Once upon a podcast hosted by two heavy-weight Asian gourmands and a world class bread baker, came haunting whispers in my consciousness …. “Boboli…wedge sandwich..mayonnaise…tomatoes…pickles…”. Every day started with a craving for sandwiches echoing the regularity of “I Got You Babe” in Ground Hog’s Day. I have not been to the Boboli heavens, from which this aforementioned sandwich hails, as I like many have never been brave enough, for fear of snob ridden foodie police lurking, to pull one of those green sleeved babies from the stand at the end of the freezer aisle for casual pizza endeavors. Surprisingly, they ain’t cheap neither, so my Boboli cherry remains waiting for now. Thankfully, as the days unfolded the visions for this sandwich blurred and these cravings would retreat into the dark.
In the aftermath of career pivots too many times in a year, I’ve been just so damn lucky to find myself doing bike deliveries this summer – cough, cough, sarcasm, cough. I know – I can feel the jealousy in the air, especially when you picture wearing the humongous heat box complete with subpar shoulder straps, coming in this season’s quintessential color, “Traffic Director Orange.” According to my time spent in meh sandwich chains in Chicago, while there are hundreds of restaurants, varying in nearly every food genre to meet all kinds of cravings, customer desires remain focused and clear that when the weather buoys in the upper 80’s, sandwiches reign supreme.. Within a few short hours I’ll find myself waiting for the Josh’s, the Todd’s, and the Karen’s of the universe order, at various sandwich chains, taking in the sights; a line of reluctant sandwich artists pretending to hustle their way through each order, while the scent of toasted bread, mayonnaise, tomatoes, and pickles slithers into my olfactory glands. Sneaky sons of bitches. The serpentine waft has awoken the beast, and I’m nowhere near to the end of my deliveries, nor do I have any sandwich bread or deli meats at home to remedy this…but, I do have…. Meatloaf, green beans, and focaccia.
The cold meatloaf sandwich is a blessed thing. If not already adorned with the classic ketchup top, my move back in the day was to slather a good layer of bbq sauce onto some whatever white bread and call it right there. This recipe pays homage to that with the use of hoi sin complimenting my curiosity to try meatloaf with a ginger/scallion/soy profile.
Frightfully lean on pickles in my fridge to bring the required acidity and fragrance of a deli sandwich, I macerated some left over blistered green beans in a combination of apple cider & rice wine vinegar, with a pinch of sugar. Pickles together with iceberg lettuce and tomatoes, almost completed the amalgamation of aromas, but not without the final touch- furikake everything spiced focaccia bread.
Everything spice is great, but I’m not as goo goo gah gah over it as the masses, thus adding the Furikake which supplements the sesame seed vibe while providing some extra umami, which assists in recreating the synthetic bread smell that wafts from sandwich shops, as if Febreze came out with a “Toasted Bread” scent, spraying full blast through their air vents onto the innocent civilians passing by.
If you care to put the odd stars together to form this sandwich constellation, and you’ve a tissue handy for tears of joy, please read on and make this sandwich.
Furikake Everything Focaccia
Buy a scale, it’ll do your baking wonders.
600 g All Purpose Flour
425 g Tepid Water
75 g Tasty Olive Oil + extra for oiling pan
5 g Active Dry Yeast (or if you’re a bread Jedi, 100 g healthy sourdough leaven)
12 g Sea Salt
Everything spice mixed with a couple spoons Furikake Rice Seasoning
1 C Leeks thinly sliced (optional)
If using yeast, add to your water, wait a few minutes before checking that yeast is lively and looking foamy on top. (If using leaven, you’re probably smart enough to skip this whole recipe and just make the focaccia with your eyes closed, but just in case, add your leaven to the water, making sure it floats, swish it around to evenly incorporate into the water).
In a mixing bowl fitted with a dough hook or by hand, you will mix your flour with the water yeast/starter mix and olive oil for 3 minutes until it just starts to come together into a mass. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes or longer. Add the salt, and continue mixing 7-8 minutes.
After 3 minute mix 
After second mix
Prepare either a clean bowl or plastic container that will fit the dough with a couple tablespoons of oil, distributing it with your hands along the sides, and just enjoy having your hands coated in the olive oil. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface just until smooth on the surface, about 1-2 minutes. Transfer to oiled vessel, and allow proof until doubled in size, 2ish hours, if baking that day, or I recommend letting it hang out for an hour or two before refrigerating overnight.
Preheat oven to 500º. Get a pizza stone in there to heat for 30 minutes if ya got one, otherwise don’t fret.
Pull the dough from the fridge, give it a little bop to punch it down. Add a generous amount of olive oil to a 14×10 baking dish or half sheet pan – I used a 14×10 Detroit style pizza pan, yielding slightly taller poofy-erfocaccia, which was delicious but requiring an Anaconda’s jaw to fit in a bite, sooo… a half sheet pan is probably best for sandwich purposes.
If you want to be civilized use a brush to distribute, or again an opportunity to just get weird and enjoy the moment having your hands bathed in olive oil. Place the dough into the baking dish/sheet pan, turning it over a couple times to distribute the olive oil all over the dough, and gently but firmly stretch dough towards the edge of the pan. Don’t force it! The dough will loosen up as it proofs again for an hour, which then will be no problem getting the dough to the pan’s edge.
Once your dough has happily mansplayed itself to the corners of your pan, it’s time to make them dimples. I like doing a two handed three finger prod and gouge method. If you have nothing going on or just really high knock yourself out and meticulously poke perfect holes in perfect rows one at a time, maybe with the lights off? You do you.
Generously scatter the furikake everything spice over your dough liberally as if you were that crazy bird feeding woman in the park caring more about the pigeons than most humans she will ever meet. Nod to Home Alone 2 fans.Put your focaccia on top of your pizza stone. Turn the heat down to 450º, and bake for around 20 minutes, turning the pan halfway through baking. The top should be lightly browned, with the sides and bottom a more caramelized brown color. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Shameless Fusion Meatloaf
- 1 lb Ground Pork
- 1 lb Ground turkey
- 2.5 C breadcrumbs
- 2 eggs
- ½ C Milk
- 2 T minced ginger
- 3 C thinly sliced leeks
- 1 bunch of scallions, sliced thin, greens and whites separated
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tsp Maggi Seasoning or substitute fish sauce
- 1 T Oyster sauce
- 1 T dark soy sauce
- 2 T Xaoxing rice wine – only a minor demerits if omitted
- 1 tsp Worchestire sauce
- 1 T toasted sesame oil
- 2 T grapeseed or neutral oil
- Kosher salt
For the Glaze
- ¼ C Hoisin Sauce
- 1 T Oyster sauce
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- ¼ C Sriracha
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
Set your oven to 350º. Whisk together all your ingredients for your glaze and set aside.Heat a sauce pan on medium heat, add your grapeseed oil, and sweat your leeks, 1 tablespoon of the ginger, all the garlic, and your scallion whites. Add a small pinch of salt and cook for 2-3 minutes, until just starting to soften. Add the oyster sauce, Maggi seasoning, and soy, stirring to incorporate and continue cooking for another 4-5 minutes on medium low heat. Add the rice wine and cook for another 3 minutes, or just enough to remove the alcohol. Add the sesame oil, stir, then transfer to a bowl to cool completely.
In a large mixing bowl add your breadcrumbs, milk, scallion greens, the remaining ginger and mix together. It should feel tacky but not wet. Once your leeks have cooled, add those aromatics and the meat to the mixing bowl and mix until evenly distributed. To check your seasoning choose your destiny and either boil, fry, or even microwave a nub of your mixture to make sure your seasoning is where you like it. It’s embarrassing as all hell to put this work in and have your loaf turn out super under or over seasoned, so now’s your chance to avoid being shamed for your careless seasoning.
If you own a loaf pan, use it, lightly oiling the inside.. As you add the meat give the pan some thorough thwacks on the counter so there aren’t any air pockets. We’re making meat loaf not swiss cheese, so thwack that loaf. Sans pan? Free-style that shit. Sheet pan, double layer foil – lightly greased- , form your meat right on there into a 9×4”ish log/rectangle situation. The thwack as you build your meat situation still applies.
Note: Place a sheet pan lined with foil adding maybe a cup of water underneath the meatloaf pan, as the delicious fats and juices in any meatloaf just can’t contain themselves, spilling over the side to cause a nice little grease fire.
Bake in your 350º oven for 30 minutes before applying your glaze, otherwise the sugars in the glaze will burn before the meatloaf is cooked. Continue cooking for an additional 30-45 minutes, adding a little more glaze in between if you like a thick shellack. The juices should run clear when prodded and temping at 160º. Most important, it should look like a meatloaf and generally delicious in appearance. Allow to cool as much as your hunger will allow before slicing to ensure easy slicing, ideally 20-30 minutes, if not longer. I promise it won’t be cold, and if serving your Dad/Mom/seniors that don’t acknowledge what they’re eating is food unless it’s scorching hot, pop their slice into a 450º oven until it’s hot enough to burn the remaining nerve endings in his/her mouth.
Blistered Green Bean Pickles
- 1 lb green beans, washed, ends trimmed
- 2 T Oyster Sauce
- 1 T Soy Sauce
- 1 tsp fish sauce
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 2 large shallots cut into ¼” rings
- Grapeseed oil
- Blackl Pepper, freshly ground
For the Pickle
2 Cups or whatever sparse leftovers blistered green beans
¼ C Rice Wine Vinegar + 1 T extra
¼ C Apple Cider Vinegar
1 tsp. sugar
Blanch the green beans in the salty water for 1 minute, working in batches if your pot is small. Transfer to ice bath, swish around until the beans themselves feel cold when you bite into one. Transfer to a sheet pan lined with paper towels and allow to dry, dabbing with another paper towel to remove as much water as possible.
Heat a large cast iron skillet on medium/high heat for 4-5 minutes. Meanwhile whisk together the oyster, soy, and fish sauce. When your pan is thoroughly heated and starting to smoke, add your grape seed oil then your green beans in an even layer, again working in batches if your pan doesn’t fit all the beans in one layer. If your pan was hot enough, there should be a real ruckus going on. Leave the beans undisturbed for the first 1-2 minutes. When you’ve established serious blistering on that first side, you may now give them a quick toss and continue cooking for another minute before pushing to one side of the pan and adding your sliced shallots. Like beans, leave the shallots alone for the first minute. Add your sauce mixture, and toss everything together, cooking for 2 more minutes. Drizzle that sesame oil and taste for seasoning.
Allow to cool to room temp before refrigerating to make your “pickles” the next day or in a couple hours.Your green beans chilled, season them with the sugar and add your vinegars, toss and let them marinate together for at least 20-30 minutes if not overnight before using as pickles.
Shameless Fusion Meatloaf Sandwich
- I’m no architect nor have I ever graduated from Sandwich Artist University, but this is how I built this devastatingly delicious beast of a sandwich.
- Furikake Everything Focaccia, sliced horizontal
- 4 slices Shameless Fusion Meatloaf, sliced ¼” thick
- Glaze from S.F.A Meatloaf
- Blistered Green Bean Pickles
- Cheese of your choice(optional)
- ¼ C Kewpie Mayo or preferred brand with a small dosing of MSG
- 1 hefty tomato Sliced 1/8”
- Iceberg Shredduce
- ½ Red Onion sliced thin
- Toasted Sesame Oil
- Fresh Cracked Black pepper
- Salt and/or furikake rice seasoning
Preheat oven to 425º. Crumb side facing up, layer your cheese if using on the top half of your focaccia. Lightly oil the other half and toast until the cheese is just melted, or just barely golden at the edges. Let the bread cool a minute before liberally applying the Kewpie/MSG mayo. Fan your meatloaf slices out, drizzling a little of the glaze over each piece.
After the meatloaf comes the tomatoes, evenly covering the dimensions of the sandwich, seasoning the tomatoes with a pinch of salt and/or more furikake. Next add the red onions and the green bean pickles. Finally add the shredduce on top, season again with salt and pepper and lightly drizzle your sesame oil and a little of the pickle juices atop the shredduce. Finally, top with other bread half, cut in half, stand back and gaze lovingly into your sandwich’s cross section. The only thing left to do is decide if you’re going to share this with a few loved ones or hastily devour the entire thing, maybe over the sink, leaving no evidence behind of your gluttony. The choice is yours, eat at your own risk.
Cheesy Fantastico 