American Cheese & Pickle

American Cheese & Pickle Sandwich

Construction

We all know that I make a study of British food. What we may not know, since I haven't written the post yet, is that one of my areas of concentration is sandwiches and another is pickle. As in branston pickle. The ease of obtaining a cheese and pickle sandwich is a never ending source of delight... When in the UK.

When in the US, we are more or less fucked. It's possible to import some branston, but it's far from common. The cheddar you can get is never quite right, nor is the bread. Sometimes I try, obsessively, to recreate the exact experience that I've had across the sea.

Sometimes, I give the fuck up. This is a recipe I developed in the kitchens of my old job. Cheese and Pickle with the most American of ingredients possible.

Since the only kind of pickled anything we have here is pickled cucumbers, dill chips are the obvious choice. Since the cheddar is never right anyway, we have some nice american cream cheese. Spreading cream cheese requires toast. This all makes sense.

The results are not unpleasant but they're not British either, like an english muffin. This is a tasty sandwich that makes me feel sad and out of place.

leff brand kimchi

Ever since I was 10, and my sisters came to us from Korea, we had kimchi in the house. I've never gotten to the point where I eat it with every meal, although I certainly see the appeal of that aspect of Korean life. In short, yay kimchi!

raw kimchi

Also, yay home food! Up with home pickling! Obviously, I snagged a copy of Wild Fermentation the first chance I got. And naturally the first recipe I tried was kimchi. It was incredibly easy, and surprisingly successful for a first attempt.

It goes like this. Chop up your asian style cabbage and a daikon radish. Brine it for a bit. Drain it. Mix in the hots and spice paste, push down until it's covered by it's own juices. Wait a week or so, and voila, kimchi. I'm not going to copy out the whole thing because if you're in to home pickle you're getting the book anyway.

Pre funk

I had fear that it wouldn't work. I had western peppers like habaneros and junk. But the spices did the trick. I was amazed. It tasted like kimchi almost immediately. After a week of sitting out, it tastes even better. Obvs, I recommend the book if you're into the idea at all. It's got all kinds a stuff in there.

bubble bubble toil and trouble

Note about the container. I've tried sauerkraut in the wrong shaped deal. It failed. If you're gonna try it, get a nice strait walled bucket thing. You'll be much happier.