AB&J

So, the Hopleaf has this sandwich. The CB&J. Cashew butter, fig jam, and Morbier cheese. Pan fried. Served with Stilton mac & cheese and house-made potato chips. This meal is the buttered steak and cream cheese mashed potatoes of vegetarian eating. It's rich. And the other day, I felt like making it at home. Slightly varied, of course. Slightly-slightly healthier, maybe. (Though, health isn't really boasted by the all-brown palette of the photo above.)

I chose Manchego cheese here because I like it with figs, but it doesn't really melt. I knew that going in, but didn't anticipate that it would not just not melt, but kind of harden. The flavor was fine, but I'd go with a different cheese next time.

Make the sandwich with:

almond butter
[not Manchego] cheese
fig jam
crusty bread

Grill this with lots of butter.

Instead of mac & cheese and potato chips, I made fries using this method. It calls for a long slow cook, for putting the potatoes into cold oil and slowly, barely raising the heat until cooked through. This took me about 45 minutes. And, friends!, these fries were so, SO crispy. I could not get over it. They were the crispiest french fries I've ever had. So crispy that I regretted slicing them so thinly because they were practically 100% crisp.