The month of April just flew by and here I am with the last letter of my month long blogging. Z was an easy alphabet this time around and Zapiekanka | Polish Open-Faced Sandwich was one of the very early recipes that I cooked. The boys loved it so much that even before the time came for me to publish it, I have made it twice.
When researching for the recipe, all the recipes that I found online was made with mushrooms. Me and my husband do not eat mushrooms and I have never cooked with it before. I was planning on skipping the mushrooms and using just the other vegetables, but my boys, who have fell in love with mushrooms for the past few months begged me to cook something with them.
So, I go to the local store to buy mushrooms and there are so many different ones. My knowledge of mushroom is limited to what I see on the food network and I was able to recognize couple of names. I randomly stopped another shopper and asked her opinion on what mushroom to buy. She recommended buying the white mushroom for a beginner. I was so scared to buy the whole ones and ended up buying the already chopped mushrooms.
I also bought some fresh Baguettes from the store and made plans to make the Zapiekanka for our weekend brunch. First, I used half the mushrooms and onions that I have mentioned below, thinking they would be enough. But, I was so wrong. The filling was so delicious that we all loaded up our first batch of the sandwich with the vegetables and had none for the remaining. So, i started off again and sauteed all the vegetables for the second time.
These Zapiekanki (plural) are very famous on the streets of Poland and is very popular. The word Zapiekanka, means to bake the dish until the flavors combine. The sauteed vegetables are layered on one side of the baguette and then topped with cheese and baked until the cheese is all meted. Then there is a liberal swirl of ketchup all over the top and that is how it is served. I did not care for the ketchup but my little one who can eat ketchup for a meal, said that this was the best thing ever.
My Other Posts in the A – Z Explore the Flavors Series
B for Baghrir with Orange Butter Sauce
Y for Yogurt Blueberry Banana Granola parfait
Preparation time – 10 minutes
Cooking time – 20 minutes
Difficulty level – Easy
Ingredients to make Zapiekanka | Polish Open-Faced Sandwich – Serves 3
- Baguette / French Bread – 2 loaves
- Mushrooms – 2 cups (chopped)
- Red onions – 2 cups (thinly sliced)
- Bell pepper – 1 large (thinly sliced)
- Olive oil – 2 tbsp
- Crushed red pepper – 1 TBSP (or to taste)
- Salt – to taste
- Cheese (any melting kind) – 1 1/2 cups (I used Mexican blend)
- Ketchup – to serve
Procedure to make Zapiekanka | Polish Open-Faced Sandwich –
- Preheat the oven to 375 F and layer a large baking sheet with parchment.
- Chop all the vegetables and get the baguettes ready.
- In a cast iron pan, heat the oil.
- Add the onions, bell pepper and mushrooms along with salt and crushed red pepper and saute them in medium heat until they are caramelized lightly.
- Make sure that you cook them in medium heat to release all the natural sweetness.
- In the meantime, cut the baguettes into 2 and then slice them in half. We will have 8 bread slices in total.
- Divide the vegetable filling evenly over the baguette slices and then add a layer of cheese on top.
- Place them on the prepared baking sheet and bake it until the cheese melts. Takes about 5 minutes per batch.
- Remove the Zapiekanka from the oven and squeeze the ketchup over it and serve.
Ingredients
- Baguette / French Bread - 2 loaves
- Mushrooms - 2 cups chopped
- Red onions - 2 cups thinly sliced
- Bell pepper - 1 large thinly sliced
- Olive oil - 2 tbsp
- Crushed red pepper - 1 TBSP or to taste
- Salt - to taste
- Cheese any melting kind - 1 1/2 cups (I used Mexican blend)
- Ketchup - to serve
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 F and layer a large baking sheet with parchment.
- In a cast iron pan, heat the oil.
- Add the onions, bell pepper and mushrooms along with salt and crushed red pepper and saute them in medium heat until they are caramelized lightly.
- Make sure that you cook them in medium heat to release all the natural sweetness.
- In the meantime, cut the baguettes into 2 and then slice them in half. We will have 8 bread slices in total.
- Divide the vegetable filling evenly over the baguette slices and then add a layer of cheese on top.
- Place them on the prepared baking sheet and bake it until the cheese melts. Takes about 5 minutes per batch.
- Remove the Zapiekanka from the oven and squeeze the ketchup over it and serve.
Priya Srinivasan says
My God, sandhya, i m literally drooling at those pictures, sandwich looks totally yummm!