Pix of Dishes Made with Arugula

It’s time to share that open-faced arugula sandwich recipe with you guys.  It’s a quick fix recipe, and depending upon your appetite it makes for a delicious light dinner or snack.  The bread I used for this sandwich is tandoori naan.  A little background info on what tandoori and naan is:  a tandoor is a clay and brick oven often found in Indian restaurants.  Food is cooked with direct heat at temperatures over 500° and gets great flavor from a smoky fire.  Naan is an East Indian flatbread baked directly on the clay walls of a tandoor until it’s puffy, light brown, and delicious. It’s usually served warm.  Meat cooked in a tandoor is called tandoori-style, and usually has a reddish-orange tint to it from the spices rubbed on the meat.  So, my (no, I didn’t make it) tandoori naan has some of the wonderful spices commonly found on tandoori meats:  curry, cumin, fennel, and fenugreek to name a few.  It’s sweet, smoky, slightly garlicky, and has a kick of heat.  I like to warm my naan over an open flame because it allows the oils in the spice mixture on the naan to really come to life.  It also creates an interesting texture combination: it becomes both slightly crisp and chewy.  I’m sure this will offend some of the foodie die-hards, but I also eat my naan straight out of the bag without heating it.  It’s delish!

Anyhoo, here’s a pic and the recipe: 

Open-faced arugula sandwich 

1 piece of tandoori naan

1 large shallot, thinly sliced

5 baby portabella mushrooms, sliced

3/4 cup arugula

Pinch of rosemary

Pinch of thyme

Pinch of garlic

2 tsp sherry

1 TBSP water

1 tsp canola or corn oil

1 tsp toffee sunflower seeds

Serves one to two people

The mushrooms and shallot:

Heat a nonstick frying pan over high heat.  When hot, add ½ tsp of oil.  Add shallot and reduce heat to medium.  Stir constantly to keep from sticking. When shallot is soft, transfer to a plate and add the mushrooms to the pan.  Reduce heat to low and cook for about five minutes, or until the edges of the mushrooms start to turn brown.  Stir and add the shallot, rosemary, and thyme to the pan.  Add a pinch of garlic and salt and pepper to taste.  Add sherry and water, and be sure to scrape up any bits on the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon.  Turn off heat. 

The bread: 

DO NOT WALK AWAY FROM IT WHILE IT’S COOKING BECAUSE IT CAN CATCH FIRE! 

With the flame on low, place the naan directly on the flame.  Using heat-safe metal tongs, reposition the naan as necessary until it’s lightly toasted the entire length of the bread on both sides. Allow to cool for 1 minute.  Slice into four pieces and reassemble it on a plate.

Note:  If you’re not comfortable cooking directly over an open flame, you can either heat your naan in the microwave for 20 seconds or warm it in a 350° oven for 5 minutes.

The arugula:

In a bowl, use your hands to gently toss the arugula with the other ½ tsp of the oil.  Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Putting the sandwich together:

Place the arugula on top of the length of the warm naan.  Place the mushrooms and shallots down the middle of the arugula.  Sprinkle toffee sunflower seeds across the top of the sandwich.

This sandwich is peppery, sweet, spicy, chewy, crisp, and there’s even a little crunch from the sunflower seed in there for good measure.  You can eat this with a fork and knife or pick up each quarter with you hands and fold it over like a mini sandwich…I bet you can guess which method I prefer.  Yeah, the mini sammy. J

Here are pix of some other dishes I made with arugula today:

          Baby heirloom tomatoes and lamb’s lettuce with dots of arugula dressing.  

 Don’t be fooled by what may seem like a lack of presence from the arugula.  This salad is bursting with arugula flavor.  I puréed arugula with shallots, garlic, meyer lemon juice, parmigiano-reggiano, basil, and mint to make a very bold dressing. 

                               Here is a pic of an arugula and apple salad. 

The sweet and tangy dressing had only a teaspoon of oil in it, yet had a wonderful viscosity; it complimented the peppery arugula wonderfully well.  I made a dressing out of apricot preserves, fig balsamic, champagne vinegar, Dijon, and a touch of olive oil.  (The amount of dressing made serves four people.)  I used a jazz apple for its firm, flavorful flesh, and a gala apple for its sweetness. Strips of dried apricots and sundried tomatoes were added for flavor intensity and chew, while toffee sunflower seeds were added for another dimension of sweetness and crunch. 

I was still a bit out of it today, but I managed to have some fun with the arugula I got this morning.  If only I’d been able to get my hands on more arugula earlier in the week, I’m sure I could have done a lot more.  Again, arugula normally is a really easy green to get my hands on.  It’s readily available in just about all of the grocery stores around the country.  So, don’t be discouraged to try it just because I had a hard time finding it this week.  That was EXTREMELY unusual.  I’ve never had a problem finding it in the past.  So, please have some fun with arugula.  Your taste buds will thank you for it.

I had a nice time with you, arugula.  But, tomorrow starts a brand new week which means it’s time for a new feature ingredient.  It’s the week of the “B” ingredient to be exact.  Thanks for all of the suggestions, you guys!  A few of you submitted brussel sprouts, and I so hope I’ll pull that out of the hat tomorrow.  It is my favorite vegetable after all.  LOL I have my fingers crossed.  We’ll find out tomorrow. Nite-nite, everyone!