Tag: Sandwiches


Sep
2021

The Mystery of American Sardine Toasts

categories: 1960's recipes, Daily News, Fish, Sandwiches, Sardines

A recipe from The Daily News Cookbook called American Sardine Toasts caught my eye recently.  Without wanting to labour the point too much, we Melbourrnians recently spent our 200th (non-consecutive) day in lockdown which means I have now been working from home for around 18 months.  I have also recently been working all the hours so my need for quick and easy meals, be they work from home lunches or speedy suppers when I am too tired to cook has become paramount.

And this could well be the recipe that gets me through! Oh, and Uber Eats, but you’re not here to hear me talk about my local Thai!

American Sardine Toasts1

In case you are wondering what an American Sardine Toast is?  It’s kind of a  tuna melt but with sardines.

As soon as I read the recipe, I constructed a narrative in my head which went a little like this.  Someone in what was then Ceylon had travelled to America and had a tuna melt.  They had then brought the concept back home – except maybe 1960’s Ceylon did not have access to canned tuna so they used what they had – sardines!  And no doubt the local newspaper, The Daily News, was keen to publish a recipe from the country that epitomised all things new and bright and shiny and voila the recipe for American Sardine Toasts  or as they call it, Sardine Toasts, American came into being

Except….DJ….cue the  X Files Spooky Music.

The Mystery

According to writer Warren Bobrow, the tuna melt was invented in 1965 in Charleston, South Carolina.  But the recipe for American Sardine Toasts appears in my mum’s 1964 edition of the Daily News Cookery Book!  There’s definitely something fishy about that!

American Sardine Toasts 3

So if not based on the tuna melt, what is this recipe based on?   What makes it an American Sardine Toast instead of just a regular sardine toast?

I even wondered if I was reading the name incorrectly. Instead of the Sardine Toasts being American was it that the sardines came from America? So not American  (Sardine Toasts) but (American Sardine) Toasts?  The actual name Sardine Toasts, American would indicate the former but who knows with this book!  Sadly the American provenance of these toasts has been lost to history.

Luckily for us, the actual recipe has not and these hit the spot of being quick, easy and delicious and so will go on heavy

American Sardine Toasts 4

 

The Recipes

Yes, recipes!  I took the OG recipe and modernised it to make it easier for WFH lunches.  It also works well as a light supper too.

Here’s the original:

American Sardine Toasts Recipe 1964

And here’s my version:

Print

American Sardine Toasts

American Sardine Toasts1
Print Recipe

A quick and easy alternative to a tuna melt!

Ingredients

Scale

2 slices of toast

Butter

1 can of sardines in tomato sauce

1/4 red onion, finely chopped

80g grated cheddar cheese

I tbsp finely chopped parsley

Salt and pepper

Instructions

Lightly butter the pieces of toast

Place 2 sardines on each piece of toast, making sure you get some of the tomato sauce from the can as well.

Sprinkle some chopped onion on top of the sardines.

Sprinkle the cheese over the top.

Place under a grill (180C) for 5 minutes or until the cheese has melted.

Season with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle the chopped parsley over the top.

Cut each piece of toast in two.

Eat immediately!

 

American Sardine Toasts2

Have a great week!

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Dec
2017

Anne’s Poetical Egg Salad Sandwiches

categories: Books, Eggs, Sandwiches

One of the absolute delights of my childhood was discovering the Anne of Green Gables set of books by Lucy Maud Montgomery.  They were my favourite books for years!  And to be honest, although I haven’t read one in forever, I still have the entire series and it wouldn’t take much for me to be again drawn into the world of Matthew and Marilla, Diana Barry and Gilbert Blythe and the adorable red-haired, high-spirited feisty girl known as Anne of Green Gables.  And that’s Anne with an E and don’t you forget it!

Anne Books

These books taught me so much about the world – about love, about friendship and family, about how it’s okay to be different (and how to embrace that difference).  Oh, and how I wasn’t the only person in the world who constantly had to spell their name to people to ensure that they got it right!

So I was overjoyed to find out that there is an Anne of Green Gables Cookbook.  And beside myself to be given a free ARC from NetGalley and Race Point Publishing to review!  Thank you so much!

First up, this book is gorgeous!  The illustrations and the photos are beautiful.  And all of the recipes are referenced to the exact place in the books where they occurred..which a pedant like me totally loves!

I choose to make Anne’s Poetical Egg Salad sandwiches.  And they were delicious.

Anne's Poetical Egg Salad SandwichesOMG…these were so good!

I think sometimes it’s hard when blogging to present something as simple as these sandwiches because…..well…it’s egg salad right and everyone knows how to make that.  so why bother?  But this is also real food, the kind of food I want to make. Eat. Repeat.

Recipe?  Here.

And you can also fancy these up.  The version you are looking at has some chives in the mix.  It’s great with lettuce in the sandwich.  To make it really fancy, a slice of smoked salmon is divine!

Poetical Egg Salad Sandwich5

I adored this book almost as much as the novels that inspired it!

Poetical Egg Salad Sandwich7

And as we head into the new year, some rules for living from Miss Anne Shirley:

ON FRIENDS

 

ON MAKING MISTAKES

1985AnneGreenHair

ON MAKING AN EFFORT

Anne effort

ON ATTITUDE

Anne and Marilla (1)

ON LOVE

Gilbert

THE FUTURE

Anne2

And on that note sweet people, I’m going to bid you adieu for 2017.

Thank you for reading, commenting, liking, sharing.  You’re the best and most wonderful kindred spirits ever!

And for all of you, all my very, very best for a joyful 2018!  May it bring it everything you wish for!

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Apr
2014

Retro Easter Part 2: Easter Lily Sandwiches

categories: Asparagus, Cream Cheese, Lunch, Sandwiches

Let’s start with a caveat.

I am perfectly aware that these sandwiches do not resemble Easter Lilies and would, based on their look, be far more appropriately called Calla Lily Sandwiches.  But it’s Easter ok?

And take a look at them.  How pretty are they?  Perfect for an afternoon tea with the girls….

Easter Lily Sandwiches2
Easter Lily sandwiches

And they taste pretty damn good too!!!

There are a few recipes for these lily sandwiches floating about the interwebs. However, most of them use green onions for the stem.  I actually made it that way the first time but was disappointed in the taste.

Chomping on that big stalk made the sandwich way too oniony – I’m pretty sure no one else wants to bite into a huge chunk of onion like that either.  Or suffer the onion breath afterwards. But to use them as decoration only and take them out when it came to eating the sandwich seemed like a waste.  My first thought was to replace the onions with beans but when I went to buy the beans, I was waylaid by some gorgeous baby asparagus spears.

Easter Lily Sandwiches Ingredients
Easter Lily Sandwiches Ingredients

And my version of the Lily Sandwich was born.

If you can only get thicker asparagus you could cut the spears in half down their length.  If asparagus is not available, use beans or celery matchsticks – all of which I think would be preferable to the onion!

Oh and a tip for the frugal.  When you cut the circles out of the bread, don’t throw the rest of the bread out.  Save them to use for what my family call Ox-Eye eggs but is, I believe more commonly called,  Egg in A Hole the next morning!  Any asparagus left over can also be dipped into a runny yolk for a breakfast made in heaven!!!

Leftovers

Oh and if you don’t happen to have a rolling-pin handy, a bottle of your favourite sauv blanc works equally as well.

Impromptu Rolling PinAnd would also be the perfect accompaniment to these sandwiches at your Easter afternoon tea!

Easter Lily Sandwiches3
Easter Lily Sandwiches3.
Print

Easter Lily Sandwiches

Print Recipe

Pretty asparagus sandwiches, perfect for a Spring afternoon tea!

  • Prep Time: 10
  • Cook Time: 5
  • Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 bunch of asparagus
  • Slices of white bread, as many as you have asparagus spears
  • 1 tub of cream cheese or a herb and garlic flavoured cream cheese like a Boursin
  • 2 tbsp fresh chopped chives (omit if using a flavoured cheese)
  • 1 clove of garlic, crushed (omit if using a flavoured cheese)
  • 1/2 cup pistachios finely chopped
  • 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
  • Carrots cut into matchsticks, the same number of matchsticks as asparagus spears
  • Salt & Pepper to Taste
  • Instructions

Instructions

  1. Tail the asparagus and steam until just tender.
  2. Mix the cream cheese, paprika, nuts, salt and pepper and herbs in a bowl until smooth and creamy.
  3. Using a cookie cutter, cutter cut out rounds from bread.
  4. Then with a rolling pin, roll each round so it’s about 1/8 inch thick.
  5. Spread about a teaspoon of the cream cheese mixture over each bread circle.
  6. Place the carrot stick so it peeps out of the top, and the asparagus spear so it pokes out of the bottom. Fold the bread over to seal.
  7. Voila! You have a lily sandwich.

One more Easter Treat to go…stay tuned!

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Apr
2013

Retro Food For Modern Times: Good Cooking for (Almost) Everyone (1981)

categories: 1970's food, Bacon, Books, Cake, Prunes, Sandwiches, Vintage Cookbooks

Hello there, time to take a look into a new book.

Welcome to Mary Meredith’s Good Cooking for Everyone.

Good Cooking For Everyone by Mary Meredith 002

Let me just start with a little quibble.  When i think of 1981, I think of this:

1981’s finest.

And not so much this:

Mary Meredith 001

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not having a go at Mary here.  This book was first published in 1970 and this was a probably a perfectly acceptable photo back then.  Eleven years later, you’d think that maybe the publishers could have forked out for a new publicity photo.  Maybe one using that new technology of  colour.

The 500 “specially selected recipes” in this book do address a wide audience, if not exactly everyone.

In keeping with the Livvie theme above, there are sandwiches that would suit people watching their weight:

Lettuce and Lemon Sandwiches 001

And recipes for those who are most definitely not.

Mary calls this  “California Stuffed Forehock.” I prefer to think of it as “The Reason Elvis (Permanently) Left the Building”. The prunes in the recipe could explain why he was found on the toilet.

Californian Stuffed Forehock 001

Enough for 4 people or one bacon lovin’ popstar!

From The King, to proper royalty, Mary Meredith also provides us with a dainty dish to set before a king. Four and twenty blackbirds anyone?

Cutlet Pie

In fairness to Mary, it’s not actually blackbirds but a mix of lamb kidneys and cutlets.  In fairness to modern sensibility, I was staring at this picture wondering how to describe the sheer awfulness of a pie with bones in little bootees sticking out of it.  Mark looked at it over my shoulder. “You’re not making that are you?” he asked, sounding a little shaky.  I assured him I was not.  “Good” he said. “Because it looks fucking horrible.”  Description problem solved.

Then, there are recipes for people who want their cakes to look like footwear.  (Why? WHY???)

Shoe cake - who doesn't want to eat an old boot on their birthday!
Shoe cake – who doesn’t want to eat an old boot on their birthday!

And recipes for people who want to traumatise their children.  Never mind the chocolate-roll cats at the front, what are those weird shiny pink things with faces ? Apart from the stuff of nightmares?

Children's Party Food
Children’s Party Food

I did however manage to find one group of people for who Mary was not catering for.  I was searching the index of this book when, in the B’s,  I came across:

  • Baked Lemon Potatoes
  • Batch of scones

It’s an odd way of listing these items but there were corresponding entries under L, P and S so whilst kooky, they weren’t entirely random. (But again, maybe something that should have been corrected in the 1981 edition.)

I also noticed under M:

  • Making a jug of cocoa

Using this logic surely every recipe should be listed under M?

  • Making Lettuce and lemon sandwiches
  • Making Elvis Has Left The Building, etc.

And just to be really irritating there is no corresponding entry under C listing:

  • Cocoa, Making a jug of

I’m sorry cocoa drinkers of the world, I guess if you were of a logical mind in 1981 and wanted to find out how to make a jug of your favourite drink (without having to scan through 499 other recipes), you were S.O.L.

I’m spending the weekend with a jug of margaritas… it was going to be cocoa but the recipe was too damn hard to find!

So much for an alcohol free April!

Whatever your tipple, have a great week.

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