It has been a long held tradition in my household to enjoy the obligatory Boxing Day sandwich. Made up of leftovers from dinner the previous day, over the years I have enhanced it so that it has progressed from the basic, child friendly turkey and stuffing sandwich my Dad used to serve up to us while we languished on the sofa into something a fully fledged foodie would be proud of.
This year Christmas Day was spent at my mum's house. I hail from a large, direct family (four sisters, two brothers) and once husbands, wives, long term partners and respective children are added into the equation gatherings can be rather raucous. Yesterday, however, we were a much more modest nine for lunch. My younger sister (bless her) had volunteered to cook us all a three course meal. Apparently she arrived at my mum's for 7.30am in the morning. I was still in bed at that point smugly snuggled up under my duvet thanking my good judgement for giving the honours to cook Christmas dinner to someone else.
So fast forward to lunch time itself. There's something wonderfully different about Christmas dinner cooking over any other roast dinner of the year. Maybe it's the anticipation, maybe it's the decorations, maybe it's the fact you get a cracker at your place setting or just maybe it's because I am always blimming starving that by the time it's served up I act like an unleashed animal who hasn't eaten in days.
My sister's spread was honestly one of my favourite Christmas dinners ever. Free range turkey, all organic vegetables: brussel sprouts, carrots, parsnips, roast potatoes, stuffing, pigs in blankets, cranberry sauce, bread sauce (made from homemade bread no less!) and gravy. The taste was tremendous and I ate every single delicious mouthful with relish. By the evening, craving more, I treated myself to a "mini Christmas dinner" (a small plate made up of one of each item from lunch).
Something magical happens to leftovers from Christmas dinner overnight while they rest in the fridge. I'm not sure how and I'm not sure why but the flavours enhance and, just like a cold curry breakfast, they're almost better the next morning. A Christmas miracle!
So Boxing Day arrives and inevitably I'm either completely knackered (too much TV and Christmas cake the night before) or hungover (too much sparkling wine and port) or both. It then becomes absolutely essential for me to go on a carb overload. What better way to satisfy my lust by making up the best sandwich of the whole entire year but with The Boxing Day Leftovers sandwich? No dodgy cardboard boxes, no plastic cellophane. Just good old fashioned side plates with foil coverings. What's more I didn't even have to cook any of this stuff myself. Priceless!
Now, making up a Boxing Day leftovers sandwich is entirely personal preference but this is how I like to do it:
I take two slices of white bread. It has to be white. Don't ask me why but I prefer the flavour on a day like today and this is no time to start eating sensibly. I prefer thin slices as it's the filling which is the star of my show. On to both slices I spread butter. Real butter. None of this margarine/olive oil spread crap. See aforementioned point about eating sensibly. Then onto one slice I liberally slather bread sauce. This is my replacement for mayonnaise. The stuff that should never see the inside of a festive sandwich as far as I am concerned! On the other slice a good layer of cranberry sauce. Not too much but enough so I can taste it. On top of the cranberry slice I place turkey meat (both white and brown). The rest of the filling then goes onto the bread sauce slice. This year I have pigs in blankets (chopped), stuffing, roast potatoes (sliced) and carrots. Close the sandwich, cut in half and enjoy with a large glass of whatever you fancy! On this occasion it was cold milk.
My sandwich is so good I can taste it before I have even made it. This year's does not disappoint. The quality of the ingredients make it all the better and it is one of the best yet. A god of all Christmas dinner sandwiches and a little piece of heaven.
Verdict: The best sandwich ever, ever, ever! Amazeballs!
Rating: It would hardly be fair to rate this against the pre-packed contestants. Suffice to say that, just like a book is generally better than the film with the same name, homemade can always be guaranteed to beat the processed, mass produced item hands down!
Final note: I hope you have enjoyed reading my Festive Sandwich Fiesta blog this year. Thank you to everyone for your support and kind words of appreciation. If you're hungry for more then look out for my new blog in 2012 "52 weeks of recipes" where I will be trialling and reporting back on a new recipe each week throughout the year.
Monday 26 December 2011
Thursday 15 December 2011
The Co-operative Turkey, Stuffing & Cranberry £2.50 (10 pence donated to Mencap for every sandwich sold)
The Co-op retains a wealth of childhood memories for me. Most of them involve either sitting in their car park waiting for my mother while she picked up a "couple of bits" (usually equating to two trolley's worth by the time she returned) or dragging my heals round lethargically behind her as she surveyed and inspected everything with religious zeal.
They've come a long way since my childhood and although it's not the first brand which springs to my mind when I consider food shopping, their friendly, convenient, well stocked stores no longer feel depressing to me (perhaps I just grew up!)
Today I am testing out their Turkey, Stuffing and Cranberry sandwich. Priced at just £2.50 they're even giving me 50% free as well as 10 pence to Mencap. How lovely. A brand with a conscience. Top marks for seasonal spirit.
The sandwich itself however looks like the most boring, uninspiring food offering currently on earth. Packaged in a high gloss, flimsy plastic carton it looks positively grey. I'm not sure if I even want to eat it having now seen it. I feel a bit sad about this. Surely a sandwich of such charitable generousity should also deliver in the foodie stakes?
After avoiding the sandwich for half a day I venture to eat it. Now to be fair, I'm beginning to run out of steam for festive sandwiches so this isn't entirely relevant to this particular sandwich, just the way I am starting to feel after weeks of pre-packed turkeyness.
Upon opening there is a good tang of stuffing drifting out. The sandwich itself however is a mish mash of shredded up bits of turkey and stuffing with a few dots of cranberry here and there for good measure. I can tell straight away that the likelihood of tasting any cranberry in this sandwich is slim to none. I try to shoe horn one half of the sandwich from its container. It's locked in good and proper and as I wrestle with it, parts of it come away in my hand as the rest remains stubbornly clutching to its other half. The bread is flimsy and weak. The type of stuff that if butter even glances at it it will disintegrate. Maybe they over did it with the 50% free? Sandwiches need to breath a bit and I need to keep my sanity when trying to eat them!
Eventually I liberate enough of the sandwich to try a mouthful. The flavouring is ok. It's not setting my taste buds on fire but it's edible. The distinct lack of cranberry ruins it for me and the turkey is a bit stringey. Any hint of cranberry I do pick up is sour. This sandwich needs something else but I'm not quite sure what. A new personality? Time with a life coach? A trip to a day spa to revive its baked goodness? Something, anything which can encourage it to be more than just a bit of turkey and stuffing whacked between two slices of bread.
Verdict: The charitable sandwich of choice.
Rating: Five out of ten
They've come a long way since my childhood and although it's not the first brand which springs to my mind when I consider food shopping, their friendly, convenient, well stocked stores no longer feel depressing to me (perhaps I just grew up!)
Today I am testing out their Turkey, Stuffing and Cranberry sandwich. Priced at just £2.50 they're even giving me 50% free as well as 10 pence to Mencap. How lovely. A brand with a conscience. Top marks for seasonal spirit.
The sandwich itself however looks like the most boring, uninspiring food offering currently on earth. Packaged in a high gloss, flimsy plastic carton it looks positively grey. I'm not sure if I even want to eat it having now seen it. I feel a bit sad about this. Surely a sandwich of such charitable generousity should also deliver in the foodie stakes?
After avoiding the sandwich for half a day I venture to eat it. Now to be fair, I'm beginning to run out of steam for festive sandwiches so this isn't entirely relevant to this particular sandwich, just the way I am starting to feel after weeks of pre-packed turkeyness.
Upon opening there is a good tang of stuffing drifting out. The sandwich itself however is a mish mash of shredded up bits of turkey and stuffing with a few dots of cranberry here and there for good measure. I can tell straight away that the likelihood of tasting any cranberry in this sandwich is slim to none. I try to shoe horn one half of the sandwich from its container. It's locked in good and proper and as I wrestle with it, parts of it come away in my hand as the rest remains stubbornly clutching to its other half. The bread is flimsy and weak. The type of stuff that if butter even glances at it it will disintegrate. Maybe they over did it with the 50% free? Sandwiches need to breath a bit and I need to keep my sanity when trying to eat them!
Eventually I liberate enough of the sandwich to try a mouthful. The flavouring is ok. It's not setting my taste buds on fire but it's edible. The distinct lack of cranberry ruins it for me and the turkey is a bit stringey. Any hint of cranberry I do pick up is sour. This sandwich needs something else but I'm not quite sure what. A new personality? Time with a life coach? A trip to a day spa to revive its baked goodness? Something, anything which can encourage it to be more than just a bit of turkey and stuffing whacked between two slices of bread.
Verdict: The charitable sandwich of choice.
Rating: Five out of ten
Friday 2 December 2011
Tesco Turkey with all the trimmings £2.00
To me, Tesco has always been the absolute epitome of a weapon of mass consumption. One of the biggest hitting supermarkets in the country they sell everything from lettuce to life insurance. Even big brands Costa Coffee and Virgin have jumped on their instant gravy train to create a potential one stop shop for all your daily needs. I imagine if products could talk here they would mostly speak Mandarin. Don't be fooled by Tesco's image though. They have spent years carefully and painstakingly crafting themselves into an icon of huge savings yet subtly encourage you to spend more than you originally went in for. Before you know it you've bought a pair of new shoes, a mobile phone SIM and a library of books when all you wanted was a loaf of bread and a pint of milk.
Having spent most of my working life in marketing, I know to approach Tesco with some level of caution as well as preparation. Forget multi buys. I'm of the "Martin Lewis" school of economics. I know that "if I don't need it, I don't buy it". I also know that cheap products generally dwell on the bottom shelves so you'll usually see me food shopping there in a mostly horizontal stance wearing glasses, as I scrutinise all the labels to ensure I am getting the best value for money. It's strange how the cheaper the items the more of a skinflint you become!
Having said all of this I don't have anything against Tesco. I shop there regularly. They know their target market and they do an extremely good job of catering for it. They have the most delicious pork and pickle pies (seriously, try them one day!) and I think that their voucher scheme is one of the things which keeps me going back for more.
So onto today's sandwich. This one is called "Turkey with all the trimmings". Sounds delightful. Another red box with a rosy cheeked cartoon Father Christmas and a rather naff looking green garland. Through the polythene window I can see a mass of sausage that a German would be proud of.
Opening the sandwich I give it a good sniff. It has the bouquet of pre-packed processed turkey. Not that surprising really as the turkey looks of the pre-packed processed variety. There is a huge quantity of sausage wrestling to burst free from the bread. If I hadn't have had a box telling me otherwise I would have assumed this sandwich was "Sausage and all the trimmings". The sausage is chopped and looks like it has escaped from the cocktail sticks at a children's birthday party. The stuffing, if you can call it that, is barely visible and wet looking. The cranberry looks ok but disappointingly there is no bacon of any kind. I thought this was "all the trimmings"? On the bright side, there's not a lettuce or spinach leaf in sight. Hurrah!
I take a bite out of the sandwich and to my huge surprise it doesn't taste bad at all. It actually has really good flavour. The cranberry is sweet and the stuffing savoury. The seasoning is well balanced; no peppery punches here, and I can just about get a hint of turkey in between the mouthfuls of sausage. I'm not a huge fan of the sausage though. It's a bit tough and they could do with toning it down. Or swap it for some crispy bacon perhaps?
I continue to take bite after bite of this sandwich. Mostly to convince myself that I do like it and I'm not dreaming. The image of it and the taste of it are on different sides of the planet. What you see isn't always what you get...
Verdict: A tasty, flavoursome, competitively priced budget sandwich ideal for sausage lovers. Worth a try.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Having spent most of my working life in marketing, I know to approach Tesco with some level of caution as well as preparation. Forget multi buys. I'm of the "Martin Lewis" school of economics. I know that "if I don't need it, I don't buy it". I also know that cheap products generally dwell on the bottom shelves so you'll usually see me food shopping there in a mostly horizontal stance wearing glasses, as I scrutinise all the labels to ensure I am getting the best value for money. It's strange how the cheaper the items the more of a skinflint you become!
Having said all of this I don't have anything against Tesco. I shop there regularly. They know their target market and they do an extremely good job of catering for it. They have the most delicious pork and pickle pies (seriously, try them one day!) and I think that their voucher scheme is one of the things which keeps me going back for more.
So onto today's sandwich. This one is called "Turkey with all the trimmings". Sounds delightful. Another red box with a rosy cheeked cartoon Father Christmas and a rather naff looking green garland. Through the polythene window I can see a mass of sausage that a German would be proud of.
Opening the sandwich I give it a good sniff. It has the bouquet of pre-packed processed turkey. Not that surprising really as the turkey looks of the pre-packed processed variety. There is a huge quantity of sausage wrestling to burst free from the bread. If I hadn't have had a box telling me otherwise I would have assumed this sandwich was "Sausage and all the trimmings". The sausage is chopped and looks like it has escaped from the cocktail sticks at a children's birthday party. The stuffing, if you can call it that, is barely visible and wet looking. The cranberry looks ok but disappointingly there is no bacon of any kind. I thought this was "all the trimmings"? On the bright side, there's not a lettuce or spinach leaf in sight. Hurrah!
I take a bite out of the sandwich and to my huge surprise it doesn't taste bad at all. It actually has really good flavour. The cranberry is sweet and the stuffing savoury. The seasoning is well balanced; no peppery punches here, and I can just about get a hint of turkey in between the mouthfuls of sausage. I'm not a huge fan of the sausage though. It's a bit tough and they could do with toning it down. Or swap it for some crispy bacon perhaps?
I continue to take bite after bite of this sandwich. Mostly to convince myself that I do like it and I'm not dreaming. The image of it and the taste of it are on different sides of the planet. What you see isn't always what you get...
Verdict: A tasty, flavoursome, competitively priced budget sandwich ideal for sausage lovers. Worth a try.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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