The Dog Days of Summer

ONBOARD COOKING: THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER

In Maryland the end of August heralds a super abundance of incredible fruits and vegetables. If you live here and don’t take advantage of the local produce easily available at farm stands and local markets, well, shame on you. You go right ahead and eat those pallid, overpriced supermarket veggies. I’ll eat your share of the good stuff. Check out the local options that we’ve found so far (listed below) and send us information about ones we haven’t found yet.

If you haven’t noticed by now i am not real big on exact measurements for recipes, or even really very strictly married to an exact list of ingredients. Mungo laughs at me all the time - i will read or hear about a new recipe and say wow! that sounds really tasty, i want to try this for dinner tonight and then very calmly substitute 3 out of 5 key ingredients; still coming up with a very tasty if not better tasting version of the original recipe. How can i do this? Well, on the most basic level its because i thrust my food sense and my taste buds. Okay so i read cookbooks the way other people read novels. I look at a recipe and understand the basic logic of the five tastes (sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami), how the textures, tastes, shapes and colors relate.

A composed vegetable sandwich is a favorite lunch time treat for me and Mungo. Who wants a heavy, hot meal in the torrid temperatures of late summer? Even on the river mid-day temps and humidity often approach the triple digits. Two of these sandwiches with all their possible variations are the VEGGIE BAGUETTE of Mungo Jerry's Fat Cat Cafe fame and smorrebrod, the luscious veggie versions of Danish open face sandwiches. Both of these sandwiches are easy to make. They must, it goes with out saying, be made with only the ripest tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.

The filling for the Veggie Baguette can be varied to suit your tastes and seasonal availability but should always include sweet onion absolutely ripe tomatoes, fresh, sweet red (or yellow, or orange…) peppers, good cured olives, fresh basil, some type of marinated or pickled veggie, a mild semi-soft cheese of your choice. Fresh mozzarella is my first choice, but store bought block mozzarella, swiss or havarti will do. You should use the best extra virgin olive oil you can afford and of course the bread. The bread must have a good dense crust and crumb. This cannot be a “traditional” soft, puffy white sandwich bread. If you are buying your bread most markets have bread baked on premise. Ciabatta or portuguese rolls are good choices. Most of the French, Italian or sub rolls are too soft.

Get your ingredients together, wash and dice all of your veggies. It’s always tempting to cut paper thin slices of peppers, onions and tomatoes. Its pretty yes, but from a practical eating point of view messy. I recommend a medium dice for all of your ingredients. Slice your bread in half and try to compress the cut surfaces. I don;t tear out a hollow, you could, but i like to eat all of my bread. Drizzle the bottom piece of bread generously with the olive oil. rub it into the bread. Go ahead and lick your fingers. If you don’t like the taste of your oil y ou should be using a different one. If you don’t use a lot of olive oil it is a good idea to taste it occasionally  as it can develop off flavors. Lay down a layer of basil chiffonade that covers the oil (3 to 5 large leaves for two sandwiches). Add some dice onion, bell pepper (i use roasted bottled peppers in the winter when the ‘fresh’ ones in the supermarkets becomes both tasteless and exorbitantly expensive). Next comes chopped olives and maybe some lightly pickled cucumbers(not pickles) or artichoke hearts or pepperoncini……choose one. I always put my cheese down next and like to use slices that cover the bottom layer instead of shredded cheese as the slices act as caps to hold the diced veggies in place. Next  comes a generous layer of tomato, think major ingredient here. When i can’t get fresh ripe tomatoes, roughly October through June i go without, or use sun dried tomatoes packed in olive oil. Salt and pepper to taste, than a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and more olive oil. Top with the other half of the bread and gently press everything together. Wrap tightly and press it together some more. Weigh it down and let sit for up to three hours, covered, at room temperature.

The class open face sandwich of Denmark unlike most American sandwiches is meant to be eaten with a knife and fork. They are beautiful works of art. When i make these sandwiches my preference for the bread is a thin, square pumpernickel or rye. This bread is also the traditional choice for these sandwiches. These breads are common all over Germany and Scandinavia. You can often find them at the deli counter in a supermarket. Aldi’s seems to carry these breads year round and at half the price of the big box stores. I usually cut the bread into halves. cocktail squares make a very nice serving size as is. The biggest difference between the french baguette style sandwich and smorrebrod is how you use the fat in the sandwich. With the veggie baguette you want the olive oil to work its way into the bread mingling the flavors and juices into a almost creamy texture in the bread. In the smorrebrod the fat acts as a barrier to this process. I’ve seen and tasted a wide variety of fats here, most common would be a thin slice of a semi-hard cheese. The sky’s the limit here and your choice should be based on whats affordable and fresh locally. I used softened left over brie on the example shown here. 

I got carried away here, usually there will only be a couple of ingredients on each one, but, what the hey! The principle is a clean fresh crisp rase instead of the slow gentle, infused melding of the veggie baguette. So say, cheese, lightly pickled fresh cucumber, a few twisted slivers of onion, fresh dill, salt and pepper, often served with a few crumbs of smoked salmon, or salmon roe. Strictly speaking most smorredbrod is not vegetarian as fine thin slices of smoked, cured or simply roasted meats are standard. Meat pastes are common as well, with liver predominating. Than of course are the shrimp salads, the pickled and smoked fish. All of which are garnished with the freshest herbs and appropriate pickles. Delicious, eat, drink and be merry! Skoal!

Make sure you check out our other blogs of the life Aquatic:  Floating Empire is a saga of the building and adventures of our shantyboat "Floating Empire", Life, Art, Water is my (Morgainne) blog of being a working artist living on the river.  Got any questions or comments?  New recipes?  Leave us a note in the comments.  We promise to get back to you.

Morgainne