Victorian Watercress Tea Sandwiches For High Tea And Picnics Recipes

WATERCRESS TEA SANDWICH RECIPE:

Steps:

• How To Clean Watercress: Cut off the stems off the watercress leaves with a knife or scissor; either discard or save the stems for making soup. Place the watercress leaves into a colander. Rinse thoroughly with cool water, tossing the watercress with your hands. Fill a large bowl with a solution of 2 tablespoons white vinegar per 2 quarts of cool water. Place the watercress leaves in the water and let soak for 30 minutes. This will remove any dirty smell or taste from the watercress. Pour the watercress into the colander. Rinse thoroughly once more with cool water. Pat dry with paper towels.
• In a medium bowl, toss the cleaned and dried watercress leaves with the salt.
• Spread one side of each piece of bread with the butter.
• Top four (4) of the slices each with 1/4 cup watercress leaves. Arrange the watercress leaves so they hangs very slightly over the edge of the bread. Top with the remaining four (4) bread slices.
• Carefully cut the crusts from each sandwich with a long, sharp knife. Cut the sandwiches in half diagonally and then cut in half again. If desired, decorative shapes can be made with cookie cutters.
• NOTE: The watercress may be replaced with one cup thinly sliced radishes cucumber, apple, or pear. The butter may be flavored with fresh herbs, and if you like, you can use part whole wheat bread and part white sandwich bread.
• Yields 4 whole sandwiches or 8 halves or 16 fourths.

VICTORIAN WATERCRESS TEA SANDWICHES FOR HIGH TEA AND PICNICS

Steps:

• Snip the stalks from the watercress and place the leafy ends on kitchen paper to absorb any water. Butter the bread generously, arrange the watercress over 4 slices and season. Top with the remaining bread, cut into triangles or fingers and serve.
• NB. (Don't discard the watercress stalks; they can be made into a soup. Soften a chopped onion in a pan with butter, add 250ml whole milk and bring to the boil. Add the stalks, cook for 1 minute then liquidise until smooth and foamy.).

EGG AND WATERCRESS TEA SANDWICHES

Steps:

• Remove the crusts from the bread.
• Chop the eggs, and gently mix in a bowl with the chopped watercress and chives. Add just enough mayonnaise to moisten and bind the mixture the mayonnaise. Season to taste with salt, pepper and Tabasco, and gently mix well.
• Spread half of the slices of bread with the egg and watercress mixture, and place the remaining slices of bread on top.
• Lightly spread the outside edge of each sandwich with mayonnaise and dip into the chopped parsley.
• Cut each sandwich into 4 triangles.
• To serve, arrange the sandwiches on a platter, and garnish with the remaining watercress.