Showing posts with label sandwich. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sandwich. Show all posts

Thursday, August 12, 2010

The Best of the School Lunch Menu, Part I: MEATBALLS! MEATBALLS!! MEATBALLS!!!

Around the time of our triumphant return to Ohio, Luke and I stumbled upon a rather glorious idea; an idea too exciting, heartwarming, and tasty-sounding to pass up.  We also realize that due to our prolonged absence, we managed to miss the anniversary of this fine blog's formation.  We are therefore retroactively declaring a prolonged Conquista-holiday!! And with it, a prolonged theme for the next few entries, similar to our Soup Month! (except we're not sure how long we can milk this thing, so we're not calling it a "month," per se.)

The theme, as you have probably divined from this post's title, is "The Best of the School Lunch Menu."  Surely you remember it*: there you are, sitting in class about to break for lunch. You lean across the desk to your friend and ask if he remembers what's for lunch today. "Uhh, I think it's walking tacos." And just like that, DING! Your day is suddenly that much brighter!
*Note: If you don't remember it, just trust us. It's good stuff.

The first item to be tackled (lovingly) was the humble meatball sub.  In true Conquistador fashion, we happened to find a bag full of precooked meatballs in the freezer, so we got some nice big Italian steak rolls on our next grocery visit.  Most houses usually have some tomato sauce of some kind sitting around (we used an 8oz can); apart from seasoning for your sauce, these three components are really all you need.  I regret that we did not make the meatballs ourselves.  It wouldn't have been difficult, but like I said, we used what we had.

The only part of this creation that really required any "cooking" was the sauce, so that is where we urge you to incorporate your own unique style and choice of seasoning.  It just so happens that our style usually involves Buffalo sauce. With a few pinches of sugar, several shakes of grated parmesan cheese, some ground black pepper and some Italian seasoning, our sauce turned out quite zesty indeed. 

Assembly of this meal probably doesn't need to be explained, but I will do so anyway.  Place some provolone slices in your buns and lightly toast them. (We used a toaster oven on the "keep warm" function.)  Once your sauce has been seasoned and heated, plop a few meatballs in your sauce pot and roll them around until they are nice and coated.  Place the meatballs in your sub(s); our steak rolls held four meatballs each.  Finally, spoon out the sauce that remains onto the meatballs, drenching them in zesty saucy goodness.  Here is a brief overview of our course of action:

1. Heat meatballs.
2. Mix and heat spices and sauce in saucepan.
3. Add a slice of provolone to each sub and lightly toast.
4. Combine.
5. Consume.

As you can see by the expression of sheer euphoria, the subs were quite a success.  We made them in the space of about 20 minutes, and the ingredients were not difficult to come by at all.  I would highly recommend this to anyone to make at any time; it's an exceedingly simple and supremely satisfying meal, and there is even some room for experimentation in the seasoning of the sauce.

Be prepared for the next exciting installment!  Seeing as we are bound by the unbreakable Conquistador Code of Secrecy, we cannot reveal what we're planning for our next venture.  Fortunately, the Code mentions nothing about leaving big obvious hints:

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

GQ's Ultimate Summer Sandwich: Tomato Revelation


So this month's issue of GQ had a recipe for a summer sandwich* which can only really be enjoyed best for a short time - the simple tomato sandwich. I thought I'd be able to find the recipe on their site to post on here but I searched with no avail... I guess I'll manually post it... it isn't exactly difficult to produce.

- Two slices of country white bread - Don't use normal sandwich bread, I tried and it is simply two small and frail to really support the large tomato slices
- A few of the multicolored tomatoes that are in season (but only for the next month or two) - I chose a green, a red, and a yellow tomato, but you can mix them up. Just be sure to have variety
-Mayonnaise - I used light Hellman's but I don't suppose it matters too much
- Sea salt
- Ground pepper

And that is it. Basic ingredients, but a very seasonal (and fairly healthy I imagine) sandwich with a lot of color. Take your bread, toast it. Spread the mayo on the bread while it is still hot to release some of the oils. Slice your tomatoes about 1/4" thick; I put one green, red, and yellow slice on each piece of bread. grind a generous bit of sea salt and pepper on top. Eat open-faced. Enjoy.

I had my doubts about this one... tomato alone seemed a bit boring and a bit, well, squishy... but I was surprised how good it was. The salt and pepper augment the natural flavors, and different colors of tomato do have distinct tastes based on acidity, sweetness, etc. I liked it, and as I still have a good bit of the tomatoes left, I'm sure I'll be trying it again... consider trying it yourself. It's only summer for so long...

*Credit to Andy Ward of GQ for the original article which spawned this experiment