I'm alive! And living the dream with the Ultimate Chicken Sarnie

It's been a good couple of weeks, maybe more, since I lasted posted - very unlike me. I've been a bit poorly with a kidney infection and feeling well and truly sorry for myself and, frankly, just not in the mood for food (shock, horror I hear fellow foodies exclaim!).

I'm still quite poorly but am missing my blog, so I'm taking advantage of the fact that I'm actually fancying something to eat rather than eating to basically to survive, and writing about it.

I was quite dissapointed with myself to realise that what I really, really, really wanted was a simple chicken sandwich. Not only would I not be able to write something decent about a humble sarnie, but it wouldn't satiate my desire to ramble on about the food I dream up and cook. So I got creative. What if I make the ULTIMATE chicken sandwich?

With an idea forming, I reached for the yeast and made a basic sandwich dough, made to the adapted recipe of Michel Roux Jr. that can be found here, but instead of plonking it in a loaf tin once risen and knocked back, I made a large round... what!? Now this is where the arguments start.

Is it a Muffin? Bun? Cob? Barm Cake? For arguments sake, I'm going with bread roll, but do let me know your regions variation in the comments below.

This Ultimate Sandwich was made for Sunday tea time using left over roast chicken and served four, but the possibilities are endless. Imagine this - You’re hung over. The bread is fresh and stuffed with bacon, sausage, friend egg, tomatoes, mushrooms…. Mmmm… A perfect hangover cure.

This sandwich does mean you end up with a hunk of bread from the middle of the roll that could potentially go to waste. I either make breadcrumbs and freeze, bake it to make croutons, dunk it in soup or make Nigella’s bread salad.

I know you don’t need a recipe for a sandwich, but please, indulge me. Traditional, wholesome, fresh, English. What’s not to love? Read it and weep my friends. And could you ask for more when trying to get your appetite back?

Bea’s Best Bap – My Ultimate Sandwich

Ultimate Chicken Sarnie - perfect for a pick me up or a picnic

• Half of Michel Roux Jrs Bread recipe, shaped into a large roll, baked and cooled
• Half a bag of spinach, rocket and water cress salad
• 250 ml tub of crème fraiche
• Leftover roast chicken (Mine has lemon, garlic and herbs up its bum before being covered in butter and roasted at 180 for 1 hour 20 mins for a 1.5kg bird).
• 2 tomatoes, sliced
• Avocado, sliced (only if you are serving immediately)
• 4 slices cooked smoked bacon

1. Cut the top off of the large bread roll off and dig the bread from the inside to leave you with a bowl.

2. In a food processor, whizz the salad with the crème fraiche (adding lemon juice to taste if you have some to hand). Spread a third of the mixture over the bottom of the bread.

3. Layer the chicken and tomatoes, season with salt and pepper, spread another third of the crème fraiche mixture over the tomatoes and finish by layering the avocado and finally, the bacon.

4. Place the ‘lid’ back on the bread bowl and carve into wedges.

Enjoy!

Time for a fridge clear out - Random Cheese Tart

I opened the fridge to have a root around for lunch. My Husband wandered in, took one look at me and said ‘phwoar!' (not in the good way) 'What’s that smell!?’. Delightful. ‘It’s the cheese!’ I insisted, ‘It’s starting to pong and there is so much of it!’ 

I love cheese, but I get very over-excited once I enter a cheese shop, it’s quite embarrassing. I always tend to buy more, so much more than I actually need and then it goes pongy, then furry before I can eat it all. I love the pongy nature of cheese, but it’s when it starts to pong out the fridge that, when I'm out, hubs goes in and chucks the lot away.

To stop this amount of crazy (and ridiculous waste) in my house I took action. I pulled out of the fridge:

A few wodges of cheese of varying types in various states
A few slices of ham going a bit curly at the edges and a couple of prosciutto
Half a jar of sundried tomatoes

After a further root around, I found some cream that was about to start to pong too – and not in the good way that cheese does.

So I came up with this cheese and ham tart. It’s a proper fridge clearer of a recipe (which is exactly what inspired this in the first place). The next time you buy cheese for a dinner party and only one person nibbles on the corner of the cheddar, try this baby for lunch the next day.

Random Cheese, Ham and Tomato Tart

• 250g Plain Flour
• 125g Cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp Cold water
• 280 - 300ml double cream*
• 2 eggs
• 250g (roughly) of mixed cheeses
• 4 slices of smoked ham 
• 6-8 sun dried tomatoes

Please note - the eggs, ham and tomatoes are just a guide. If you have other hams, cheeses, fresh tomatoes, a bag of spinach etc, use these instead! For the cheeses, I used a herby boursin, a strong cheddar and edam. I'd have loved a blue but didn't have any in.

*300ml is ideal, but if you have less, that's fine, but try not to go lower than 280ml. If you do your filling will poke over the top cream mixture.

1. To make the pastry, tip the flour and butter into a food processor and blitz to fine breadcrumbs. Add most of the water, and blitz again until it forms a dough (do not over mix). Add a little more water if necessary. Turn the dough onto a floured surface, shape into a disk and leace to chill in the fridge, wrapped in clingfilm, for 30 minutes.

2. Preheat the oven to 180.

3. When chilled, remove the pastry from the fridge and roll out on a floured surface until your pastry is about the thickness of a pound coin. Take an 8" loose bottom flan tin and lift your pastry into the tin. Immediately place the edges inside the tin and then edge and mould to the sides. The alternative is to place the pastry on top of the tin and push inside with your fingers. If you do it this way, you will stretch the pastry and it will shrink whilst cooking.

4. Line the base with a circle of baking paper and baking beans, and bake blind for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove the beans and paper, and return to the over for another 10 minutes.

5. To make the filling, lightly beat the eggs and the cream. Tear or chop the cheeses into small-ish pieces (I do this by hand - if you have rough chunks of the harder cheeses you get pockets of gooey goodness when you bite through the tart) and tear the ham into lengths.

6. Throw the ham, cheese and sundried tomatoes into the tart case and pour over the egg and cream mix. Give it a shake to make sure the egg and cream are evenly distributed.

7. Bake for 40 minutes until set (but a little wobbly in the middle) and golden.

Enjoy!