Apples as condiment along with blue cheese, fennel and caramelized onion
The other day I had one of the best sandwiches of my life at a place called Big Mountain Deli in Lake Placid, New York. Called the MARCY, it mixed roast turkey, cranberry horseradish sauce, cheddar, apple & cracked pepper mayo. Actually that was my son’s sandwich which I finished when he didn’t. My sandwich was the GOTHICS combining roast beef, caramelized onion, blue cheese & horseradish mayo. These are two of 46 varieties on offer, in honor of the Adirondack high peaks, and you can also make your own combinations.
There were several factors that made these sandwiches fabulous: a great house made roll. A sharp funky cheese. Lubrication from the flavored mayo. Perfectly matched condiments. And an ample portion of quality meat.
I resolved to do a mashup when I got home and ended up with what you see above. I cut one of my baguettes lengthwise down the middle and spread each half with a mixture of mayo, horseradish and crumbled blue cheese. I grilled off some tri-tip which had been marinated in fish sauce, red wine, olive oil, pepper and Persian spices and sliced it thin. I added thin sliced apples and onion which I’d caramelized along with some fennel. It’s not as pretty as Big Mountain but was awful good and will get better as I improve my technique.
What I want to talk about, though, is those apples. Apple slices make a great condiment on a sandwich, it turns out, adding crunch like crisp lettuce plus a sweetness to balance the other ingredients. I have lots of apples from the trees in our yard and am going to add apple-dressed sandwiches to my regular rotation.
Apple season is big business in upstate New York where I live. We go touring for tastes of apple cider donuts and u-pick apple orchards. There are hay rides and corn mazes celebrating what used to be the first cold, crisp days and are now some of the last warm (or warmish) days before winter sets in. Then we end up with a lot of apples that have to be eaten. Using apples as condiment is a good way to do it.
I have read that if you are blindfolded a bite into an onion you might confuse it with an apple. I think you are supposed to cover your nose as well. I am not surprised that a fresh apple would contribute to a flavor treat in a sandwich.
I enjoy baking pies. One of my favorites is rhubarb pie. Sometimes I combine 2/3 rhubarb with 1/3 apple. When rhubarb is out of season (most of the year) I combine 1/3 drunken cranberries with 2/3 apples. I soak dried cranberries in bourbon whiskey and call them drunken cranberries. Soak them for 24 hours or more to get the cranberries filled with bourbon whiskey.
We did something similar with the sour cherries that grow in our yard: dump about a cup, pitted, into a quart jar and pour in a bottle of Evan Williams. Let sit for a month or a year or more and drink the whiskey. Never occurred to me to eat the cherries…