Sandwiches....revisited.....

[shroomgirl]

This past week I've had some interesting combos coming out of the kitchen....
chicken salad (chicken, celery, mayo) with bread and butter pickles, slaw on white bread



I made a finger sandwich platter for a party (what a pain!)....turkey with apricot/horseradish, cuke with dillweed on white, asp with white, roast beef with mayo/cream cheese and horseradish, curry chicken salad with chutney on ww.
It has been umpteen years since I've made finger sandwiches....I hope it'll be umpteen more!
anyone doing funky shtuff out there?

[chrose]

2 of the best sandwiches I ever had were:
#1 was a triple decker. Layer 1 was roast turkey with cole slaw, russian dressing and swiss cheese. Layer #2 was Smithfield ham, more cole slaw on thick rye breadmy jaw trying to take a bite, omg it was awesome!
#2 was on dark pumpernickle and was a combination of salty Kentucky ham, cream cheese and Swedish lingonerries. My god that was good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Botanique]

Hey hun, been gone for a bit. Sorry!

There are hot, balanced, and cool tea sands....

For example:

hot -- salmon mousse with cayenne, capers, and shaved horseradish on white

balanced -- cream cheese, paprika and dry mustard spread, sprouts, black forest ham, orange and cranberry preserve (very easy), on dark rye (like what chrose was talking about)

cool & fresh -- orange, chive, and oregano cream cheese (another very easy mix), cucumber (main cooling food), pickled ginger (light on that), on sourdough (for substance)

If you need more, let me know.

[Pete]

Recently did a twist on the curried chicken salad that was awesome. Used tandoori spice (from penzey's) instead of the regular curry powder, along with mayo, a bit of yogurt, golden raisins, diced apple, pecans, onion, celery and just a bit of fresh ginger and fresh garlic. It was really, really good!

[shroomgirl]

Chrose,
I'm with you.....one of my all time favorites is rye with corn beef, chopped liver, creamy slaw and a shmear of coarse mustard....sloppy but yummy.

How do you transport decorated finger sandwiches?

Ligonberries....yummmm

It is time to visit Penzy's.....they are literally 1.5 miles from my home....it's been a while since I've done an exploritory at their store. Tandori spice sounds like a winner. Generally mixes don't do it for me but their buttermilk dressing is inexspensive and better than Hidden Ranch.

Last week I made chopped chicken liver.....it's been ages. Normally I make a smooth pate with them....so as I started through I asked some Jewish food friends how they make chopped liver....interesting responses.

One uses mayo. Another uses butter.....I went with alot of butter, adding onions throughout the cooking to give it a varience of texture/flavor. Turned out wonderfully. Really rich.

[CapeCodder]

I know this sandwich sounds dreadful, but I have shared them with over a dozen of skeptics and have had only not amazed at how good they are.

Toast pita bread just short of crunchy, add crunchy natural peanut butter and sliced ripe tomatoes liberally coated with chopped garlic ( I have used a good granular garlic powder with good results).

Honest they are so good, I now refer to to them as THE Sandwich.

[Suzanne]

I hope Mezzaluna survives reading about chopped liver made with butter

Of course, chicken fat is really THE way to go, but other poultry fat works well. And if you're really in a bind, caramelize extra onions in a neutral oil -- the flavor of the onions will make up for the lack of flavor in the grease.

As for making finger sandwiches -- when I used to, I found an assembly-line approach worked best:

• Trim crusts off whole loaf
• Lay out slices of bread on a work surface
• Butter all slices with a very thin coat of softened butter (flavored, if you want to, but not necessary)
• If using a spread (cream cheese, mayo, etc.), plop on from a pastry bag on top of the butter on half the bread slices, spread with a spatula
• Drop more solid filling using an ice-cream scoop and spread with spatula OR lay out sliced meat/veg on half the bread slices (kind of like dealing cards)
• Cover filling with rest of bread slices (buttered side in, of course)
• Cut all in desired shape
• Transfer with a wide spatula to the platter
• Cover with a very lightly damp towel and plastic wrap.

Fortunately, I never had to decorate individual sandwiches, although that too could be done assembly-line; I'm thinking about the kind where you spread the outside edge with mayo and dip in minced parsley or paprika. Do that before or after cutting into shapes, before plating. Stuff on top? NEVER!!!!

[kuan]

I must have been Jewish in a former life. My favorite sandwich is rye, pastrami, schmear of chopped liver, grainy mustard. Served with two latkes, extra applesauce and sour cream.

[phatch]

Shroom,

I like chicken salad with a "boiled" or "cooked" dressing. It's sort of old fashioned, but excellent.

Cooked Dressing:
1/2 C cream, although evaporated milk or whole milk will do.
1/4 C chicken stock or canned chicken broth
1/4 C cider vinegar
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon flour
2 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon dry mustard
salt and white pepper to taste
hot pepper sauce

Traditionally done over a double boiler, I usually do it in a small saucepan over low heat. A bit more risk, but quicker.
Combine all the ingredients and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens.

Chill. I like to cut the cooked dressing with a bit of mayoabout 2 parts cooked dressing to 1 part mayo for chicken salad. I suspect it would work well for egg salad, deviled eggs and such. A bit strong for tuna.

I also use it for potato salad at about 4:1 dressing to mayo.

As to other sandwiches, Clubs are perhaps my favorite, but a rueben with pastrami instead of corned beef is right up there.

Phil

[chrose]

Originally Posted by kuan

I must have been Jewish in a former life.

Kuan and Shroom, try this. Fry up some good pastrami till it's semi crispy. Toast a piece of rye or pumpernickle, a shmear of brown spicy mustard and melt some swiss cheese over the top of the pastrami (in the pan) serve hot with cole slaw and deli potato salad on the side. Now thats "Good eats"!!!

[shroomgirl]

I'll never forget going into a deli as a teenager and asking for mayo on my cornbeef.....first orthodox kosher food experience.....

There was a boy that I went steady with my senior year of HS who's family owned a cafeteria and deli....can you imagine the fun we had in the deli?!!!!
When his mom would say just come over and make yourself dinner....


Suzanne, that's essentially what I did with the sandwiches....did not butter but mayoed each side....several were open faced and looked alittle naked to me. But dangit as I was contemplating decorative toppings the vision of what they would look like as they were transported was enough to leave um alone.....I did make some radish roses....think those are in my Betty Crockers Kid's Cookbook from 1967. Think the last time I made them was in 1974.....
If was interesting coming up with the bread/meat/filling combos....and the day before I hit the day old bread company for cheaper breads, don't know why this revelation never appearred to me before. Shoot if I can buy it for premium price why would I ever buy it discounted!!!!

[Botanique]

Originally Posted by chrose

Kuan and Shroom, try this. Fry up some good pastrami till it's semi crispy. Toast a piece of rye or pumpernickle, a shmear of brown spicy mustard and melt some swiss cheese over the top of the pastrami (in the pan) serve hot with cole slaw and deli potato salad on the side. Now thats "Good eats"!!!

Definitely a drooler Are we allowed to add sauerkraut?

[Mezzaluna]

I'm drooling over this thread! And you're right Suzanne, butter... mayo... oy vay! As for the fat in chopped chicken liver, I agree with Suzanne:

Of course, chicken fat is really THE way to go, but

... but I've tried it with ersatz schmaltz made from margarine with a lot of onions sauteed in it. You get about the right flavor with no cholesterol. Of course the livers have their share of the stuff anyway. I say, eat it with schmaltz, but not frequently.

Mmmm... crispy deli meat. I experimented with that one time and thought I was weird to enjou it. My grandmother used to fry "wurst" (kosher baloney) and pour scrambled mixture over it. For some reason, we ate that only at Passover. I think it was because we lived far away from delis (west-central Illinois, 180 miles from Chicago), so kosher deli was a rarity.

I doubt this is what anyone thought of for this thread, but when I was a kid I loved to make a sandwich with Oscar Mayer ham and cheese loaf on cinnamon-raisin bread. Go figure!

[MikeLM]

Gonna try several of the above. My own winter favorite is not innovative- just a nice ham sandwich, but with thin-sliced Missouri country ham from Esicar's smokehouse in Cape Girardeau. Trimmed of fat. Ham aged five or six months- tough as a boot, which is why it needs to be sliced very thin.

Rye bread, heavy mayo on both. From bottom up: lettuce, ham slices, thin slice of mild cheese - provolone is good - heavy schmeer of strong, grainy mustard; thin slices of onion (not too much- shouldn't take over) then more ham slices, then another cheese slice, then lettuce and top bread slice. (Actually, you could sneak in a few more ham slices before the final lettuce.)

Nothing radical here, but really good.

Usually takes me until mid-March to use up the Christmas ham this way.

Mike

[Andrew563]

I will probably get shot down for this one, but my favorite sandwich is as folows.
Toasted sourdoug
butter
peanut butter
bacon

Somehow i don't think I could get away with serving this in any restaurant I am at.