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.
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