Seasonal Cheese and Leek Flatbread Sandwich

Jacqueline has set us a slightly different challenge for  this month's No Croutons Required,  she says "I would like to focus on what is often served alongside soup or a salad. I am thinking of the humble sandwich.  Toasted or plain, I would like you to come up with an interesting sandwich. The only stipulation is that it must be suitable for vegetarians."

My Mum probably makes the best sandwiches, she always ensures that there was plenty of filling and that the filling goest right to the edge of the sandwich, the best way to achieve this is by cutting off the crusts. But I'm not going to make that kind of sandwich because ever since the early stages of the Great British Bake Off, I've been hankering to make some flatbreads.
 I used the recipe for 'Magic Bread Dough' from Hugh Fearnly Whittingstall's River Cottage Veg Everyday.It's an interesting mix of strong and plain flour and something I haven't tried before.
  
There is plenty of dough to make several different flatbreads. For the dough for my sandwich I added some chopped rosemary.  You can cook the flatbreads on a griddle but I put them in a hot (240C) oven for about 5-10 minutes.

This one is more like a pizza.  I spread the dough with, one of my favourite sauces, Maggi Chilli and Tomato Sauce straight from the bottle.  Then sprinkled over some grated Lockerbie Cheddar Cheese.


For the sandwich filling, I adapted  Hugh F-W's  Leek and Cheese Toastie from River Cottage Veg to lower the calorie count.

Leek and Cottage Cheese Flatbread Sandwich

15g butter
2 medium leeks, trimmed and finely chopped (white and pale green part only)
A couple of sprigs of thyme, leaves only
3 tablespoons of cottage cheese
1 tsp cornflour
50g cheddar
1 large rosemary flatbread
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Melt the butter in a frying plan and add the leeks.  Cook gently until softened. Stir in the thyme.  Mix the cornflour with some of the liquid from the cottage cheese and add to the pan, add the cottage cheese and warm through.  Take off the heat and add two-thirds of the cheese .

Pile the leek and cheese filling onto one half of the flatbread and fold over, sprinkle over the rest of the cheese and place under a hot grill for a couple of minutes until the cheese melts.




Serve with salad

I served my sandwich with a Carrot, Cucumber and Apple Salad with chopped Pistachio nuts


To finish off, I'd like to show you the sweet flatbread that I made, using the basic dough a few dried apricots, chopped white chocolate and ground almonds.


After it was baked, I glazed it with honey and put it back in the oven for a couple of minutes. 
I'm entering this for No Croutons Required run by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes and Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen.

Labels: apples, apricots, carrots, flatbread, ground almonds, Herbs on Saturday, Leeks, No Croutons Required, salad, sandwiches, Simple and in Season, white chocolate

posted by Janice @ 21:26 10 Comments

Ham Pate for lunch

I had some baked ham left over so thought I'd make it into a pate for sandwiches and other snacks.

Manuka Honey with Lemon

Ham Pate

You need twice as much ham as you do cottage cheese, and can add whatever flavourings suit you.
600g baked or boiled ham, diced
300g cottage cheese
1 tbsp whipping cream (optional)
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp  New Zealand Honey Co, Manuka Honey with Lemon (or other honey)

Whizz the ham in the food processer until chopped small, add the other ingredients and whizz until mixed.

Pack into a dish or box and cover.

I topped a baked potato with some of the ham pate and served with a simple tomato and basil salad.  It's a great way to use up left over ham it also extends it much further than serving it sliced.

Labels: Baked Potato, cottage cheese, food processor, ham, leftovers, lunch, Manuka Honey, pate, sandwiches

posted by Janice @ 22:21 4 Comments

Jubilee Chicken

As a child I was always told that you had to eat all your main course before you were allowed any cake.  But I broke that rule and showed you the 'Elizabeth Sandwich' before you saw the rest of our Jubilee tea! 

When I decided to have this tea, I knew where to look to find a delicious main course. This is Mary Cadogan's Jubilee Chicken, a take on Coronation Chicken - and I used this recipe 10 years ago for the Golden Jubilee. 

I had filed away the page from BBC Good Food Magazine but it is also available on the BBC Good Food website: Jubilee Chicken

We also had finger sandwiches with egg, ham, cheese and, of course, cucumber!  I made some mini scones and filled them with my mum's homemade strawberry jam and piped whipped cream.

Then there was my red, white and blue jelly.  Raspberry, lemon and blackcurrant jellies went into this, just ordinary bought table jellies, it was a bit of fun.  Thank goodness for my Tupperware Jelly mould which unmoulds every time due to the clever way it has been designed with a lid on the top and bottom which allows you to release the vacuum and let the jelly drop down.

And a last glimpse of the Elizabeth Sandwich which took pride of place.  I hope you had a lovely time over the Bank Holiday for Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, I'd love you to tell me what you did and what special food you made for the Jubilee in the comments.

Labels: BBC Good Food, Chicken, Elizabeth Sandwich, jelly, Jubilee chicken, Mary Cadogan, salad, sandwiches, Scones, Victoria Sponge

posted by Janice @ 19:37 6 Comments

Vintage Afternoon Tea

We opted for the full Vintage Tea at £7.50 per person, this included sandwiches, scones with butter, cream and jam and cakes, and as much tea as you could drink!

The sandwiches looked the part as they were small, crustless triangles with fillings of smoked salmon, cheese or ham.  They were fresh and tasty, although I did feel that the fillings were a little uninspired and plain.

There were plenty of scones, enough for one plain and one fruit each person, they were warm, which was good, but a little bit heavy in the centre.  That didn't stop me slathering on the cream and homemade jam.  We had two types of cake, some very rich and sticky chocolate brownies and a lemon drizzle cake, again plenty for everyone.
It was a very good afternoon tea, good value for money (even though I wasn't paying!) and I really enjoyed it. However, from a review point of view,  I think I would be prepared to pay a little more to have a few more interesting sandwich fillings, some light fluffly scones and perhaps a few perfectly decorated cupcakes or fondant fancies.

This is, of course, not part of The Food Bloggers Diet and I'll have to work hard over the week to make up for this indugence.

Labels: afternoon tea, chocolate brownies, lemon drizzle cake, sandwiches, Scones, Trigony House Hotel, vintage

posted by Janice @ 20:11 15 Comments