Shit I nearly missed national Sandwich week!

So I love a sandwich, probably even more than the next guy loves sandwiches. Despite my love of scrummy sarnies I still had never heard of the BSA. Oh I’m sorry  you haven’t heard of them either? Well would you believe it they’re the British Sandwich Association!! But wait it gets better Last week was the official National Sandwich week for the UK.

God knows who is funding all of this or paying to run their website, but not only have they declared this week as national sandwich week but they’ve actually got an active group of members who get together and talk about sandwiches HA!

Here’s a few of their upcoming events in June.

JUNE 

• 12^th – BSA Annual General Meeting and Member Luncheon (London)
• Technical Group Meeting at Bel UK, Sevenoaks

The best one has to be the Technical Group Meeting. God knows what they talk about there. Anyway I fully intend to join and hopefully this time next year I’ll make it to the Member Luncheon woooop.

So to celebrate National Sandwich week I decided to make a sandwich. Over the years my sandwich taste has evolved and a lot of it depends on how I’m feeling on the day or more importantly what’s in the fridge. I used to like them packed with 10+ ingredients now I appreciate a more simple considered approach.

With this new approach in mind I have chosen 4 Ingredients to go in my Celebration sandwich, chorizo, mozzarella, rocket and piquillo dip. I’m gonna talk you through in a bit more detail about each element, seeing as it is sandwich week.

Chorizo – I only have the naff plasticky kind of chorizo because it what my mum gave me for free last time I was home, ideally I would go for the softer fresh version which needs cooking before eating in this sandwich.

Mozzarella – you don’t have to go for buffalo mozzarella in this sandwich I would hedge a bits to mild to tackle chorizo anyway, just make sure you buy the fresh balls of mozzarella not the crappy grated stuff.

Rocket - I like rocket, but any salad leaf will do preferably something which can stand up to cheese. Just not lettuce.  (I couldn’t get hold of rocket so used some watercress)

Bread – were talking crusty roll here e.g French baguette or ciabatta that kind of thing, just make sure its not to thin so you can pack loads of filling in without it all spilling out. The bread I used was shit because I couldn’t get hold of anything any better on a Sunday.  It was a loaf cut into giant chunks, to much bread to filling ratio.

Piquillo dip - I had this for the first time last weekend at my mums, it a dip made form blended piquillo peppers with garlic, lemon and herbs. There is loads of variations for this dip and if you can’t find jarred or tinned piquillo peppers just use some other pre roasted tinned red peppers and if you can’t get them roast your own J.

Piquillo Dip recipe:

Fresh Parsley – 1 large bunch

Fresh Coriander – 1 mall bunch

Fresh oregano – 2 large chopped pinches (if you can’t find any just use half the amount of thyme)

Garlic – 3 Cloves

Piquillo peppers – 3 Jarred

Extra-virgin olive oil – a good glug

Sherry vinegar – 2 tablespoons. (any vinegar will do except malt)

Lemon Juice – ½ a lemon (you may want to use less but I wanted to cut the grease of the sandwich)

Instructions to make the dip are as follows – Shove it all in a blender and season to taste.

 

Sandwich Recipe: makes 2 large ones

Chorizo – 400g

Mozzarella – 500g

Rocket- 2 handfuls

Piquillo dip – 4 big tablespoons

Baguette – sliced and cut into 2 halves.

To make the sandwich fry off the chopped chorizo in a frying pan, once cooked tear up the mozzarella and lay on top of the chorizo. Turn of the heat and leave the mozzarella to melt. Spoon some of the oil from the pan onto the bread then slather in piquillo dip. Spoon In the cheese and sausage mixture and shove a handful of rocket leaves in and season with salt and lots of black pepper.

ENJOY your belated celebration of sandwich week. See you at next year’s technical group meeting, hahaha

http://www.sandwich.org.uk/