One of the things I learned in the Military is that just about everything can be made into a sandwich. During boot camp we would grab a couple pieces of bread and stuff everything we could in between them and eat. It really didn't matter if it was turkey and potatoes or lasagna and salad it all got made into a sandwich and eaten as quickly possible. On one of my deployments over seas there was a 24 hour sandwich shop attached to the chow hall and you could go in there when ever you wanted and make yourself a sandwich. My good friend Andy and I would head in there from time to time and make some fairly impressive sandwiches in our off time.
Its sort of a funny thing in the military, we were always working out and we were always hungry. Food was one of the few things we had that we could look forward to. Heading up to the sandwich shop and making some sandwiches to go and then hanging out playing Splinter Cell or Cabelas Big Game Hunter in our down time was about all we had to keep us sane. Every Wednesday they would have a Mongolian Barbecue and we could go to the chow hall and build our own plate of food. Wednesday's were always looked forward to and by the time you got done with your Mongolian barbecue you felt like you needed to go for another run just to burn it off.
I was deployed with Andy a couple of times and food was one of the things we bonded over. Its an interesting thing when you spend every day with someone and then come home and you don't get to see them as often. It is one of the hardest parts about being in the military. Andy came down last week and even though we haven't seen each other in a while you would never know. We spent some time catching and then we had some sandwiches.
Knowing that Andy was coming I thought I would make something special. I had been given about 10 pounds of wild boar and had made some wild boar Italian sausage. So I thought I would make Sausage and peppers. I left about half the sausage uncased so instead of using sausage links for our sandwiches I made patties and then made a sweet pepper relish to go on top. We all used to call Andy, Big Sarge, because he was in charge of all of us. So I think I will call this sandwich "The Big Sarge".
The Big Sarge
One pound of Italian Sausage
provolone cheese
hoagie style buns
For the relish
1 medium red onion diced
2 Pepper (I used one red and one yellow) roasted, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 head of garlic roasted
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons of honey
1 tsp chipotle powder
salt and pepper to taste.
1. preheat the oven to 425 degrees, cut the top off of one head of garlic, drizzle with olive oil and then wrap in tin foil. roast int he oven for 35 minutes then let cool and squeeze out the garlic cloves and make into a paste.
2. roast the peppers while you are doing the garlic then place them into a paper bag and let cool. When the peppers are cool peel the skin off discard the seed and give a rough chop.
3. Dice the onion and saute in a pan with olive oil until soft, add the garlic and the peppers and then stir in the remaining ingredient for the relish.
4. Form the sausage into patties the same size as your buns and grill or fry in a pan until cooked through.
5. place a patty on each bun top with cheese and the relish and then place back into the preheated oven for 5 minutes.
Serve with your favorite beer and enjoy.
