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Curried Beet Tea Sandwiches

Curried Beet Tea Sandwiches

(45 min. — makes 16 tea sandwiches)

1 medium onion, chopped fine
2 T vegetable oil
1/4 t. cumin seeds
1/4 t. mustard seeds
1/2 lb. beets, chopped into matchsticks
2-3 green chilies, seeds removed, chopped fine
1/4 t. salt, or to taste
1 t. lime juice, or to taste
8 slices bread (wheat, white, or multigrain, your choice)

1. Sauté onions with oil, cumin seed, and mustard seed until golden-translucent.

2. Add beets, green chilies, and salt and cook on medium-high, stirring as needed, until beets are cooked through and starting to caramelize, which will bring out the flavor.

3. Stir in lime juice and simmer 5-10 minutes more. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired.

NOTE: If you want the spread to be very fine, let cool, then process in food processor. Sometimes I do this, sometimes I go with a more rustic tea sandwich, usually depending on what kind of bread I’m using.

4. Spread curried beets on four slices of bread; top with other four slices.

5. Trim off edges, and then slice in quarters (use a damp paper towel to clean the knife before and between quartering cuts for a pristine appearance).

NOTE: Curried beets can be made a day in advance; it’s best to assemble sandwiches just before serving.

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Curried Mushroom Tea Sandwiches

Curried Mushroom Tea Sandwiches

(45 min. — makes 16 tea sandwiches

1/2 lb. mushrooms, chopped fine
3 T stick unsalted butter
1/4 t. salt, or to taste
1 t. black pepper
1/4 – 1/2 t. Sri Lankan curry powder
1 t. lime juice, or to taste
1/2 c. heavy cream or coconut milk
8 slices bread (wheat, white, or multigrain, your choice)

1. Sauté mushrooms in butter and salt and cook on high heat until quite reduced, stirring frequently.

2. Add curry powder, pepper, and lime juice and cook until juice is absorbed. Mushrooms should be glistening and slightly fried, not sitting in liquid.

3. Stir in cream or coconut milk and simmer another 10-15 minutes, until liquid has thickened and you have a spreadable paste. Taste and adjust seasonings as desired.

NOTE: If you want the spread to be very fine, let cool, then process in food processor. Sometimes I do this, sometimes I go with a more rustic tea sandwich, usually depending on what kind of bread I’m using.

4. Spread curried mushrooms on four slices of bread; top with other four slices.

5. Trim off edges, and then slice in quarters (use a damp paper towel to clean the knife before and between quartering cuts for a pristine appearance).

NOTE: Curried mushrooms can be made a day in advance; it’s best to assemble sandwiches just before serving.

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Egg Salad Tea Sandwich

I promised a tea party digital cookbook as a stretch goal on Vegan Serendib, and it’s been holding me up on starting a Kickstarter for Gluten-Free Serendib, so I’m trying very hard to finish that little cookbook up.

Which means making lots of tea sandwiches, because I apparently have no good photos of many of them, and some of them, I don’t even have recipes written down for. Pity me — I have to eat lots of delicious little sandwiches in the next few weeks…

The following is a very basic recipe — not particularly Sri Lankan! Though we do eat them — thanks, colonialism!

Egg salad tea sandwiches are much the same the world over, I suspect. I don’t usually use the curry powder for these myself.

*****

Egg Salad Tea Sandwich
(30 minutes, makes 16 tea sandwiches)

4 large eggs, hard-boiled and peeled
1/4 c. mayonnaise
2 T Dijon mustard
1/4 onion, diced
1 t. fresh chives, chopped
1/4 t. curry powder, optional
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
8 slices bread (I like multi-grain with egg salad, but wheat or white is fine)

1. Mash eggs with mayo and Dijon; a potato masher works well, but a fork is just fine.

2. Stir in onions and chives (reserving a small portion of chives for sprinkling at end), curry powder if using, salt, black pepper.

3. Spread egg salad on four slices of bread; top with other four slices.

4. Trim off edges, and then slice in quarters (use a damp paper towel to clean the knife before and between quartering cuts for a pristine appearance).

5. Sprinkle with chives and serve.

NOTE: Egg salad can be made a day in advance; it’s best to assemble sandwiches just before serving.

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Strawberry-soursop marshmallows

Kavi is napping beside me, so y’all may get a photo dump. This came out pretty well — strawberry-soursop marshmallows. I used frozen soursop puree as the base, then added some pureed fresh strawberries. Made that into marshmallows, then swirled a little more strawberry puree into the marshmallows. They’re yummy, but I’m not sure if it’s safe to ship them to my Patreon folks (you have been SO patient with me, I am planning to get the next boxes out this coming week if nothing else goes wrong). I froze them immediately, and I ship them with ice packs, but would the strawberry puree be unsafe after, say, two days in transit? (I don’t ship outside the U.S.). This was not covered in my food safety certification class. I might just save these to serve at a local event instead, just to be safe.
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Little tea party for Roshani’s birthday

Little tea party for Roshani’s birthday. I made tea sandwiches: egg salad, curried mushroom, curried beet, chili leeks, pork and potato. Others brought Sri Lankan fish rolls. Mini apple pies and carrot cake and a ghosty cake (from local baker Sugar Fixé). Tea. Pimm’s cocktails, tawny port, mango soda, wine and prosecco.

We managed to not think about the state of the world for several hours, although we did get into a rousing debate about a West Wing issue towards the end of the night. 🙂