Thursday, March 3, 2011

Quasi- Muffuletta

In Oak Ridge, where daughter Wende now lives in addition to working, there is a little ice cream shop named Razzleberry’s Ice Cream Lab, where they make their own ice cream. They also have a few tables for serving lunch and a small meat case. The meat case came into existence to provide meat for the lunches and to sell as deli meat. But the reason they have the meat in the first place is that they are first generation Polish Americans and wanted to continue eating the good sausages (including lunchmeat) they were used to getting in Poland and one thing led to another.

So when Wende came over the other day, she brought me some mortadella, imported from Poland, and some capicola, imported from Italy – I thought we had salami, so I didn’t order any of it. She also brought me some of their homemade Polish sausages.

It just so happens that Bev baked bread that same day and made one loaf of bread into two muffuletta rolls. By restricting its raise time and brushing the top with water, it had a texture and chewiness very similar to what we had it NOLA.

The next day, I sliced one of them in half and began to build my muffuletta - I called it quasi as I didn’t have all of the traditional ingredients.

First it got a layer of capicola.

Then a layer of pepper jack cheese as I had no provolone (I would have liked another layer but used all I had) followed by thin sliced pepperoni as a substitute for salami.

Then the mortadella.

And finally the olive salad, which I’d brought back from the famous Central Grocery in NOLA.

I had to work fast to apply the salad and get the lid on to minimize the olive oil runoff.

How’s this for a breakfast sandwich? Almost as good as Mickey D’s
:-).

I put two quarter pieces on my plate but could only eat one – I’ve lost 17 pounds taking Phentermine as it’s makes me feel really full on much less food.  I ate the rest of it by days end and I still have the ingredients for another one.

The next morning for breakfast, I tried the sausage by nuking it for a minute to warm just a little.  I sided it with a slice of homemade bread and scrambled eggs, which were cooked in the garlic butter that Bev had put her steamed oysters in the night before (day after tomorrows post).  It gave a really nice flavor to the eggs with just a hint of oyster.

The sausage had great flavor, with nice garlic and a good smokiness - my goal is to make sausage this good.  Until I do, I may make a special trip to Oak Ridge when Polish sausage/ kielbasa is called for.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

10 comments:

  1. That is one very fine-looking muffuletta.

    Central Grocery in the Quarter would be proud.

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  2. That is gorgeous Larry!! Those sausages look wonderful too. AND you lost 17lbs... rock on dude!! :)

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  3. That sandwich looks WONderful. Wish I had some of that Central Groc. relish. I'm still having bread making failures here, but think I have learned a little high altitude secret and may be on my way to an edible loaf. What??? no Polish Pottery to plate that sausage on? :-)

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  4. Gorgeous shots and yummy yummy food love it

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  5. What an awesome sandwich! Love all those fixings on fresh homemade rolls.

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  6. Hooray for Razzleberry's! Folks looking to find it in Oak Ridge: it's in historic Jackson Square, down the street from Big Ed's Pizza. The easiest way to get there is to turn on Georgia Ave. from the Turnpike. Go up the hill and turn left at Big Ed's. Keep going until you see the Pig Van!

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  7. I. Want. That. Muffuletta. Now. Please?

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  8. One thing you have to love about the Poles - they have wonderful meat.

    Have you tried their pierogis, or do they even sell them? Those are pretty good, too. But your sandwich looks like a great creation, no matter what you call it. Thor wants me to bring him to you house, because he's sure you'd share with him.

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  9. Looks delicious, Larry, all of it.. Sounds like Wende brought you some GREAT food. All of it went together well.

    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  10. That Muffaletta looks GREAT! Nothing better than good meat and great bread! Thanks for sharing!

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