Everyday Food's Sandwich Day Party

Posted by Lisa Mantineo

In honor of the upcoming Fourth of July weekend, we decided to start our celebration early with a special Independence "Sandwich" Day Soiree.

Sandy stopped by her local butcher, the East Village Meat Market, to pick up veal knockwurst -- the main ingredient for our sandwiches.

I was in charge of bringing the rolls and the condiments. Along with the traditional ketchup and mustard, I also snuck in a jar of peanut butter (one of my favorite things to put on hot dogs)!

Sandy also made some of the traditional side dishes and fixings her family enjoys on the Fourth of July. She made a delicious potato salad and to-die-for baked beans. She also whipped up a special onion mixture for our engineer Shavon to enjoy on her sandwich.

GET THE RECIPES AFTER THE JUMP

Shavon was thrilled with the onion creation, and quickly prepped her hotdog for eating.

Our party was a success, and after cooking up the dogs and plating everyone’s food, Sandy lovingly referred to me as her sous chef!

The potato salad:
I cut about 1 1/2 pounds of new potatoes into 1/2-inch wedges then tossed them with some olive oil, 3 whole cloves of unpeeled garlic, and some rosemary. I roasted them at 425 and it took about 30 minutes. While they were still hot I tossed them with a mild cider vinegar and sprinkled them with salt. The next day I added a little more olive oil.

The beans:
Dried small red beans (sometimes called chili beans). I didn't soak them, instead cooked them in a fair amount of water with a little -go easy- chipotle powder-until tender (took about 2 hours). Kept about 1/3 cup of the water in the beans, and stirred in ketchup, molasses, agave nectar, ground ginger, and salt. I put them back on the stove and simmered them for about 7 minutes, until lightly thickened. No worries if you don't have agave nectar, you can add brown sugar, or honey. These should be sweet and mildly spicy -- again, up to you.

Onions:
I chopped one small red onion and tossed it with a mixture of cider vinegar and enough sugar to just take the super tart edge off the onions. They sat for 2 hours and can sit, refrigerated overnight.

Comments

[Dana]

How much were the knockwurst? They look good.

[srgluck@earthlink.net]

Hi Dana,
The knockwurst were about 3 or 4 a pound.