This week, I have two words for the lunch-challenged:
Goat cheese.
This is cheese made from goats. Or cheese that goats eat. Not sure which. Just kidding! One taste and you will never go back to cream cheese, I promise.
The taste is a little like a mild cheddar, but milkier, if that makes sense. Most regular grocery stores in California carry it in their gourmet cheese sections; look for a clear, plastic tube or a white tub. Trader Joe’s and of course Whole Paycheck reliably carry several brands.
Along with upgrading your spreadable cheese, you must also upgrade all the other flavors in your sandwich, or the point is lost. Again, all ingredients can be found at a regular grocery store. I checked.
Basic sandwich:
2 slices French bread
slices of vine-grown tomato
spring or mesclun mix lettuce
English or hothouse cucumber slices (much tastier, crisper)
Note: I don’t recommend onion slices for this, as their taste overpowers the cheese.
Spread the cheese on both slices of bread and pile everything else on. Smush together. Eat.
Some variations:
1. substitute fresh basil for the lettuce
2. substitute an heirloom tomato
3. add a few of your favorite sprouts
4. substitute a coarse, multi-grain bread
5. all of the above
Now for the really fancy, Mediterranean version:
- Buy a jar of pitted (i.e., pit-less) kalamata olives, or another strongly flavored black olive. Not the stuff in cans, which has the consistency of styrofoam.
- Chop them in the food processor.
- Or just buy black olive paste already made from the olive bar at Whole Foods
add a thin layer of the olive paste (fancy name: tapenade) on top of the cheese layer.
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