Ham Sandwich Grows Up
I was passing by a row of hams at the grocery store and suddenly had a serious craving. “Cure 81″ ham is one of the things my mother made as I grew up, that I really loved. I believe that was always an Easter treat. Trouble is, a ham is a lot of meat–even if you make a nice dinner of one, you’re often going to end up with some leftovers.
So…to justify the decadent gluttony of a whole ham, I hatched a diabolical plan to justify the means. Basically, I decided on the leftovers first–ham sandwiches. From there, I worked out the details to spruce the simple sandwich up a bit. This isn’t a kid’s ham sandwich–too many flavors and textures for your average kid–so I’m calling it a grown-up sandwich.
You could opt out on any element I suggest here. But whatever you omit, the closer you come to just any old ham sandwich. It’s kind of a win-win scenario, actually. You’ll have something tasty either way!
Grown Up Ham Sandwich
(serves two, or scales up easily)
Cooked ham, sliced into thick (1/4″) wedges
Swiss cheese, sliced into thin wedges
8 tbsp cream cheese, softened
2 bagels, sliced in halves
2 tsp fresh sage, minced
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tsp lemon juice
6 brussel sprouts
2 tbsp olive oil
Kosher salt
1 tsp garlic
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Collect only the dark green outer leaves of the brussel sprouts. You can keep the remainder for another meal, these choice leaves are only a small component. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a small skillet. Add sprout leaves and cook until crisp. Spoon the cooked leaves onto absorbent paper towl to blot excess oil. Place leaves into a small bowl, sprinkle with lemon juice. Finally, add a few pinches of kosher salt and toss.
Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Spread each bagel slice with cream cheese. Place the bagel slices onto the cookie sheet. You’ll now work in layers, adding ham, cheese, and honey to top your bagel slices. The cheese should be roughly the size of your pieces of ham, and a couple drops of honey on each is plenty. Ideally, the width of ham and cheese are about 2-3 pieces per bagel per layer. You want to achieve several overlapping/staggered layers of flavor. These are open-faced!
Although a little ungainly until you put it into the oven–fear not. The sandwiches will cook down and bind together once the cheese melts. Sprinkle the sandwiches with minced sage. Put the cookie sheet into the oven and bake 15 minutes (but read the next step, you have no time to slack).
Once you’ve placed the sandwiches into the oven, you can begin work on your finishing touch. Add chopped onion and garlic to your pan of olive oil then saute to golden brown. Salt and pepper lightly. Skim the onion and garlic mixture into a small bowl.
Remove the sandwiches from the oven. Sprinkle each with the onion mixture. Arrange a few brussel sprout leaves on each sandwich. That’s it–serve while warm and enjoy! If you have any whole ground mustard, a teaspoon or two on each plate isn’t going to hurt any…
