The Beachey

Broiled baby portabellas with a smoked paprika marinade, horseradish sauce, chevre, red onion, frisee

Lincoln Beachey was a pioneer of early aviation, and one cool customer.  Many dudes died trying to imitate Beachey's aerobatic tricks, and he had a girlfriend in every major town.  In 1914, everyone basically had a boner for Beachey. A man of firsts, first to fly inverted, first to fly inside a building, the first to achieve terminal velocity, etc, etc... I bet he could work up a serious appetite .  If I had to guess what the first inflight meal was, I'd bet it was a sandwich.  Leaving one had free to steer your flying machine over Niagara Falls or to propose to one of your several girlfriends, the sandwich gets the job done while you fearlessly stun America with the marvels of flight.

Makes 4 sandwiches

8 oz. baby portabella mushrooms
2 lemons
6 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of salt
4 teaspoons of good quality smoked paprika
lots and lots of fresh ground pepper

1 baguette cut into 4 equal pieces
horseradish sauce
red onion
2 small tomatoes (or one large one) 
1 package chevre
frisee (or plain ol'lettuce)

On Sunday/Tuesday Night (I made half the mushrooms, enough for 2 sandwiches at a time, so they were fresh ones for Wednesday and Thursday's sandwiches):

For the mushrooms, (proportions are for each time) brush/clean half of the baby portabellas and pop off the stems.  Juice 1 lemon  into a small casserole dish, or even better a gratin/tian dish. Add 3 tablespoons of the olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of good quality smoked paprika, and lots and lots of fresh ground pepper.  Add the mushrooms, roll them around in the marinade, then put them gill side up and spoon some marinade into each of the caps.  Let them sit for like 10 minutes.  Turn on your broiler, and pop in the mushrooms for 10 minutes.  Take them out, let them cool, and then slice them up and put them in a container and into the fridge.

Before Work:

Slice your baguette in half and toast under the broiler for a few minutes.

Spread the horseradish sauce on both sides.

(Note: Horseradish sauce is different from prepared horseradish, it's actually a sauce, sort of like horseradish mixed with mayonnaise, they sell them next to each other, so be sure you grab the right one.  It isn't vegan, it has eggs in it.  So if you want to take this to vegan-town, I'd add some horseradish to veganaise and use that.  Also, if you are wary of buying and being stuck with a whole bottle of horseradish sauce, I will tell you it is excellent on corn on the cob instead of butter, and crazy good with french fries)

Layer on half of your mushrooms, then some thinly sliced red onion, some tomato, chevre and frisee.  You could also use regular ol' lettuce.

Vegan Version:

Omit the chevre, and use a little Tofutti Cream Cheese.  Make your own horseradish sauce as noted above.

I first learned about Lincoln Beachey last week from the Radio Lab podcast.  My Dad is a pilot and top-notch airplane mechanic, and I am pretty sure I've been to every airplane museum in the West, but I had never heard of Lincoln Beachey.  And what's crazy is that my Dad had never heard of him either.  Consider also, he was the most famous dude in his day, it is estimated that 30 million people saw him fly at an air-show during the course of his career, 17 million in 1914 alone, and at a time when the population of the United States was only 99 million. 

The Gigi

Mushrooms marinated in champagne vinegar, caramelized onions, chevre, Dijon mustard, garlic veganaise, and fresh basil

Would Gigi’s glamorous great-aunt approve of this sandwich? Probably not; I doubt those perfumed hands ever abandoned their silverware to slum it with anything involving a wrapper. However, this is a sandwich you could drink a glass of champagne with while on a picnic with your questionably older, wealthy boyfriend (who loves you, but also kind of wants to turn you into a classy prostitute).

I made my own marinated mushrooms. They’re so easy to make, I couldn’t imagine buying them, but sometimes antipasti or olive bars will have marinated mushrooms that would do pretty well in any sandwich.

The onions aren’t as time-consuming as it sounds. These onions pretty much take care of themselves. I just throw them in the pan and take care of other business while they cook, like make dinner or take out the recycling, and then I stir them whenever I walk by the stove.

I'm gonna try to format these recipes for someone who wants to pack these in the morning for work...

Makes 4 sandwiches

1 ½ tablespoons of Olive Oil
1 large yellow onion
Salt

9-10 oz button mushrooms
¾ cup of champagne vinegar (or white wine vinegar, lemon juice, or even apple cider vinegar)
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon of salt
¼ teaspoon of sugar
1 ½ teaspoons of Dijon mustard
3 cloves of garlic
½ teaspoon of dried parsley
½ teaspoon of dried oregano
½ teaspoon of dried basil

3 tablespoons of veganaise
1 large clove of garlic

4 mini baguettes or one large baguette cut into 4 equal sections
Dijon mustard
1 package of chevre
Fresh Basil (optional)

On Sunday Night:

For the onions, heat up 1 ½ tablespoons of olive oil in a pan on medium heat. Take one large yellow onion, cut it in half then slice it into half-moons. Add the onions to the pan with a pinch of salt, and sauté for about 8 minutes, stirring whenever you think about it. Then turn down the heat just a bit and continue to sauté for another 20 minutes or more until they are a dark golden color. Like, just when you think they’re done, give them 5 more minutes. You want them super soft and sweet. While they’re on their way, you can get the mushrooms going…

For the mushrooms,  Brush/clean 9-10 oz. of mushrooms and cut them into quarters if they are large, halves if they are small and put them into a bowl. In a small sauce pan I put about ¾ cup of champagne vinegar, or white wine vinegar (lemon juice would be pretty good if you have that many lemons or even apple cider vinegar), add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, ½ teaspoon of salt, ¼ teaspoon of sugar, 1 ½ teaspoons of Dijon mustard, 3 cloves of garlic, ½ teaspoon of dried parsley, ½ teaspoon of dried oregano, and ½ teaspoon of dried basil. Whisk it all together. Put it on the stove over medium-high heat, and right after it starts to boil, pour it over your mushrooms. Let them cool a bit and and then sit overnight in the fridge et voila! This is also a great side dish and great for taking to a pot luck, just serve them at room temperature.

For the veganaise, take 3 tablespoons of veganaise and crush 1 large clove of garlic into it, mix well.

When everything’s done and cooled off, I cover the containers and put it all into the fridge for the morning.

Before Work:

Slice the baguette down the middle and toast under the broiler for a few minutes while you brush your teeth.

Spread the garlic veganaise on one side and some Dijon mustard on the other side.

Using a slotted spoon, drain some of the mushrooms and put them on the veganaise side of the baguette.

Add ¼ of the caramelized onions and ¼ of the chevre (toward the end of the week, I actually decided that ¼ a package of chevre, what is deemed a single serving, might be too much. Use your own judgment, maybe you’ll have some left over for your dinner salad).

Top it off with some fresh basil. I always love rolling the basil leaves up and slicing them into a chiffonade. (However, the first couple of times I made this, I didn’t put any basil on it and it was still pretty good.)

Right now I’m wrapping my baguette sandwiches up in foil and recycling it when I’m done. I’m on the hunt for a more reusable option, but it needs to keep the sandwich together until lunchtime!

Vegan Variation:

Leave the chevre out and make the basil mandatory and this will still be a pretty killer sandwich. Or I think you could easily substitute some tofutti cream cheese mixed with a squeeze of lemon.

I toted this to work with a pear from the Urban Farm Collective and a chocolate truffle I squirreled away at some point last week. At lunchtime I could hear Maurice Chevalier crooning at me from the belle epoch beyond.

(and if Gigi wants be Gaston’s kept woman, who am I to judge?)

-L.K.