Francesinha

I stumbled across this dish whilst researching a trip to Portugal. Francesinha or "Little Frenchie" is the ultimate cheese toastie, incredibly popular in Porto. The original is a meat-fest with beef steak, ham and cured sausages but a veggie alternative can be equally as indulgent. The three fillings I chose were mushrooms, courgettes and halloumi but it could be any combination of your favourite vegetables and/or meat-free substitutes. The real key to the dish is the delicious beer gravy and plenty of cheese. 

Ingredients
serves 4

2 loaves white bread, cut into 12 slices, at least 1cm thick, crusts cut off and lightly toasted
36 slices of Gouda or Edam cheese
4 eggs

for the sauce
200ml olive oil
1 litre Portuguese beer 
100ml Port
400ml tomato passata
2 onions, chopped
2 medium carrots, (about 500g), peeled and chopped
6 bay leaves
50g veg stock granuales
4 tsp cornflour
100ml medium hot Piri Piri (portuguese chili sauce), add to taste
Salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste

for the filling
4 very large field mushrooms, thickly sliced
4 red onions
8 garlic cloves
Fresh sage leaves,chopped

2 large courgettes, thinly sliced lengthways

thyme

400g halloumi, cut into 12 fingers

piri pri marinade

Portion of french fries

Method
Start by preparing the sauce. In a large saucepan heat the oil to a medium-high temperature and add the chopped onions. Fry for a few minutes until they begin to soften and brown. Add the bay leaves, brandy and port and stir well. Cook off for a few minutes before adding the carrots and beer. Bring to the boil then turn the heat down and simmer for 10 minutes. 
Add 50g of veg stock granules for seasoning. 

Take the saucepan off the heat and allow to cook down slightly, Remove the bay leaves and then blitz the contents with a hand blender into a sauce. 

In a small bowl gradually add some of the sauce (or milk if you prefer) to the cornflour until you have a smooth no-lumps cornflour mixture then add this to your sauce to thicken it.

Bring it back to a medium temperature and bring up to a simmer to cook out the flour. 

Add the piri piri sauce, salt and pepper to taste.   Set the sauce aside. 

Prepare the fillings as you like. I fried the mushrooms with sage, onion, chestnuts, seasoned with balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Griddled some courgettes, seasoned with salt, pepper, thyme. And simply fried the vegetarian sausages, then cut them in half lengthways. 
Keep all the fillings warm in an oven.

Next the all important construction of the Francesinha. 

Place in a pre-heated oven on low (160C)

Begin with a slice of bread, add a slice of cheese, then a layer of the mushroom, followed by the veggie sausages one way, then the courgettes the other way. Top with a slice of cheese. 
Then repeat, bread, cheese, mushroom, veggie sausage, courgette, cheese finishing with a slice of bread.

Press down to compress it slightly, and trim off and excess. Next layer cheese slices drapped over all four sides. I used slices of Gouda that we rectangle not squares which worked well. You may need to use cocktail sticks to hold the cheese in place. I also cut the bread to fit the cheese slices so that when it came to this stage I knew I had it covered. 

 Place the sandwiches in the warm oven to begin to melt the cheese whilst you fry the eggs.

Prepare the final slice of cheese by cutting out a circular hole in the middle using a cooking ring or ravioli cutter. 

Bring the Francesinha out of the oven, place the fried egg on top, trim any excess white egg, then place the final slice over the fried egg, with the runny egg yolk in the hole. 

Place in the middle of your plate and pour over the beer sauce. 

Best served with french fries and a cold Portugese beer like Sagres or Super Bock.