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| Chorizo Roasted Red Pepper Sauerkraut Mustard Sandwich: up close an personal |
Ever since I made these hamburger buns from Not Without Salt, I’ve been thinking about the idea of food on a bun. After all, one batch made 20 buns, and it takes a long time for two people to work their way through a pile like that. It’s a good problem to have.
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| Hamburger buns – these freeze well. Just slice them in half first so you can pop in a toaster to thaw. |
There are hamburgers, of course. And I’ve had both grilled chicken breast and grilled salmon filet on buns. There are always Sloppy Joes, but I don’t actually like them, so I only eat them when I am somewhere where good manners require that I consume at least one.
Hamburger buns, with their stable but soft structure, make a great foundation for all kinds of sandwiches. My experiments this week led me to two: one for breakfast and one for lunch.
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| Breakfast Sandwich with grilled nectarines and sparkling Strawberry Hull Juice |
For breakfast, I made a version of an English Muffin egg sandwich, and used a softly scrambled eggs that were mixed with chopped chives, topped with shredded cheddar, and pushed into a shape that loosely resembled a burger patty. I toasted the buns in the toaster, buttered them lightly, placed the egg round, some sautéed yellow peppers, a generous bunch of lettuce, and spread the top of the bun with a generous spoonful of Kicked-up Ketchup. Ooh la la! I’ll be making that one again. Probably during some upcoming camping trip. And don’t forget the ketchup. You need the ketchup here – though salsa might work in a pinch, or else Tomato Jam.
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| Cherry Red Grill Pan. Great Sizzle. Love those grill marks. |
For lunch, I grilled up Chorizo sausages and sweet red pepper halves up on my new kitchen toy: a Le Creuset Soleil Grill Pan that I picked up at the local thrift store for €7 when I was shopping for beat up pots and pans for our camping trip. We can’t have a grill on our apartment balcony, so I’ve been dreaming of some viable alternative. Excellent. Here we go: I’m going to be grilling everything. Fish! Nectarines! Watermelon! Sweet Peppers! Eggplant! Seriously. Summer food is just a little bit better with grill marks, is it not? So get yourself one of those. You’ll be making up excuses to cook on it.
But back to the sandwich. Toasted bun. 1/2 grilled red pepper. Sausages: 1 1/2 per sandwich. Sauerkraut. Whole grain mustard with a hint of tarragon (I’ll need to post a recipe on this one later – too good to be true – you’ll be layering it on everything. But until then, the recipe I made is roughly based on this one). This was Fusion Cuisine at it’s finest – I wonder with the French, Spanish and the Germans would think of their flavors cuddling up on a bun like that? It worked like a champ. So much flavor, great match of textures, and the little bit of charring from the grill added extra charm.
What kind of meals are you making on a bun?
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Not the most perfect looking egg round, but put the two halves together and nobody will know…
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Egg & Yellow Pepper Breakfast Sandwich
1/2 yellow pepper, sliced into strips
1 tablespoon of butter
2 tablespoons fresh chives
3 eggs
pinch of salt
2 slices of cheddar cheese or 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
2 large lettuce leaves
Kicked-up ketchup
2 hamburger buns
Heat a frying pan over medium heat. Add the yellow pepper slices and fry until the just begin to soften, about two minutes. Take the pepper slices out of the pan and put them aside on a plate.
Toast your hamburger buns; set aside.
Melt the butter in the pan and add the chives. Allow them to cook for a few minutes. Beat the eggs and salt in a small bowl. Pour them into the pan with the butter and chives. Stir gently until the eggs are nearly cooked through. Divide the egg mixture in half and use your spatula to form them into patties. Flip once, and then put the cheese on top the egg rounds. Let it melt.
Place an egg round on the bottom of each hamburger bun. Top with a lettuce leaf and half of the yellow peppers per bun. Spread Kicked-up ketchup on the top half of the bun. Place on top of the rest of the sandwich. Sit down and enjoy.
Serves 2.
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| Lunch! Chorizo sandwich and a nice garden summer salad. |
Chorizo Roasted Red Pepper Sauerkraut Mustard Sandwich
3 Fresh Chorizo Sausages,
1 red pepper
1/4 cup / 1/2 dl sauerkraut
2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
2 hamburger buns
Grill or pan fry the Chorizo sausages until they are cooked through and slighly charred – 15 to 20 minutes.
While the Chorizo is cooking, Slice off two opposite sides of the red pepper so you have a large, slightly rounded slice. Place these on the grill with the Chorizo and cook until both sides of the pepper are nicely charred, about 10 minutes. Remove the red pepper from the grill to a plate, cover with a bowl, and let it sweat and cool for 5 minutes. Remove as much of the peel as you can. Don’t worry if there is some left, it won’t hurt the flavor.
Toast two buns, either on the grill, grill pan, or in your toaster. Once the sausages are done cooking, slice each one in half. Place one slice of grilled pepper, three sausage halves and half of the sauerkraut, in that order, on the bottom bun. Spread mustard on the top of the bun and place it as a lid on the sandwich. Enjoy with a large green salad.
Serves 2.
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| Can’t you almost taste this? You should. Go make one! |