Fancy Cucumber Mint Sandwiches

I actually had a tea party today. No fooling, with china and everything. I made these for the friends that came over with mint from my garden. I got the recipe from The Paupered Chef. We had these with my artisan bread and a very good loose-leaf Earl Grey tea.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves
2 tablespoons unsalted butter ( I ended up using salted regular butter and they tasted fine)
2 tablespoons cream cheese
6 slices of bread (more if it's a small artisan loaf)
3-inch length of cucumber
dash of ground black pepper

Pick off some mint leaves from your garden and rinse them all by hand, shaking them dry. Dice with a knife or use scissors to chop them finely into a bowl. Add the cream cheese, butter, and pepper and mix well, making an herb-paste. Spread this on either side of slices of bread and place cucumbers between to make sandwiches, slicing the results into triangles. Very tasty! Serve with cups of your favorite English tea.

Easy, Quick Cucumber Sandwiches for Tea Time

I watched The Importance of Being Earnest the other night, and it got me back into the English mood. I have phases like that, mostly when going to Renaissance Faires, but also often when watching a Jane Austen or other period English movie. Thankfully, this recipe takes all of five minutes to put together, and the baby was well able to entertain herself with her toys for that time. Try making these with a cup of Lady Grey tea. And of course, you can make as many as you want; I only made four cut finger sandwiches.

Ingredients:

a few thin slices of Artisan Bread
8-12 slices of cucumber
butter
a few dashes of ground black pepper

Butter the insides of the slices of bread, then layer cucumber slices inside, as high as you want your crunch to go (I had four slices on each side of the bread halves so I could cut them down the middle). Sprinkle a little black pepper on top of the cucumbers, then top with the opposite side of bread, butter side down. Cut each sandwich in half, or into finger-sandwich sizes. Make as many as you want! And serve with cups of English tea. Very tasty for something so simple, and I'm told these are actually authentic.

Salmon Maki (Sushi Roll)

I LOVE sushi, of almost all kinds. So I saw a good price for salmon at the grocery store and bought a piece, both for last night's dinner and today's experiment with sushi making. Rolled sushi is called Maki. The baby had an interesting time watching me get my hands all ricey, and got a little taste of fresh avocado as well. This works best if you buy a sushi making kit, which gives you the bamboo rice paddle and rolling mat.

Ingredients:

chunk of fresh salmon (you don't need much for one or two rolls)
half a cucumber, sliced lengthwise
half an avocado, sliced lengthwise
2 cups Nishiki rice, washed and prepared
a package of Nori, toasted seaweed
1/4 cup rice vinegar
3 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt

Prepare the rice by rinsing two cups of it under water until the water runs as clear as you can get, then put in pot with two cups of water. Bring to a boil, then simmer on very low for another 12-15 minutes until done. Add rice vinegar, salt and sugar, and mix well. Spread rice out on a baking sheet to cool.

Lay out one sheet of Nori on the rolling mat, gritty side up. Cover with as thin a layer of rice as you can make.

Lay slices of cucumber, avocado, and salmon along the inside of the roll.

Don't use too much or the roll won't close. Then roll, using the bamboo mat, from the fishy side over to the rice side, squeezing tightly.

Slice into chunks with a sharp knife and serve. Super tasty! Don't worry if it falls apart on you a little; you're probably not a sushi chef.