Huron Farms to Tables: Stephenson creates 'The Roulston' sandwich
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
It’s the Farms to Tables issue this week and so my wife and I have teamed up once again to create another regional sandwich recipe for the good people of Huron and Bruce Counties to enjoy as their very own bread-based claim to foodie fame. As we all know, a land without a regional sandwich cannot stand.
For those not in the know about our previous regional sandwich project, a bit of backstory. For March’s “Salute to Agriculture” issue of The Citizen, we created a special, limited edition regional sandwich for Huron County known as “The Citizen”. That sandwich was a flattened picnic loaf stuffed with chicken, bacon, summer sausage, cheese and pickled beets suitable for slicing up on a hot summer afternoon or bringing into the field for a long day of working. For that sandwich, each and every ingredient was sourced directly from farm stores from Blyth, Lucknow and Seaforth, just to name a few, with the purpose of showing the reader how unique our community’s food scene really is. From Seaforth’s 5 Chicks and a Farmer to Belgrave’s Firmly Rooted Farm, there is an absolute plethora of farm to table food options available in the veritable garden of Eden our readers call home, and “The Citizen Sandwich” was created to showcase that bounty. Since that project was a ton of fun, as are most sandwich-based stories, we decided to give it another shot!
That sandwich caught the attention of this paper’s original Citizen - founder and former editor turned semi-retired writer Keith Roulston, who went on to write about how the sandwich opened his eyes to the area’s exciting new options in farm to table food, which was exactly the intention of “The Citizen Sandwich” from its inception to its actualization. And it is for that reason that today’s sandwich is not only going to be named after local legend Keith Roulston, it is designed to reflect the sentiments and values he has devoted his professional life to championing. So with no further ado, we present to you: “The Roulston”.
It should be said that the first concept for “The Roulston” was a riff on a Reuben sandwich, mostly because Roulston is a bit like Reuben as a word and the old-world sourdough from Red Cat Bakery is the perfect bread for that kind of thing. Cabbage is plentiful in Huron County, making the sauerkraut/coleslaw viable, and there’s no shortage of cow, goat and sheep milk cheese from local farms to stand in for the Swiss cheese. The 1,000 Island dressing would be approximated with an aioli of local eggs, herbs and honeyed tomatoes, augmented with roasted garlic scapes puréed until smooth. For meat, there would be fried pork jowl bacon from Meeting Place Farm near St. Helens paired with slices of rosemary roasted lamb from Ripley’s Farlot Farm. Layer ingredients, press or grill, and enjoy. This sandwich would surely be great, but was it Roulston? While certainly a Bacchanal of earthy delights, it lacked three things essential to the Roulston: whimsical practicality, community spirit and the harmonious marriage of the traditions of the past with the innovations of the future. And so “The Rueben Roulston” was relegated to its new permanent position on the Maybe-Pile of History.
The Roulston 2.0 takes its inspiration not from 1920s Nebraska, but from the Shaanxi (Shaung-see) Province of China, circa 220 BCE. That is where and when one of the first sandwiches was invented - the rou jia mo (rue-jah-moe) or roujiamo. Roujiamo (which translates to “meat-in-bread,” is a simple pocket of sturdy bread, stuffed with mixed simmered meats, topped in accordance with what ingredients are available. It is colloquially known in the west as a “Chinese Hamburger,” although “Chinese Sloppy-Joe” would be more accurate. Technically, Sloppy Joes should be called “American Roujiamo”, except, of course, in New Jersey where a Sloppy Joe is a completely different type of sandwich. Roujiamo fillings vary greatly from region to region. They create a very popular street food across China, and are very affordable crowd pleasers. Traditionally, the mix of meats is flavoured with at least 20 different seasonings, giving it a rich, unique flavour. Roujiamo filling is best cooked for many hours, rewarding frugal, think-ahead chefs who like to keep food waste low. And so it was decided - a Canadianized version of a Roujiamo would be the inspiration for “The Roulston”.
Though “The Roulston” is a sandwich of infinite variations, some ground rules must be followed.
1. Roulstons are for a crowd. “The Roulston” is designed to feed a group that just finished fixing a community roof or volunteering to bring a dream into existence. “Roulstons”, like “Sloppy Joes”, are not a solo endeavour, they are a thank-you to a group. A crock of warm “Roulston” filling and a pile of buns are a welcome sight at any fundraiser, potluck, or backyard barbecue.
2. Do not purchase a fancy piece of meat specifically for a batch of “Roulstons”, use the scraps, scrimpables and off cuts you collect along the way. Anybody can turn a brisket into a great sandwich - “The Roulston” is a sandwich born of ingenuity, organization and happenstance all merging together into one bun. The ingredients for this inaugural “Roulston” are all the excess bits and bobs from our 100-kilometre meal - a tapas party for four with a wide variety of dishes that produced many little viable leftovers, including vegetable ends for the stock, half of a Hayter turkey drumstick, pork breast bones and a beef soup bone from Green’s Meat Market in Wingham, and myriad sausage ends from Bachert Premium Sausage. Every church luncheon, fancy dinner party or potluck will yield different scraps, creating different flavour profiles. “The Roulston” is not a set recipe, it’s more of a dance - set steps you make your own!
3. Use forethought aplenty - a long simmer is what brings out the best in off cuts of meat, though one must know when to remove them from the liquid to prevent the meat from drying.
So, now that we have backstory and context, both local and international, and a fine set of rules to live by, let’s make some “Roulstons”!
1. First, take all your viable vegetable scraps, dice them finely and sautée with aromatics like garlic and onion. We used our leftover onion, garlic, bell peppers and tomatoes from the Bruce Huron Produce Auction, procured from the produce stand at the corner of Hamilton and Havelock in Lucknow - an excellent resource for locals.
2. Transfer vegetables to a crock pot or cast iron pot, and add any raw meats or bone-in meats that will take time to braise.
3. To add depth of flavour, tie together any garden herbs, garlic scapes, foraged edible herbs or other flavour agents you have on hand. We added garlic chives, horseradish leaves, summer celery, savoury, yarrow, lovage, coriander seeds, rosemary and sage.
4. Add water to cover, and cook at a low heat until all meat is tender and falls off the bone. Remove meat, bones, herb bouquet and reduce down cooking liquid, whisking in flour if the sauce needs thickening. Sauce can be thick like gravy or jus style, depending on preference. Debone meat and return to sauce, adding any sausage ends, ground meat, or minced deli meat that is on hand.
5. Simmer until sauce coats all meats and vegetables, but is not soupy. Keep warm in crock until ready to serve.
6. You must use sturdy buns (we went with burger buns from Burdan’s Red Cat Bakery) that are not already cut in half. Using a sharp knife, cut a slit in the side of each one, less than half the circumference of the bun. Use a spoon to compress the bread interior, making room for the filling. Fill bread, ensuring portability is not compromised by sloppiness.
7. Add any pickles, shredded cheese, hot sauces or condiments you like.
8. Enjoy!