Dan Morris: Life on a roll

Still, even the most red-blooded of us can’t barbecue every day (can we?) and in being at least a little moderate, this week I’ve taken to dealing with my calorie lust through other means.

The humble sandwich is a mainstay of my lunchtime plate – as it is for many people across the country.

If you’re working hard it can be difficult to find time to whip up anything more exotic on a school day, unless of course you’re one of those people who have the foresight to do food prep the night before, and I’m most definitely not.

Naturally however, it can be easy to slip into a ‘same-sarnie vortex’, where the need for swift sustenance trumps that for imagination, and you end up guzzling down the same sliced-white cheese butty everyday come rain or shine.

And this is where I have this week been channelling my foodie energy.

Resolved to get more creative with my cobs, I took a trip to a local supermarket and returned with so much ready-to-eat meat and other fine fillings that I could have started my own delicatessen.

Yet, I was staggered to have spent only a little more than I would normally have done on a typical week’s tepid luncheon fodder.

From spicy salami to smoked Bavarian cheese, chilli jam, punchy pastrami, peppery rocket and succulent sun-dried tomatoes, my smorgasbord for the coming seven days was exceptional, and as I have progressed through it it has kept lunch quick, but made it much more fun.

From a glorious week of flirting with exuberant fillings however, I have come to the Holy Grail of sandwich conclusions. It is, quite simply, all about the bread.

The oldest evidence of bread-making was found in the Black Desert in Jordan, and shows that man has been rustling up this stalwart of sustenance for no less than 14,000 years.

In this time, we’ve got pretty creative with it, and (in case anyone else was unaware) there are far more varieties going begging than granny’s favourite sliced white.

On my mission to give my lunchtime plate a bit more euphoria, I decided to experiment with some of the local baker’s prize creations, and put my dough where the dough was.

Again though, this proved to be surprisingly inexpensive.

With my basket loaded up with ciabatta, focaccia, brioche buns and a hearty supply of submarine rolls, I was ready to rock and roll.

I’d always considered bread as nothing much more than a vehicle with which to deliver tastier food to my laughing gear, and I’d been an unenlightened fool.

The simple switcheroo to a somewhat sexier selection of loaves has transformed the limits of what my homemade lunchtime sarnies can be.

Indeed, in discovering one strong enough to bear meatballs in tomato and basil sauce without disintegrating, I felt like Harry Potter when he finally defeated Voldemort.

I suspect, of course, that my new found revelations regarding pseudo-gourmet butties will be rather small beer to the many of you who for a long time have been more broad-minded and less lazy than I.

The truth is, like a lot of people, I had fallen into the trap of associating treats like speciality bread exclusively with meals out, and into the assumption that if I were to keep a more interesting larder it would mean breaking the bank. It doesn’t have to.

So far, at least, it also appears that my broader luncheon menu is not having any negative impact on the ol’ dad bod. Time of course will tell on this, but I will certainly be less bored in the interim. 

As it stands then, Chez Dan has now gone gourmet with its lunchtime à la carte menu, and has no plans to return to a basic offering of cellblock mush anytime in the future.

Any and all recommendations are appreciated, and as the legendary vicar from Gavin and Stacey once asked his congregation to name their favourite sarnie, I’d be chuffed to know yours and to let my newly-anointed artisan’s hands give it a try.

Email all suggestions to daniel.morris@mnamedia.co.uk

Get your thinking caps on ladies and gentlemen – we’ll be on a roll in no time!