Monday, September 1, 2008

Anchovy and Tomato Sandwich with Home-Made Garlic Mayo

This simple recipe is great for a snack or a light lunch on a hot summer day. I first had this sandwich while at the beach on the Costa Brava in Spain. Until then anchovies didn't have much appeal to me, but I saw all of the locals eating it, which is always a good sign, and decided to give it a try. This sandwich goes great with a cold glass of Spanish white wine.

Every time I make this sandwich I try to make fresh garlic mayo, but it has never worked out for me before. This time I used the Julia Child recipe for mayonnaise and of course it worked out great. I added some raw garlic to Julia's recipe to give an added kick to the sandwich.

Home-Made Garlic Mayonnaise

1 Egg
1/4 Teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 Cup olive oil
2 Cloves of garlic

Mix the egg (both the yolk and the egg white), mustard, and salt in a blender at a high speed for 30 seconds or until the mixture is thick and foamy. Add the lemon juice to the blender and blend for another 10 seconds. While blending at high speed, slowly pour the oil into the top the blender. It is important that you add the oil slowly so that the mayo doesn't separate. The mayo will begin to thicken after adding about 1/2 cup of oil. If the mayo becomes too thick, you can thin it out by adding some additional lemon juice.

At this point you have a basic plain mayo. This is a good time to add additional seasoning or flavor to while it is still in the blender. For this recipe I added 2 cloves of raw grated garlic and continued to blend it for a few seconds to ensure that it was mixed evenly. You could also add fresh or dried herbs or any other seasoning that you want.

I found that when I took the cap off of the blender to add the oil the mixture began to splatter out and made a mess. I saved myself a lot of unnecessary cleaning by inserting a funnel into the hole on the top of the blender and pouring the oil through that.

This recipe will yield about 1 1/2 cups of mayo. This mayo will last in your refrigerator for at least a week if you keep in sealed in in an airtight jar.

If you don't want to make fresh mayo, you can do what I ended up doing every other time I tried to make this sandwich. In a small bowl, thoroughly mix 1 cup of store bought mayo with 1/4 cup of olive oil and 2 cloves of grated garlic.

Whichever recipe you use for the mayo, you should let it sit in the refrigerator for at least and hour before using it. This will not only make it nice and cold for the sandwich, but will allow the garlic flavor to fully penetrate the mayo.

Anchovy and Tomato Sandwich

1 Baguette
1 Plum tomato (thinly sliced)
2 Tablespoons garlic mayonnaise
2 Ounces anchovy fillets
Green leaf lettuce

Cut the baguette into 2 equal lengths, about 10 inches per sandwich. Cut each length in half horizontally. Spread the mayo on both the top and bottom of the sandwich. Layer half of the anchovy on the bottom of each sandwich. Top the anchovy with the tomato slices and lettuce. Enjoy.

The best type of baguette for this sandwich is a thin one with a hard crust that is soft on the inside. The texture of the bread balances the softness of the tomato and anchovy.

While this really is about as simple as a recipe gets, it is just too good not to share. You can use any kind of anchovies that you have on hand, but I find that the ones in jars are usually a better bargain and the jars are resealable. Even though some packages of anchovies say that they have salt, they are all pretty salty. So, unless you like things really salty you should avoid those.