A Tasty Serrano Ham Sandwich with Soft Ripened Goat Cheese, Chicory, Radish and Strawberries

I was walking home from learning how to sit meditation at the Brooklyn Zen Center when I decided I was in the mood to stumble into Union Market.

The first thing I saw was this beautiful whole oat baguette that looked so delicious.   I needed to build a sandwich around this baguette.   It was calling me.

So I began to stumble around the produce section and some beautiful fresh strawberries caught my eye so into my sandwich they go.   I noticed an ingredient that looked great that I have never used before...Chicory.   I broke off one leave and tasted it.   Bright, Peppery, Yum.   Ok.   Chicory it is.

Since it was peppery I decided to compliment it with some radish that I could julienne.  I mixed the chicory and radish and tossed it in some olive oil with salt and cracked black pepper.  This would be a peppery bright bed that I could use as the base of my sandwich for bright crunchiness.

I decided I would get some quality ham that I could compliment with a goat cheese that would round out the savoriness and creaminess for the sandwich.  I decided once I assembled it I would top it off with some nice organic honey to balance the tartness of the fresh strawberries with some honey sweetness.

Here is the pic of my lovely ingredients:

Here are some pics of the finished sandwich:

YUM YUM SANDWICH

Simple Joy of a Good Lunch Sandwich

Sometime in the high pace world of eating, cooking, and loving gourmet you forget the value of damn good lunch sandwich.   After my DISMAL experience at Whole Foods yesterday for lunch I decided to go for a good ole NYC basic.   TOASTIES!!!!

YUM YUM YUM

You can never go wrong here

Grilled Chicken Sandwich with Truffled Black Trumpet Mushrooms and Gorgonzola Cheese

My wife Megan and I decided to take a walk today and hit our local market.   We wanted to pick up something nice to make for lunch as this is the first day we are spending together since last weekend.   Working in a bi-coastal gig is tough :(

We started with the idea of maybe making a steak and mushroom sandwich but as always my eyes get me in trouble and the audibles ensue.

We decided to make a sandwich with simple Grilled Chicken, truffled Black Trumpet mushroom, and Gorgonzola cheese on a toasted baguette.

Yum Yum Sandwich

Here is what we threw together

2 large chicken breasts (trimmed)

2 sprigs of fresh Rosemary

Large handful of Black Trumpet Mushrooms

A few pinches of salt

Cracked Black Pepper

Olive Oil

Black Truffle infused Olive Oil

Nice piece of Mountain Gorgonzola cheese

1 crusty crunchy delicious fresh baguette

I gave the chicken a nice healthy coating of olive oil, salt, and cracked black pepper.

I gave the Black Trumpet Mushrooms a nice rough chop and chopped up the rosemary from 2 fresh sprigs.

I heat my grill to really hot and then lowered it to a medium/high heat.    I threw the chicken on it to get it grilling.   I heated a skillet to a nice hot heat and tossed in the black truffle oil.  Once the oil was nice and hot I tossed in the mushrooms and fresh rosemary.     I want to make these cook and get NICE AND CRISPY.   Nuffin says luvin like some crispy truffled mushrooms.  

After a couple of minutes or until i had bad ass grill marks on the first chicken side I then flipped it to the other side.     I cut a baguette into some open sandwhiches.  I drizzled some olive oil on it and tossed it in the broiler to toast up.     I cubed up some gorgonzola to get my finally assembly ready. 

Once the bread was nice and toasty I removed the chicken from the grill and cut into 3/4" pieces so I can begin my sandwich assembly.    Grilled chicken first then the truffled black trumpet mushrooms and finally a healthy dose of gorgonzola cheese.    Close the sandwich up and cut it in half and serve

All I can say is the following....

YUM YUM Sandwich

Oh and if you are asking yourself the following question:  "In your ingredients picture I see an heirloom tomato but you didn't say what to do with it.  What the hell???"

Well....I decided I didn't want to add the mushy tomato texture to the sandwich when I already but the creamy mushy goodness of the Gorgonzola.    So  I saved it and just made it as a delicious afternoon snack :)

YUM
YUM
TOMATO

:)