A Damn Good B.E.A.T.

Courtesy of my sister and brother-in-law.  This is an amazing sammich.  It's one of those things that simply defies being labeled.  I would be as excited to eat this for b-fast as I would for dinner.

Thanks guys!

Anderson B.E.A.T.

4 slices bacon

2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

Good bread (baguette or similar), 

4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature

1 teaspoon minced fresh parsley leaves

1 teaspoon minced green onion

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

2 large eggs

4 slices tomato

1/2 avocado, peeled, pitted, and sliced

Directions

In a small skillet, cook bacon over medium-high heat until crispy. Remove from pan, and drain on paper towels. Drain grease from pan, reserving 1 tablespoon.

Spread butter over each side of bread. Place 4 slices of bread, butter side down, on skillet over medium heat. Flip bread and toast the other side. Remove to serving plates.

In a small bowl, add cream cheese, parsley and green onions together. Add salt and pepper. Spread onto 1 side of each bread slice.

In same small skillet, fry the eggs in reserved bacon grease over medium-low heat. Crack the yolks and flip. Place each egg on top of 2 pieces of toast. Cover each egg with 2 slices of bacon, 2 slices of tomato, and 2 slices of avocado. Top with another piece of bread and serve immediately.

Envy, Adoration and Sour Grapes?

Pain Porc @ Cafe Claude. This is as illustrative way as any to draw out my true feelings toward the French kitchen.

Envy. All you gotta do is taste this sandwich. Perfectly fresh. Perfectly balanced. Perfect.

Adoration. It's a roasted pork tenderloin sandwich. I know that all parts of the pig are good, but there's a reason the saying is 'livin' high on the hog'. Sure a buttress, ham or even a loin would be fantastic. But it's just so French to use tenderloin. Kinda like a Foie burger or frying pommes in duck fat. Just a better way of doing things...health, food cost, and whatever else be damned.

Sour grapes? Well, not really. Replication is not easy. Perhaps it's that food always tastes better when someone else makes it, but that's not it in this case. That's just what I continue to tell myself as I try to wrap my mind around how the hell they manage to make this perfect sando.

No, sour grapes it isn't. I'm not trying to rationalize why I don't want it. Rather, I'm trying to convince myself not to break into the place under the cover of darkness to try and figure out the secret. Did Aesop ever write a fable about epicurean-related B&E?

If you're ever in SF, give it a go. If you're let down, you're wrong.

Always A Classic

As I was making my breakfast sandwich this morning, I was thinking about simpler times.  To clarify, I was thinking about last week.  Those times were simpler, as I have recently gone grocery shopping and now have more choices from which to draw the goods that will make up my b-fast sando.  

No, friends, last week was much simpler.  What I had on hand then was 2 pieces of toasted white bread, a fried egg cooked in butter, a slice of melted cheddar and a piece of ham.

This might be the cheapest way to encapsulate and manifest the word 'yum'.  And, it can be done for under $.25.

Pretty amazing...

Lemon Juice and Feta Vinaigrette

1/4 Cup Lemon Juice (gotta be fresh squeezed)

1 T Sugar (to cut tartness)

2 Cloves Garlic

1/8 Cup Parsley Leaves

1/8 Cup Lemon Thyme

Zest of 1 Lemon

1/3 Cup Feta Cheese

1/2 Cup EVOO

Blend.  Add S&P to taste.

Advantage...Pig!

So a while back I quickly threw up my top 5 fave sangwiches.  I am now remiss that I didn't more clearly explain my thoughts to myself then, and have since given the context of my choices much more reflection than I should.  Huh?

Sure...I went in for the the sandwiches that, on that particular day, I was wanting.  And, granted, they were good calls.  But the best sandwich - I mean really the best sandwich -  has gotta have a porcine element to it.  It's kinda like playing tennis with someone better than you.  It's elevates your game (read: sammy) to a higher level.  Without pig, you may have a good sandwich.  This is true.  But I guaran-f-ing-tee that you add swine and that wonderful creation goes from 'this is good' to just shy of 'get back or I'll kill you'.

Pork, much like Feta Cheese (but surely more-so), just makes savory things better.  Hell, I reckon pork would make sweet things better, too, but I don't eat sweets, so I'm gonna have to leave that up to discussion by someone else.

Getting back to the program, maybe it's the saltiness.  Nah, that can't be it.  Just adding salt to something doesn't achieve the same affect.  

Maybe it's the unctuousness.  Perhaps, but lean loin is pretty GD tasty.   

Maybe it's something really cool that I don't even know about.  

Yes, Frank Ricard, indeed it must be.  If ignorance is bliss, then ignorance + bacon = shangri-f-ing-la.

As I move forward, I will be mindful of my deductive surmises that have illustrated nothing.  Nothing that didn't already know.  Porc is the best thing going.  Everything else is simply battling for second place.

Meat, Cheese, Bread, Perfection.

Tired, stressed, hungry and a little bummed. This sums up my attitude last Thursday night.

Tired, as I had been up since 3am, driving to and from Fresno, CA where I was tasting our newest pasta sauce production.

Stressed, as I had just approved 12,000 jars of sauce to be run, and wasn't sure that the tastes were exactly what I wanted.

Hungry, as I had foregone eating anything substantial 1.) to help keep my palate intact, 2.) because I simply ran out of time.

A little bummed, as I was 30 minute away from my reservation at the French Laundry, knowing full-well that I was likely going to devour anything that made its way onto my table. This was not going to be me carefully tasting the delicate and thoughtful expressions that are a cornerstone of the restaurant. Instead, this was going to go down a la the 'I just took a huge bong rip and now I can't cram this shit into my pie hole fast enough' approach.

Enter my wife, to save the day, with a baguette, prosciutto and pepper jack cheese. No condiments. Basic.

The take-away was 2-fold.

1.) My wife is the best, coolest, most rad person that I have ever met, and I feel like the luckiest person alive to have her in my life. Being more tired than I, she - without a moment's hesitation - was gone and back with a simple solution to the problem.

2.) Less can be more.

Without the addition (perhaps distraction?) of flavors typically provided by mustards, dressings, sauces, vegetables, etc. I was able to focus on the 3 ingredients. Bread, ham and cheese. Balance was found. This sandwich was perfection at that time. Often times I find myself so embellishing the hell out of sandwiches, that I lose sight of why they can be great. Simplicity, of course, is the answer.

Although not always right for every situation, I will definitely be more inclined to simplify things if this is the end result. I just need to continue to remind myself to do this. Just use the simplest, freshest and best ingredients. Let the food do the work.

Hmmm...seems like I've heard that somewhere before.

Caribbean Aioli Recipe

1/4 cup lime juice

1/8 cup white wine vinegar

2 t kosher salt

6 T garlic, minced*

6 fresh habanero peppers, minced (less chile is OK, but less chile = less heat & less fruit note)

6 peppercorns, crushed

1 tsp fresh thyme

1/2 cup EVOO

Whisk first 7 items together.  Once well blended, slowly add EVOO while whisking.  Garlic is a natural emulsifier, so it will take, but your arm(s) might get tired.  Resist the urge to add egg or mustard.  (If you want to get sleezy, use a blender on low speed.)  Taste.  Correct the salt content, as needed.  Refrigerate.

*Fresh garlic is going to taste different than the jarred stuff.  It will be a milder flavor that will grow over time.  It most likely, however, will not ever reach the amplified mega-garlic flavor of the jarred stuff, as that usually has citric acid to help preserve it.  Citric acid sharpens tastes.  Depending on the application, I vary between fresh and jarred.