Gourmet Sandwhich - Grilled Vegetables with Pesto on Artisan Bread

Last month we visited a local bistro. They had a Tuscan style menu and one of the things we ordered was a lovely grilled panini sandwhich. It had grilled vegetables, cheese, pesto and we really enjoyed it. I was quite eager to reverse engineer it and make my very own version of it. So, after a couple of days, I made a fresh batch of pesto, made some strawberry balsamic vinegar and I was on my way. The resultant sandwhich was lipsmacking.

So, this year, when we decided to celebrate my daughter's birthday in the park, and I was trying to come up with a suitable menu, I realized these sandwhiches would be perfect as the main course. Everyone loved the sandwhiches, and I received a lot of compliments. I made around eighty sandwhiches and once you read the recipe, you will realize how easy these are to scale up. So, if you are looking that dish that will wow your guests and won't have you slaving over the stove for hours, this is it!

The following ingredients list is for one ciabatta roll and will provide about 6-8 servings on how large you cut your sandwhiches.

Ingredients
1 loaf of bread (use ciabatta, or garlic bread or rosemary bread)
1/4 cup basil pesto (click on the link to see recipe from another post)
1 tbsp strawberry balsamic vinegar
pepper jack cheese, slices - at least enough to create one layer over the bread
1 large red onion, sliced
1-2 zuccinis/italian squash,  thinly sliced lengthwise
1-2 firm tomatoes, sliced
2-3 tbsp  olive oil (use about 1.5 tbsp to grill the onions and 1.5 tbsp to grill the zuccini)
salt to taste
pepper to taste

The following ingredients list is to make 80 sandwhiches, assuming one sandwhich will be about 3 inches length wise and 2-3 inches width wise. I estimated about 2 sandwhiches per person. However, if you are planning to multiple items like pastas/salads which may be filling along with the sandwhiches, you can estimate about 1.5 sandwhich per adult.

Ingredients
10-12 bread loaves (estimate the number of loaves based on how long and wide the loaf is)
4-5 cups of pesto sauce
plenty of pepper jack cheese, I bought a cheese block and sliced about 1/2 (about 4 cups worth)
1/4 cup strawberry balsamic vinegar
10 large onions, sliced
20 zuccinis, sliced length wise
12 large tomatoes, sliced
1/4 cup olive oil (use 1/8 cup to grill the onions and 1/8 cup to grill the zuccinis)
salt to taste
pepper to taste

Method
Add half of the olive oil over the red onion slices and then grill these on a hot grill, till the onion is cooked, slightly browned. At this stage it gets a sweet tinge. Add remaining olive oil to the zuccini and then grill the zuccini. Let the water from the zuccini evaporate. Slice the bread horizontally into two large pieces. If you want, you can toast the bread in the oven for a few minutes. 

Now, we are ready to assemble the sandwhich. Spread pesto on one the top slice of the bread. Add a layer of cheese on the other bread slice and keep it in a warm oven for a minute till it melts slightly. Drizzle the strawberry balsamic vinegar over the cheese. Next add a layer of tomato slices. Season this layer with a little salt and pepper. Next add a layer of grilled onions, then season that with a little salt and peper. The next layer is the grilled zuccini which also needs to be lightly seasoned with salt and pepper. Then, add back the top layer of the bread with the pesto. Cut the sandwhich into 6-8 pieces based on how large you want the sandwhich to be. Based on the length and width of the bread, I was able to make 8 sandwhiches.

Use the same method when you want to scale up this recipe. Cook the onions and zuccini, slice the cheese and tomatoes. You can make pesto a few days earlier, it stays fresh in the fridge for a couple of weeks and also freezes really well.  Once you have prepared all the ingredients, you can then create an assembly line and assemble all the sandwhiches. Then cut them into appropriate number of pieces.

Tips 
If you do not have a grill, you can use a hot pan to cook the onions and zuccini. Zuccinis release water as they start cooking, so it will take a bit longer to cook/grill them than the onions. If you are making the sandwhiches a few hours in advance, then make sure to de-seed the tomatoes, so that the sandwhiches do not get soggy from the tomato juice. Also, add a layer of pesto on both side of the sandwhich, so that it stays moist. Also, do not toast the bread if you want it to stay moist.

Strawberry and Walnut Salad

This is a great recipe to whip up for a quick dinner. Its light and a perfect starter to a meal. Pair it with some soup and you have a ready to eat meal in less than 20-30 minutes. Its also a great way to get your daily servings of vegetables and fruits and tasty too!

Ingredients
2-3 celery stalks - thinly diced
4-5 strawberries - sliced
2 cup of assorted lettuce leaves - diced
1 cucumber - sliced
1/3 cup walnuts
1/2 orange - diced

For the dressing
juice of 1/2 orange
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method
Whisk together all the ingredients for the dressing till the olive oil is well blended into the rest of the ingredients.
In a bowl, toss all the salad ingredients together with the dressing. Add salt and pepper if required. You can grate some parmesan cheese over the salad, if you want.

Tips
Fresh orange juice enhances the salad dressing taste. However, if you do not have oranges, you can substitute with store bought orange juice. You can experiment and change the vegetables mixture in the salad.

Strawberries and Cream, Absolutely Heavenly

This is one of the easiest, and most elegant desserts one can ever make. Good quality strawberries and a good presentation and you have the perfect sweet to end your dinner with. That too in a matter of minutes. And it is mainly fruit, so you won't feel too guilty eating your dessert either.

When I was in India, we rarely used to get strawberries. It was a seasonal fruit and not available in large quantities and could be classified as exotic perhaps. There was a restaurant in town which did have it on their menu as a seasonal dessert and I used to always choose it. They used to have the most beautiful presentation in a margharita glass, absolutely delicious. The only other place I had it was in Mahabaleshwar, a tourist destination famous for its strawberry farms.

Strawberries are easily found here and this year due to the bumper crop, they are still available at a very low cost. Surprisingly though I don't remember having seen it on a restaurant menu here. I bought some strawberries last weekend and I also had a pint of heavy cream in the fridge. That was the perfect reason to put this dish together. The pictures turned out so beautiful, that I had to push this one to the front of my recipe queue, so that I could share this wonderful dish and lovely pictures with you.

Ingredients
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp powdered sugar ( do not use confectioner's sugar -see tips)
7-8 strawberries, washed and sliced (along the vertical axis/length)

Method
Chill your whisk (manual whisk/hand blender) and the bowl in the fridge for a few minutes. Add the cream and sugar to the chilled bowl and whip. Do not overwhip. You know it is the right consistency, when the peaks in the cream do not deflate immediately. If you overwhip, the cream will turn to butter. If this happens, start with fresh cream.
Arrange your sliced strawberries in your favorite dessert bowl. Add cream. You can mix a few strawberries in the cream and then arrange the rest on top. You can be as creative as you want. Enjoy!

Tips
Confectioner's sugar contains cornstarch in addition to the sugar, so try to avoid it so that it won't affect the taste. If it's difficult to find it in your grocery store, you can grind regular sugar in the mixer/blender to get the powdered sugar.

Strawberry Jam

I had been to the grocery store last week picked up a couple of pounds of strawberries. Of course, there were too many to eat and finish before getting spoilt, so I thought why not make a jam. I have the fondest memories of childhood where my mom used to make a variety of jams, preserves and sauces and once I had thought of that, I just had to call her and ask for the recipe. It turned out to be a simple recipe, with a lengthy cooking time, but since constant supervision was not required, it seemed to be really easy.

Ingredients
1 pound of strawberries pureed. Keep a few aside and dice them.
2 cups sugar
a couple of pinches of citric acid.

Method
Cook the pureed and diced strawberries together. You will know that the strawberry is cooked once the color of the puree changes to deep red and the volume will decrease and the mixture will become thicker. At this stage, measure the amount of the cooked puree. I had one cup of the cooked puree and so I took two cups of sugar. Mix the puree and the sugar and heat it on a low flame. The mixture will become watery as the sugar melts and then start to thicken. When this mixture is thick enough where your spoon leaves a slight path when its dragged through it, it is ready to be taken off the heat. Take a little mixture in a small bowl and add the citric acid to it, stir thoroughly so that the citric acid is completely dissolved. Add this back to the warm mixture. Let it cool. Jam is ready!! Enjoy with a piece of toast.

Tips

I took one pound, however, since the other measurements are relative to the cooked pureed strawberry volume, it doesn't matter what you start with, just adjust the proportions of other ingredients accordingly. The volume of sugar must be equal or more than the volume of cooked pureed strawberries. This can be adjusted based on how sweet the strawberries are. If they are sour, increase the amount of sugar. Do not cover the jam with a lid when it is cooling. Condensed water can lead to spoilage. Citric acid is added as a preservative. If it is not completely dissolved, it can leave a very sour taste if one comes across it while eating the jam, so make sure that it is dissovled completely. This recipe takes about 1.5 hours to cook completely, if cooked on low-medium heat.