I love a good crab cake, so naturally ever since we started this blog I’ve been dying to make a crab cake sandwich. Last week-end we had out-of-town visitors begging us to make some amazing sandwiches, so I thought that would be a good time to try it. One of our friends is Indian and an ex-vegetarian so naturally this had better be good or else he might snap back (he didn’t 🙂 ). When you make anything fishy, it’s almost impossible to add too much lemon, so we made sure to soak these sandwiches good in lots of lemon juice. The slice on top is just for show and is a classical Danish garnish back home.
The focaccia was baked by Wendie, and we highly recommend making more bread at home. It’s a lost art these days, but the smell of fresh bread in the house is priceless.
When you make chicken, a great idea for all the little leftovers that can be picked from the bones is to make a chicken salad. Unlike what you find in a grocery store, chicken salad should not be a vast ocean of mayonnaise with small islands of chicken. The mayonnaise and mustard is there to add taste, but mostly to hold it all together.
Chicken Salad Recipe #2
5 oz chicken meat in small pieces
2 tbs mayonnaise
1 tsp mustard
2 tbs peperiono seeds
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp curry
1 tbs + 1 tsp shredded Parmesan
1 tsp capers
2 tsp kalonjo seeds (name?)
Make sure the pieces of chicken are fairly small, and then mix all ingredients but the capers together. At the end add the capers and carefully mix a little more.
When I was a kid I hated fish. My mother would cook cod and herring a lot, and I remember they were full of bones. Small tiny bones that just made it very uncomfortable to eat. In desperation, my mother promised to remove the bones, and offered me the equivalent of 10 cent for every bone I could find. She intended of course to make me believe her and eat the fish happily; knowing she would never offer such a prize unless she was absolutely certain there was no bones to be found. Instead, I started eating ever slower, trying to locate any bones I could. As it turns out, herring and cod has a lot of very small bones the likes and sheer numbers my mother would never have imagined. What followed were the inevitable negotiations over what constitutes a bone, what size a bone has, and so on. I believe my mother thought for a few years after that I would turn into a banker or a lawyer, because I ended up with quite a bit of extra pocket money before the rules was abruptly terminated and fish not served on my plate for a long time. I think I was pretty spoiled, but we always did have fun!
I still am not very fond of neither herring nor cod, but salmon and tuna are fantastic fish. In this sandwich creation, the freshness of the grapes brings out a tiny bit of crunch and a delicious moisture that enhance the taste of the smoked salmon. Dill seems to be made for the occasion, and the sauce is a mustard sauce you may be able to get in your local IKEA.