard
A dash of white wine or sherry vinegar
1 celery stalk chopped
2 pieces of shallots, chopped
Lemon juice, per your taste
A few tarragon leaves, chopped
Salt and Pepper
Top split hot dog buns, buttered and lightly toasted

In a drizzle of olive oil and the dash of white wine/vinegar, saute the celery and shallots until golden and take off the heat. Add the lobster meat and let it infuse with this flavorful mirepoix. Drain any excess liquid and mix in the mayonnaise, mustard, tarragon, lemon juice and salt and pepper. Chill in the fridge for about 10 minutes then scoop into your buttered, toasted, top-split buns. Serve yourself a cold beer and think of snuggling up to your beloved on a beach somewhere in New England on a late summer evening. Just don't let the sharks get you.