sandwich Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Pechluck's Food Adventures

Watercress Sandwiches

March 30, 2013 by Pechluck 1 Comment

I am a big fan of watercress- it has the round leaves of spinach and comes in nice bite size pieces so you don’t have to cut the leaves beforehand, and the leaves and stems are tender. The taste has the spicy pepperiness like arugula but not as mustardly or with a bitter undertone- more like a hint of wasabi. It is perfectly a mix of both worlds. I was surprised when browsing the PSU Portland Farmers Market on opening day that I saw that one of the stands already had watercress, and I was excited to have this still healthy alternative to all the kale in the market.

I use watercress wherever I might use spinach or arugula, usually slightly wilted on top to finish off a dish. Watercress Sandwiches are one thing I do use these greens for that I do not use spinach or arugula. I have also made watercress and orange soup before, and look forward to making this watercress cauliflower soup from Martha Stewart with my next batch of watercress.

Ingredients:

1 cup of watercress, plus more for garnish (I used another 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup parsley leaves, chopped
1/4 cup butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese or Neufchatel cheese, or tofu cream cheese
2 tablespoons chives, chopped
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper
Sliced bread, or baguettes or crackers, etc as your vehicle… The original recipe calls for 8 slices of regular white bread which you remove the crust and then cut into quarters to make tea sandwiches. I used thick artisan bread and made open face sandwiches instead.

Directions:

Finely chop 1 cup of the watercress and parsley together. I admit the original recipe is 1/2 cup, but I wanted more watercress flavor. Then blend these with butter, lemon juice, cream cheese, chives, and ground pepper. Blend until the mixture is smooth.
Let the mixture alone to develop the flavors for 30 minutes at room temperature, or chill overnight and let come to room temperature later.
Spread the watercress cheese mixture on the bread too make into sandwiches. Use the other 1/2 cup of watercress atop the watercress cheese spread bread (I took this photo after topping the right side, but I topped the other side too).

Easy yum! Obviously I made an open face sandwich because I was using thick Fressen Artisan Jogger bread (with Unbleached White Flour, Yeast, Sea Salt, Pumpkin Seed, Flaxseed, Sesame Seed, and Sunflower Seed) and I wanted to extend every bite of the thick seedy bread with watercress. If you are going to close the sandwiches, for aesthetic purposes consider making sure some of the leaves are along the edges so it can be seen when you close the them. Slice diagonally into quarters, and you can add any extra little springs for garnish on top of the sandwiches too if you’d like.

For some English fanciness, serve these on sandwiches that are cut into small bite size pieces with no crusts, on a platter with egg salad sandwiches and cucumber and dill cream cheese sandwiches, and some tea.

You can also put these on baguettes or crackers for your vehicle of this watercress cheese goodness to your mouth.

Filed Under: Cooking, Food and Drink Tagged With: cream cheese, Fressen bread, Jogger bread, recipe, sandwich, watercress, watercress sandwich

Soup, Salad, a Sandwich at Picnic House

October 1, 2012 by Pechluck Leave a Comment

It seems that it is suddenly autumn. A week or so ago, it was 90 degrees and humid, still summer. Now, the mornings are brisk and dewy cool so that you need a jacket and layers, and the dusk and darkness of night falls sooner and sooner. Crunchy leaves are littering the ground, and the geese are already here on their way to apparently California?

Since Picnic House has opened, it has become a regular stop every 2 weeks or so. Most of time on the way home, F will grab my favorite Nutty Brown Rice Salad, a mix of crunchy brown rice and roasted cauliflower, carrots, turnips & sweet peas in a roasted hazelnut vinaigrette, while he rotates through the salads himself depending on his mood. It’s a huge salad- enough for two meals on its own. After a stop at Benessere Oils and Vinegars store (where I cannot resist, even though I already know the specific flavor infused olive oil I want, to taste 4 other olive oils or balsamic vinegars), we met up to actually eat there among the charm.

With the cool breeze rustling the leaves around the South Park Blocks, soup and a sandwich sounded like just what we needed for some warm comfort. The summer corn and sweet pea soups have been replaced, although this being Oregon full of tall shady trees and rain making fungus plentiful all year ’round, the wild mushroom soup is still on the menu. He had the roasted tomato soup topped with basil cream and fresh oregano, not pictured. Meanwhile, I went with the spiced pumpkin soup, topped with cranberry cream and chipotle peppita seeds.

The dinner entree is listed as “Soup and Grilled Cheese” entree… but which bonus surprise! comes with a small salad too. The spiced pumpkin soup was very mild in terms of seasoning, presenting mostly soft creaminess as you would expect from any cousin squash soup. The cranberry cream and chipotle peppita seeds gave it some interesting depth of a bit of tart and crunch here or there. With the doughy melty grilled cheese, it was a little too much, so I had the soup and sandwich separately while taking bites of the arugula salad (along with gorgonzola bits and candied pecans) to cut through that richness. F had no problem dipping his grilled cheese into his roasted tomato soup though.

Picnic House, Soup, Salad, Sandwich

Filed Under: Food and Drink, Restaurant Review Tagged With: picnic house, salad, sandwich, soup

Sandwiches at Morso

June 22, 2012 by Pechluck Leave a Comment

This small storefront just across the street from Powell's Bookstore main building used to be Mio Gelato, but recently reopened as Morso, still serving some options of Mio Gelato but also sandwiches and salads, as well as beer and wine options.

The Morso bread is fluffy soft and absorbant but not so thick you have to tear at it with your teeth to get your biteful, perfect for holding in the thick interiors of their sandwiches as seen below, a cold sandwich of Dungeness Crab with avocado, bacon, tomato, which was ok, but the better of the two was the warm sandwich of Chicken with fontina, tomatoes, pickled onions, pesto. These would be great to grab for a summer picnic…

I did notice I had to wait a while for my sandwich (15 minutes) so it doesn't seem like they are quick grab and go stop though, or at least aren't staffed that way- there were more servers it seemed than food prep/makers. For what is described as a European cafe, it isn't logistically set up to showcase in its case what I would expect would be example sandwich and pastries- instead the deli case is showing their saran wrapped ingredients before prep into sandwich/salad and all their bottles of beverages (?yeah?) instead. But, I know from their website they have some gorgeous photos of their food- its just that you get no hint of that at all when you are actually there. Hmmm.

a cold sandwich of Dungeness Crab with avocado, bacon, tomato;