Saturday Sandwich 77: Lomito Sandwich

The Lomito is a South American sandwich which often has a variety of fillings. It has one of my favourite things, a fried egg. :)

 The first thing to make was this sauce made up of garlic, shallot, chili, herbs, red wine vinegar and lime juice.

 Fry a couple of steaks.

On a toasted bread roll layer up the steak, sliced cheese, sliced ham, a fried egg, onion and tomato then the sauce on the top.

It was a pretty nice sandwich apart from that steak is difficult to bite into in a sandwich. The fried egg was great along with the cheese and onion but the ham seemed superfluous when paired with the steak. Also, steak on a sandwich is better cut into slices or chunks, not just a whole piece of steak as on this sandwich. After having so many sandwiches, either we've become sandwich snobs or we've come to one of the ultimate truths about what makes a good sandwich: less ingredients. This had 8 ingredients, and would likely have been better with half that number.

Ratings: JD - 2, Emma - 2

Coming Up Next Saturday: Nothing, we're having a break from sandwiches because we're going out to eat. What a life we lead! :D

Lovesick? or Actually Sick?

I feel worried for young people these days. Song lyrics have always exaggerated the symptoms of love and  in the 1950s Peggy Lee claimed love gave her a Fever. Fever when you kiss me, fever all through the night - pretty bad if you don't realise you could actually have Glandular fever which lasts 2-3 weeks.

Nowadays songs have a host of dangerous symptoms misleading our youth. Olly Murs is encouraging kids to ignore arrhythmia with Heart Skips A Beat and  Kelly Clarkson thinks it's clever to make light of Stroke symptoms in Heartbeat Song with the lyrics "I've got pins and needles on my tongue anticipating what's to come". Disgusting!

As if that wasn't bad enough now there's a song called Can't Feel My Face by The Weeknd  instigating teenagers everywhere to expect face numbness when they're with someone they feel attracted to. In actual fact it's a symptom for multiple sclerosis and needs to be taken quite seriously. I like a catchy song lyric as much as the next person but won't somebody please think of the children.

Saturday Sandwich 76: Coronation Chicken

Invented in 1953 to celebrate the Queen's Coronation this sandwich is now mostly found as a pre-packed sandwich variety I usually avoid because it has sultanas in it. This recipe has no sultanas to be seen though, hurrah!

Ingredients: chicken, onion, mayo, yoghurt, mango chutney, bread, curry powder, lime and sliced almonds

 
Saute the chopped onion and the chicken with a tablespoon of curry powder.

 

 Mix yoghurt, mayo, mango chutney, lime juice, salt & pepper to make a dressing. Mix the chicken/onion and dressing, throw in a few almonds and sandwich between two slices of your favourite bread.

I was surprised how great this sandwich was. The curried chicken was delicious and the dressing made for lovely moist sandwich. A bit too moist really making it a bit drippy and messy, still great though. All the flavours in the dressing went well with the chicken, especially the mango chutney. I imagine everyone thought this sandwich was quite exotic in 1953. A nice twist on a chicken sandwich I'd eat again.

Ratings: JD - 4, Emma - 4

Next Saturday - Lomito

Saturday Sandwich 75: The Cuban Sandwich

The Cuban Sandwich comes from Cuba and has been popular in southeast America where Cuban immigrants settled to work in cigar factories. Sadly we couldn't get any Cuban bread so we had to settle for paninis instead.

Ingredients: roasted pork, ham, swiss cheese, gherkins, mustard and paninis

The pork needs to be marinaded in orange and lime juice with garlic, onion and salt & pepper overnight and then cooked the next day to be ready for the sandwiches.

Open the paninis and put mustard on each side. Fill with the roasted pork.

Add the ham, cheese and gherkins then fry in butter in a pan. Use something to press down on the sandwiches so they get toasted. Cut in half diagonally and eat.

This is possibly the best sandwich we've eaten so far. The roast pork was unbelievably delicious on it's own and it was hard not to eat it all while we made the sandwiches. Gherkins and mustard are a classic combination that add a tasty tang to the sandwich. The paninis were crisp but not too thick so you could enjoy the fillings. The cheese was melted perfectly and went well with the juicy roast pork. The pork was full of flavour from the garlic and citrus juices added, even the fat was delicious. So delicious that JD had it in his sandwich too. The ham didn't add much to the sandwich and could've been left out. It's one of those instances where taking the time to marinade and cook the pork is just so worth it. It makes this sandwich.

Ratings: JD - 5, Emma - 5

Next Saturday - Coronation Chicken Sandwich

Saturday Sandwich 74: Picnic Loaf

This one looks like a good one, an entire loaf of bread stuffed with meat, cheese and vegetables all ready to take on a picnic. We're not actually going on a picnic but we're eating this picnic loaf anyway :o

Ingredients: loaf of bread, pesto, salami, mozzarella, peppers, courgette, sun-dried tomatoes, oil and garlic

Slice up the peppers and courgette. Put them in a bowl with a teaspoon of minced garlic and a slug of oil. I feel strongly that anything to do with food shouldn't be called a slug.

 Hollow out the loaf of bread to give you a cavity for stuffing food into it.

 Put a layer of pesto on the bottom of the loaf and then start layering up the other things.

 Saute the vegetables until soft and then add them to the loaf. Finish layering and replace the top.

Wrap the loaf in clingfilm and put your handy kitchen skull on the top to press it down. Leave for an hour or so at room temperature.

I was pleased to make this sandwich because I like all the ingredients. Usually these sandwiches with lots of ingredients have something like olives or capers in them. I really liked the taste of the peppers with the mozzarella. It was a hard sandwich to eat, the top wasn't secure and kept coming off. It's a nice way to eat all the food groups at once though. JD wasn't keen on it being room temperature and said it'd be better cold or hot even.

Ratings: JD - 2, Emma - 3

Our Cola Taste Test

JD and I have done this before with only 4 different drinks so we thought it'd be fun to get the kids involved and make it harder. Could we tell the difference between 8 different cola drinks?

Let's see!

JD poured some of each into 8 different cups/glasses and kept a note of which was which. We tasted each one and made our choices.

Then JD revealed how we'd done.

I'd thought 2 other colas were Cherry Coke before I finally decided on which one I was certain it was. Not a very impressive result.

Then we emptied the cups, muddled up the drinks and let JD have a turn at tasting.

After all the results were in JD was declared the winner!

JD - 4/8
Emma - 2/8
Leigh - 2/8
Erin - 2/8

I'd at least managed to work out which was Cherry and Vanilla Coke, the kids had no idea. JD impressively got twice as many right as us but admitted he was just guessing.

It's really hard to tell the difference between the regular, diet or max/zero colas. I felt like I'd know the difference between Diet and regular Coke but even drinking one then the other it was impossible to tell which was diet and which was regular.

Soda companies go to a lot of effort to make each cola variety seem very different. Everyone has a preferred cola drink but is it for the taste or because of the packaging/marketing. Diet varieties are usually targeted at women and Max/Zero varieties aimed at men. You're given the illusion of choice when really all the colas hardly taste any different.

After we'd finished Erin enjoyed mixing them all together to make a Super Cola. While JD and I decided that we didn't even like cola that much.