food geek

Restaurants, recipes, rants.

your favourite sandwich fillings

~ maireaddoyle ~ Leave a comment

>Turkey and provolone with lettuce, tomato, onions and cucumber

Grainy brown bread, sliced buffalo mozz, sliced fresh tomatoes, a few chopped sundried tomatoes and avocado with lots of ground black pepper and a scrape of mayo on the bread

Turkey, with american chees, lettuce, onions, green peppers and tomato (no seasonings) on a footlong honey oat sub

Tuna with a little creamy mayonnaise, slices of tomato, boiled egg, a little tapenade and baby spinach leaves or roquette

Tinned tuna mixed with pizza express dressing, cherry toms black pepper in the sarnie with rocket

Roast lamb, mayo and salad (with pickled onions and cold sliced roast potato

Sandwich, smoked ham, strong cheddar, tomato relish with mayo and lettuce.

Avocado, mozarella,sundried tomatoes, basil and a tiny bit of olive oil

BLT, with proper back bacon and mayonnaise

Sun Dried Tomatoes, strong salami, and avocado with a little olive oil

Thick sliced bread, chips, salt and butter with Econa West Indian Hot Chilli Sauce

Although sometimes its mozzarella, tomato and basil, ideally with pesto.

“Club” bagel filling in itsaBagel (incl Chicken Breast, Mayonnaise, Red Onion Marmalade, Brie Cheese)

Ham, cheese, mustard, coleslaw

Cold – cheese salad (lettuce, cucumber and tomato) but must be mature cheedar and proper floppy lettuce (non of this iceberg stuff) with salad cream not mayo.

Chicken and Chorizo with Jalapeños and pepper sauce

Turkey, cranberry, cheese and rocket toasted

Cheese and salad. No tomoatoe but with Avocado and olives

Avocado, chicken, goats cheese, spinach

Avocado chicken salad

Bacon (heated), SWISS cheese and coleslaw

I think it has to be egg mayonnaise and crispy bacon

Fish fingers, cottage cheese & spring onion

Crayfish, Avocado & Salad

BLT

Strong Cheddar, a bit of chopped spring onion and mayonnaise

Toasted chicken, cheese, avocado on rye

Tuna, anchovies and black olives

Chicken, avocado and mayo

Cream cheese, smoked salmon and capers

Tuna and sweet corn mayo

BLT

Cold – Cheese, salad & pickle

Ham & Cheese with mayo

Egg mayonnaise

Egg mayonnaise

Sleeze and tickle (I think she means cheese and pickle!)

Bacon and egg from the roadside roach coach washed down with a big cuppa

And occasionally it’s smoked salmon and cream cheese.

Grilled crispy bacon and fried egg

Egg sandwiches made with Heinz salad cream not mayonnaise

Croissant, blue cheese (camboz or stilton) and granny smith apples thinly sliced.

Hot – hot lamb with mayo in a crusty roll

Vegemite and mature cheddar for me

Curried egg and lettuce

Egg & Lettuce

peanut butter and honey

chicken and bacon

Hot – Bacon and philidelphia

Tuna

Banana

Peanut butter

BACON

Roasted chicken

Coronation chicken

the humble sandwich

~ maireaddoyle ~ Leave a comment

>

“Ask not what you can do for your country.

Ask what’s for lunch.”

Orson Welles

Given the name of my blog, I thought it fitting that my first non-recipe posting would be about a subject close to my own heart – the sandwich.

I’ve always been a bit of a cheap date. When presented with a world of amazing and delicious food, I will often find myself focusing on the bread or the potatoes or the rice. Not sure if it is something in my own family history, or the spectre of the Irish famine still hovering over me. Or maybe I just love bread.

We in the Western world have a terrible reputation. Unlike those Mediterranean countries where everybody stops for two hours at lunchtime, we are known for grabbing a sandwich at our desks without stopping our work.

Sad, it seems. But I don’t know. As somebody who spends most of her waking life obsessed with food, my lunchtime sandwich means a lot to me. It is an oasis of luxury and indulgence in a busy working day. I take my lunchtime sandwiches very seriously, and many of my friends have the same mindset.

So I did a quick poll amongst 55 of my closest friends, to see what they would say about the role of the humble sandwich in their lives. I got 55 clear answers to the question “What is your favourite sandwich?” but it was detail of those answers which told the most interesting tales.

With my analytical hat on, I did what any engineer would do given all this data: I put it all into a spreadsheet.

The most popular sandwich filling was cheese. Almost half of respondents chose cheese, and most people specified very clearly the type of cheese they wanted (cheddar or mature cheddar being the favourite). Next popular filling was bacon, followed closely by chicken.

In terms of additional ingredients, the surprise was that avocado was joint favourite with salad. Avocado is really popular here in Aus, but these responses came from all over the world.

Mayonnaise was by far the most popular condiment, which I guess is no surprise. However a small but vociferous number of people (all UK-based) made impassioned pleas for salad cream over mayonnaise.

Somebody once said “Life is like a sandwich – the more you add to it, the better it becomes.” The highest number of ingredients listed for one sandwich was six (four people had this) and the average was three.

Regional inconsistencies such as vegemite (an Australian living in London) and coronation chicken (UK) were nice to see. UK folks also love their egg mayonnaise. I have to say it is one thing I really miss here: proper egg mayonnaise seasoned with white pepper is divine, and not really seen here at all.

Only two people chose sweet sandwiches: we had peanut butter and honey, and banana. I was raised on banana sandwiches and I have to say they would be up there in my top five fillings, but it is so long now since I saw a banana I can barely remember what it would taste like. It is ironic that I will have to wait until I go home to Ireland to have bananas imported all the way from the West Indies, when I have been living in a country which has banana plants growing outside city buildings and can’t afford bananas. Cyclone Larry has a lot to answer for.

Around a fifth of respondents were very, very specific about their ingredients:

“proper floppy lettuce (none of this iceberg stuff)”
“must be cherry tomatoes”
“bacon and egg from the roadside roach coach washed down with a big cuppa”
“croissant, blue cheese (cambozola or stilton) and granny smith apples thinly sliced”
“egg sandwiches made with Heinz salad cream not mayonnaise”

Only a tiny number specified that they wanted their sandwiches hot or toasted (a surprise, as I love warm sandwiches), or clearly defined what type of bread they required.

The award for the weirdest sandwich goes to Victoria at work, simply because her ingredients wouldn’t be a normal or ubiquitous presence in my fridge:
“Roast lamb, pickled onion, cold sliced roast potato, mayo and salad”

The When Harry Met Sally award for the pickiest sandwich definition was difficult to decide as there were one or two prima donnas, but Katharine Haines won in the end:
“Cold – cheese salad (lettuce, cucumber and tomato) but must be mature cheddar and proper floppy lettuce (non of this iceberg stuff) with salad cream not mayo.”

Finally, the award for traditional sandwich with a twist goes to Marian Barretto with her unique rendition of the glorious chip butty:
“Thick sliced bread, chips, salt and butter with Encona West Indian Hot Chilli Sauce”

The full listing of responses are on a separate page in case you are in the market for new ideas.

Hope this has livened up your tastebuds a little, and given you some inspiration for your next lunchtime treat!

fettucini pollo e funghi

~ maireaddoyle ~ Leave a comment

>This is one of my favourite comfort foods, derived from a recipe first taught to me by my sister Annette. It is quick, easy an delicious, and anything but low fat, but the taste is divine: rich and creamy. Works just as well without the chicken.

Ingredients
500g chicken, diced
400g button mushrooms or sliced mushrooms
250g broccolli florets, chopped as small as you like (frozen works well)
1 small tin of Campbell’s condensed chicken soup
1 glass of milk
200g grated cheese
garlic
olive oil

Method
Fry the chicken pieces with the garlic and olive oil until golden brown.
Add the mushrooms and cook until soft.
Tip in the chicken soup and milk and stir until warmed up.
Add the broccolli and cook until soft (this will obviously take longer if using frozen).
At this point put your fettucini (or rigatoni or whatever) on to cook.
Throw in your grated cheese a bit at a time and stir in until melted to make the sauce as cheesy as you want.
Serve immediately with lots of freshly ground black pepper.

marilyn’s dips

~ maireaddoyle ~ Leave a comment

>Marilyn is an interesting woman, the PA for the Chairman of the London Ambulance Service. When you meet her first she appears incredibly sophisticated and urbane. However this polished veneer hides a wicked sense of humour, and a glass of wine or two usually unleashes an uproarious laugh worthy of a fishwife.

Here are some of her favourite things to have on the table as you drink.

Hoummus b’Tahini

Makes approx 3 cups Make sure you leave enough time to soak the chickpeas overnight – or use tinned, they are just as good.

1 1/2 cups chick peas, soaked overnight
2 tsp salt
approx 2 cloves garlic
3/4 cup tahini (white, slightly bitter sesame paste – obtained from food stores or delis and keeps indefinitely)
1/2 cup lemon juice
pinch cayenne and 2 tbs chopped parsley to garnish

Drain soaked chickpeas, place in pot, add 3 times their amount of water. Add 1 tsp salt and boil vigorously for about 10 minutes, turn heat down, cover saucepan and simmer about an hour until they are very soft. Drain liquor (keep liquor) and reserve.

Reserve a few whole cooked chick peas for garnish. Puree remainder. Crush garlic with remaining teaspoon salt, add to puree. Slowly beat in tahini and lemon juice alternately. Blend in little of the reserved cooking liquid to make mixture creamy consistency. Adjust salt and lemon.

Baba Ghannouj

1 large eggplant
1/4 cup lemon juice
4-5 tbs tahini
2 cloves garlic
1 1/2 tsp salt

Either roast eggplant in hot oven until soft and outside blackened (15-20 minutes) or hold onto stem and place over open grill turning until the skin is charred. Allow to cool.

Remove skin carefully, mash pulp thoroughly and slowly beat in lemon juice alternately with tahini.Crush garlic with salt and mix to a paste. Blend into eggplant mixture.

sam’s prawn curry

~ maireaddoyle ~ Leave a comment

>Our new Aussie friends Sam and Amanda live just down the road. Sam is convinced this great curry will prevent Alzheimer’s disease because it includes lots of brain food. Whether this is true or not, it is a delicious hearty curry that can be made with fish or prawns or both.

Ingredients

1lb king prawns or meaty white fish
1 medium red capsicum cut into large pieces
1 medium green capsicum cut into small pieces
½lb unpeeled sweet potatoes, cubed
½ pint chicken stock
A handful of semi-sundried tomatoes
2 teasp olive oil
1 medium chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, chopped or minced
2 tablesp curry powder*
½ teasp sugar (optional)
A handful of chopped coriander

*instead of shop-bought curry powder I prefer to use the ingredients below, but either is OK:
1 teasp turmeric
1-2 teasp garam masala
2 cloves
2 cardamom pods
1-2 teasp chilli powder or 1 hot red chilli, chopped

Method

In a medium saucepan, bring red capsicum, sweet potatoes and chicken stock to a boil over a medium-high heat. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until the sweet potatoes are just tender (about 10-15 minutes).

Meanwhile in a large non-stick pan, heat the oil over a medium-high heat. Fry the onion and garlic until lightly browned. Add turmeric, garam masala, chilli, cloves and cardamom pods (or curry powder) and cook for about a minute. Remove from heat.

Reserving the stock, transfer the cooked sweet potatoes and capsicum to a food processor and blend until smooth (or just use a potato masher on it). Add to the onion mixture. Then add the rest of the stock, and ½ teasp sugar if needed, and mix well. Bring back to the boil.

Add the prawns/fish, the green capsicum and the sundried tomatoes, and cook until the prawns/fish are cooked. If you prefer, use your wooden spoon to break up the fish when cooked into bite-sized pieces.

Stir the coriander into the curry and serve with rice or naan bread.

tortellini with creamy pesto and bacon

~ maireaddoyle ~ Leave a comment

>Mena and I went to the Melbourne Food and Wine Show and went to a cookery demonstration. This dish blew us away. The creamy rocket pesto is to die for.

Ingredients
625g packet of fresh spinach and ricotta tortellini
6 rashers of streaky bacon, rind removed, cut into strips
400g mushrooms sliced
100g semi-dried tomatoes, thinly sliced
Shaved parmesan

Sauce
½ bunch rocket, ends trimmed
½ cup (firmly packed) continental (flat leaf) parsley leaves
2 garlic cloves
½ cup shredded parmesan
2 tbsp toasted pine nuts
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
125ml buttermilk

Method

Blend first five sauce ingredients till finely chopped

With the blender running add the oil and lemon juice to form a smooth paste

Transfer to a large bowl

Stir in the buttermilk

Cook the tortellini, drain and return to the pan

Cook bacon and mushroom over a medium-high heat for 5-8 minutes until the bacon is crisp

Add the tomatoes and toss through

Combine the pesto, pasta and bacon mixture until well combined

Serve topped with fresh parmesan