BLTs with Roasted Red Pepper Mayonnaise

There are many cooking-related things that I have never done before- for example, I've never baked bread, made hollandaise sauce, made a crepe, or made homemade mayonnaise.  All of these things intimidate me for one reason or another, and so many of these things made it onto my resolutions list for the new year.

After perusing Joy the Baker one day (if you haven't visited her website, do so, it's awesome!), I came upon a post on the best BLTs, complete with roasted red pepper mayonnaise.  BLTs are such a great thing to make in the summer when the tomatoes are fresh, and you don't want to use your oven.  The only cooking involved is cooking the bacon (which you can cook in the oven, but I do on the stovetop for the most part).  I figured her roasted red pepper mayonnaise was just the thing to kick these already delicious sandwiches up a notch, and give me the drive to make my own mayonnaise.  I was so surprised at how easy it was- if you have a food processor that is (someday I'll try making it by hand).  That's one resolution I can now check off my list!

Roasted Red Pepper Mayonnaise

from Joy the Baker, originally adapted from Fat

Makes about 1 cup

Ingredients:

1 large egg yolk

3/4 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tsp lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

1 roasted red pepper, coarsely chopped (jarred, or homemade)

3/4 cup canola or grapeseed oil

Directions:

1. Combine the egg yolk, mustard, lemon juice, and roasted red pepper in a food processor.  Mix about 30 seconds.  Add a pinch of salt and pepper and blend again for a couple seconds.

2. With the food processor running, slowly add the oil.  It'll start to emulsify fairly quickly, and it will take about 1-2 minutes to thicken to mayonnaise consistency.  Taste and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Notes:

• The leftover mayonnaise can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator and will last for 3-4 days.
• The recipe makes a good amount, so you'll probably will have a good amount leftover, depending on how many BLTs you are making. You could use the mayo on any type of sandwich or burger, as a dipping sauce for potato wedges, in egg or potato or chicken salad, as a dipping sauce for artichoke leaves..... whatever you want!!

BLTs

Ingredients:

Good bread, toasted

Bacon, cooked

Tomato, sliced thinly or thickly

Lettuce (romaine, iceberg, butter, Boston....)  I used some lettuce from my garden!

Cheese (optional)

Roasted Red Pepper Mayonnaise

Directions:

1.  Ummm... so you don't really need instructions to make this sandwich!  Just take your toasted bread, slather it with mayo, and top it with bacon, lettuce and tomato (and cheese if you want).  Eat and enjoy!

Sausage and Pepper Subs

Up until a few years ago I had it in my head that I hated sausage.  The only types of sausage I would eat were certain kinds of breakfast sausage, and chorizo.  I have a feeling that my aversion to sausage mostly stemmed from the way they looked, rather than the taste- although I must have tried some kind of sausage at some point when I was little- I did learn the lesson of "never judge a book by it's cover", you know.  Anywho, at some point a few years ago, I was at a party where one of the dishes was a dish of traditional Italian sausage and peppers.  Not wanting to be rude, I took a small amount onto my plate, and tried the tiniest bit, and lo and behold, it was delicious, so delicious that I went back for more, and more.  Since then, my aversion has mostly disappeared! (Except for those weird looking white knackwursts and blood sausage- someday maybe.....)

So.... sausage and peppers- delicious, n'est pas?  ....and when I saw that both Italian pork sausages and bell peppers were on sale this week, it seemed like fate was pushing me in that direction.  I've never made sausage and peppers before, so I scoured the web for a recipe that sounded good, and there were plenty.  I knew I wanted to make sandwiches with them since I had purchased two amazing tasting mini garlic-herb baguettes from Whole Foods, and so I was also looking for a specific sausage and pepper recipe having to do with sandwiches.  I finally came upon one on foodnetwork.com from Rachel Ray- before you scoff, now she may be annoying at times, but every recipe of hers I have ever tried has been good, and the idea of getting dinner on the table quick is always welcome when you usually don't get home from work until after 5.  Also, this recipe called for a few hot cherry peppers, and spiciness always calls out to me, so I couldn't look away... and these were excellent, so my stomach walked away satisfied.

Sausage and Pepper Subs

Serves: 2-3 (2 large servings with leftovers, or 3 reasonable servings)

Ingredients:

1 pound hot Italian sausage

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

2 large garlic cloves, minced

1 large onion, thinly sliced

2 bell peppers (red, orange or yellow, or a combination), seeded and thinly sliced

Salt and pepper

2-3 jarred hot cherry peppers, finely chopped

3 tbsp hot cherry pepper juice, from the jar

Rolls for serving

Directions:

1. Pierce the sausage casings with a fork, and place them in a large skillet.  Add 1-inch of water to the pan.  Bring to a boil, and then lower the heat, cover the sausages, and simmer for about 10 minutes.

2. Heat another (preferably nonstick) skillet over medium heat.  Add the oil, and then garlic, onion, and bell peppers, to the pan.  Season with salt and pepper.

3. Drain the sausages, and return them to the pan, raising the heat to medium-high.  Add a drizzle of oil to the pan, and cook the sausages until the casings are brown and crisp- turning every so often to get all sides.  Remove the sausages, cut into 2 inch pieces at an angle, and put the sausages back into the pan to sear on all sides.

4. Add the sausages into the pan with the pepper and onion mixture.  Add the hot cherry peppers and pepper juice to the pan.  Mix together.

5. Serve on rolls, toasted if desired.

Source: Adapted from Rachel Ray via foodnetwork.com

Notes:

• Rachel Ray's original recipe calls for a mixture of 2 cubanelle peppers and 1 red bell pepper.  This would be great as well, but I didn't have any cubanelles on hand.  This recipe lends itself to any combination of peppers you want though.  You can do green, red, yellow, orange, cubanelle- even poblano would probably be good.  Also, in place of the hot cherry peppers, you can use banana peppers or pepperoncini.
• The original recipe calls for 3/4 pound of sweet Italian sausage, and 3/4 pound of hot Italian sausage, for 4 servings.  By all means, feel free to use a combination, or all hot or all sweet if you want.  Chicken or turkey sausage would be great as well, although they aren't as fatty, so a little more oil for cooking may be needed.  

Buffalo Chicken Melts

There is a wonderful restaurant near where I live, Mortensen's.  It's a casual establishment that started out as a dairy, then started making  ice cream, and this eventually morphed into a casual restaurant where you seat yourself and only cash is accepted.  They still sell the ice cream they make themselves, with about a bazillion awesome flavors, and the best Ice Cream Sundae known to man- the Peanut Butter Brownie Supreme- a couple (2,3,4- who's counting) huge scoops of whatever ice cream you want (chocolate is my pick), with peanut butter sauce, hot fudge, whipped cream and a cherry, all on top of a warm brownie.  It is divine.  Someday, when I get an ice cream machine I will attempt to recreate this masterpiece (or I suppose I could just buy chocolate ice cream at the store), but for now I'll stick to the food.  Whenever I go, my food of choice is the buffalo chicken melt.  It's messy but oh so delicious, and so after getting this sandwich too many times to count, I thought to myself... hmmmm.... this is something that should be relatively easy to recreate.  Grilled or sauteed chicken breast with buffalo sauce with Swiss cheese melted on it, on toasted sourdough bread... with lettuce, tomato and mayo, and served with a side of blue cheese dressing.  They serve it with fries on the side- some of the most delicious fries I've ever had.

This is a messy dinner, but I think that's okay sometimes!  Just keep lots of napkins handy.

Buffalo Chicken Melts
Serves 1- infinity (but the hot sauce mixture is good for about 4 sandwiches)


Ingredients:
For chicken:
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts pounded thin, or chicken cutlets
Olive Oil
Paprika
Chili Powder
Salt
Pepper
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup Frank's Red Hot (or other cayenne pepper sauce)

For Sandwiches:
Swiss Cheese
Sourdough bread, sliced
Lettuce
Tomato
Mayonnaise
Blue Cheese Dressing

Directions:
1. Heat about 1 tbsp olive oil in a skillet (you can use nonstick if you have a working one) over medium-high heat.
2. Season both sides of chicken with salt, pepper, paprika and chili powder.
3. Add chicken to skillet.  Cook about 3 minutes on each side, until chicken is done.
4.  Melt butter in microwave (30-45 seconds until melted, but has not exploded- keep a close eye on it!).  Add hot sauce to butter and mix.  It may congeal a little if the butter is way hot and the hot sauce is cold.  That's okay, just put it in the microwave for about 15-20 seconds, and stir.
5. Add the chicken to the hot sauce mixture, and turn to coat.
6. Heat a nonstick skillet, or griddle over medium heat.
7. Butter each side of your bread, and place one piece butter side down.  Place chicken on bread and then Swiss cheese on top of the chicken.  Cook as you would a grilled cheese sandwich- a couple minutes or so, until brown on one side, then flip and brown the other side.
8. Repeat as many times as you want, depending on how many sandwiches you are making.  On a big griddle you could cook more than one at a time.
9. When done, add desired toppings- lettuce, tomato, mayo, and serve the blue cheese dressing on the side to dip the sandwich to.  Or you could do as my boyfriend does and replace the mayo with blue cheese dressing instead of dipping.

Source: Inspired by Mortensen's Restaurant in Newington, CT, and slightly adapted from Rachael Ray's Hot Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

Notes:

• So my sandwiches were a little plain as my lettuce went bad, and I used my tomatoes to make Mexican rice, but sometimes being plain is okay, and these sandwiches were more than okay.  My boyfriend, Ron, doesn't like to put any veggies on his sandwich anyway- he says he's through fooling himself about trying to be healthy.
• When seasoning the chicken you can leave out the paprika and chili powder if you want.  It's not necessary as the hot sauce gives plenty of flavor, but I like it because it just kicks the chicken up another notch.
• Make sure you watch your sandwiches as they are grilling closely.  If you walk away and forget about them, they may burn.... not like I know from experience or anything.  P.S. They can be messy to flip, but you'll get the hang of it.
• I think fries on the side are a perfect accompaniment.  I served these with Chipotle sweet potato fries because they are my personal favorite.
• I've been cooking these in a pan because I like the flavor that the toasted butter gives, but you can certainly pop them in the oven once the sandwiches are assembled (minus the veggies and mayo), to melt the cheese instead, and I'm sure they'd be less messy.  If you do this, I'd suggest toasting the bread first, then putting on the chicken and Swiss cheese, and then just putting them in the oven for a few minutes until the cheese is melty, and then assembling them.