I just finished a sandwich that’s so incredibly good but so incredibly simple that I’m moved to post about it.
Last week, the grocery store had rib roasts on sale. Y’know, the things that would be labeled “Prime Rib” but it wasn’t prime, and it wasn’t incredible expensive, so I bought one. Roasted it up to perfectly medium rare last week, then shaved the leftovers as thin as I could and threw 'em in the fridge.
A couple weeks ago, I had a baguette from our local French bakery that we didn’t eat quickly, so I threw it in the freezer. I pulled it out this morning and thawed it.
So lunch today was the leftover beef, on a slice of baguette, with mayonnaise and horseradish. Holy shit, was it good. The frozen baguette was as good as the day I bought it - light & chewy inside, crisp crust. The beef was flavorful and had just enough fat to make it unctuous. Horseradish gave it just enough of a bite. And mayo, well, mayo is always wonderful, even the stuff from the jar. (and, because this is the Dope, I will specify - it is NOT Miracle Whip!)
Simple - but the quality of the ingredients made it out of this world.
So what’s your simple-but-good recipe? Let’s keep it to five ingredients or less, just because I say so.
A good tortilla, lightly browned, some spiced refried beans with peppers and onions, plenty of grated cheddar cheese, a softly scrambled egg and some enchilada sauce or salsa; roll it up and you have the PERFECT breakfast, a worthy rival to any 3 star Michelin bistro meal…
Pork tenderloin, sliced and stir-fried in a little vegetable oil; drain off extra oil when cooked and liberally pour in Teriyaki sauce and stir meat through this to coat it, and then put in frozen or fresh vegetables of your choice. Stir all this to the sides, add in a little water in the (empty) middle and cover a couple of minutes. Uncover, remove as much water as possible, and add in yet more teriyaki and stir. Serve over rice.
Altogether, lunch or dinner in less than ten minutes.
Steam sweet potatoes in the microwave until cooked through. Scrape them out of their skins and mash them. Add cinnamon. I mean a LOT of cinnamon. Mix. Eat. Enjoy.
Tomato sandwich using freshly picked tomatoes, two slices of white bread, mayo, salt and pepper. The kind that you have to eat over the sink because tomato juice is running down your arm. Yum.
Whole cleaned trout, split down the middle. Brush the inside with olive oil, salt and pepper, then stuff with lemon slices and sage leaves. Close it back up, wrap it with bacon slices like a mummy, seal it with toothpicks, and grill until the bacon is crispy.
Bake a big potato. Fill it with drained canned corn, a little butter, salt and pepper and top with hot pepper cheese. Heat in microwave until the cheese melts.
A good tomato sandwich is indeed a thing of beauty. I prefer mine with butter instead of mayo, but the same idea - tomato, bread, salt, pepper, butter. Toasted is also heavenly (and worth the sore mouth afterwards).
Steamed fresh green beans with a little pepper bacon for seasoning. Sugar and Cream sweet corn, picked from the garden and shucked while the water is heating, barely cooked and topped with a little butter, salt and pepper. A sliced Big Boy or Beefsteak tomato, still warm from the sun, cottage cheese and a little salt and pepper. Sliced cucumbers and onions in cider vinegar.
I can’t wait until my local garden produce is at the farmers’ market.
Many suburban bakeries in Australia are run by Vietnamese families. Nearly all of them sell pork rolls and chicken rolls. They have all the ingredients ready and assemble one in no time at all. Bánh Mì are a Vietnamese staple and are far, far better than the sum of their parts.
My favorite simple thing though is what I had last night - a steak sandwich. Two slices of tasty bread, really good steak and nothing else. I eat a bowl of steamed vegetables either before or after like a separate meal so as not to interfere with the pleasure of the steak sandwich.
I’m gonna vote for the tomato sandwich too. I hope to find a good source of real tomatoes this summer, because a tomato that has been grown for flavor rather than its ability to be transported and sit on a shelf is amazing, and are really only available during the summer. A real tomato will bruise and get overripe too easily to be shipped away from its local growing area.
My source of tomatoes should be my backyard. My husband didn’t have gardens when he was growing up, so when I introduced him to home-grown produce, he was an instant convert.
My husband and I kill pretty much any plant life that comes in contact with us. We’re grateful for dandelions in our yard. I used to have a neighbor with a green thumb, and I would pay her for her backyard produce. She loved gardening, and I love fresh vegetables, and she was retired, so it was a win/win situation for us.
