I found a spot at the communal table to tuck into my veggie sandwich, which exceeded expectations. I have never eaten a sweet potato sandwich—never even considered sweet potatoes as a sandwich filling—and never thought about pairing sweet potatoes with beets, pickled or otherwise. Somehow it just works. It works really, really well. Though it was vegetarian, the combination of flavors and textures reminded me of a bánh mì, the Vietnamese sandwich made with pâté, roast pork, sliced jalapeño, and a generous amount of pickled carrots and daikon. If the bánh mì—with its creamy, crunchy, fresh, hearty, and bright notes—can be held as the archetypal sandwich, the 44 Special checks all the boxes: the sweet potatoes lend a meatiness and — wait for it — a sweetness, the pickled beets a sharpness and crunch, the garlic mayonnaise a creaminess and bite, the goat cheese a rich tanginess. I returned from Copake and immediately whipped up a batch of aioli, pickled some vegetables, and roasted a few sweet potatoes. The 44 Special became dinner that night and, with the essential components stashed in the fridge, a dinner staple for several weeks after. This sandwich is particularly good with pickled beets, but if you don’t like beets, you can use any pickle you like (though I encourage you to try golden beets, which might convert you into a beet lover after all). I also especially love to make this sandwich with the dukkah bread, but any good bread will do. You 100 percent do not need video guidance to make a sandwich, but in this Insta-story, you can get a quick glimpse of the Copake General Store’s 44 Special followed by a quick how-to video: The 44 Special. Here’s a play-by-play: Roast sweet potatoes. Two essential condiments for this sandwich: mayonnaise or homemade aioli and some sort of pickle. Dukkah bread, not essential, but very tasty: Line up your ingredients … and assemble away: 5 from 2 reviews If you wish to make a lot of sandwiches, roast more than 1 sweet potato. A one pound sweet potato will yield enough for 2 to 3 sandwiches. (That said, I can eat the entire tray of roasted sweet potatoes myself, so if you can relate, roast more sweet potatoes to be safe.) The essential elements are: roasted sweet potatoes, mayonnaise or aioli (flavored or not), pickles of some kind (onions, carrots, beets, turnips, etc.), lettuce, and good bread. The CGS also adds goat cheese, which is a delicious addition, but if you don’t like it or if you don’t have it on hand, know that it can be substituted with other cheeses or left out depending on your preferences. Also, the lettuce the CGS uses is tossed in some sort of lemon vinaigrette. For simplicity, I’ve just used lettuce, but if you feel like going the extra mile and making a lemon dressing, go for it. I am using a homemade aioli, but you certainly could use store-bought mayonnaise. I haven’t tried, but I imagine stirring in a few cloves of minced garlic to a quarter cup of mayonnaise would work nicely here. For the pickles, if you want to use pickled beets, which are particularly good with the roasted sweet potatoes, you can cook a few beets (Instant Pot or roasted), peel them, slice them thinly, then cover them with vinegar: I stir 1 teaspoon kosher salt into 1 cup of vinegar until it dissolves; then stack the sliced beets into a jar and pour the vinegar over top. If the beets are not submerged, I top them with more vinegar. I love white balsamic vinegar, but you could use apple cider or really any white vinegar.
1 sweet potato, peeled and sliced 1/4-inch thick (about 1 lb. post peeling and slicing) 2 tablespoons olive oil kosher salt to taste
for assembly:
good bread, I like the dukkah variation of the peasant bread for this one homemade aioli or purchased mayonnaise, see notes roasted sweet potatoes some sort of pickle: carrots, onions, turnips, beets, see notes lettuce goat cheese, optional
