Open-faced sandwiches for a quick, easy, and cool summer supper

 

Sophie keeping an eye on the cook in the kitchen.
After all, sometimes a bit of cheese falls on the floor.
Accidentally, of course.

The French have mastered the technique for this treat they call a tartine. Sounds sophisticated, but it’s really what you and I know as an open-faced sandwich. No, I didn’t need my fictional character, Irene, to teach me that. I’m a big fan of these easy-to-fix meals. All you need is a piece of bread and something to put on top of it. But it’s not that simple.

First you need a good piece of bread—artisan breads are probably just right. Sometimes a good, sturdy piece of rye is the best accompaniment for your toppings. In France, they trim the crust off bread for tartines. Recently I made an open-faced sandwich with the sourdough bread I love, but the crust proved difficult to cut. Trimming is good idea. You want to toast the bread and then give it a coating that will not only add flavor but will be a barrier between the toast and the toppings to prevent sogginess that might come from, say, sauteed vegetables. For a breakfast sandwich, spread butter or jam or cream cheese. At lunchtime, try spraying with olive oil or smearing with hummus or mayonnaise.

Vegetables deserve a dressing too, even if it’s a simple vinaigrette or lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste. Be sure vegetables are thinly sliced or diced so that they are easier to deal with. And things that might roll off, like capers or sliced scallions? Put them first on the bread, so the schmear will act as glue to hold them.

Finally, arrange the ingredients attractively—I keep quoting my mom who said food is half eaten with the eye. Think of the sandwich as a small chaucuterie board. What looks good next to what?

When you think of an open-faced sandwich, what comes to mind? Avocado toast? Lox and bagels, especially since I like mine on a slice of Jewish rye? A Kentucky Hot Brown? The possibilities are almost endless. Here are two I liked: one a new non-recipe I just found and served, the other a classic I’ve ordered and made for years. Caution: you need a knife and fork to eat these.

First, the new:

Roast beef and blue cheese open-faced sandwich*

(for one sandwich, amounts approximate and you can vary to taste)

Bread – I used sourdough but didn’t trim the crusts and wish I had; rye would also be good

Olive oil

Roast beef – deli style, thin-sliced about ¼ pound or two or three slices

Mayonnaise – 2 Tbsp

Fresh horseradish – 1 Tbsp.

Blue cheese – ¼ cup, finely crumbled

Fresh beet, steamed or roasted – about ¼ cup, finely diced

Simple vinaigrette – 1 Tbsp.

Watercress leaves – ½ cup

Toast the bread and spray it with olive oil. Combine mayonnaise and horseradish and spread mixture on toast; layer roast beef, blue cheese, beets. Drizzle vinaigrette over sandwich. Top with watercress.

And the classic. Years ago, this was served at Colonial Country Club but was not on the menu (that may still be the case—I don’t know). You had to ask for it. I have since approximated it at home many times. This is from memory, so it is a bit vague:

Rye bread

Baked ham (not smoked) – 2 deli slices

Roast turkey – 2 deli slices

Swiss cheese (or provolone) – one large slice

Thousand Island dressing, either homemade or bottled – I am sure Colonial had a house-made sauce, but I find this a good substitute. Use enough to cover the sandwich, but don’t drown it.

Hard boiled egg slices to decorate – (optional)

This is pretty self-explanatory. Just layer it as listed in the ingredients, but be sure to toast the bread and spray with olive oil.

Serve with a pickle spear.

*This was a description, not a recipe, published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The idea is attributed to Linda Gasserheimer

 

Lock your car doors!

 

We have what I call “night visitors” in my neighborhood—people who visit driveways in the wee hours of the morning, testing car doors to see if they’re locked. So when I read a warning about locking car doors and telling your neighbors to do so, I took it seriously—at first. But it morphed into that old joke that if you don’t lock your car this time of year, your neighbors will slip in zucchini and squash from their over-abundant gardens. It’s true. This is the time of year when the supply is inexhaustible. So here are two more recipes that I really like, these for side dishes rather than the main entrée.

If you remember eating at a Black-eyed Pea restaurant, you no doubt remember the squash casserole. (I used to love the vegetable plate at those restaurants and was really sad to see the last one disappear from Fort Worth—there are apparently still two in Arlington TX.) The squash casserole is one of those dishes I tried too many times to make without a recipe, overly confident that I could achieve the same results. It was always too soupy or had too much bread filling. I finally gave up and followed a recipe. This may not be the Pea version, but it’s close.

Summer Squash casserole

1 lb. yellow summer squash, chopped

¼ c. water

¼ c. diced onion

2 Tbsp. butter, divided use

½ tsp. salt

1 egg, beaten

¼ c. dry breadcrumbs

Pepper to taste

½ c. shredded cheddar cheese

Bring squash and water to boil in a saucepan. Simmer, covered, for about fifteen minutes. Remove from heat and set aside. Drain if necessary. Meantime, sauté onion in one Tbsp. butter until soft and slightly caramelized. Add to squash. When the squash is cool, stir in the egg, breadcrumbs, remaining Tbsp. of butter (melted) and pepper. Spoon mixture into a small baking pan and cover with grated cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 350 for 20-30 minutes until heated through and cheese is melted.

This zucchini casserole could almost be called a variation of the same recipe. Although it calls for Parmesan, I’m confident you could substitute cheddar if you wished.

Zucchini casserole

3 c. sliced zucchini

¼ c. sour cream

1 Tbsp. butter, melted

1 Tbsp. grated Parmesan

¼ tsp. each salt and paprika

1 beaten egg yolk

1 Tbsp. chives or finely chopped tops of green onions

Topping:

2 Tbsp. breadcrumbs

3 Tbsp. Parmesan

½ Tbsp. melted butter

Steam squash to the degree of tenderness you want, remembering it will cook more when baked. (If you like crunchy slices, you might want to leave it raw.) Mix sour cream. Melted butter, Parmesan, salt and paprika and heat until cheese melts. Let mixture cool a bit and then stir in beaten egg yolk and chives or green onion. Mix with zucchini slices. Spoon into buttered baking dish

Mix topping ingredients and spread evenly over the casserole. Bake uncovered at 350 for 30 minutes or until topping is browned.

Share with the neighbor who gave you the zucchini!

Summer salads

 

Last week I meant to write about summer sandwiches and salads, but I got so carried away with sandwiches, I figured tacking on salads would be courting bored readers. So, today, here’s my take on salads.

We like them a lot as a one-dish light supper. Even the meat-and-potatoes man among us likes a salad. Two of our favorites are Big Mac Salad and a home-made version of taco salad.

Big Mac salad

Big Mac is just what it sounds like—all the ingredients of a Big Mac, except in salad form. Crumbled hamburger, grated cheddar, chopped tomatoes, pickles, red onion diced or in rings, chopped head lettuce. Dress it with Thousand Island. You can use bottled, but if you do I recommend one of the “designer” brands like Marie’s. Better yet, make your own—my recipe was in last week’s Gourmet column.

My version of taco salad

Taco salad is a flexible thing, and you can pretty much add what you want. But I had a recipe from a long-ago friend that my kids grew up on: Susie K’s Salad. It’s the inspiration for my version of taco salad.

1 lb hamburger

1 envelope taco seasoning or make your own (homemade does not have preservatives and it’s easy, using spices you have on hand)

1 can beans – I like pinto, the rest of the family likes black

Grated cheddar

Chopped tomatoes

Chopped head lettuce

Onion – either red or diced green onions

Dressing – Christian insists on the classic Catalina dressing, which I find too sweet; the seasoning on the hamburger is enough for me, so I take mine out and then dress the rest with Catalina.

Fritos – here’s the important thing about Fritos: add them individually to each serving. The rest of the salad will keep a day if there are leftovers, but the Fritos get mushy and awful.

Make your own taco seasoning: 1 Tbsp. chili powder; 1 tsp. garlic powder; ¼ tsp. onion powder; ¼ tsp. oregano; ½ tsp. paprika; 1 tsp. cumin; 1 tsp. salt; 1 tsp. finely ground black pepper; Crushed red pepper to taste, optional

Store it in the freezer between uses.

Wilted lettuce

           The first time I mentioned wilted lettuce, Christian look appalled. But when I fixed it, he liked it a lot. This is one my mom used to make with fresh leaf lettuce from Dad’s garden. To me, you just fry some bacon and save the grease. Tear lettuce into a bowl, add green onions if you want. Pour warm grease—yes, warm!—over the greens, add enough vinegar, and crumble bacon. But in order to write about it, I went online and looked up proportions. Four or five pieces of bacon should produce enough bacon and grease for a salad for four; the online recipe called for two Tbsp. red wine vinegar and 1 Tbsp. lemon juice. I substituted three Tbsp. apple cider vinegar, and it tasted just like Mom’s.

The best-ever blue cheese salad

Jordan and I can make a meal of this: Christian and Jacob, not so much. But it truly is the best blue cheese salad I’ve ever had. The salad goes together backward and is best if you use a seasoned, unfinished wooden salad bowl. Over time this salad will season the bowl even more.

Garlic clove, split

Salt, pepper

Dry mustard

Crumbled blue cheese

Cider vinegar

Olive oil

Rub the salad bowl thoroughly with both pieces of the split garlic clove and then with salt, pepper, and dry mustard. Not a whole lot of any spice, particularly the mustard. You may have to experiment and find out how much is right for you. Crumble blue cheese into the bottom of the bowl. Add maybe a fourth cup of vinegar—and mush the cheese around in it with a fork, until you have a thick liquid. Add olive oil. Remember, the classic proportions are one part vinegar to three parts olive oil. This is Jordan’s salad, and she makes it for us, but sometimes she gets it a little bit stout. Also it’s easy to make too much—if you start with too much vinegar and then balance with the oil, you sometimes have enough to make salad soup. Just pour some off and save it in a refrigerator container. You want the dressing to coat every bit of the lettuce but lightly.

Add torn lettuce and toss. You might taste and adjust as needed.

A final note: Jordan wants to fix blue cheese salad every night; I want to vary our salads, and I experiment with lots of dressings. But recently I read a rave review of Trader Joe’s Goddess Dressing and bought a bottle—haven’t tried it yet, so this is an untested recommendation.

For fall back, we like Newman’s Own Classic Oil and Vinegar (not the vinaigrette with balsamic vinegar). For a light lunch, cut up a bit of tomato, carrot, onion, cucumber; add enough cottage cheese to sort of hold it all together, and douse it with Newman’s Own. It’s another of those dishes that gets out of hand easily, and I sometimes end up with huge servings.

Have a cool summer eating salad!

 

What are we having with that?

Summer Zucchini Bake
sorry, but I took a serving out before I remembered to take a picture

Choosing a side dish goes way beyond, “You want fries with that?” At my house, we plan meals ahead (not that we always stick to the plan) by making a list of main dishes—stir-fry, steak fingers, chicken casserole, fish, what have you. But too often we come right up on time to cook, and Jordan and I look at each other and ask, “What are we having with that?” The simple answer, for us, is almost always, “Salad.” But sometimes that’s not enough, and we want a real side dish.

Here are two that I find quick and easy yet light enough for summer. One is an old stand-by; the other something I just happened across.

The old stand-by is Louella’s Rice. This came from my oldest friend, Barbara Bucknell Ashcraft. (not her age that makes her old but the length of our friendship—we have probably known each other since sixth grade). Her stepmother was Louella, and she made this rice dish. Note that it is uses Minute Rice—I never use instant products if I can avoid it, but  it works best in this case. The recipe also calls for a prepared can of soup—again, I prefer to make my own, but the canned version works well here.

Louella’s Rice

1 cup Minute Rice, uncooked       

1 can cream of celery soup

1 cup sour cream

1 cup grated sharp cheddar

1 4 oz. can  chopped green chilies

Mix it all together and bake it at 350 for 20-30 minutes, until rice is cooked. Serves four nicely. Sorry, usually not any leftovers.

The other recipe makes use of summer’s abundant zucchini crop. Have you ever had a zucchini vine in your garden? If so, you know the desperation of what to do with all that harvest. Some have been known to leave bags of zucchini anonymously on the doorsteps of friends and neighbors. Next time, tuck this recipe with the bounty.

Summer zucchini bake

One medium zucchini, washed and slice in ¼” rounds

For the sauce:

1 Tbsp. butter

¼ cup sour cream

1 Tbsp. grated Parmesan or Pecorino

¼ tsp. salt

A good pinch of paprika

1 egg yolk

1 Tbsp. chopped chives (optional)

For the topping:

2 Tbsp. breadcrumbs

3 Tbsp. grated Parmesan or Pecorino

1 Tbsp. butter

Lay zucchini slices in an oven dish in a single layer as much as possible. In a separate skillet, melt butter. Add sour cream, grated cheese, salt, and paprika, and cook over low eat until it is a smooth sauce (two minutes or so). Remove from heat and stir in egg yolk and chives if using. Spread over zucchini. It will look like there’s not enough sauce, but it really works out.

Mix breadcrumbs and additional cheese and distribute evenly over zucchini and sauce. Dot with remaining butter. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes or until topping is golden brown.

And that’s what’s for supper!

Cold summer soups

            Once the weather turns hot, there’s little better for a light supper than a cold soup followed by a salad. The choices are endless—spring pea soup, watercress, gazpacho, white gazpacho, cucumber, avocado, zucchini. I once had a recipe for cold corn soup with bourbon—wish I could find it again. Sometimes soups are fruit-based—peach or watermelon come to mind.

Cold soup always makes me think of my former mother-in-law. She came from Romania as a very young child and lived all her life in the Bronx, only venturing to Texas a few times to visit her son, then my husband. Once we took her to one of Fort Worth’s upscale restaurants—this was in the early seventies and there were only two, maybe three such places in addition to private clubs. Vichyssoise was on the menu, and Joel asked his mom if she’d like some. She said she didn’t know what it was, and he inelegantly replied, “Cold potato soup, Ma.” Her eyes got wide, and there was horror in her voice when she answered, “Could potato soup? I couldn’t.” And she didn’t.

Recently I found a recipe for okroshka, a traditional Russian cold soup of vegetables and a cooked meat in a base that was, historically, something called kvass, a nonalcoholic beverage made from fermented black or rye bread. The meat could be beef, veal, sausage or ham. Sometimes the soup was garnished with sour cream. Later versions used kefir, a fermented milk beverage like a thing yogurt, and there lies the foundation for today’s updated version of this soup.

My version used buttermilk and Greek yogurt (plain, full fat) diluted with a bit of water as the base. I made half the original recipe, served it to one guest, and happily ate leftovers for almost a week. It’s one of those things you kind of always want to keep in the fridge for those summer moments when hunger strikes and you want something that doesn’t require cooking.

For timid eaters, who might be put off by okroshka, you can always call it cold cucumber soup.

Cold cucumber soup (serves two with lots left over—or at least six at one seating)

Dice and combine in a large bowl:

1 medium Yukon Gold potato, boiled, cooled, peeled and diced

2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and diced

1 small cucumber, peeled and diced

1 cup diced meat (I used chicken, but I think ham would also be good; beef might be too heavy)

4 radishes, cleaned and sliced thin

3 green onions, sliced

In a separate bowl, mix:

2 cups plain Greek yogurt

2 cups buttermilk

2 cups cold water

1 lemon or lime, scrubbed and sliced thin

½ tsp. Kosher salt

You can just as easily use 4 cups yogurt or 4 cups buttermilk or kefir if you can find it in a specialty market. I liked the mixture          lot.

Pour the liquid mixture over the vegetables. Stir and chill before serving. At serving, garnish with chopped parsley if you like.

            Summertime, and the livin’ is easy! Enjoy!