The Cottage Smallholder


stumbling self sufficiency in a small space

Best quick sandwich recipe

Yesterday's chilled sandwich toasted for today

Yesterday's old sandwich toasted for today

One of the great things about winter is that Jalopy becomes a sort of mobile fridge. Most of the door seals have deteriorated to slivers. This is great for keeping sandwiches chilled. Yesterday’s unfinished sandwich can fill a ‘no time for breakfast’ gap if I am running late the next morning.

If you drive a ‘normal’ car, you need a letter from your parents to try this trick as the interior of most modern cars are well insulated against the cold. If you drive a Jalopy, this post may be of interest to you.

I’d bought a designer loaf (cranberry and mixed seed granary bread) from the cut-price section at Waitrose. At 49p it was a snip compared to its normal £1.29 tag. Danny wasn’t so sure and prodded it suspiciously. He calls these “girlie breads”.

In fact it was very tasty but D would need some encouragement to sample it. Rushing home for lunch, I noticed that there was an unwanted girlie bread sandwich from the day before sitting on Jalopy’s passenger seat. If it had been summer this sandwich would have turned up its crusts and been a gonner. This one seemed fresh and had the possibility of life beyond the front seat.  Too chunky to be pressed into the toasted sandwich maker but too stale to be eaten ‘raw’.

As I reversed through our gate I remembered that we have a very nifty device for barbecuing fish. A grid that holds the fish so that you can turn them easily on the grill. The sandwich fitted neatly into it and I grilled (broiled) it for three minutes each side under a medium grill.

I delivered Danny’s half to his desk and crept away. Within minutes he was down in the kitchen asking for more.
“It was delicious. What was the bread exactly and the filling?”
The ingredients had transmogrified into a wonderful tasty meltiness. The bread was crisp on the outside and warm in the middle

The filling was cheddar cheese, tomatoes and Lesieur Dijon mustard mayonnaise. A few months ago Amalee Issa tipped this as the best ever commercially made mayonnaise in a comment on our blog. Meanwhile it has been sourced in France by Miles, who travels there regularly. It‘s wonderful mayo. Knocks Hellman’s into a cocked hat and is better than anything that I’ve ever run up at home. Used instead of butter, it has far less fat and much more punch. So I spread it on sandwiches constantly and Danny wafts it on everything that’s not a roast. Thank you Amalee for your great blog and your stupendous tip.

Grilled sandwiches are the perfect answer for a simple lunch snack when your bread is just a bit stale. Suddenly yesterday’s retread sandwich was better than anything that I could have made today. Saving cash is revealing. Delicacies that would have formally been jettisoned into landfill have a second chance. Now they have a voice and 90% of the time they sing.


  Leave a reply

4 Comments

  1. I could murder one of those right now. Instead, I’m going to cook rice and heat up the chili my mum sent me off with after supper last night. I love toasties. I particularly like cheese with ketchup and a sprinkling of dried herbs although it is important to get the order right – herbs have to go on the ketchup which is under the cheese! Added salami or crispy bacon is good too. I make mine in the Remoska now – although it doesn’t compare to making then on the Aga. I used to make them in toaster bags in the toaster but the bread burns too quickly and the inside is still cold with unmelted cheese – such a disappointing experience.

  2. This looked so tasty and I loved the tip about using the fish-holding grid under the grill for thicker sandwiches. x

  3. Julia Guthrie

    *waves* Hi…blog ‘lurker’ here:)

    Just had to post a comment regarding the toasted sandwiches…Cheese toasties for me have fond memories.
    Coming home from school with a curled up, uneaten sarniw in your lunchbox. Cheese all kind of warm & sweaty.
    Bung it under the grill, cover in ketchup & hey presto…after school delicacy!:)
    These days I am a bit posh & make ‘Panninis’ in my George Forman (we inherited it…oh the luxury! LOL).

    Ayway, thanks for your awesome blog…I discovered it about a month ago & enjoy your posts greatly! 🙂

  4. I’m starving now looking at that. Off to lunch. Yum

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

HTML tags are not allowed.

2,261,825 Spambots Blocked by Simple Comments


Copyright © 2006-2024 Cottage Smallholder      Our Privacy Policy      Advertise on Cottage Smallholder


Skip to toolbar
FD