Tag: sandwich

Categories
Main Dish

Stop, chop and (hoagie) roll into this week’s fabulous sandwich

The chopped cheese is a regional favorite in New York, and although this version is far from perfect as an “authentic” recreation, it’s still an easy and delicious sandwich, with perfectly cooked ground beef and veggies and lots of melty cheese.
The chopped cheese is a regional favorite in New York, and although this version is far from perfect as an “authentic” recreation, it’s still an easy and delicious sandwich, with perfectly cooked ground beef and veggies and lots of melty cheese.

I inadvertently jumped into the middle of a food controversy this week.

Well, really, it was Joey’s fault. He found a video recently of someone making a sandwich called a “chopped cheese,” and because it looked delicious, we decided we needed to give it a try in our own kitchen.

Upon doing some digging, I came upon a 2016 New York Times article by Eli Rosenberg, outlining the debate amongst some New Yorkers about the traditional dish and specifically whether you can make a gourmet version of the sandwich and still call it a true “chopped cheese.”

“The sandwich, also called a chop cheese—ground beef with onions, topped by melted cheese and served with lettuce, tomatoes and condiments on a hero roll,” Rosenberg writes, “has long been a staple of bodegas in Harlem and the Bronx.”

At a normal price point of $4 to $5, that’s a great, cheap meal in New York City.

Now, regardless of any controversy, and knowing we skipped some of the traditional ingredients, Joey and I pushed forward with making our own version of a chopped cheese sandwich. These were so good, we’ve already made them twice.

This recipe was inspired by a video by online creator “Grillnation,” but Joey definitely tweaked everything into its final version.

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Chopped Cheese Sandwich

The chopped cheese is a regional favorite in New York, and although this version is far from perfect as an “authentic” recreation, t’s still an easy and delicious sandwich, with perfectly cooked ground beef and veggies and lots of melty cheese.
Course Main Course
Keyword bell pepper, black pepper, cheddar cheese, chop cheese, chopped cheese, fresh mushrooms, garlic salt, ground beef, hamburger, hoagie roll, hot sandwich, minced garlic, New York City, onion powder, paprika, provolone, red pepper flakes, sandwich, sliced cheese, yellow onion

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon oil we used canola
  • 1 bell pepper any color, sliced
  • 1 small yellow onion sliced
  • 1 to 1 1/2 cups fresh mushrooms sliced
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 teaspoon garlic salt
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
  • 4 to 6 cloves garlic minced
  • 4 to 8 slices cheese we used cheddar and provolone
  • 4 hoagie buns toasted

Instructions

  • In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add in the bell pepper and onion and saute until they are soft.
  • Add in the mushrooms, and continue to saute for a couple minutes until they start to cook down.
  • In a small bowl, combine the garlic salt, onion powder, paprika, black pepper and red pepper flakes.
  • Split your ground beef into four even parts and flatten each portion to around 1/4-inch thick. Season one side of the patties with half of your seasoning mixture.
  • Move your veggies to one side of the pan and place the four patties, seasoning side down, into the skillet. Season the patties with the remaining seasoning mixture.
  • Using your spatula, chop the patties so that they’re in large chunks but still mostly together. Once the patties are nicely browned (it should cook fairly quickly, since the patties are thin), carefully flip them over to the other side.
  • While the second side cooks, add the minced garlic to the veggies in the pan to give it just a little color.
  • When the patties are almost done, place one to two slices of cheese on each patty. Add an equal portion of the vegetables on top of the cheese, and then scoop the patties onto a toasted hoagie.
  • Serve immediately with your favorite burger condiments and fixin’s.

This does reheat pretty well, so if you don’t need four portions when you initially make the chopped cheese, you can always refrigerate the leftovers for later.

The New York Times notes that while the origins of the chopped cheese aren’t completely known, it likely got its start from someone trying to recreate a Philly cheesesteak with some slightly less expensive ingredients.

Regardless, this sandwich makes for a darn good meal, and it’s just enough different from a normal hamburger to break from the routine. Plus, it comes together quickly—and cheaply—which is a nice bonus.

I’m sure any New Yorker who might stumble upon my column would say that I in no way re-created the iconic sandwich in my own kitchen, and they’d probably be right. After all, there’s a lot of flavor that gets imparted from a well-used grill in a small restaurant, but until I manage to travel to the Big Apple to try the real thing, this will just have to do.

This piece first appeared in print on Feb. 23, 2023.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

Avocado tuna salad pits spouses against each other

Avocado tuna salad is packed with yummy vegetables, along with the creamy addition of Greek yogurt and ripe avocado.
Avocado tuna salad is packed with yummy vegetables, along with the creamy addition of Greek yogurt and ripe avocado.

Joey and I love to prepare meals together. He’s a great cook in his own right, so we take turns with one of us cooking while the other helps with prep work.

Well, that’s most of the time.

For this week’s recipe, I was all on my own. As soon as Joey heard the words “tuna salad,” he was out.

I tried to explain to him that it was mayonnaise free, since he has a very vocal dislike of the condiment, but he said just the idea that tuna salad is normally laden with tons of mayo meant he was going to make himself a nice turkey sandwich for lunch instead.

Oh, well. More for me.

I kind of went rogue on this recipe, but it was inspired by a recipe from Carrie Walder at her blog, “Walder Wellness.” I took her base and subtracted a little and added a little to land on my version. You can find the original post at https://www.walderwellness.com/no-mayo-high-protein-tuna-salad.

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Avocado Tuna Salad

Avocado tuna salad is packed with yummy vegetables, along with the creamy addition of Greek yogurt and ripe avocado.
Course Main Course
Keyword avocado, English cucumber, garlic powder, Greek yogurt, green bell pepper, tuna, tuna salad

Ingredients

  • 5 ounces tuna packed in water
  • 1 medium-sized avocado
  • 5.3 ounces plain Greek yogurt
  • 1/2 cup English cucumber diced
  • 1/2 cup green bell pepper diced
  • 2 teaspoons garlic powder
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Drain the tuna extremely well.
  • In a bowl, mash the avocado with a fork, and then add all of the ingredients. Stir well and then taste to see if there’s anything else you need to add.
  • Serve immediately on bread or as a wrap with additional vegetables as desired (I did mine with fresh spinach and a few more slices of cucumber). Refrigerate any leftovers.

I really, really liked this. I like regular tuna salad, too, but this had a little bit of a tang from the yogurt and tons of fresh flavor from the cucumbers and green peppers.

The only drawback was when I went to eat the leftovers. Because the cucumbers and green peppers have so much water in them, there was quite a bit of liquid in the bottom of my container the day after I made this. I drained it off and still had a great wrap, but I think it was much more delicious when it was first made.

This would also be very easy to customize, depending on your favorite veggies and maybe what’s growing in your summer garden over the next few months. This is already pretty full of protein, but you could add eggs, too, if you wanted a bit more.

I probably won’t ever give up traditional tuna salad, and Joey will still have to deal with having a jar of mayonnaise in the refrigerator for the rest of our marriage, but using an avocado and Greek yogurt instead was a nice change of pace. Plus, it was kind of nice that I didn’t have to share.

This piece first appeared in print on May 5, 2022.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

It’s ‘Tim’ to try a brand new sandwich

The Timbo sandwich is the creation of Tim Daniels, a podcaster, who said he wanted to cement his legacy by creating his own signature sandwich, which features melty cheese, caramelized onions, and a spicy kick.
The Timbo sandwich is the creation of Tim Daniels, a podcaster, who said he wanted to cement his legacy by creating his own signature sandwich, which features melty cheese, caramelized onions, and a spicy kick.

Quarantine has been a strange time for all of us. 

Despite many businesses and people moving to regular operations, especially as some people have been able to receive a vaccine, I still consider myself in quarantine.

Joey and I have a very small group of people in our “COVID bubble,” and socializing has been relegated to either those few, select souls or electronic means. I can’t imagine I’m the only one feeling a bit stir crazy and craving more interactions.

That’s probably why I did something weird this week: I made a sandwich from a podcast I listen to, and I decided to share it with you.

The podcast, “The Complete Guide to Everything,” is the brainchild of New Yorkers Tim Daniels and Tom Reynolds. Every week, they riff on a new topic, and I find the two of them and their dynamic hilarious. Back on Jan. 3, Tim announced that he wanted to use his New Year’s resolution to create a legacy for himself by getting a sandwich named after him. He described his prototype and said it was called the “Timbo.”

Now, over a month later, fans of the podcast have been posting photos of the Timbo online and talking about the creation. It’s a little silly. It’s a little weird. But it’s a way to reach out and interact with someone and something new.

So, this week, I’m sharing the Timbo with you, both to help a long-distance friend I’ve never met cement his legacy and to give you something new to try, too.

You can listen to the explanation of this sandwich on “The Complete Guide to Everything” website at tcgte.com. The episode is entitled “Hot Beverages.” I chose not to tweak the recipe this time, outside of adding some amounts and directions, since I figured it should remain the way Tim envisioned it.

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The Timbo Sandwich

The Timbo sandwich is the creation of Tim Daniels, a podcaster, who said he wanted to cement his legacy by creating his own signature sandwich, which features melty cheese, caramelized onions, and a spicy kick.
Course Main Course, Salad
Keyword American cheese, caramelized onions, pickled jalapenos, potato bread, shredded cheese, spicy brown mustard

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive or canola oil
  • 1 medium-sized yellow onion sliced
  • 1-2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 slices potato bread
  • 1-2 teaspoons spicy brown mustard
  • 3 slices American cheese
  • 1/4-1/3 cup Mexican blend cheese shredded
  • 6-8 pickled jalapeno slices

Instructions

  • In a pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the sliced onions and stir to coat them in the oil. Continue to cook, stirring regularly, until the onions are completely caramelized to a nice, deep brown. (This could take quite awhile, so be patient.)
  • Once the onions are done, remove them from the heat and set aside.
  • Lightly spray a skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium-low heat.
  • While the skillet warms, thoroughly butter one side of each slice of bread.
  • Once the skillet is hot, add the first slice of bread, butter side down, and spread a thin layer of spicy brown mustard on it. Place one and one-half slices of American cheese on the bread next, followed by the jalapeno slices, as many caramelized onions as desired and shredded cheese. Add the final slice and a half of American cheese, and complete the sandwich by lightly spreading mustard on the non-buttered side of the remaining piece of bread, before placing it on top of the sandwich, butter side up.
  • Let the sandwich toast for a couple minutes, flipping the entire thing over when the bread on the bottom reaches your desired level of toastiness.
  • Once you flip the sandwich, press it down firmly with your spatula to compress it. Let the sandwich toast for another couple of minutes until the bread has reached your desired level of toastiness. Remove it from the skillet and serve.

This was actually really delicious, especially if you like things that are just a touch spicy. The flavors melded well, and while it does seem like a lot of work to caramelize onions just for a sandwich, it was worth it, and now I have leftover onions to toss into something else, too.

Joey thought I was absolutely nuts while I was tossing the ingredients for this into the cart on our last shopping trip, but he did have to concede that making a sandwich from a podcast is not even close to the weirdest recipe I’ve tried over the years while writing this column.

Plus, if (and when) the Timbo really does become a worldwide sensation, we can all say we got in on the ground floor of history.

This piece first appeared in print on Feb. 25, 2021.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish

Making pastrami can turn you into a real ‘brisket’ case

Homemade pastrami is a recipe that involves a lot of waiting, but the end result is delicious.
Homemade pastrami is a recipe that involves a lot of waiting, but the end result is delicious.

We have been cautiously returning to eating in restaurants over the past couple of weeks.

We’ve specifically been targeting local places who are clearly working keep their staff and customers safe and healthy.

It was during one of those meals that Joey said to me, “I think we could make this.”

“Oh, pastrami?” I replied, glancing at his sandwich. “Yeah. We probably could.”

He paused, a surprised smile on his face.

“No, I meant this Russian mustard, but yeah, let’s make pastrami!”

I’m always getting myself into things by assuming I know what Joey is talking about. So, instead of presenting you with what I can only imagine is a relatively easy condiment recipe, I’m going to share how Joey and I managed to make pastrami at home.

The recipe we used comes from the blog “The Hungry Hounds.” You can find their original post at http://www.thehungryhounds.com/blog/2014/11/16/homemade-pastrami. I increased a couple ingredients just slightly for the brine, but I mostly kept the ratios the same, since I had never attempted something like this before. I also changed up the cooking instructions a bit.

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Pastrami

Homemade pastrami is a recipe that involves a lot of waiting, but the end result is delicious.
Course Main Course
Keyword brisket, cured meat, deli meat, pastrami, smoked meat

Ingredients

  • about 6 pounds beef brisket
  • 2 cups kosher salt
  • 2 ounces curing salt the stuff I found was called a “home meat cure”
  • 2 quarts water
  • 1/4 rounded cup garlic powder
  • 4 tablespoons black pepper
  • 2 rounded tablespoons onion powder
  • 1 tablespoon mustard powder
  • 1 tablespoon dried thyme
  • 1/2 tablespoon ground cloves
  • Around 2 to 3 tablespoons coarse ground pepper to finish

Instructions

  • In a large mixing bowl or pitcher (something you can pour from is a huge help), whisk the brine ingredients (everything on the ingredients list from the kosher salt to the cloves) until everything is well combined and the salt is dissolved.
  • Meanwhile, rinse the brisket and pat it dry with paper towels. With a sharp knife, slice off almost all of the fat layer that should be on one side of your brisket. You’ll only want to leave a thin layer—maybe a 1/8th inch.
  • Once the meat is trimmed, place it in a deep roasting pan. Take a meat injector and inject some brine every two to three inches along one side of the brisket, inserting the injector about halfway into the meat. (Be careful. I managed to squirt myself in the face during this step because I didn’t insert the injector far enough down.)
  • Pour the rest of the brine over the brisket and cover the top of the pan tightly with plastic wrap. Find a spot in your refrigerator and let the brisket sit for four to five days.
  • When you’re ready to cook your pastrami, remove the brisket from the brine and pat it dry with paper towels. Press the coarse black pepper all over the outside to help make a nice crust.
  • Now, either cook this low and slow on a wood smoker—Joey kept ours at around 250 degrees—or place it in the oven in a roasting pan or on a rimmed baking sheet at 250 degrees for about five hours.
  • (It might take longer, so don’t make any plans while you’re cooking pastrami.) The pastrami is done when the internal temperature reaches somewhere between 195 and 200 degrees.
  • Once the pastrami is done, let it cool down for a couple hours, wrapped in foil, and then you can slice it thinly or place it in the fridge for a bit to make it even easier to slice.
  • If you want something traditional, try this on rye bread with some brown mustard.

This was honestly a whole new experience for me. I’ve never brined anything like this, so it was interesting to see the process. I will say that you want to stick to the timeframe on letting the pastrami brine. We pushed ours to seven days, and it was definitely on the saltier side when it was done. 

But the meat was still really good, and we had some big, thick sandwiches as our celebration for finally finishing a week-long recipe.

And what I’ve learned from this process is that it’s really cute when couples finish each other’s sentences in movies. In real life, when you try it, you’re likely to end up just giving yourself a project.

This piece first appeared in print on Oct. 8, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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