h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Following on from the Dinner recipe thread, what are some things you've tried for lunch - sandwich or other?

New potatoes, pine nuts, mayonnaise and plenty of fresh mint.

Good thread idea, I find they can be more challenging than dinners!

It will soon be time for flasks of soup. Lentil and bacon's a quick and easy standby.

Not a sandwich: Couscous with chopped baby plum tomatoes, olives and feta cheese. I don't really like couscous but I like this.

Sandwich: humous, grated carrot, sultanas. My current favourite.

Mol

Before you read this, I'll supply an Aaaaaaak! warning.

My step mum, fresh from the Rhondda convinced me that cream cheese and tomato sauce (ketchup) sandwiches were a good thing. Fast forward 15 years and I tried to convince my children of the same thing adding crisps (chips here) on the side to put in the sandwich for crunch just before eating. That was decades ago.

I fear they will never forgive me.

Tomato ketchup sandwiches? Were they inch-thick?

http://www.the-sps.org/attachments/sandwich-gif.2646/

Soft cheese and beetroot - yes. But tomato ketchup??

My lunch today is cold fusilli pasta mixed with grated mature cheddar, a chopped up slice of thick cut oak smoked ham, halved cherry tomatoes, finely snipped spring onion, cucumber slices and cubed boiled beetroot. No dressing.

I absolutely love this and have it at least 3 times a week for lunch. Believe it or not, it's a diet lunch - Slimming World sure know how to fill your belly while making it smaller!

Deb

I seem to remember some sandwich threads before.

Just so we can remind ourselves what was in fashion in those days:

Entries

A144299
A869510
A987564
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(no guarantees for good taste or even relevancy)

conversations are a bit harder to pin down, but maybe some of them are attached to the above entries.

I love home made soup for lunch
cockaleekie (chicken leek and rice) is a firm favourite

Couscous is nice so long as you prepare it with some flavour, so a vegetable stock cube in the water or some herbs or something. I love the stuff but don't eat enough of it because the boyfriend will not be convinced.

Sandwiches - I love salami, leaves (up to you, a like a nice mixed back of baby salad leaves), soft cheese/cream cheese (as a fat to stop everything making the bread soggy) and either cherry tomatoes (halved or into three, depends on size) or a bit of chutney or some pickled gherkin slices or something to cut through the richness of the salami and cheese. If you use a good peppered salami, the pickle stage can be left out.

If you have flatbreads (tortilla wraps or something) then yesterday's dinner (for instance, a ragu you had the rest of with pasta or a nice chilli) with a spritz of cheese or soured cream make lovely cold wraps for lunch.

Also, if there's two of you, make a large (full size griddle/frying pan) tortilla. Not a soft corn flatbread, the spanish omelette. Dice up potatoes into just around or so squares (just for quickness and a good mix) and boil for around ten minutes and drain. While they are boiling, cut up and fry an onion, some mushrooms, a bit of bacon until it goes crispy, some herbs, sliced peppers, whatever flavours you like (I'm a fan of onion, bacon and mushroom with standard bell peppers). Also fork up a few eggs (4 - 6 depending on how many you're feeding and how big your pan is) with a splash of milk, seasoning, cheese if you want it.
When the potatoes are drained and your frying bits are ready to eat, mix them together in the frying pan or griddle, make sure they are reasonably evenly spread and pour the egg mix over.

Ideally with this, don't bother turning it, just cook it on the hob until it's cooked on the bottom and part of the way through then whack it under a reasonably hot grill for a few minutes until the top's cooked as well. It'll fluff up a bit and cook. It's really nice hot, but I like it even better cold (well, room temperature). Serve with a simple salad for a pretty complete meal! One of these will comfortably do me and the boyfriend for an evening meal and packed lunch.

/longpost

Sorry, I don't know what's happening to my typing fingers. Anyway, dice the potato into around 1cm squares.

Peanut butter with bananas or pickles.

Refried beans with pickles.

Bones 'n all mackerel salad.

Cream cheese and jam.

Green cheese on carrot cake or banana nut bread.




Green cheese recipe:




Bring a quart of milk to a boil in a double boiler(1).

Add the juice of a small lemon or a couple of limes. (About 1/4 cup will do it.)

Stir until the milk curdles.

Strain(2) though a coffee filter in a large tea strainer or small collander. (About of a size with the coffee filter.)

Scoop into suitable container, cover and chill in refrigerator after it has cooled to room temperature.

Use immediately as sandwich spread or in other desert applications.




(1) Double boiler, a pan heated by means of placing it in a larger container of boiling water.

Using boiling water to heat the contents of the cooking pan rather than heating it directly over the flame prevents scorching on the bottom by means of preventing cooking temperature from rising above the boiling point.




(2) The whey drained off has a variety of uses from marinades to soup and stew stock to pies and custards, substituted for cooking water.

Rich in vitamins, minerals and sugars.

Whey should be avoided by people with lactose intoleration and used with care by people susceptible to lactic acidosis (usually a side problem associated with type II diabetes.

That's frightening, ITIWBS, whey gives me terrible tummy-ache. I shall ask the doctor and do a diabetes check-up.



Right - here are my rules for sandwiches that everyone finds really good. Ask the attendees of the Mannheim meet.

1. Cut the bread thin (I never buy ready cut bread - the slices are too thick, and it dries out quicker)

Now - this is Germany and the bread is different. They don't like squidgy bread, so it is possible to cut it really thin. Most homes have a bread slicer. I use mine for loads of things - it's particularly useful for shredding cabbage, cutting potatoes into even-sized slices for a gratin etc etc. But. I digress. The bread should not be the main ingredient of a sandwich in percentage of thickness. Unless it's been baked by 2legs, in which case due reverence requires concentrating on the bread, the bread is more a sort of packaging. That said, it should be suited in taste to the filling. A strong-tasting bread should be set off against a less piquant filling, and a bland bread should contain a filling with a bit of a kick to it.

2. Spread the butter evenly and right to the edges.

I don't approve of margarine. My husband insists on it because he has to watch his cholesterol. His loss. In fact, I spread the butter really thick. And on both halves of the sandwich, too. Alternatives such as mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, cream cheese, peanut butter, honey, or nothing at all, all have the effect that the food "gets in your mouth" - as my father used to say. Needs lubrication by butter, IMHO.

3. Fillings shouldn't be too dry, either.

In Germany, if you buy a cheese roll to go, chances are, it is a white roll, cut in half and a slice of cheese slipped in between. If you're lucky, they might put a gherkin in with it. They don't have lettuce in sandwiches, which I think is indispensible. (Alternatively tomato or cucumber slices.) Cheese should not be sliced, but grated and mixed with mayonnaise, brown sauce, or grated carrot. This keeps the sandwich together while eating, and makes it more palatable. See above re butter. Ham is usually sliced, but tiny dice or strips are more practical (no unwieldy stringy bits). Filling should be generous, but not quite to the edge so it doesn't drop on your trousers, or the car seat, or wherever.

4. At least two complementary flavours in the filling.

That's what this thread is about, as I understand it - mixing flavours. I made myself a goat's cheese and honey sandwich the other day. The bread was not right, but the filling delivered the goods. I should have added a lettuce leaf or some slices of banana to make it easier to chew.

On a similar vein, cream cheese and a tart jam (you can get rosehip in Germany which suits admirably) are a nice partnership.

Mmmm lovely leftover concoction today!

I used the remaining stock/ cooking liqour from Sunday's roast lamb, to make couscous (cheated and used a packet of Ainsley Harriotts stuff, sundried tomato I think)

Added to that the leftover bits of lamb, some leftover brocoli, and a few chopped up dates, as well as half a cup of leftover scotch broth, and called it a tagine.

Went all New Yorky today for lunch. Wafer-thin slices of rib-eye steak leftover from yesterday, sliced gherkin, mayo, tomato and rye bread. Very tasty.

It was to have been eaten by the river, but then the skies opened up.

For sanwiches:

I like grated cheddar, mixed with mayonnaise and chopped celery.

I'm not much of a fan of salad in sandwiches but I like that.

Banana and honey is good.

Good ham with either mayo or butter.

Other than sanwiches, I like cold boiled potatoes, mixed with chopped ham, mayo and cooked peas.

I wanted to make tuna mayo sandwiches for lunch today, but had no mayo. I did however have an avocado. So I mashed it up and mixed it with the tuna.
I didn't put anything else in, but you could add salt, pepper, herbs or whatever. Sweetcorn or green salad might be nice, but I didn't have any either.

Don't forget to butter your bread TC-style, or it'll get all soggy.

Pretty basic, but very yummy.

I've only had ketchup in sandwiches when I've had sausage sandwiches. Sometimes when I have had a bad headache, I really fancy sausages sandwiches. Don't know why...

Anyway, honey and peanut butter sandwiches. I tend to use three slices of bread, as I like the honey and peanut butter to be seperated by a thin slice of bread between them.

Today I had a turkey, ham, watercress and salad cream sandwich for lunch.

On a vaguely related note - the thing that annoys me about the sandwich chain Subway is that they make salad sandwiches and have every conceivable sauce you could possibly put in a salad sandwich except for the one I actually like having in a salad sandwich - salad cream.

<BB<

Hmmm, I'm going to try mashed avocado and tuna, Superfrenchie. That sounds very interesting.