Grilling an Easy and Memorable Lunch

Grilled Cheese, Basil, Tomato, and Zucchini Sandwich

A bunch of us are getting together this weekend for a celebratory lunch on the shore to celebrate a friends milestone birthday. (I'm secretly mourning the end of summer when I say so long to some of my favorite foods like tomatoes, garden fresh basil and zucchini -- although  it's not officially the end of summer, thankfully!) It's a poolside pot luck party and I'm thrilled to be sharing one of my favorite grill-worthy sandwiches - so perfect for a summer send-off. The basil, tomatoes, and zucchini are coming from the hosts garden, just a stones throw from the grill -- can't get much fresher than that! The bread is coming from the town bakery. Grass fed butter and my favorite melting cheese -- Herve Mons Gabietou from Whole Foods will round out this memorable sandwich. A friend is bringing a cucumber, cantaloupe and mint salad with lemon dressing -- the salad should be the perfect complement for the sandwich!

The sandwiches are super simple to assemble. Once you've grilled the zucchini until tender, generously slather Italian bread slices -- or your favorite holey bread with butter. Top one slice of the bread with disks of yellow-orange or red tomatoes and basil leaves. Top the basil with grilled zucchini and then generous slabs of cheese. Grill the sandwiches until they are chestnut brown and crispy on each side. For extra decadence, I love to sprinkle the crispy bread with Himalayan sea salt. Huzzah!

Braised BBQ Brisket "Gliders"

Nick loves my Braised BBQ Brisket recipe so I prepared it for some friends we had in for dinner the other night. He suggested making sandwiches from what was leftover. So I prepared a batch of homemade rolls and piled them high with warm brisket. The soft rolls combined with the ultra tender, sauce-drenched brisket "glided" down our throats like a fantastic single malt scotch. Maybe we've got a new thing going on with Nick's newly coined, "glider"... after all it's only been since the 1920's that the White Castle "slider" began making news!

Braised BBQ Brisket

Covered with tenderizing lemon slices and flavorful onions and cooked for several hours at a low setting, and then flooded with a bold flavored BBQ sauce, this brisket promises to be one your guests will not soon forget. So pronounced the flavor, I recommend serving with non-distracting accompaniments like steamed green beans and boiled potatoes.

Tidbits for perfection: Plan accordingly; the brisket has to be cooked the day before you plan to serve it. Make certain the brisket is completely covered with lemon and onion slices. Liquid smoke can be found in the condiment aisle of most grocery stores nationwide. It’s very important the meat gets sliced against the grain; it makes a difference in the flavor and tenderness. Check the meat for lines that are running in the same direction, this is the grain. Position the knife perpendicular to the grain and slice.

Day one …

Brisket

One 5 pound brisket, after the butcher has trimmed off the fat

3-4 lemons, thinly sliced, seeds removed

3-4 medium onions, sliced

Preheat oven to 250°. Place meat in a 15 x 10½-inch (4 liter) baking dish. Cover brisket with lemon slices, top lemon slices with onion slices. Cover and bake for 6 hours.

6 hours later …

When brisket has cooled, drain essence from meat and discard lemon and onion slices. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

BBQ Sauce

2 cups ketchup

2 cups water

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons liquid smoke

2 teaspoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

A few dashes TABASCO® brand Pepper Sauce

In a large bowl, combine ketchup, water, Worcestershire sauce, liquid smoke, brown sugar, salt and Tabasco sauce.

The following day …

Allow brisket to come to room temperature. Preheat oven to 350°. Thinly slice meat against the grain. Pour BBQ sauce over brisket slices, cover and bake for 1 hour. Yield: 12 servings.

Grilled Reuben Sandwiches

Grilled Reuben sandwiches were on the menu for our luncheon meeting today. I was thrilled they were so well received, besides, as one of the guests said, who doesn't like anything grilled?

A grilled Reuben is super simple to assemble ... I slathered one side of authentic slices of rye bread with softened butter, the other side with Russian dressing, piled the slices (the Russian dressing side) with generous amounts of thinly sliced corned beef, a layer of sauerkraut and thin slices of Swiss cheese. I grilled them in batches over moderately high heat until they were chestnut brown and slightly charred. Everybody devoured them!

I served the sandwiches with a salad made of arugula leaves, shaved carrots and a smattering of toasted pine nuts, tossed the combination with my all-purpose, always-have-in-the-refrigerator vinaigrette dressing. Yummy was the popular word during the course of our working meeting!

Kerry’s All-Purpose Vinaigrette

An all-purpose dressing that is so delicious and can be prepared so quickly, you might ask yourself why you ever bought bottled vinaigrette!

Helpful to know: My All-Purpose Vinaigrette will keep for several days in the refrigerator. Allow to come to room temperature before serving; shake well just prior to using.

1 teaspoon salt

Several grindings fresh black pepper

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

¼ cup apple cider vinegar

¾ cup extra virgin olive oil

In a 2-cup capacity jar with a tight fitting lid, combine salt, pepper, mustard and apple cider vinegar. Shake until ingredients are well blended and salt has dissolved. Add olive oil and shake again to combine ingredients. Store at room temperature until ready to serve; shake well just prior to using. Refrigerate any unused portion. Yield: About 1 cup.

Monte Cristo

Mr. Fabulous said it was the best sandwich he ever ate and well, I have to agree, it was the best sandwich I ever ate! It's easy to assemble, here's what I did.

I slathered one slice of sourdough bread with Dijon mustard and the other slice I coated with mayonnaise. I topped the slice of bread coated with mustard with thin slices of fresh roasted turkey, topped the turkey with 2 slices if Swiss cheese and topped the Swiss cheese with thin slices of baked ham. I topped this with the other slice of bread, mayonnaise side facing ham.

Then I dipped the sandwich in a combination of beaten egg and milk (about 1 egg to 1 tablespoon milk) and let each side soak - just as you would if you were making French toast, until all the egg mixture is absorbed. I cooked it over medium high heat in a little bit of canola oil (butter gives it a richer flavor, whatever you choose is a matter of preference) and cooked it just like a grilled cheese sandwich.

Before serving, I dusted the sandwich with a wee bit of confectioners sugar. Prior to taking each bite, we doused our Monte Cristos into homemade cherry preserves I'd made when cherries were in season in early summer. A good store bought cherry preserve like Bonne Maman will also work.

This Week's Comfort Food - BLT

This is the time of year I dream about throughout the calendar year - the tomato season! At last, it's upon us. And thankfully, it's not one of those fruits or vegetables that doesn't last very long like the cherry season. I can think of a gazillion ways to eat and prepare tomatoes and a BLT is just one of those ways. A BLT may sound simple and it is, but it requires really good quality, farm fresh, garden fresh ingredients. I'm just back from the Farmer's Market and brimming with such ingredients including lots of tomatoes. For lunch, (if I can wait until then) I'll be assembling bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches for Mr. Fabulous and I ... crisp slices of Nimon Ranch http://www.nimonranch.com/ bacon will top thick slices of perfectly ripe fire engine red tomatoes with crisp romaine lettuce leaves on Ciabatta bread that's been slathered with mayonnaise. Honestly, could comfort food be better defined? I'm off to sink my teeth into my first BLT of the season!