Here are the recipes, as promised... serves 8-10.
Warning - there are no shortcuts in this, since I believe that if you are serving sandwiches at a party they had better be the best.
SANDWICHES
I made 16
mini sandwiches of each type and they were gone by the end of the night.
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| the White Rabbit falls into a cucumber-frame |
Cucumber and mint butter
Mint butter: chuck a couple of handfuls of mint from
the garden/supermarket into the whizzer with half a pack of ‘slightly salted’
butter and taste to make sure its as minty as you like it.
The rest: I don’t need to tell you how to chop a cucumber
but definitely use cheap white bread, i.e. Hovis – I usually hate that sort of
bread but cucumber sandwiches wouldn’t be the same without it. Also, I
like to cut these into 3 rectangles…
Chicken and basil mayonnaise with lettuce
Chicken: roast the chicken beforehand, following the advice from a free-range Cotswold chicken farmer at my local market: preheat the oven to 220C (200C if fan oven), rub the chicken over with fat and seasoning of your choice – stuff the cavity with half a lemon and half a bulb of garlic – roast, breast down, in the hot oven for 20 minutes, reduce the temperature to 170C and roast for a further 20 minutes before turning the chicken over, sitting breast up for a final 30 minutes for a small chicken (1.5kg) and longer if bigger (check after 30 mins and judge for yourself by cutting into the inner thigh and seeing if the juices run clear). Lastly, rest the meat and eat for dinner, preserving the breasts to be carved the next day.
Basil
Mayonnaise: see mayonnaise recipe below, plus chopped basil
(a very generous handful).
The rest: This
rustic sandwich was served up with Gail’s delicious crusty sour dough.
Oh, and make sure to use a delicate, leafy lettuce.
Ham, mustard and cress
Ham: for a 2kg ham boil it for 2 ½ hours in
flavoured water (leeks, carrots, cinnamon stick, peppercorn, coriander seeds and
whatever else you fancy). Let it cool, score the fat and rub it with a mix of
mustard, honey and soy (keep an equal ratio of each and make around a teacup
full but only rub in half). I then roasted it at 190C / 170C fan for 30 minutes,
with a little water in the roasting dish, basting it every 7 or so minutes with
more mustard-honey-soy mix.
Ham for lunch: this is much, much cheaper per gram than buying
nice ready cut ham, and a nice lunch with minty potato salad and rocket. When
it comes out of the oven it will be hard to carve but do not fear, after a few
hours in the fridge you can thinly slice it with ease.
Mustard
butter: whizz up a load of Dijon mustard and
butter to taste – I like it pretty peppery so add 3 tablespoons to half a pack
of butter. For these I used the sour dough and a smattering of cress.
Humpty Dumpty mayo and chives
A Note on
Eggs: despite
those weird holey structures in your fridge, eggs are NOT supposed to be kept
there. It ruins their ability to make mayonnaise or other sauces and increases
the risk of salmonella – scary. For any recipe where you are using the egg yolk
as a coagulant it is also essential that the eggs are as fresh as possible or
they are liable to curdle.
Perfect
Hard-boiled: Delia tells
us to place the eggs in cold water, let it reach the boil and time 7 minutes
from then for a creamy, fully set centre. Once done, run it under cold water
for at least 2 minutes so it is easy to peel.
Mayonnaise: making your own is really, really worth it.
It makes these sandwiches delicious and expensive tasting – though making
mayonnaise is actually pretty cheap. Now that I am used to making it, this recipe only takes me about 8 minutes or so and has only gone wrong once out of about 30 or 40 times (I think the eggs were pretty old).
Get out your ingredients:
2 Eggs,
Light olive
oil/other tasteless oil (500ml)
Extra
virgin olive oil (optional) (I put around 100ml)
Salt (to taste but a lot, 3 big pinches, Maldon is tastier)
Dijon Mustard (a very generous teaspoon / to taste)
Juiced
lemon and/or white wine vinegar (see below for my quantities)
And an
electric whisk…
Pour boiling water into a sauce pan (not over a hob) and leave a big glass/ceramic bowl above the water for a few (2-3) minutes. This is just to warm the bowl - don't let any water get into it.
While the
bowl is being heated, carefully separate 2 eggs and place the yolks in the
bowl – whisk for at 1 minute (definitely with an electric whisk) until airy.
Then, slowly drip the olive oil in whilst whisking (add too much at once and it could curdle). It should start to get thick and glossy.
Then, slowly drip the olive oil in whilst whisking (add too much at once and it could curdle). It should start to get thick and glossy.
After you
have added about 300ml oil you can add it more quickly. It doesn't matter what order you add the extra-virgin or normal olive oil.
After you have added around 400ml of oil you can add the mustard and a half tablespoon of white wine vinegar or lemon, whichever you prefer, I usually do 50:50 but taste as I go along) and add the rest of the oil.
Once this is done, add the salt and another half tablespoon of white wine vinegar or lemon juice. At this point you should really taste it and make sure it is salty and acidic enough for your taste.
After you have added around 400ml of oil you can add the mustard and a half tablespoon of white wine vinegar or lemon, whichever you prefer, I usually do 50:50 but taste as I go along) and add the rest of the oil.
Once this is done, add the salt and another half tablespoon of white wine vinegar or lemon juice. At this point you should really taste it and make sure it is salty and acidic enough for your taste.
You can eat
it plain or add whatever flavour you like – parsley, coriander, garlic,
tarragon. If you like it thinner then you can add very small amounts of cold
water at the end too until you reach your desired consistency.
For Aioli change the olive oil: extra virgin olive oil ration to 300ml:300ml or even more extra virgin olive oil if you like the pepperiness... and add a crushed clove of garlic at the beginning. Make sure it is really well crushed though so it is spread evenly through the mayonnaise.
For Aioli change the olive oil: extra virgin olive oil ration to 300ml:300ml or even more extra virgin olive oil if you like the pepperiness... and add a crushed clove of garlic at the beginning. Make sure it is really well crushed though so it is spread evenly through the mayonnaise.
The rest: add as much mayonnaise as you like to the
egg. I tend to give a generous tablespoon per egg and sandwiched it between two
slices of granary with a smattering of chopped chives.
YUMMIES
Scones with clotted cream and raspberry jam
This was my
first time making them so I consulted a woman who has devoted herself to
writing a whole book on the subject, Genevieve Knights. I found her recipe in
the Telegraph. You do need to be very precise about your oven temperature however and don’t
take them out too early. Another note – they really aren’t very nice straight
out of the oven, like shortbread, they definitely improve in the cooling
process so resist the urge! Serve with high quality clotted cream topped with
jam if, like me, you have any allegiance to Devon and the other way round for Cornwall. This recipe is particularly light and delicious.
Red Velvet Cupcakes
I love the
colour combination of the deep, chocolaty red cupcakes and the creamy white luxurious
icing. It feels very queen of hearts. I used the Hummingbird bakery recipe but
can see room for improvement so won’t cite a recipe till I find one I am
happier with. I made them in cupcake cases rather than muffin cases. This means
you make around double. I decorated them in card-like arrangements of little
red hearts from the cake craft shop.
Rose Cupcakes
Rose and
violet have always been one of Elle’s and my favourite flavours – particularly
in the form of Fortnum & Mason’s chocolate covered fondants. I wanted to
create my own queen of hearts rose garden in the flavour of the cupcakes. I
used the Hummingbird Bakery’s vanilla cupcake recipe, available at the Telegraph, substituting the vanilla essence for rose
water, mmmmm.
Rose Meringues
Yup, there is a theme to all this. I used Ottolenghi’s pistachio encrusted recipe from The Cookbook which is not available online but is a must have for anyone who loves good food and doesn’t mind going the extra mile to get pomegranate molasses, lavender honey or nigella seeds.
Marbled Jelly Rabbits
I used a recipe from Bompass and Parr which involves making two fruit jellies, one red,
one yellow, and a delicious honey and cardamom blamanche which you allow to cool
sufficiently so that it is lumpy but not set, at which point you can mix in
little cut up shards of the other coloured jellies. I don’t want to plagiarise
so I won’t include the recipe here, but buy the book - Jelly - it is really, really
beautifully photographed and full of inspiration. I wasn’t a jelly person
before, now, I am a convert.
I am still gutted I forgot to have a caterpillar cake and shisha!
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