Submission Thread for F&DB Sandwich Challenge, Feb. 10, 2021

Here you go t00f, you made me do it

Since a hotdog IS a sandwich I decided to go down this route. I did not do a traditional hotdog though. Seeing the fillet a fish posted a few times gave me the direction I wanted to go in.

Welcome to McGT’s, home of Da Big Dawg

I had recently got a sausage stuffer and wanted to try it out so I decided to make some skinless hotdogs. I picked up a choice grade brisket from Rouses for the star of the show. I went with choice grade because when I break down a prime grade I end up with more extra fat than I needed this time.




I used 5lbs of the flat for this project, I did add a little fat to it but I wanted to keep it lean around the 90/10 or 85/15 mark. I might add a little more fat next time but I didn’t want to make it to fatty because I had read that it could break the emulsification of the meat.




My ingredients consisted of pink curing salt (since I would be smoking them at 150° for several hours), salt, white pepper, paprika, mustard powder, garlic, and onion.




I put the seasoning on the cubed up meat and stuck it in the refrigerator overnight so it can cure. The next day I put the chunks in the freezer to firm up along with the grinding parts to keep everything real cold.




I sent it through the small plate two times. Then I added a half pound of crushed ice and ran it through two more times. The ice helps keep everything cold and it adds some liquid to the mixture to start the emulsification process.








I wish this was enough work to get the meat properly emulsified for hotdogs but it is not. I tried using my KitchenAid mixer but that didn’t cut the mustard. So I was forced to use my teeny tiny food processor. All the recipes I had seen used food processor‘s but I have a small one and I knew it would be a PITA...and it was.

Working in small batches I ran it in the food processor for about a minute or two until I had the consistency I wanted. It was a gigantic sticky mess that took a while to clean off of every nook and cranny of the food processor. Along with that my food processor was not happy with what I was doing to it and it started to overheat and smell, but it lived to see another day




Time to play with the new kitchen toy. I loaded up the stuffer and proceeded to pump out some hot dog paste into 25 mm cellulose casings. That allows the smoke in, but also allows me to peel them off at the end to make the product skinless. I wound up tying some butcher string in between to help keep them twisted up. I didn’t feel like fighting that when I went to hang them for this project.






On to the Masterbuilt gravity smoker. I used a mix of charcoal and hickory to smoked them at 150° for about 4 1/2 to 5 hrs to get the beautiful red color and target temp. I took the bottom grates out because I was afraid they would hold too much heat and overcook the bottom ends of the hotdogs.






Once they were where I wanted them I stuck them in an ice bath to stop the cooking process and to help the casing release from the meat. That worked well, the casing came off, and I was left with a tray of beautiful red brisket hotdogs, minus the buttholes and lips






Finally the day came where I could just simply make my damn sandwich :lol: I bought some sesame seed buns (yes I did not bake any fresh bread) and made a copycat version of the McDonald’s big Mac sauce. It was a mix of dukes mayonnaise, salt, sugar, white vinegar, finally diced onion, sweet pickle relish, thousand Islands. I toasted the buns, reheated the hotdogs, and melted the cheese on the griddle and built up da big dawg.













I had thought about making some sort of sweet potato fries or something like that but since this is a sandwich challenge I focused on the sandwich. Plus I had another sandwich coming and I was not that hungry lol.

Thank you, drive through

Two great entries!

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Here you go t00f, you made me do it

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dukes mayonnaise

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seriously, that looks awesome .. what an effort to make dat dog.

My champion is a grilled pork banh mi with pate, chili mint mayo, pickled carrots and daikon, fresh cucumber, jalapeño, and cilantro.

Bread:







Grilled pork:
marinated with fish sauce, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, honey, garlic, onions



on skewers







Pate:






topped with butter and chives


Chili mayo with mint:




Carrots and daikon with in salt, sugar, water vinegar solution




cucumber, jalapeno, cilantro


Putting it all together:

Fried Soft Shell Crawfish with Watermelon radish, Smoked Slaw, and Mango Pepper sauce on Challah Bread.

Went for balance on this 1 (acid, sweetness, heat, ect.) without taking the focus off of the crawfish



Secure the Bag! Fresh NEVER FROZEN.


Ingredients


Slaw goes into a pan, then into some smoke, then into a bag with vinegar and seasoning






Mango and Fresno Chiles in the pan with some butter to cook down for the sauce.


Watermelon Radish onto the griddle



Crawfish, dried, soaked in butermilk, battered in flour with a little crawfish boil








Assemble and add some fried potatoes

This challenge is not disappointing! Some great looking samichs up in here all ready! Lots of new ideas!

Also lots of Mayo...you seeing that t00f?

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Let's see if Boo uses mayo.

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Griddled Shrimp "Chopped Cheese" Sandwich

This baby came out pretty sloppy. It was inspired by the chopped cheese they make with ground beef in NYC, but pretty loosely inspired at that.

We need to get the toppings ready. Bacon up first.





Remove bacon and griddle your onions. I seasoned these as well.



Season your shrimp and let it air dry well. I did Prudhomme's Seafood Magic. This sat drying while I worked on the rest.



Now to start the sandwich. I wanted to make the sandwich on homemade garlic bread. The spread is softened butter, 5 cloves of garlic microplaned, 1/3 or so cup of fresh Parmesan microplaned, salt, smoked paprika, and chopped parsley.





Toast in the oven until crispy. Meanwhile grate a block Havarti (we also have sliced for later) and chop some peppers.







Remove bread and start dressing.



***MAYO WARNING***




Duke's.



Chopped peppers.



Pepper jelly.



Bacon.



Start your shrimp.



Shrimp should be grilled looking and ideally have some brown bits.





Top with slices of Havarti and your griddled onions.



Once the cheese starts melting, remove from hot burner and take a bench scraper or flat spatula and start chopping it all together in the pan. Chop quickly and vigorously so it all starts to melt together.

It ain't pretty, but it will be so delicious.





Stuff it into your open sandwich. I added a few slices of Havarti into the sandwich itself as well. Why not?





Wrap in paper to help it stay together, although wax paper isn't nearly as wide as is needed.

Chicken Shawarma and Fried Eggplant Sandwich (and one without eggplant)

Some of the ingredients, mostly for the marinade.



Prepping the marinade, sans red chili flakes.

* 2 lemons, juiced
* ½ cup olive oil
* 6 cloves garlic, peeled, smashed and minced
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt
* 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
* 2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 2 teaspoons paprika
* 2 tsp ground coriander
* ½ teaspoon turmeric
* A pinch ground cinnamon
* Red pepper flakes, to taste (1 Tbs is what I used)
* 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
* 1 large red onion, peeled and quartered (I cut it into six pieces because the onion was large)




After adding the chicken, I covered with Saran Wrap and refrigerated for about 4.5 hours. Gave it a stir, twice.



A large red onion, cut into pieces, was added to the marinade for the last few minutes, and then it was all spread out in a sheet pan, and into a 425 degree oven for forty minutes.

Right out of the oven.





While the chicken was in the oven, I prepped the eggplant rounds, salting them and letting them sit for a few minutes, paper toweling the moisture before the next step.



First, cornstarch, then egg, then seasoned bread crumbs.



Into the hot oil for about two minutes.



Getting things ready for assembly.



I forgot to mention (and take pics of) the garlic sauce I made. Greek yogurt, minced garlic, kosher salt, and lemon juice. It’s what I used as my spread on the bread.

Chicken shawarma on garlic sauce covered bread.



With some feta crumbles.



Salad greens and tomato



Provolone and eggplant.



Thinly sliced cucumber, seasoned after the pic.



The sandwich.







ETA: My husband didn’t want eggplant, so I made his cheesy.

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Griddled Shrimp "Chopped Cheese" Sandwich

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bruh. you're making that on my next visit right?