Sandwich of the Moment

posted in: Ruminations | 8

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open face: roasted red pepper, basil and swiss cheese tops a homemade no-knead slice of bread

I can’t express enough what a good grilled sandwich-making bread the No-Knead Bread recipe makes. It’s just meant to be: the perfect crackling, lacy froth of bubbles around the bread’s crust that crisp up to a delicate network of texture, the chewy, slightly moist and yeasty taste of the bread’s core that perfectly soaks up a sandwich’s flavors.

I still haven’t stopped baking this bread, and I usually have a portion of a loaf on hand every day. This is a good thing, even if there’s carbs inside me fighting to get out since I never exercise. After a couple of days, though, I’ve noticed that the bread takes on a pretty rigid character, as most any would. But it’s such a hard fall going from beautifully pillowy and crusty bread when it’s fresh one day to a mono-textured, tough lump another day. That is, unless you toast it up with some sandwich makings inside.

Lately, I’ve been taken by my broiler oven, as it crisps up the bread so well in such quick time. In this photo, I topped a slice with roasted red peppers, a couple of basil leaves, and a slice of swiss cheese. After all of 2 minutes in the broiler, the cheese had melted like glue and the bread was crunchy around the edges and moist in the middle, sort of like a pizza. I sprinkled a little pepper on it and had as a light summer dinner alongside a green salad dressed in a simple soy sauce-minced garlic vinaigrette and topped with a soft-boiled egg. Delish. Ben had the same thing only with two slices of it smashed together with a panini press on the grill. Next time I’m having that, too.

8 Responses

  1. Aoife
    |

    That looks delicious. I never have the patience to toast my sandwiches, but with pictures like yours for motivation, maybe I’ll finally get on it. I like the idea of egg on salad, although I don’t believe I’ve ever had one soft-boiled.

  2. michael
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    Soft-boiled eggs are the shit! I’ve only got an electric stove in my tiny new apartment, and the one thing it does perfectly is soft-boil and egg. Just boil the water, pop in the eggs, then turn it down to 100 deg. Celsius, put the timer on for 5 minutes… and presto! A runny delicious egg.

    By the way, speaking of sandwiches, I’m thinking of opening a sandwich shop in Korla sometime in the next couple of years. Guess what I’m gonna call it? “The Sandwich Factory”, like that old dive on South Orange Ave. that close like 10 years ago.

    The restaurant isn’t so much to make money as just to have a place where I can eat lunch and breakfast the way I like it, without doing it myself.

  3. Yvo
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    Your picture looks so lovely and delicious. What kind of wine did you have with it? Yum!

  4. cathy
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    It was actually a really good cold chardonnay. I’d highly recommend it for sandwich pairing, if I could only remember its name. 🙁

  5. Andrea
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    NY never lets me down they have some of the best sandwiches!!!

  6. Raya
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    If you are having trouble with stale bread, I learned that you can put the offending bread in a paper bag, spritz it with water, and microwave it. The moisture will “steam” the bread back to life, if only just for one more sandwich 🙂 In some cases, I tried it without the paper bag and had comparable success.

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