The Sahara Sandwich

or bagel if you like things toasted

The Sahara Sandwich

A lifetime ago we had a restaurant in Melbourne. It was called ‘Sahara Restaurant' because there was already a sign on the front of the building from restaurants past. Pretty much the entire business was built around this sandwich. We make it occasionally to take on picnics. It’s a lot of work but if you remember this sandwich fondly and wish to recreate it please dive right in.

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Prep time

16 hour 3 min

Cook time

10 min

Total time

16 hour 13 min

Serves

4

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Equipment

A kitchen.

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Ingredients

• Bread. You can use any bread you are fond of but if you are after authenticity you need a time machine so you can travel back to 1997 and visit Ricky in the asian bakery that was in the basement of Daimaru (Now Melbourne Central). He will give you a bread that although not wholemeal, is light fawn in colour and has the salty caramel flavour of fine Asian breads. If you wish to toast you must use a white bagel, boiled not baked.
• olive oil
• eggs
• lemon juice
• or just use Hellmann’s Mayo
• ham or no ham. up to you
• cheese or no cheese ditto. We use Jarlsberg
• red capsicum
• eggplant
• mushrooms
• basil
• garlic
• pecorino cheese
• sunflower seeds
• mixed lettuce
• rosemary sprigs
• palt® We grind up the salt and pepper together for convenience. So Convenient.

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Preparation

1. Step 1
   Thinly slice mushrooms and place in a saucepan. Add a dollop of olive oil, a shake of palt and a couple of sprigs of rosemary. Lid on and place on a low heat until mushrooms are cooked.
2. Step 2
   Roast red peppers under a hot grill, turning as needed until skin is blackened. leave to cool and then peel to remove skin and seeds. OR just buy a jar of fire roasted red peppers at the shops. The taste is the same.
3. Step 3
   Thinly slice and salt eggplant. Leave for a while then rinse and pat dry. Shallow fry in good quality olive oil OR just buy some grilled eggplant at the shops. The taste is the same.
4. Step 4
   Make the mayo if you must. Google is your friend here. OR just use Hellmann’s.
5. Step 5
   Roast the sunflower seeds on a tray. Don’t burn them. Just lightly browned. Place the basil, garlic, palt®, pecorino and some olive oil in a blender and give it a whizz.
   Stir through the sunflower seeds. No blending you want them crunchy
6. Step 6
   Assemble your sandwich as per the pictures and enjoy.

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SandwichSaharaMelbourneDelicious

The Sahara Sandwich. It makes more sense when you are feeding many.