RECIPE: Louisiana Po'Boy with Creole Mustard Sauce

Here's a great sandwich that is easy to make and would go with several Coffaro wines (we had a zin). It's adapted from Flying Sausages by Bruce Aidells and Denis Kelly. The book shows you how to make your own sausage, but we used store bought andouille. You could use just about anything and they recommend things like chaurice or boudin, as well as andouille. In the end just about any sausage you like could go with this.

Louisiana Po'Boy with Creole Mustard Sauce

For Each Sandwich

1 link Sausage (see headnote)
1 roll (such as French or Italian), 5 to 6 inches
2 TB or more Creole Mustard Sauce (probably used more like 4 TB)
1/2 cup shredded cabbage
1/4 cup thinly sliced onions
1 to 2 TB mayonnaise
1/4 tsp salt or to taste (optional)
1 tsp rice vinegar or to taste (optional)
Tabasco

Panfry or grill the sausage over medium heat until browned on all sides and cooked through if using raw sausage. (Many sausages can be obtained already cooked but can still be grilled for flavor). Set aside and keep warm.

Heat the roll if you prefer.

Generously spread the Creole Sauce on both sides. Toss the cabbage and onions together with the mayonnaise, salt, vinegar and Tabasco. How much Tabasco? Recipe said a dash. We probably used five to ten dashes. Use what you like!

Put the sausage in the roll and top with the onion/cabbage slaw and serve.

Creole Mustard Sauce

1/2 cup Creole mustard or other coarse grained mustard
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 tsp Tabasco Sauce or to taste
2 tsp prepared horseradish
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Thoroughly mix together all ingredients. Will keep in a sealed jar in the fridge for 1 to 2 weeks.

Of course this amount of sauce may bear no relation to the amount you need for your sandwich. Since the recipe said 2 TB of sauce for a sandwich and we were making 4 sandwiches, we started with 6 TB of mustard and 2 TB mayonnaise. This isn't exactly the ratio in the recipe, but it hardly matters. Same goes for the rest of the ingredients. We probably used 1 to 2 tsp of Worcestershire Sauce and 1 to 2 tsp Tabasco (both far more than what is called for). We ground in pepper, maybe 1/4 tsp or more. We also used a lot more horseradish, both because we love the flavor, but also because we were using fresh ground. In the end we wanted a bit more so tossed in some more mustard. If you are a big mayo fan you could add more of that with or instead of the mustard.

Enjoy!

Potato Chips

We made our own potato chips without deep frying. Peel or leave peel on and wash a large potato. Slice thinly. A proper potato chip is about 1/16" (1.5mm) and is best achieved with a mandolin (what we used) or food processor with that thickness blade.

Very lightly spray microwave platter with oil. Lay the slices on the platter and lightly spray with oil again. We like to shake a little pimenton (smoked paprika) on it.

Microwave the potatoes. It is impossible to tell you for how long. Every microwave is different. Some you have to watch out for hot spots that might cook quicker. We recently replaced ours. The old one took about 6 minutes. The new one more like 9 minutes (slower because it is a bigger unit so more potatoe on the platter). If you've never done it before, Cook for a couple of minutes, stop and check. Depending on how cooked they look, cook again for one or two minutes. Keep checking every few minutes until they are almost brittle. Then check more frequently. You want them to be somewhat brittle, they'll get more brittle when they cool). You might let them get a little brown but usually that's too much and some of them may burn. It's a learning curve but once you know how, it is really easy and almost added fat free!

When they are done place in a large bowl and sprinkle on salt. They'll keep much of the day on the counter.