For this theme, I wanted to make a variety of different lunch foods because just having one thing in your lunch is lame. For the main component, I went with a version of the roast beef sandwich from ‘Wichcraft. I used the radish slaw and grilled red onions (with Worcestershire sauce, curry powder and rosemary) to go on the sandwich. Instead of a traditional roast beef, I wanted to play with my Anova sous vide rig again so I did a 36 hour eye of round roast (131 degrees as recommended by this helpful guide). The meat was incredibly juicy and tender and the spice rub I coated it with imparted a great flavor. I then did a simple mixed-green salad with homemade blue cheese dressing and a coconut, carrot and lime soup. The dressing was delicious and easy and pretty cheap. The soup was interesting because it was initially simple but had a complex flavor as you ate it. There was a hint of spice from the chili paste and a tartness from the lime juice. I definitely recommend letting it sit overnight because the flavors balance out and it becomes much more delicious. The last thing I made for this meal was these spicy sweet nuts. I am trying to use up things from my pantry because we are moving soon and this used 4 cups of various uncooked nuts that I had in my cupboard (mostly from other challenge dishes). These were very simple and delicious, delivering just a hint of spice as you eat them.
For my MetaTheme, I didn’t want to disappoint /u/thec00kiecrumbles with something as simplistic as an Irish coffee in a carry-out mug. I have been trying to drink more iced tea at lunch to get away from my Diet Coke addiction, so I decided to go with a Long Island Iced Tea disguised as a regular tea. So consider this sort of an “alcoholic’s brown bag lunch” component I guess. This was a pretty solid recipe, actually, with a good lemon flavor and not too much of a straight alcohol burn.
My favorite picnic food has always been sandwiches, so I turned to Tom Colicchio’s sandwich book ‘Wichcraft. I wanted a sandwich that could be served room temperature (like a picnic) and the Flatiron Steak Sandwich caught my eye. The steak itself was very simple, salt & pepper and then seared on a cast iron pan. It was topped with a little salad of julienned cucumber & ginger tossed with salt, pepper and lime juice. Finally, there was a recipe for a homemade roasted chili mayo which added a nice creamy texture with a hint of spice. We were all nervous about the slices of ginger but it was really mellowed out by the lime juice.
I also wanted to do a potato salad, but I really don’t like traditional potato salad. I found this great recipe from Giada de Laurentis for a lemon-mustard potato salad. Cooking the potatoes in the dressing made them extremely flavorful and topping it with the remaining dressing let the lemon flavor pop. It also helped to coat the arugula and tied the whole dish together.
Finally, the cocktail was actually pretty easy to get to. I asked a couple of people what they would drink at a picnic and literally everyone said “lemonade” without hesitation. So, I made a grown-up version of lemonade, a Tom Collins. I actually used a bit more club soda than this recipe called for and the result was a delicious, light, and infinitely drinkable cocktail. This is definitely my new favorite gin drink (not hard, I’ve never been a huge gin fan--working on these cocktails has definitely improved my feelings about drinking gin).