Bainbridge Style

This is my first post since I joined the Bainbridge Review’s blog page and I’m excited and honored to be here.  This blog is a personal journal of my food education and travels.  I’ve spent the month of August in Mataro, Spain a suburb of Barcelona.  If you’d like to see my daily blog entries please click here and you’ll find recipes for classic Catalan foods, travel journals and pictures.

Today’s post is about leftovers.

Wouldn’t you know it.  It’s siesta and the shops are closed and in the midst of our packing we’ve forgotten about lunch.  Funny thing for a food writer, but there it is.  There’s no help for it but to resort to leftovers. 

A quick search of the fridge revealed an abundance of raw materials.  A half full jar of anchovies; the baby artichokes we bought in France, a package of lox, eggs, a baguette.  And so it was revealed to me the evolution of the Pintxos  of which I wrote a few weeks ago.  They are the answer to every cook’s “what to eat” dilemma and a great way to clear the fridge of odds and ends.

After looking over our supplies I knew that garlic aioli would overpower the salmon so I deleted garlic and added caper juice and anchovy oil for flavor.  The result was thinner than typical aioli and the flavor was tangy and salty and the perfect dressing for steamed artichoke and anchovy pintxo. 

It also worked well with lox and capers with a slice of fresh tomato, a wedge of boiled egg and steamed green beans.

R’s Provencal BBQ duck chopped, garnished with cheese from the Montserrat monks, sprinkled with egg yolk and dotted with a caper. 

So, the next time lunch or dinner sneaks up on you without your permission subdue it with these quick and tasty sandwiches.  I’d love to hear about your winning combinations.