Tag Archives: sandwiches

What’s Cooking: Slow-Cooked Pulled Pork

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Our next selection from Emeril’s Sizzling Skillets and Other One Pot Wonders is the Slow-Cooked Pulled Pork.  What a PERFECT game-day dish!  Saturday night we made a delicious spice rub and prepped the Boston butt roast.  Then on Sunday morning we popped it into the slow cooker on our way out the door to the Dome and it was ready for us when we got home.  We added a sweet slaw and some macaroni and cheese on the side to round things out.  Our group loved the sandwiches we made and I’m sure $1.25 is eager to make some pulled pork nachos with the leftovers!

Since we can’t give you the full recipe, I thought I’d give you a little note on technique.  The recipe calls for making slits in the pork butt and putting pieces of garlic in each one to add flavor.  In order to do that, you have to peel the garlic, but you can’t smash it to oblivion in the process.  Whereas normally I give the garlic a hard press and easily pop the pieces out of the skin, you have to be a little more gentle in your approach in order to keep the cloves whole.  So, I gently pressed the garlic with the side of a knife, just until I feel it give way a little bit.  Then I peeled the skin off, sometimes with a little more trouble than others.  Then I easily sliced each whole clove in half lengthwise in order to spot them all over the pork roast.  No need for one of those crazy garlic peelers, just a chef’s knife and a little patience.

Easy does it!!

Peel off the skin

All clean!

Prepping the roast

The yummy spice rub

After marinating overnight

8 hours later its ready to eat! Gotta love that slow cooker!

We opted to strain the cooking liquid and separate the fat. We poured the gravy back over the meat to keep things moist.

The finished product

Don’t forget that we’re giving away a copy of the cookbook!  Check out last week’s post for more information.  You’ve only got today and tomorrow left to enter!! 

Full disclosure for our Emeril’s Sizzling Skillets participation available here.

Travel Eats: Philly’s Famous Fourth Street Deli

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New Orleans has a lot of great food, but we’ve definitely got a shortage of kick ass delis. Sure we’ve got Stein’s, which carries all kinds of cool stuff, but that is about it. The Northeast, on the other hand, has an overabundance of delis. On a recent trip to the Philly area, we stopped in at the Famous Fourth Street Deli for a bite to eat. The food was absolutely fantastic, with one major drawback: flying home in the afternoon meant we couldn’t bring our leftovers with us!

One of the great treats of being at 4th Street is watching all the food come out of the kitchen. Plate after plate after plate of monstrously large sandwiches will zip past until one finally lands at your place. At that moment, you are sent into a rare eater’s fight or flight moment. Do you stay and likely fail to conquer the plate in front of you or do you bolt for the door? If you’re brave enough to stay, your next problem is figuring out how a snake unhinges its jaw so you can get the darn thing in your mouth! If you’ve got an afternoon to kill and haven’t eaten in about a week, 4th Street is a must.

For scale, that stack of four plates and a bowl reach about the middle level of the sandwich

I think there is a whole head of lettuce on there

What maybe the world's largest matzo ball!

 

The less intimidating, but still massive turkey sandwich

What’s Cooking: Chicken Parmesan Sliders

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This was a pretty easy meal that didn’t require much from the store.  That meant I was pretty much in and out quickly and off to making dinner.  Let’s cut to the chase and get to the ingredients:

1 loaf of French bread
1/2 cup of finely grated Parmesan cheese
4 tablespoons of minced basil leaves
3/4 cup marinara sauce (on a work night I just used Newman’s marinara)
1lb+ chicken breasts
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 grated/finely diced onion
pinch or so of salt
pepper to taste
mozzarella for melting (~1/2 an 8 oz package)
lettuce to dress the sliders

Directions:
Cut two two inch slices of the French bread off and dice them.  Drop the bread and the Parmesan cheese into a food processor and grind away.  Add in two tablespoons of the minced basil.  Set this aside for your breading.
Slice the French bread as your “buns.”  The thicker your French bread, the thinner you’ll need to make the slices.  Most widely available French bread is maybe two inches tall, so you’ll need to flatten the bread after baking, hence the thicker slices.  Bake the bread to crisp it.
Warm the sauce and add in the onion, remaining basil, 1/2 tablespoon oil, salt and pepper (and cayenne) to taste.
Trim the chicken breasts and cut in half.  Coat with the breading mixture from earlier.
Cook breaded chicken with remaining oil in a skillet.  In final two-three minutes top each piece with mozzarella to melt it off.
Now to assemble the slider, drop the chicken on the french bread, top with the sauce, lettuce and basil if desired.  Enjoy!

Sack O’ Subs: Vacation Greatness

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So Cupcake and I have just returned from a semi-vacation to the Jersey Shore. Not that crap you see on TV that is contributing to the continuing dumbing down of America, but the true Jersey Shore. You know, an ideal American beach town with perfectly manicured lawns, clean streets and pretty much zero crime (including speeding). With pretty much no humidity and an average August temp of 74 (high of 84), Cupcake was hooked.
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Napoleon House: The Muffuletta’s Austerlitz

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The French influence on Louisiana and New Orleans is unmistakable, possibly even overstated at the expense of our significant Spanish heritage. However, Napoleon’s influence definitely gets the short end of the stick (I apologize, but it won’t be the last).  What many tourists never see and some locals don’t know, is that New Orleans has honored Napoleon by naming streets after the diminutive emperor and some of his more well renowned battles: Milan, Austerlitz (arguably his greatest victory), Marengo and Waterloo (now called General Pershing so as to blot out the failure), to name a few.

The Historic Napoleon House

New Orleans’ love of Napoleon goes way back. In fact, in 1821 a plan was hatched to rescue Napoleon from exile, bring him to the New World and re-install him as emperor, only across the world. As part of the plan, a house in the French Quarter was secured for him to live in. Napoleon died on May 5, 1821, before the rescue plan could be implemented. The house offered up as his refuge, still bears his name and stands as a virtual shrine to the conqueror of the Old World, as countless prints, paintings and sculptures inside bear his likeness.

Situated across from the Louisiana Supreme Court and two blocks from Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral, the Napoleon House is in the middle of it all.

Napoleon Houses Courtyard Oasis

In the typical French Quarter style, the Napoleon House’s facade gives no indication of the fantastic inner courtyard that awaits. With ample shade, the courtyard provides an amazing oasis for locals and tourists alike for lunch and a few drinks. On the warmer days, nothing can keep you cooler than a Pimm’s Cup, the House’s refreshing signature drink.

The Pimm’s Cup may be the signature drink, but the muffuletta is the star of the show. A classic New Orleans sandwich consisting of meats, cheeses and olive salad on round Sicilian sesame bread. The Napoleon House version stacks on the ham, Genoa salami, pastrami, swiss and provolone cheeses and a homemade Italian olive salad.

A refreshing Pimm's Cup

Two things about the Napoleon House muffuletta that make it the city’s best in my eyes, the olive salad is way more than just olives and they lightly toast the muffuletta to give it some crunch and barely melt the cheese. Toasting the sandwich brings a little bit of warmth to the mound of bread, gently melts the provolone and swiss cheeses and draws out a bit of the juices from the various meats, bringing the flavors out just that much more. The beauty of the olive salad is it’s more than just olives, with celery, onion, red and green peppers and the occasional carrot piece. There are olives in there, but they aren’t allowed to dominate the sandwich as the are at many other shops. Word to the wise, most people don’t need more than a half to fill their belly.

But the Napoleon House isn’t just a two-trick pony, po-boys, jambalaya, red beans and other favorites grace the menu. With such fantastic entrees, its pretty easy to quickly zoom past the appetizers. If you do, you’ll miss out on great boudin or bruchetta.

Don’t feel like eating? Belly up to the historic bar and enjoy that Pimm’s Cup or order up another New Orleans classic, the Sazerac. Beware it’s not for everyone.

In all, the Napoleon House only comes up short (zing!) in that it isn’t open seven days a week, closing its doors on Sundays. One last word of advice, if you want that fantastic courtyard spot, you may want to head in a little early to beat the rush.

The Historic Napoleon House Bar

Napoleon House
500 Charters Street (Corner of Charters and St. Louis)
New Orleans LA
Open Monday 11:00-5:30
Tuesday through Friday 11:00-10:00
Saturday 11:00-11:00

This post originally appeared on Go Nola.

Stanley: A Streetcar Named Delicious

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Most everyone is familiar with A Streetcar Named Desire, the superb play by Tennessee Williams set in New Orleans. Even if you haven’t read or seen the play (or movie), you’re likely familiar with male lead, Stanley’s famous cry for his wife, “STELLA!”

Stanley--overlooking Jackson Square

Dreamed up by chef sensation Scott Boswell and clearly drawing inspiration from Tennessee Williams’ great work, Stanley is the casual “sister” restaurant to the more formal Stella!. Located right off of Jackson Square, Stanley is in the heart of the French Quarter. A great place to start before a day of exploring the history and charm of the Quarter and the nearby Cabildo or the perfect spot to refuel before heading back out to take in the sights. Oh, and if your night on the town had you sleep past 11:00, don’t worry Stanley’s kitchen pumps out its breakfast and brunch items all day long.

Stanley's counter with full service soda shop

Stanley’s menu could be described as small, but it is probably better described as trimmed of all excess. With breakfast, brunch and lunch options, Stanley will certainly find a way to satisfy what you are craving. Have a sweet tooth in need of indulging, Stanley can even fix that. A full line of ice cream, milkshakes and sundaes true to Stanley’s classic diner feel are ready to placate even the most ornery (inner) child.

A popular location for weekend breakfast/brunch for locals and tourists alike, I recommend heading out early or late to avoid the worst of the wait. During the week, you should be able to walk right in, as I did this past week. On that visit, I opted for the corned beef hash and cup of Community Coffee.

Stanley's Corn Beef Hash

Within minutes a mountain of meat and potatoes topped with two poached eggs and hollandaise sauce appeared. While not the ground patties of corn beef hash my mother makes, the taste was almost spot on. The eggs were so perfectly poached that just a poke at the white orb with my fork brought forth a yellow river that inundated my plate. Thank goodness some french bread was on hand to help clean up!

I have yet to run into a wait at Stanley for lunch, but maybe I’m just lucky. My personal favorite for lunch is the Club Stanley, a towering sandwich of grilled chicken, ham, swiss, dressed on french with a spicy caesar pesto dressing, and a side of fries. However, the best choice for any first timers would have to be the Poor Boy Sliders, three mini-versions of the Club Stanley, the Oyster Poor Boy and Korean BBQ Beef Poor Boy. The sliders are a great way to taste three fantastic sandwiches all at one time. Close out with a milkshake to go, strawberry for me, and you can ride a streetcar named delicious all the way to your next stop.

Stanley
547 St. Ann st.
New Orleans, LA
504.587.0093

Open from 7 am to 7 pm, 7 days a week.

This post first appeared on July 15, 2010 on GoNola.com

Johnny’s Po-Boys: No failures here

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Johnny's Po-Boys on St. Louis Street


The sandwich is a staple around the world. Each culture has its own take on the sandwich and local varieties. Across America there are vastly different takes on the sandwich, the hoagie, the grinder, the cheesesteak, the sub, and various melts just to name a few.

In New Orleans, it’s got to be a muffaletta or a po-boy. Johnny’s Po-Boys does both, and does them well. Of course they don’t really have to, as founder and namesake Johnny De Grusha said, “Even my failures are edible!”

Johnny's Special--Hot roast beef, grilled ham, american and swiss cheese, dressed, no mayo


Johnny’s has been a French Quarter fixture since the 1950′s, initially slinging po-boys to the workers from the Jax Brewery. Although Jax Brewery no longer brews beer, there is no doubt many of the workers from its various retail shops head over for a bite during lunch or stop in for breakfast before starting their shift.

Johnny’s lunch menu sports the typical po-boys, from the french fry to the fried shrimp, and the standard muffaletta as well as special versions of both. Among the special sandwiches, you’ll find a seafood muffaletta (catfish, shrimp and oysters on a 10″ bun), the surf and turf po-boy (hot roast beef topped with fried shrimp) and the Johnny’s special (hot roast beef, grilled ham, swiss and american cheese). If you get overwhelmed by the number of po-boys to choose from, there are always some daily specials or seafood plates available.

While sides like french fries and potato salad are there, I feel you haven’t really had a po-boy unless you’ve cracked a bag of Zapp’s to go along with it. Of course you’d have to wash it down with a nice cold Dixie or Abita beer or the ever refreshing Barq’s root beer (in a bottle).

A po-boy's perfect partners, Zapp's and Barq's

Conveniently located on St. Louis Street, just steps from the river and Jackson Square, Johnny’s is perfect for picnics. Grab your po-boy to go and settle in Woldenberg Park and watch the world go by or seek some shade in the shadow of the St. Louis Cathedral over in Jackson Square.

Want to take advantage of some a/c or hide from some rainy weather, Johnny’s has you covered. With seating areas in the front and rear of the restaurant, there is typically ample room. Had a little too much fun on Bourbon street the night before? They’ll deliver salvation right to you, within a limited area.

So grab your cash (no cards or checks accepted) and head down to Johnny’s for a true taste of New Orleans’ take on the sandwich. Oh, and don’t forget the Zapp’s and the Barq’s.

Johnny’s Po-Boys
511 St. Louis Street
New Orleans, LA
504.524.8129
Monday-Thrursday 8:30 am to 3:00 pm
Friday-Sunday 8:00 am to 4:30 pm

This entry first appeared on GoNola.com

Quick Hits–Napoleon House

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Work lunch at the Napoleon House (500 Charters St., 504-524-9752) today. A quick and easy spot across from the Louisiana Supreme Court building in the heart of the French Quarter. The old house which was purchased to serve as Napoleon’s New World abode is a virtual shrine to the conqueror of the Old World, as countless prints, paintings and sculptures bear his likeness.
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Katie’s is back

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Prior to the Storm, Mid-City was well-known around the city for some fantastic restaurants. Not much to rival the city’s old guard of Commander’s, Galatoire’s, Arnaud’s and so forth, but the oaks of Canal St. and the palms of Carrollton Ave. doubled as unmoving maitre d’s to a great number of New Orleans dining institutions: Venezia, Liuzza’s, Christian’s, and Mandina’s to name just a few. Like the residents themselves, some of these restaurants returned soon after the storm (Venezia), some have moved on to other pursuits (Christian’s), and others have taken their time coming home (Katie’s).*
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