“The Best Sandwich I’ve Had in Years”

Not my sandwich, but I wanted to give you a picture

Not that long ago, I found myself in the lucky and enviable (according to some) position of being on the proverbial ground floor for the opening of a new restaurant. It was almost surreal, sitting in front of a computer; or in my living room with cookbooks scattered EVERYWHERE; researching recipes, knowing I was putting my stamp on a restaurant menu. Then talking to myself in the restaurant kitchen while I tested, and in some cases re-tested, those recipes. Then waiting like an expectant child with a macaroni painting, as I brought the dishes to the owner for his approval; and more importantly, my own personal validation.

While the restaurant has been open less than a month, I can say that my biggest breakthrough came during my downtime. It was a day in which there were no tastings planned and the workmen had left early, so there was no one to babysit. Sitting in the restaurant office, the prospect of getting another mediocre sandwich from the places in the neighborhood was downright depressing. And then this little voice in my head said: "hey jackass, you're a cook. You've got a kitchen at your disposal and the leftover produce from yesterday's tasting sitting in the lowboy; why don't you do something with it, instead of complaining about not having anything good to eat?!?" And with that, I was upstairs trying to decide how to best quiet my grumbling stomach and appease my mouthy brain.

I took stock of what I had and compared it with what I was in the mood for: I wanted bacon, I wanted the bite of red onion and I was pretty sure I wanted fish.
I had some bonito that I had taken out for a grilled fish dish…that got left off the final list of the 19 things we were given 18 hours notice to buy, prep and cook.
Anyway, I sliced some semi-thick pieces of fish and got some bacon cooking in a pan. I thinly sliced some jalapenos and red onion, then tossed the jalapenos in the rendered bacon fat. I spread some cilantro-lime vinaigrette on a baguette, then layered the fish, the bacon, red onion, jalapenos and some watercress on top. I cut the sandwich in half and brought it back downstairs to feast.

Much to my surprise, the owner of the restaurant was back from running errands and asked if he could have half the sandwich…which he promptly inhaled, and then asked me to make another one.
When he was finished with his second sandwich he wheeled his chair away from his desk, turned to me and said, “that was the best sandwich I’ve had in years.”

What follows is my grilled fish and bacon sandwich, or what I what I have dubbed, "the Elliott Sandwich."

The Elliott Sandwich

6 oz Bonito Steaks sliced into ¼ inch pieces
4 slices Bacon
1 Jalapeno, sliced thin and seeded
½ Red Onion, sliced thin
4 Sprigs, Watercress
Cilanto-Lime Vinaigrette
½ French Baguette, halved
½ oz Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper, to taste
Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette to follow.


Slice bonito, oil each side then season with salt and pepper. Cook bacon in a sauté pan until crispy, reserving the fat and allowing bacon to rest on paper towels.
Place the sliced jalapenos in the rendered bacon fat and cook until slightly browned.
Place fish on an oiled grill and cook for approximately two minutes on each side, then reserve.
Lightly toast the baguette, then spread the cilantro-lime vinaigrette on each side. Place the grilled fish on the bread, then the bacon and arrange the remaining ingredients on top, covering with the remaining piece of bread.
Slice in half and serve.

Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette

1 bunch, Cilantro
Juice of 4 Limes
Zest of 2 Limes
3 Egg Yolks
24 oz. Canola Oil
Salt & Pepper, to taste


Cut ends off cilantro and wash thoroughly, as cilantro is usually very dirty. Cut cilantro, leaves and stems, into smaller bunches and combine in a Vitaprep Mixer or blender with lime juice and egg yolks, seasoning lightly with salt and pepper. Turn on mixer and fully blend cilantro with lime juice and egg yolks, then increase speed as you slowly add the oil. When mixture thickens, adjust flavouring and thin with water, if necessary.

Yield: 1 Qt

Photo credit: Janet is Hungry

When You’re Right, You’re Right a/k/a The Beef’s Gone Bad!

Now, I’m not one to belabor things or fixate or tell you “I told you so” or beat a dead horse (all of you that are currently laughing, stop it!); but on this one, I felt I had to say something.

Back on July Fourth, you may remember I did a little ranting and raving while discussing why I would not be cooking at my buddy’s place. Without rehashing the whole thing, I was adamant in my desire not to make hamburgers with pre-packaged ground beef. There was the obvious taste aspect, but there was also the E. coli aspect which loomed much larger for me. I wasn’t going to get people sick with low quality ground beef, when perfectly good beef could be obtained at the grocery store.

This past Sunday, New York Times reporter Michael Moss published a piece about a 22 year old former dance instructor from Minnesota named Stephanie Smith; who in 2007 ate a pre-packaged hamburger tainted with E. coli. She had eaten a primarily vegetarian diet; but visiting her mother that day she ate a hamburger her mother pulled out of a box, unwrapped and then grilled for her. She did what millions of other Americans do nearly every day. And whether they’re eating pre-made hamburger patties or making patties at home with pre-mixed ground beef, they’re gambling with every bite they take. Slaughterhouses and grinding companies have “unwritten agreements to stand in the way of ingredient testing, and that can directly lead to E. coli contamination. It can get so wide-spread that the company that produced the hamburger that Stephanie ate ended up recalling 844,812 pounds of hamburger patties…EIGHT HUNDRED FORTY FOUR THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND TWELVE.

I mean, I love a good burger as much as the next guy; but I realize that supermarket ground beef isn’t very good…and it has the added chance of making you very sick or possibly killing you. Most people cite price or convenience as the reason for buying supermarket ground beef, but let’s break it down. The burger that Stephanie Smith ate came from four…F-O-U-R…different sources and from god only knows how many different cows. It was made up of “Fresh fat” (50/50 fat and meat from fatty edges from whole cuts of meat) from Greater Omaha Packing in Nebraska; “Fresh lean” (trimmings from dairy cows and bulls that are too old for feedlot fattening) from Lone Star Beef Processors in Texas; “Frozen lean” (trimmings from grass-fed cattle) from an unnamed slaughterhouse in Uruguay and “Lean finely textured beef” (trimmings warmed and put through a centrifuge to remove fat, and treated with ammonia to kill bacteria). Now read that again and tell think about if that’s something you’d want to eat. The final cost of the Frankenburger eaten by Stephanie: $1 per pound, “or about 30 cents less than industry experts say it would cost for ground beef made from whole cuts of meat.”

Now let’s think about the other side of the spectrum. Labor Day Weekend, I made burgers for the family from a blend of beef as well. The difference was that I called Wegman’s, asked if they could do it for me and then waited while one of their butchers ground two pounds of brisket and a pound of sirloin for me to turn into burgers: two pounds of brisket, from one cow and one pound of sirloin from another cow (or possibly the same cow, but not likely). The final cost of that meat came to approximately $6.31 per pound…five dollars more than Stephanie’s burger, but with the added bonus of knowing where the meat came from (theoretically), freshly ground beef with virtually zero chance of getting E. coli and the added benefit of taste.

Wegman's Call-Ahead Ground Beef

Now I’m not saying you’ve got to go out like I did getting ground brisket and sirloin at close to $7 a pound to eat a tasty burger, but there are alternatives to eating crappy pre-packaged ground beef. Go to a butcher, have him grind you a cheaper cut that came from O-N-E cow.

In short, the New York Times expanded upon what I said back in July…be careful about where you get your ground beef. I’m not going to change the way I eat, I’m not going to stop eating my burgers medium-rare and I’m not becoming a vegetarian. But what I will do is refuse to eat pre-made burger patty out of a box or buy pre-packaged ground beef from a grocery store.

Sufferin’ Succotash!!

Boy, it sure got cold here in the City this week, didn’t it? It was actually a bit cold last weekend when I left the restaurant and went out to Jersey to check up on my mother who seems unable of taking it easy…even in the wake of an appendectomy. Anyway, I went out there to do a little house-cooking and make sure my mom stayed off her feet. I had some ideas about what to cook, but thought better of it.

My step-dad and I took a trip out to Wegman’s, or as I’ve taken to calling it, “The Most Awesome Grocery Store Ever,” to buy some food. He had asked me to recreate a Veal Saltinbocca I had made about a year ago; but because I wasn’t crazy about the pre-sliced veal cutlets in the store (I had brought veal tenderloin which I sliced and pounded myself the last time), we got veal chops instead.

The real fun began when I turned my attention to the produce. I scoured the table with some of the last of the season’s corn on it and thought back to those carefree Summer days when I was a fat, bespectacled kid selling corn to passers-by. Those warm days I was spoiled by my neighbors Butter & Sugar and Peaches & Cream corn…amazingly sweet varieties that in my estimation can be eaten right off the stalk. And at the end of the Summer, if we weren’t already sick of corn, the kernels would be cut off the cobs for succotash and the cobs saved for soup. Wegman’s, unfortunately, had what looked and tasted like Quickie, or possibly Sugar & Gold, Corn, not my favourite, but I thought what better way to make this corn sing than with succotash?

Succotash is, if we’re getting technical, older than America. The Narragansett people’s called it, “msíckquatash” which essentially means boiled corn; and it was referenced in Roger Williams 1643 guide to interacting and understanding the native peoples: A Key Into the Language of America. And succotash, is as varied as there are people to interpret it. Traditionally, it is made from corn and lima beans, but other beans can be substituted for the lima’s and additions can be made; with the one constant being fresh corn. My father’s mother used to make succotash at all family gatherings, hers with corn, lima beans and white onion, as well as a healthy addition of cracked black pepper.

Today; while I’m on my way to the Chile Pepper Fiesta and before celebrating my grandparents sixty-first anniversary and my great-aunt’s eighty-fifth birthday; I’m going to share this particular succotash recipe with you. Bear in mind that this is merely a guideline, because I was more interested in utilizing the corn and making sure my mother’s other vegetables didn’t go to waste in her fridge. You can also feel free to add some butter to this recipe (as I did) to enrich the taste of the vegetables.

Early Autumn Succotash

5 Ears of Corn, Kernels removed
1 Cup Sugar Snap Peas, blanched & shocked
1 Cup Baby Carrots, halved
2 Medium Tomatoes, medium diced
½ Red Onion, sliced thin
½ White (or Spanish) Onion, sliced thin
2 oz (or slightly more) Olive Oil, not Extra Virgin
Salt & Pepper, to taste

Place one ounce of oil in a large skillet and allow to warm. Add onions to pan and slowly begin to caramelize them over a medium flame, stirring so as not to burn them or brown them too quickly; approximately ten minutes.
Add carrots to pan and occasionally stir, cooking until carrots begin to slightly soften.
Add corn kernels and peas, as well as more oil if necessary; tossing ingredients well to combine. Cook for approximately five minutes (or to desired doneness of corn), then add the tomatoes, tossing gently so as not to crush the tomatoes.
Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Serves 6-to-8