Monday, January 14, 2008

Cuban Bruschetta

This weekend I went through several cookbooks and my big pile of recipes printed from blogs and spent hours and hours cooking. Unfortunately for Kayleigh, I didn't let her help with any of it. She has a really bad cold and should consider herself lucky she is even allowed in the house! I did let her eat the food, though. I've noticed when she has a cold she seems to like new foods more so maybe I shouldn't be complaining that she is sick again!


I adapted this recipe from The Perfect Pantry for lunch yesterday. It had such strange ingredients and Bill and I agreed that the first bite was really weird. After 2 or 3 more tastes, though, it got better and better. It was a little involved for lunch but not so bad since it was the weekend.


Cuban Bruschetta


Multi grain baguette, sliced

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, chopped

1/2 red onion, diced

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

1 tsp vegetable oil

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 small zucchini, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 dill pickle, diced

sliced cheese (we used emmentaler because that is what was on hand)


Heat oven to 350 degrees. Slice the baguette and toast for 5 -10 minutes.


Combine half the chopped onion, mayo, cilantro, and chipotle in a small bowl.


Heat the oil over medium high heat in a skillet. Cook the onion and garlic until softened. Add the zucchini and carrot and continue sauteing for 10 minutes or until the carrot is soft. Remove from heat and stir in the dill pickle.


Top each piece of toast first with the mayo mixture, then the vegetables, and then a slice of cheese. Bake for 5 minutes.


Kay - These were OK. I don't usually like carrots but they were so-so in this. Zucchini I usually like so that was OK. The cilantro was a little strong. (Mom's note: I don't think it was the cilantro she was noticing. I bet it was the chipotle.)


Mom (Dana) - The key is to dice the carrot, zucchini and pickle all pretty small so that you can fit it onto the bread. The cheese is really just there to hold it all together so the slices don't have to be very thick. For Kay's I cut the cheese thicker and then put a thinner layer of the mayo mixture and vegetables. I figured she would be more likely to eat it if she couldn't see what was under the cheese!

2 comments:

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

You are adventurous eaters -- hooray! This recipe was given to me by a wonderful chef in Boston -- when she first made it, I thought it was odd, too. Until the second bite. Then I realized how really good it is. Often when I made it I substitute parsley for cilantro, because I'm not wild about cilantro. But the pickles always have to be there!

Champsleeve said...

We love cilantro but I have a friend who hates it so I'm glad to hear that parsley works as well.

I was really tempted to skip the pickle because it seemed really strange but I'm so glad I left it in there. It really is an important part of the taste.

Thanks for originally posting this recipe!

-Dana