To Lakshmi with Brie

I haven’t been posting much on this blog for the past couple of months. It was one part laziness, one part computer time rationing due to the pain involved with sitting for long periods of time, and one part does anybody even care? Half of my posts were recipes and I didn’t think that anybody was reading them – let alone using them. Then Lakshmi said that she enjoyed reading my stories about cooking the recipes even if she did not subsequently cook them herself. Well, that made me feel better. So when she recently asked for sandwich ideas using brie (only my most favorite cheese in the world!), I realized that I had both stories and recipes for her. My initial suggestion was a sandwich featuring sliced green apples, turkey and brie. Read on for some more inventive options.

Before I get into the recipes, I’ll back up my declaration that brie is my most favorite cheese in the world. When I was a kid (don’t remember how old), we had a picnic with some family in our backyard. Before the picnic, my mom came home with two wheels of brie and I was psyched! Only then did I find out that we would be sharing the brie with the family. Now I was not a terribly stingy child when it came to food. Sure, I liked getting the biggest slice of pizza as much as the next kid, but my brother was the one with food sharing issues. It was David who stuffed an entire bag of fruit snacks into his mouth so he would not have to give one to me. But brie was an entirely different story. Determined not to sit idly by as my extended family consumed my brie (not realizing that my mom only intended to put out the first wheel anyway), I hid the brie between the pots and pans underneath the sink. And then preceded to forget all about it. It was not until two weeks later when my mom was rummaging through the refrigerator while I was within earshot that I remembered what I had done. I could have sworn I bought two bries was all it took for me to remember my hidden plunder. Still hopeful (what can I say, I was a kid), I pulled out the brie only to find that it was green.

Here is a sandwich that I found on foodnetwork.com. It was made by Tyler Florence and features brie, turkey and apple butter. I had to try it, because I recently brought back an Asheville, NC souvenir of award winning apple butter from The Moose Café. I did not follow the recipe exactly. The other day my mom bought a huge turkey breast and we baked it in the oven. Yesterday, I made a sandwich by toasting a roll with a little olive oil and topping it with brie for the last minute toasting to start melting it. I added about two slices of turkey breast and some apple butter. Mmmm! Definitely worth my trip to Asheville!

This second suggestion is not a recipe, but something from the menu at NYC restaurant Serendipity 3. This was Pam’s favorite restaurant when she was in high school and I went there with her during the summer after our freshman year of college. We had just finished a five hour wait for tickets to the Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night, and decided that we’d like to wait some more. It took us about forty-five minutes to get a table right next to the kitchens in this über trendy spot, but the food was delicious. We split the following sandwich (how cheap!) and each had a fishbowl sized frozen hot chocolate. It was Pam’s first time tasting brie and it was my first (and only) time at Serendipity 3.

Pretty sure this was the sandwich:
A Summer Bries smoked turkey, sliced apples, melted brie and alfalfa sprouts, served on raisin pumpernickel with Russian dressing 14.00