Summer sandwiches

 

My family really likes sub-style sandwiches. Our favorites come from Great Outdoors, and a take-out order from them has frequently been our dinner. One of the treat things is that everyone can choose different ingredients—and believe me, we all have different tastes.

I don’t mean to take business from Great Outdoors—I’ve been a steady customer too long—but on our recent weekend at the lake, Jordan proved we can do similar sandwiches ourselves. She rocked it! Here’s what she did:

Ingredients

Bread – 6” sub roll is traditional, but Jordan used hamburger buns, and I have made single sandwiches on slider buns. You could use ciabatta, too.

Mayonnaise or olive oil

Lunch meat – your choice. The Burtons like pastrami, while I prefer turkey and ham, but there are several varieties of salami, pepperoni if you like it, etc.

Cheese – again, your choice. Christian and I like provolone; Jordan and Jacob prefer cheddar

Sliced tomato

Thinly sliced red onion

Chopped iceberg lettuce – sprouts would be good too.

Red wine vinegar – or vinaigrette (see below)

Sprinkling of dried oregano

Directions

Here’s the big thing we learned: spread the insides of both top and bottom breads with either mayo or olive oil, to taste—this provides a barrier so that the sandwich ingredients don’t make the bread soggy.

Layer ingredients in the order listed above, piling on as much as you want, but don’t settle for a single piece of ham and a single piece of cheese. You want a hefty sandwich.

We topped our sandwiches with a red wine vinaigrette that I happened on to in a recipe for salmon one night. It was so good on the salmon, we decided to use it lots of places.

Red wine vinaigrette

¼ c. olive oil

2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 clove garlic, peeled and then pressed

1 tsp. Dijon

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

A variation of the sandwich makes use of Thousand Island dressing. At Fort Worth’s Colonial Country Club, it was called the Colonial Country Club sandwich. It’s no longer on the menu, but you can ask for it by name and the kitchen will fix it. I’ve been making it occasionally for myself for years.

Ingredients

Rye bread

Ham

Turkey

Provolone

Thousand Island dressing

Toast the rye, layer the ingredients, and top with a generous amount of dressing. There may have been a hard-boiled egg, sliced, but I don’t do that. The sandwich was always accompanied by cole slaw, but I bet topping it with slaw or chopped lettuce would be a good addition. I don’t, however, much like bottled Thousand Island, so here’s a recipe for home-made.

Ingredients

1 c, mayonnaise

¼ c. ketchup

2 Tbsp. sweet pickle relish (dill will work if that’s your preference)

1 tsp. cider vinegar

1 small onion, diced fine

Pinch salt and pepper

I intended to do a combined blog about summer sandwiches and salads, but this has gone on too long. Salads next week.