Sandwich for dinner? Yes please!

Even though I wasn't raised on sandwiches they easily became my go-to food. Combined with soup, sandwich becomes my most desirable lunch serving. But an occasional sandwich creation for dinner isn't a rarity either.

I fully embrace meals that enhance original ingredients without requiring an extra trip to the store. My sandwich dinner included two of such ingredients. Kaiser buns are rich and tasty but by topping it with Everything bagel mix you'll elevate the flavor to the next level. Just brush the top with egg wash, sprinkle with the dry mix, and toast in a toaster oven. This particular mix didn't cost more than $2 at Walmart. 

Another ingredient is pickled red onion. Slice half an onion thinly, mix 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of vinegar with 1 tsp of sugar and 1/2 tsp of salt, make sure dry ingredients are fully dissolved. Put onions in the jar, add a few crushed allspices for extra zing, and pour the mixture covering the onion entirely. Let stand for at least 30 min. You can keep it refrigerated for a week.

Now to the protein. Of course, your average deli section will provide you with an extensive variety of cold cuts. I, however, prefer making my own for two simple reasons. You control the quality and you reduce the price. A regular seasoned pork loin will take about 50 min in an electric pressure cooker, while roasting will take 45 min per pound in the oven. Either way, you know what's involved: a piece of meat and seasoning. I chose a mix from The Spice House called Gateway to the North, I got it as a free gift on my purchase. Ingredient wise it seems not a hard mix to recreate at home.

After the meat is ready and cooled down, slice it and assembly your sandwich. Mayo on the bottom of the kaiser bun, topped with lettuce, sliced pork, pickled onions, a few drops of mustard and chopped herbs of your liking. I had Italian parsley and basil. The total time for pork loin preparation and assembly was around 1 hour given that you make onions and bun enhancing step while pork is cooking. 

Think about the following variations if you want to experiment or simply don't have specific ingredients:

• Use turkey breast or beef for the roast. Any large chunk of meat that could be sliced would work.
• If you don't have everything bagel mix try one of those: sesame seeds, poppy seeds, dried onion chunks, dried chives, sea salt, pepper flakes.
• Any roast or grilling seasoning would work. I chose the one that resonated with my northern location.
• You can substitute sweet onion for the red one if that's what you have. The color will be pale but the taste and the crunch still will be outstanding.

I'm pretty sure Sir Sandwich would be pleased.