recipephile

Pork Scalopini Sandwiches With Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Caramelized Onions

In preparation for the change of season dinner at Courtney's house Jeffrey and I visited the Noe Valley Farmer's Market on Saturday morning.  You can walk away from this mini outdoor market having spent your entire paycheck, which is why we refer to it as the Gucci of farmer's markets.  As we strolled around the market trying to figure out what to make we stumbled upon Alston Farms.

Alston Farm's specialty is grass-fed beef, from Filet Mignon and porterhouse to tri-tip and ground beef.  The couple raises the animals in the most humane way possible and keeps them healthy and stress-free. By feeding cattle their natural food – grasses rather than grain, corn and other such industrially farmed foods which are foreign to cattle's normal diet – Alston Farms raises healthier animals and, in turn, provides its customers with better-tasting beef that has tremendous health benefits. Grass-fed beef has more CLAs (conjugated lineolic acids) and Omega-3s than standard, grain-fed beef. With more room to grow Alston Farm cattle does not have to rely on massive amounts of antibiotics like factory farms.

We chatted with the meat man for a while about what to get and both of us settled on pork scallopini, which we had never had before.  The end goal was to make a pork scallopini sandwich with onions and roasted cherry tomatoes and the result was fantastic.

Here is what you will need:

• 1 loaf of crusty Italian bread, cut into 1.5 inch thick pieces and toasted in the oven
• 6 pieces of pork scallopini
• 3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves of minced garlic
• 1 tbsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 medium vidalia onions, sliced and caramelized
• 1 serving of roasted cherry tomatoes from this recipe

Toast the bread in a 350 degree oven for about 10-15 minutes and set aside.  Toss the pork with the olive oil, garlic, salt and peppers and let set for about 1/2 hour. In the meantime, prepare the onions by slicing and cooking over medium heat until golden brown.  You can also prepare the cherry tomatoes.

When you are ready to assemble the sandwiches pan fry the pork scallopini slices in a little bit of olive oil for about 3 minutes on each side or until done to your liking.

Place a piece of pork on a slice of bread and top with some tomatoes and onions.

Serve.

Sabich -- Pronounced Sabeek -- YUMMY Sandwich

Jeffrey strikes again with another great posting...

Michael wrote earlier this summer about my bringing food ideas back with me from a recent trip to the middle east.  Here's another dish, which I made yesterday when Michael and our friend Erika came over for lunch.  It's a sandwich called Sabich  (the 'ch' is more of a slightly aspirated 'k' sound), and is a popular fast food staple among Arab Israelis living around Tel-Aviv, Israel.  From what I'm told, the best and arguably the original Sabich is prepared at Miznon Sabich, located in Tel-Aviv at 129 Ha'Roeh Street, Ramat Gan.  My friend Anat took me there in while I was visiting in June and holy cow I wanted to go back every day!

For Sabich, you'll need:

Pita

Hummus – I make my own using 2 cans of chick peas, the juice of 2 lemons, 4 cloves of coarsely chopped garlic, 3 tbsp. tahini paste, 1 rounded tsp. Kosher salt, and about 2/3 cup of the liquid from the cans of chick peas; blend all of this in your food processor for about 3 minutes

Eggs – hard boiled

Red potatoes – diced into 3/4" cubes, lightly salted, and steamed

Eggplant – skinned, diced into 3/4" cubes, lightly salted and then either roasted (400 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes), or fried in 3 tbsp. cooking oil until it's starting to fall apart

Chopped salad – consisting of scallions, radishes, red onion, diced tomato, diced cucumber, watercress, parsley, basil and a light drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and white balsamic vinegar

Tahini sauce – tahini paste, water to thin, finely minced garlic

Cut an opening in each pita pocket, but do your best to maintain the integrity of the rest of it - - you're really going to tax the holding power of these guys, and what we get in the US isn't nearly as sturdy (nor, lamentably, is it as tasty) as what's available in Tel-Aviv.  Spread one side with hummus and fill up with a mashed up egg, heaping tablespoons each of the potatoes, eggplant and chopped salad. Finish with a drizzle of tahini sauce and serve immediately.

Each bite will have a somewhat different combination or proportion of flavors, but each bite will be so so yummy!

We ate this yesterday with an heirloom tomato salad and a lentil soup. More on the soup later.