Sassy Southern Cooking with a French Twist

sandwiches

Classic Egg Salad Sandwich Revival

Classic Egg Salad Sandwich Snacks with Cucumber & Red Onion Refrigerator Pickles

A few weeks ago, I was craving a simple egg salad sandwich, so I went to look for one where I had found them in the past at my neighborhood Harris Teeter. I was unable to find a single one. Confounded, I asked one of the staff where they were and he told me they were no longer making them. “Just not enough demand,” he said, slightly wistfully. Oh no, I thought. Not egg salad sandwiches, too?  Innocent victims of changing times that are eradicating traditions I love, like civility, hand-written notes, and doors opened for ladies (and men), run over by fast food, rudeness, and road rage.

No way – I wasn’t prepared to stand idly by and watch this happen. When properly prepared, a barely mayonnaise bound, finely chopped flurry of egg salad sandwiched between soft, white bread is a cross between an English tea sandwich and a meal – a sandwich snack, if you will. Like few things in life and cooking, they’re best made with slightly older eggs (easier for peeling) and they’re very thrifty fare in contrast to their regal taste and texture bearing. So, as an ode to the not-so-humble egg salad sandwich, I whipped up a batch today in hopes of securing their eternity, at least in my recipe file and yours, too.

My favorite new Williamsburg farmer, Mr. Hermon Smith’s roadside stand is still stocked with late summer goodness – crispy, garden cukes, fresh red onions, and buttery Bibb lettuce. I brought some home with best quality soft, potato hamburger buns (or substitute Hawaiian King sliders or any other soft bread, including home made), sandwiched the egg salad between the bread, and topped it with tangy/sweet cuke and onion pickles, and crunchy lettuce sheaths.    I had intended to eat the one pictured after the photo shoot and after I wrote this blog, but it didn’t make it. A casualty of my very own personal appetite for tradition and old-fashioned goodness, I succumbed and ate it right away. But, at least I ate it delicately, while nobody was looking. Unless you count Mr. Purrfect, Sid, and Rocky – pets in salivating egg salad waiting.

Classic Old-Fashioned Egg Salad Sandwich Snack with Refrigerator Red Onion and Cucumber Pickles

Creamy Chunky Egg Salad Sandwich Snacks with Cucumber & Red Onion Refrigerator Pickles Recipe

(Makes about 8 to 10 petite sandwich snacks)

For the refrigerator pickles:

1/4 of a large, red onion very finely sliced

1 medium garden cucumber, peeled, and sliced thinly at an angle

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

3 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons Champagne vinegar (or substitute red wine vinegar for a more acidic flavor effect)

1/2 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional but a REALLY nice addition)

For the egg salad:

Cooking the eggs:

6 room temperature eggs (save the fresh-from-the-hen-house eggs for another use, one to two week old eggs best here)

Enough water to cover by an inch + 1 teaspoon Champagne vinegar (or substitute another vinegar)

To finish the salad:

Finely chopped, peeled eggs

2 teaspoons Champagne vinegar (or substitute red wine vinegar for a more acidic flavor effect)

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons Duke mayonnaise (or substitute Hellman’s, no Miracle Whip, please)

1/4 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

To compile the sandwiches:

Eight soft white bread hamburger buns or sliders

Eight pieces fresh, cleaned Bibb lettuce

Method:

For the pickles, combine all of the ingredients in a Tupperware or sealed container and shake gently to combine. Cover and refrigerate a minimum of 3 hours and up to 24 hours before using. (Note – you will have some left-over. They’re a delicious salad/side on their own, are fabulous over poached salmon, and would even be delicious finely chopped and folded into the egg salad or deviled eggs. A great summer time staple – I have them in the fridge almost all season long).

Place the eggs gently in a large saucepan and cover up to an inch over with tap water. Add the vinegar. Bring up to a rolling boil. Turn off the heat and let stand exactly 20 minutes. Drain and cover with cold water and 1 cup of ice cubes. Let stand five minutes. Drain and place in a shallow dish lined with a paper towel or clean kitchen towel. Refrigerate at least one hour and up to 2 days before making the egg salad. To peel, crack each egg on all sides against cutting board or work surface. Peel under running water, breaking through the membrane between the egg and the shell will make this task easier. The steps previously taken also will make the peeling process more enjoyable.

Slice the eggs thinly with a chef’s knife and cut through repeatedly, as cutting up parsley or fine herbs, until it’s fine, the size of very small, square peas. Combine in a bowl with the vinegar, mustard, mayonnaise, salt and pepper.  Line the bottom of each sandwich with a dry piece of fresh lettuce. Top with 3 or 4 heaping tablespoons of egg salad (resist the urge to over-fill), top with three or four cucumber pickles and onions, lightly dried with paper towel. Finish with the bun top and serve immediately, or chill for up to an hour, covered with a very lightly dampened paper towel before serving.

Here’s to tradition!

Bon appetit,  Holly and Rocky

Author, Chef, Cookbook writer Holly Herrick

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Some More Cheese Please and Sandwiches, Too

I can never get enough delicious cheese or bread, and when I know I need my fill, I head directly to goat.sheep.cow. Situated in the heart of downtown on quiet Church Street off of Broad, it’s a slice of heaven. They also make memorable sandwiches daily fresh from what’s in stock at the store. Here’s a link to a blog I posted about it a few days ago on charleston.thepermanenttourist.com .

http://charleston.thepermanenttourist.com/goat-sheep-cows-sandwich-and-cheese-stampede/

Enjoy and please do stop by. You’ll be happy you did. Just try and get there by 11 a.m. for a sandwich!

Goat Sheep Cow's sandwiches are made fresh, daily in limited quality from the store's delicious stock and EVO's fresh baguettes.

Goat Sheep Cow’s sandwiches are made fresh, daily in limited quality from the store’s delicious stock and EVO’s fresh baguettes.

Bon appetit!

 

 

 

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Get Your Happy Food Buzz on at Butcher & Bee

The locally sourced, organic trend that’s at long last  gripping large parts of the country and the Lowcountry is not new. It’s been trending hotter than an August Charleston afternoon for the better part of the past three years.

What is new (just four weeks old) is Butcher & Bee and the utter purity with which it approaches its localvore love. Tucked inauspiciously away in a parking lot near Columbus and Upper King Street, everything here, from the artisinal community table to house made everything (including pickles, bread, ketchup, mayonnaise, an organic garden out back, and locally sourced animals purchased whole and broken down in-house) is done the real, old-fashioned, and waste-free way.  The Butcher & Bee experience is an exceptional journey back to a time that far too many Americans have forgotten with the haze of fast food and mass-produced processed “food” that has clogged our supermarkets, hearts and palates for far too long.

The brainchild of Owner/Partner Michael Shem-Pov of local Mellow Mushroom fame and Chef/Partner Stuart Tracy, the purely executed concept (even in its very early, opening days) takes a nod from butcher shops and nature. The menu, broadly conceived at the beginning of each week and modified according to what farmers deliver on a daily basis and what sells out sometimes on an hourly basis, is coaxed to understated perfection in the hands of Tracy, who trained at Johnson & Wales and cut his teeth at Palmetto Cafe before finally stretching his chef and entrepreneur legs at his Butcher & Bee baby. While his competence at Palmetto Cafe was always evident, it literally shines here.

The vegetarian and sandwich intensive B & B menu changes daily.

Pure is the best word I can find to describe his magnificent fare. Getting there, as Tracy puts it, is all about “control and balance.” So very well put, indeed. It sounds like a simple concept, but it’s the kind of fuss-free, technique-rich execution too many chefs miss with over-manipulated, over made-up, overly-complicated concoctions. The clarity of each flavor and each texture at Butcher & Bee allows the freshness of the food to shine through. That is an art, and one Tracy proudly and passionately brings to the table here.

Sandwiches and vegetarian dishes are staples, but weekends afford a beefy burger (more on that later) and fresh interpretations on egg-centric brunch favorites like “Toad in a Hole” and French toast. Considering that bread makes up about 50% of the essence of a sandwich, Tracy considers it a priority. “You can’t be a sandwich shop and not make the bread,” he says. Indeed, brioche, pita, and assorted breads are made here daily and are sometimes served still warm from the oven – just like Mom (or well, maybe Grandmother) used to make.

Garden fresh Brussel sprouts, bacon, Granny Smith apples and peanut side.

 

This gorgeous, warm side salad (pictured above) was offered on a recent Sunday brunch menu, and is an idyllic edible testimony not just to Tracy’s talent, but his restrained, controlled balance. Roasted, nutty and lightly caramelized Brussel sprouts (likely picked from one of the elevated, organic garden beds out back) are tossed with salty, smoky bacon, layered with crisp, tart/sweet slivers of apple, and anointed with the salty crunch of peanuts. Swirling flavors of vinegary onion confit and a swatch of nutty, browned butter seal the deal ever so sweetly.

Pimento Cheeseburger the B & B way!

 

But, if the Brussel sprouts spelled “like”, the burger spelled “love”, as in “I wanna’ be Wimpy, now!” kind of love. Perfection, it literally was impossible to resist. The golden hue of the brioche,  and the density of the bread, possessed just the right amount of airy girth to support the hefty, but not overwhelming burger.  Fresh, peppery/smooth pimento cheese oozed temptingly over the moist, savory, locally sourced beef. A flutter of fresh onion crunch and a thick layer, about one inch high, of the ultra crunchy, cool house made cucumbers were heady, indeed. The toasted, buttered bun, got a flavor kiss from the aromatic house made ketchup and mayonnaise, to boot.

What is not to love? Despite increased competition from some truly worthy burger havens (HOM, Husk, and other stalwarts included), this is a dream maker.  It’s just the kind of burger stuff that keeps you up at night, especially when you realize you have to wait for the weekend to experience it again!

With all of the personalized attention in the kitchen and the pristine (and, thus more pricey) sourcing of the food, the Butcher & Bee team manages to keep the price points extremely gentle, with entrees ranging from $8 – $11 and sides somewhere from $2 – $6. Considering that a “meal” at McDonald’s will cost you about $6 – and that’s just the beginning. That’s a huge deal, especially since the Butcher & Bee experience is profoundly nurturing at every level – spiritually, sensually, and sating our growing hunger for purity and deliciousness.

Seating is limited to about 20 now at the community table and some limited outside seating in the sunny parking lot, but plans are in place for a second table, and the late night crowd takes to standing and eating at the long, comfortable bar. Heck, I’d stand on my head if I had to  for another bite of that burger and just about everything that comes out of Butcher & Bee’s amazing kitchen. Bravo!

Butcher & Bee

654 King Street

www.butcherandbee.com

 

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