I had a perky, isn’t-expat-life-jolly post planned for this recipe, because it originated with my friend David, who takes grilled sausages, or snorkers as he likes to call them, in a Thermos to rugby games when he is back home in England. He says sometimes when it’s cold, you just want something hot to eat and a normal sandwich won’t do. We also take snorkers, just like this, when we go out sailing with him.
A couple of months back, I was in charge of catering for our Friday sail and I made this spicy coleslaw to heap upon grilled snorker sandwiches, and the combination was wonderful. Best of all, with a little preparation ahead, like slicing your buns, you will only need some tongs and paper plates or napkins to serve. A simple but delicious fuss-free meal that travels well.
But last night was rough and I'm asking myself this question: When does the purported glamorousness of being an expat wear off? I'll tell you, it’s right about now. When it seems that all the other parents are sending their children off to universities a couple of hours away by car and we are putting ours on an airplane with almost 20 hours of travel ahead of her. When you can only go so far in the airport and you have to say final goodbyes in front of the hordes clamoring to get through security and onto their own flights. When she says, “I don’t want to go.” And you say, “I don’t want you to go.” But you both know it has to happen. And everyone tries not to start crying because it’s only going to get ugly. That’s when this life of overseas living loses a bit of its charm.
Deep down, I know that even if we lived in the US, we probably wouldn’t be near the girls. But for a day or two, I'm just going to wallow in the misery of being so far away. Can anyone relate? Meanwhile, I comfort myself with snorkers and spicy slaw on Portuguese rolls. (And, later, there may have to be dark chocolate too.)
Ingredients
For the sandwiches:
8 good quality sausages – I use Cumberland pork ones.
8 bread rolls
Optional – Ketchup (I like the spicy one) and yellow mustard
For the coleslaw:
Half small head purple cabbage (8+ oz or 250g when shredded, core cut out)
Half small head green cabbage (8+ oz or 250g when shredded, core cut out)
1 large carrot (sorry – forgot to weigh him)
Couple of handfuls snow peas (2 3/4 oz or 75g after de-stringing)
3 medium radishes (3 oz or 85g)
For the dressing:
1 large clove garlic or 2 normal ones
Half medium purple onion
1 hot red chili pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
1 teaspoon sugar
Few grinds fresh black pepper
1/4 cup or 60ml white balsamic
1/4 cup or 60ml extra virgin olive oil
Method
Cut your chili pepper lengthwise and then mince. Slice the onion as thinly as you can. Mince the garlic.
Put all three in a mixing bowl and add in the salt, black pepper, sugar and balsamic vinegar. Let those hang out together for about 10 minutes. The vinegar will temper the sharpness of the onion and garlic.
Add in the olive oil and whisk with a fork to combine. Set aside.
Remove the chewy strings from the snow peas and slice them thinly on the diagonal.
Cut the hard core out of the cabbages and slice them thinly. Cut the ends off the radishes, slice them thinly and then cut them into little sticks. Peel then cut your carrots into little sticks. If you have a handy tool like mine, this is easy. If not, you can also grate the carrot.
Toss all of your vegetables together in a large mixing bowl.
Add in the dressing and toss again. Put the slaw in a leak-proof container for travel.
Slice your buns in half and pack them up for travel.
About 20 minutes before you are ready to go, pour boiling water into your Thermos to heat it.
Grill your snorkers in a grill pan on the stove top or under the grill (broiler) in the oven.
To serve, use tongs to extract the snorkers from the Thermos. Break each in half and lay on the bottom of a bun. Folks who want to can add ketchup or mustard as well. (Being of the more-is-more mentality, I always do.)
Heap on the spicy coleslaw and pop on the top of the bun.
And, yes, I did assemble these in the back of my Pathfinder, so you can see how easy it is!
