Probably not, a cucumber sandwich is the hallmark of nutritionally deficient English food. It differs, however, from its companions by not being boiled until a yellowish grey paste forms like most British cuisine. Not that I wouldn’t put it past a British cook to boil the cucumber beforehand. Mmmm limp boiled cucumber.
These are the quintessential tea party sandwiches. The sort of thing piled onto serving trays at church council meetings and bridge games. Tiny little finger sandwiches or triangles. Usually you get a few meat paste and cheese and pickle sandwiches lurking amongst them as well.
I warn you about the pickle! It is not as you might expect in America a pickled cucumber, but a brown pickled paste like a relish but not. It has dates, and salt, and onions and other stuff but it is not a pickle as you may understand it in the USA. A poor friend of mine discovered this much to his horror in a train station near Wales.
For some reason people seem to have got it into their head that sticking your little finger out or crooking it in the air near the handle of the cup is elegant. I have sad news; it is not. It is an affectation, and affectations are neither elegant nor attractive. Sorry, if you have your finger sticking straight out it looks like you are trying to conspicuously be discreet about pointing at something or someone. This is not the time for Mr. Pokey finger.
Remember kids, pointing is rude, monkeys point and then they fling feces. So unless you are going to follow through with that; I recommend keeping your finger down and out of everyone’s way. Then again if you are planning to throw feces, why are you at a tea party?
For a real tea sandwich it is best to bake your own bread. It needs to be dense so that when it is sliced into the ¼ inch slices that are required it doesn’t fall apart.
Ingredients:
Bread cut into ¼ inch slices
2 Cucumbers pared or scored
Plain softened butter or maitre d’hotel butter (See below)
How you do this? I tell you now:
Spread bread with butter on one side only (Yes, I really did have to say that), cut cucumbers into slices so thin they can be seen through. I use a mandolin for this and recommend it, much easier than trying to cut paper thin slices with a knife.
Place slices of cucumber on buttered side of bread, overlapping slightly. Top with another slice of buttered bread, butter side down. Cut off the crusts and cut into thin finger sandwiches (That is sandwiches as thin as fingers no sandwiches made out of fingers.) or into triangles. Either way you should get four little sandwiches out of two slices of bread.
For dramatic effect you can stack finger sandwiches Linken Log style or arrange the triangles into a fan. I did the Linken Log for the photo shoot, but normally I don’t care if sandwiches are dramatic. In fact I think that “Dramatic” is definition of what sandwiches are not. Anyway here is the butter:
Maitre d’hotel Butter:
I slice of this butter with steamed lobster, or a nice grilled steak is heavenly.
1 Stick of salted butter softened
1 Tablespoon of parsley
1 Tablespoon of lemon juice
A pinch of pepper
Method for butter:
Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix with an electric beater on low until full combined. Chill until about 20 minutes before being used.
For alternative sandwiches to go with the cucumber sandwiches try any of the following:
Smoked Salmon and butter
Flavored Cream Cheese
Egg Salad
Watercress and Cream Cheese
Potted Shrimp or Potted Meat
Sliced Tomato and Fresh Dill
Cold Sliced Roast Beef with Rosemary Butter (Substitute Fresh Rosemary for the Parsley in the butter recipe)
Cheese and Mustard
Cold Sliced Ham
Note: Always butter the bread before any of the fillings; this actually stops the bread from getting soggy from the ingredients, such as the tomato or egg salad above.
No comments:
Post a Comment