Panini

Paninis are Italian sandwiches, that have now become international. I had my first Panino in Venice, Italy in 2003 during our Europe trip. Since then, I've developed a liking for this toasty, warm Italian sandwiches. I am not a sandwich person per se but I love to have paninis every now and then. I've learned from my Italian co-workers that paninis are customarilly made from a small loaf or roll of bread, typically a ciabatta. The loaf is horizontally cut and filled with Italian cold cuts like salami,ham, cheese, mortadella or other food. Now that is has gone international, we can fill it up with almost anything and make our version of paninis. Personally, I prefer lots of roasted vegetables and a slice or two of good cheese and I am good to go. That is exactly what I did with this panini. I had leftover grilled veggies like colored peppers, onions and portobello mushrooms. I also had ciabatta rolls that called for paninis. I made Sriracha mayonnaise(regular mayo + as much Sriracha as you can handle!) and slathered on the rolls. Then loaded up the rolls with veggies and slices of fresh bufala mozzarella and topped them off with peppery arugula. Put another slice of the roll back on top of it, and grilled it in my panini press. And presto! I got filling, hot sandwiches for supper ready to enjoy. I served it with roasted baby potatoes.

There is no recipe for this sandwich as it only requires a sturdy bread to stand the heat of the panini press and the rest is all upto our imagination.

Breakfast Club

Sunday I wanted to make a quick, light and healthy breakfast for us. I didn't want to toast up the breads to go with jam or butter neither did I want to have the bagels or waffles. I had some leftover bread in the fridge from the week before so I thought, hmmm….. Let's try breakfast club sandwich! When I was in university in Ahmedabad, all of us friends used to go for either the vegetable sandwich filled with cucumber and tomatoes with usual cilantro spread and ketchup or vegetable club sandwich which was originally same vegetable sandwich with 3 slices of bread instead of two! Here in the restaurants, I have noticed in the menu big club sandwiches. I can't have that much bread either. So I decided to go for 3 slices of bread per sandwich.

Here's what you need and how to do.

Breakfast Club
Ingredients
6 slices of regular bread
Good quality margarine spread
4 slices of chicken bacon, cooked as per package instructions
4 slices of tomatoes (beefsteak preferred)
Salt and pepper to taste
3-4 leaves of head lettuce

For egg cake
5 large eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
Handful of fresh basil and parsley, julienned

How to:
Heat the oven at 350° F. Beat eggs, salt and pepper and fresh herbs together in a bowl. Pour it in the baking dish lined with the parchment paper. Make sure the dish is wide enough that could give you 4 good slices of eggs. Bake for 10 minutes or until the eggs are set. Keep aside.

Toast the breads. Slather margarine on one side of each bread. Now arrange 2 bacon slices, a slice of an egg and top it off with another bread slice. Arrange on that bread, 2 slices of tomatoes(use salt and pepper liberally), another slice of egg and a leaf of lettuce and place the 3rd slice of bread on the top. Arrange tooth picks properly so that everything can hold up and slice the club the way you like.

I couldn't take the picture of the sandwich with the tomatoes that I made for myself. So, here is the picture of the club without the tomatoes that I made for Mark and hubby!