One of the Best Sandwiches I’ve Ever Tasted.
You know how it goes. You get a taste for something. Then you think about it and you start wondering what it would taste like if you added a little of this spice, or some of those seeds, or how about some of that new spice you got for Christmas. Yeah, that’s what happened here.
It was Maureen Abood’s Lebanese Talami bread that first popped into my head. I really love this bread. It puffs up beautifully in the oven and you end up with a huge soft loaf of light and airy bread with a big wide open crumb. But this time I added ground black lime *, nigella seeds *, and dried fenugreek leaves *. I’ve cooked with the seeds of fenugreek, but never the dried leaves. They have an almost celery-like flavor, but then a hit of sweetness hits you on the back end.
I thought the combination of black lime, nigella seeds and fenugreek leaves would give me an interesting flavor profile for the bread and couldn’t wait to taste it. I baked it in a quarter sheet pan and spread some softened butter on the crust when it came out of the oven.
The more I thought about this bread, the more I became convinced it would make a great sandwich. Now, if you’re not in the mood to make the bread, you can use a purchased focaccia or ciabatta, but I hope you make the bread because it’s outstanding and is nothing like anything you can buy. Plus, it’s super easy if you have a stand mixer.
I had some Benton’s bacon stashed in my freezer and pulled it out to add to the sandwiches. While it was cooking I mashed a couple avocados with a little lime juice, salt, and pepper. I then sliced the peel off an orange and cut the remaining orange into thin slices. Earlier, I had sliced an onion and a chili pepper, added it to a bowl with cider vinegar, salt, and sugar, and chilled it.
Now, it was time to build my sandwiches. I spread the mashed avocado on the bottom of the bread, topped it with strips of bacon, slices of orange, and then some pickled onions and a few chilies.
While this wasn’t what I envisioned when I had first started thinking about the Talami bread, all I can say is – Wow. Those additions to the bread are outstanding. The black lime is very well balanced with the earthiness of the nigella seeds and fenugreek leaves. The bread is full of flavor and couldn’t have been a better choice for the sandwiches. Let’s be honest, you can never go wrong with bacon. That’s a given. But the creamy avocado, the pickled funkiness of the onions and chilies, and then the bright punch of the sweet citrus made for one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever tasted. So damned delicious.
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Bacon, Avocado, Pickled Onion, and Sliced Orange Sandwich on Talami Bread
4
servingsCrispy strips of bacon, mashed avocado, pickled onions and chilies, and sliced oranges are the filling of a scrumptious sandwich made on Lebanese Talami bread, to which I added nigella seeds, ground black lime, and dried fenugreek leaves. A truly great sandwich.
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Ingredients
- Talami Bread or Purchased Focaccia or Ciabatta
Click here for the Talami Bread recipe, but see below in the Directions for the changes I made to the recipe.
2 teaspoons nigella seeds *
2 1/2 teaspoons ground black lime *
2 heaping teaspoons dried fenugreek leaves *
- Pickled Red Onions
1 medium red onion, peeled and sliced into thin rounds
1 Fresno or jalapeño chili pepper, sliced into rings
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
- Sandwich
3/4 pound bacon, cooked until crisp
1 orange
2 ripe avocados
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
Sea Salt
Black pepper
Directions
- Talami Bread
- Follow the recipe as written, except for 2 differences. 1. Add the nigella seeds, black lime, and fenugreek leaves after it’s been fully beaten. Continue to beat for another minute or 2 - until the spices are fully mixed into the batter. Continue with the recipe. 2. Eliminate the garlic in the butter that is spread on the crust of the bread when it comes out of the oven.
- Pickled RedOnions
- Stir together the cider vinegar, salt, and sugar in a small bowl. Add the sliced onions and chilies. Stir, cover, and chill for at least 30 minutes. These will keep in the fridge for several days, at least.
- Sandwich
- Slice the bread into 4 sandwich sized squares and then slice each piece in half horizontally. If you made the Talami bread, you will have plenty left over. Or simply slice up a store bought focaccia or ciabatta into similar sized pieces.
- Cut the peel off the entire orange, then slice the orange into 1/8 inch thick slices. Set aside.
- Peel and pit the avocados. Place in a small bowl, add the lime juice, a large pinch of salt, a few grinds of black pepper and mash coarsely with a fork. Set aside.
- Spread 1/4 of the mashed avocado on the bottoms of 4 slices of bread. Top each one with a quarter of the bacon strips, a quarter of the orange slices and some of the pickled onions and chilies. You will have some of the pickled onions left over.
- I then drizzled a tiny bit of the browned bits that had cooked out of the bacon over the top halves of the bread before placing the tops on the sandwiches. Enjoy!
2 Responses
I haven’t made the sandwich yet, but made the bread this afternoon. After seeing the recipe, I’d never have tried it if it had been recommended by anyone other than Renee Robinson, but I’ve learned to trust The Salted Potato, so I gave it a go. Definitely a different kind of recipe – I’ve never made a yeast bread from batter rather than dough. The bread is very good – reminds me a little bit of the texture of cornbread, but the flavor is definitely NOT cornbread. Recipe is easy to follow – instructions are clear and concise. The flavor is spot-on, and I can’t wait to try the sandwich!
Well, thank you so much, Pat! I’m so happy you like the bread. We really enjoy it, too. I put the leftover part we didn’t eat in the freezer and have brought it out to eat with other things. I can’t wait to hear what you think about the sandwich!