Our love affair with the toasted sandwich seemingly knows no bounds. But not all toasted sandwiches are created equal.
A revolution in the art of toasted sandwich making has seen many Kiwis up their games in recent years -- moving on from the classic cheese and pineapple or the bog-standard Wattie's Spaghetti toastie to more adventurous combinations.
Photo: Supplied
The winning entry in this year's Great NZ Toastie Takeover competition was slow roasted pork belly, provolone, chimichurri, American mustard, pickles and apple chilli gel slathered between toasted sourdough...
Vanessa Baxter joined Sunday Morning to pay homage to the toastie and discuss classic and non-classic filling options and different ways to cook them.
"The key is either get your pan or your sandwich maker warmed up first so you've got a hot surface, and a little bit of butter and oil so that the butter doesn't burn, especially if you're using a frying pan because you know how sometimes the butter can go beyond that lovely nutty brown."
Anything can go in a toastie, but avoid salad ingredients, she says.
"You're really heating and melting ingredients, so fantastic If you want to put condiments in there - like chutneys and pickles, which can cut through the cheese because the cheese is very rich.
"So pickles are great. But what you don't want to put in is salad ingredients.
"So, carrot you pickle it and it goes in fine, cucumber pickle it becomes a dill pickle and that's fine. But don't put lettuce in there because it's just going to go soggy and disgusting."
You can, however, add green ingredients at the end, she says.
"I love avocado in a toastie, but I would put it in at the end. So I'd toast off my bread, obviously not a jaffle, and then open the lid and fill up that way if I want to sort of have the crunch of some salad ingredients or the smoothness of avocado at the end."
Vanessa Baxter is a former Masterchef finalist who runs a food blog called The Fearless Kitchen
