Friday, November 26, 2010

My Ultimate Grilled Turkey Sandwich

Dagwood, move over.  This is not for the faint of heart, or the person on a diet.  It is ideal to make this for dinner tonight or tomorrow night with your leftover Thanksgiving turkey.
You will need about 30 minutes to prepare this sandwich, including prep and cooking time, assuming you have all the ingredients at hand.
Makes 2 sandwiches.

Ingredients--

-4 thick slices of fresh, homemade (or bakery-bought) Pumpernickle Bread
-6-8 ounces of cooked (leftover) Turkey meat, light and dark meat mixed.
-4 slices regular Bacon or center-cut for more lean
-1 Tbsp. Unsalted Butter
-8 thin slices of a crisp, tart eating apple-I used Gala Apples from the Atlanta Farmer's Market
-Fresh Spinach Leaves to layer on sandwich like lettuce
-2-4 ounces of ButterKase Cheese (this is a mild, buttery, German, semi-soft cow's milk cheese, or whatever cheese you like, as long as it is melty-gooey)
-Sea Salt and coarsely Cracked Pepper to taste
-2 Tsp. Fresh Chopped Dill
-1-2 Tbsp. Spicy Horseradish Remoulade Sauce (recipe below--make ahead for faster prep of sandwich)

Preparation--

Bring Saute Pan to medium-high heat and fry the bacon.  Reserve some of the grease in the pan, and pour off the rest.
While bacon is frying, thinly slice the turkey meat, and put into to 2 piles, dividing white and dark meat evenly.  Slice the apple as thinly as possible into 8 slices and put 4 with each pile of meat.  Slice the cheese (if needed), and divide in half and add to the prep area.  Chop and divide the Dill in half.
Remove the bacon when done to a couple layers of paper towel.  I like my bacon crispy, but fry however you like it.  Reserve some of the bacon grease and drippings in the pan (guesstimate about 2 tbsp.), and drain the rest.  When pan cools down to "warm", add the Butter--it will melt down in the pan but don't add it when the pan is hot because it will burn.
Slather each slice of Bread on one side with Remoulade Sauce. The Remoulade side will be on the inside of the sandwich with the dry side on the pan (the bacon/butter mixture will provide the needed fat to grill the bread properly).
Place the Cheese on one side of the bread on each sandwich.
Place the Apple slices on top of the Cheese.
Place Turkey on top of the Cheese, and put a touch of Remoulade Sauce and the Chopped Dill in between the layers of Turkey (white and dark).
Place the crispy Bacon on top of the Turkey.
Place the Spinach Leaves on top of the Bacon, and put the other slice of Bread (Remoulade side down) on top of the Spinach Leaves.  Press down gently.
Heat up the Saute Pan again to medium or medium-high heat (depends on your stove--you want it to "grill", not scorch).  When bacon grease/butter gets hot enough, place the sandwiches in the Saute Pan. 
Press Down.
Grill until the Bread is crusty (Pumpernickle is dark to begin with, so you kind of have to tap it to make sure it is grilled enough) on one side, then turn it over GENTLY with a spatula and grill the other side.  You may have to add a bit more butter, or slide the sandwiches around in the pan to get some more bacon drippings on them, but let them grill as undisturbed as possible.
Remove from the saute pan, plate and serve warm.  The cheese should be ooey-gooey, but the crustiness of the bread makes it hold together rather well and it is fairly easy to eat. 
This goes especially well with a frosty mug of Oatmeal Stout.  The Imperial Stout that is pictured is a close second in my book, but this Samuel Adams Imperial Stout is must a bit too "hoppy" for my taste, giving it a slight burnt toast-bitterness taste at the end.  The sandwich certainly stands up to it, and I enjoyed it immensely, but I'm just sayin'....Just my humble opinion.  If you make this, please let us know by commenting, and give us your honest opinion!  Enjoy!

**Remoulade Sauce--

1/2 cup Mayonaise
2 Tbsp. Prepared Horseradish (more or less to adjust to your taste--I like a kick!)
Several Drops of Tabasco Sauce (again, more or less to taste)
Zest and juice of 1 Lemon
1 tsp. Fresh, Chopped Garlic
Sea Salt and Pepper
1 tsp. Honey (I used pepper tree flower honey--it has a little zip to it and is very hearty)

Mix all ingredients together, and you can play around with how much of each you want to use.  There is no strict adherence to the mix--it is all about what you like!  That is the fun of it!
The longer you let this sit in the refrigerator (I like at least 24 hours) the better.  From there, you can treat it just exactly like you would plain mayo. (please keep refrigerated!)  The remoulade that I used on the dish above was sauce I made over two weeks ago.  This sauce also goes extremely well with seafood!

1 comment:

  1. yummmm That sounds really good. I like the idea of having a beer with it too. Maybe a side of homemade potato chips or wedges. Sounds like a really good "game day" sandwich. Heck, an anytime sandwich! lol

    ReplyDelete