Waiting for summer and a to die for sandwich
Posted on Saturday, January 26, 2013
This morning the agricultural fields looked like they had been drenched in a thick blanket of snow but it was just an illusion for what was a dense layer of fog. The scene itself was ghostlike and beautiful. That's been the norm the last week or so. The cold frost has made public transportation commuting quite miserable and even bundling up in several layers leaves me consistently shivering wishing to be buried under warm covers and snuggled in bed. I don't think I can call myself a true Canadian, I would never survive the snow!
This frigid weather has me dreaming about the warmer months. I have delegated a good portion of my kitchen counter to starting the summer crops from seed. I jury rigged the light system and it's working pretty well keeping the seedlings from getting too leggy and falling over.
During the summer months when the tomatoes, eggplants, basil and eggs are flowing I usually craft a mean pesto drenched, fried eggplant, tomato tapenade sandwich (open faced or closed) and throw an over easy egg on there for protein intake sake and to use up the massive amounts of eggs my chickens lay during the summer. In the winter months I sometimes get a craving for those days of bountiful tomatoes and eggplants and wish the store bought tomatoes didn't taste like crap so I could recreate.
The other night I recreated a version of this sandwich and there are no words to describe how amazing it tasted. Here's the recipe:
Rosemary Bread
adapted from Food.com
1 Tbsp yeast
1 Tbsp sugar
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp rosemary, chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
Directions:
Mix yeast, sugar and water in a bowl or in stand mixer and let stand for 5 minutes or until it's good and bubbly.
Mix in olive oil, salt and 2 cups of flour. Add 1 Tbsp. rosemary and knead for 10 minutes by hand or with a bread hook in the stand mixer. Add more flour if necessary.
Oil a bowl, add the kneaded dough and cover with a towel. Let it rise until it has doubled in size. Punch the dough down and divide in half.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and form the two halves into elongated loaves on the baking sheet. Sprinkle the remaining rosemary over the loaves and gently press into the dough.
Let the loaves rise again for about 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 375F
Bake 15-20 minutes
To Die For Sandwich
Note: There are quite a few ingredients that go into this sandwich so it's not for the "quick I need to eat now" venture. It takes some time to prepare.
Part 1: Caramelized Onions
1 onion, chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
Heat olive oil over medium-low heat, add onions and cook stirring frequently until they begin to turn brown.
Part 2: Fried Eggplant
Heat 1 Tbsp. olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat
Slice eggplant into 1/2 inch rounds. Fry eggplant in oil for 2-3 minutes each side.
Part 3: Spinach Pesto
In a food processor blend the following:
2 cups spinach leaves
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup walnuts
pinch of salt
drizzle olive oil into food processor just until the pesto becomes creamy in texture.
Part 4: Sundried Tomatoes
** I rehydrated some tomatoes I had dried in a dehydrator using boiling water and then towel dried them but any store bought jar of sundried tomatoes would work.
Part 5: Fried Egg, over easy
To Assemble:
Cut the loaves in half so that they form two sandwich halves. Generously douse each side in spinach pesto. Throw a few slices of fried eggplant and a few sundried tomatoes on the next layer, top it off with the caramelized onions and fried egg. Then, I drizzled it all with some balsamic vinaigrette and Tapatio hot sauce, put the lid on the thing and called it a day!
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