A Sandwich Love Story: Part Two
We need to talk about the Coronation and billionaires in pretend-space.
Listen, I have nothing against vegetarians. I aspire to be one, but a good roast chicken dinner is pure joy to me. Nothing against vegans either, but man…eggs. Food of the gods. So you’d think I’d be onboard with King Charles’ Coronation dish, because I dies for a good quiche. But like…if I was throwing the biggest, fanciest dinner party of my life, and had to cook one dish that would be immortalized in the annals of history for all eternity, I would not make a FUCKING QUICHE WITH BROAD BEANS.
Imagine everyone showing up at your place in their finest regalia, to a party that happens once every 70 years and all you give them is a wedge of quiche and there’s not even bacon in it. I call bullshit. Look at how cool we are! We’re serving a vegetarian meal with British ingredients! We’re so sustainable and with the times! Beans are great, and yes, we should all be eating more of them instead of meat, but nobody’s buying the idea that putting them in a quiche for the King’s Coronation is going to solve anything, so just make rack of lamb and be done with it.
I’m no royal watcher (just the royal food, and okay the Harry and Meghan doc on Netflix) but you’ve got to hand it to Liz. Her Coronation Chicken is still a fav sandwich filling today, and I’m only assuming that curry in anything in the 50s in Great Britain was the heights of progressiveness, let’s face it. You’ll find thousands of versions on the internet, but here’s mine. No measurements, just handfuls of this and that and tasting till you get it right.
A large handful of chopped up leftover roast chicken, some halved grapes, some golden raisins, chopped up green onions and cilantro, a heaping tablespoon of mayo, salt and cayenne pepper, ½ a tsp or so of Madras curry powder, a squeeze of lemon juice. Mix it all and have it on some nice buttered bread.
And yeah, go ahead and make fun of raisins, haters. I used to be one of you. Oatmeal raisin cookies? Please. I also used to hate fruitcake and marmalade, and now I’m the middle-aged marmalade snob who’s hogging the jam aisle taking a half hour to choose between the Seville Orange or the Scottish Whisky (get out of my face with your Smucker’s). You’ll give raisins another chance. Just like that nerd in high school who’s now a silver fox divorced dad of two that you never considered in your youth, but in your forties he’s a warm, sweet, chewy treat when you’re cold and lonely on a Friday night, after alllllll those chocolate chips have sickened your guts and given you too many cavities. Oh, you’ll come back to raisins all right.
Anyway, speaking of the Monarchy burning to the ground, let’s cook sandwiches on a fire! It’s no news to anyone who’s had the energy to follow the food blog for its first twelve years of life (hi Mom and Didi) that for me, food cooked on a fire beats anything cooked in an indoor kitchen. Head out to the beach, assemble a good sandwich, warm it over a fire, boil some water, make a cup of tea, eat that sandwich while you’re looking out over the ocean? Sorry space billionaires, you’re missing out. My boil up beats your 11-minute “trip to space” any day. And as Justin very wisely once said, going to space and back in 11 minutes is like pulling into the Capital Hyundai parking lot on Kenmount Road and saying you went to Mount Pearl. Ok, suuuuuure you went to space.
Try these fire sandwich hacks on your next boil up. Toss some shrimp in Cajun seasoning, bit of minced garlic, lime zest and lime juice. Season carefully, because Cajun seasoning usually has salt, so mind yourself. Pack some nice buns and your fav condiments (I like to make a quick cilantro mayo, with some lettuce and sliced tomatoes), and make sure the things like shrimp and mayo are in a cooler-type situation. Common sense is important here, so don’t come crying to me when you stick a jar of Hellman’s in your backpack on a 30-degree day, hike five hours into the woods and then wonder why the whole thing ended so badly.
Cook the shrimp on one of those handheld grills, over some wood that’s burnt down a little bit into some semblance of cooking coals, and they won’t take long at all. I like to toast the buns a little on a rock that’s close (not too close) to the fire while the shrimp are cooking. Assemble fire sandwich according to your preference.
Sometimes when Justin does the grocery run, I tell him to pick up some “fun meat”. You know, no chicken, no ground beef, something we wouldn’t normally have on hand. He came home once with some pre-marinated Korean pork belly; pre-marinated is not normally my jam, but it does in a pinch when you want a quick fix without having to order out, so I try not to beat myself up too much. We slow cooked two of these things and they were massive, and as anyone well-versed in pork belly knows, it’s the most amazing thing in the world but eat too much and it will take days to recover. So I sliced what was left and froze it in a Ziploc bag. We took it out a few weeks later for an afternoon fire in Outer Cove, grilled the pieces until they were crispy, and had them on little toasted brioche buns with some mustard. A surprise hit. As simple to make on the beach as a hot dog and great with a cold beer.
A Korean bulgogi marinade is an easy way to make your own “fun meat” and if you’re in a hurry there’s no shame in the premade stuff; we grabbed a bottle of this at one of the local Asian groceries a while back and use it all the time when we make a last minute decision to run to the beach for supper. Thinly slice some moose steaks (do this while they’re still a bit frozen) and let the strips of meat sit in the marinade in the fridge for a few hours, or even just the half hour it takes for you to prep the rest of your boil up gear before heading out the door. Use your handheld grill and sear the meat quickly, being careful not to overcook because moose meat gets tough real fast (don’t be scared of rare, and try not to cook past medium rare). Put the meat on a buttered bun with some nice mozzarella, and if you have the patience you can wrap it in foil and warm it in the fire like an oven sub, or put it back on the grill to warm it through until the cheese melts. It’ll take a bit of work, but the wait will be worth it.
And finally, I leave you with a little nugget of sandwich wisdom I had to learn the hard way. If you’re having a breakfast sandwich on a bagel, don’t toast it too long. When you cut through the whole thing, the crunchy bottom will force you to cut extra hard at the end, spilling the entire contents out the side.
Not quite a tragedy, just a bit messy, and still super tasty. Sandwich life lessons! Happy eating, chickens. Xo
