The Alegria Pop-up Teahouse...

March 15, 2013

The Alegria Pop-up Teahouse...

...and how to make the best club sammies! In my humble opinion anyway.

*I have to warn you in advance, the upcoming photos do in no way manage to visually represent the tastiness of these clubs. Unfortunately canned tuna is not one of the most photogenic foods...so don't judge them on their photographs please! If you just want to see "pretty" pictures, keep scrollin'!

It was Mama SoulFood's friend's birthday this week, and the original plan was for the ladies to all go out for High Tea. One of the greatest British traditions in my opinion. I could have High Tea for breakfast, elevensies, lunch, for afternoon tea (at its appropriate time) and dinner. I just imagine myself perched in the garden, grazing my way through it all day. Accompanied by champagne as well as tea of course!

In any case, the plans to go out for High Tea fell through, Mama had to improvise, and so the Alegria Pop-up Teahouse was born! Alegria is Mama SoulFood's business name, and means "zest for life" in Spanish, rather appropriate we thought.

Having worked at The Brookview Teahouse through most of my teenage years, I got roped in of course. My task? To make the club sandwiches. Just as I always had at 'Brookie'. There, we used to make the classic cucumber, ham & egg, and either salmon & rocket or tuna, cheese and gherkin.

The latter has always been my favourite so this is what I made:

Your basic ingredients, although I forgot a block of tasty cheese, lemons and their juice, wholegrain mustard and pepper...oops.

It should be noted, that the crusts of a club sandwich will be trimmed off just prior to being served. So in order for your sammies to be the best, you will want to ensure that the loaf of bread that you use is nice and square, i.e. no annoying dip that runs along the top of the loaf, as this will mean your slices will also have a dip and you will end up having to cut off far too much of your precious work. You may spend a while at the supermarket, feeling the loaves...naturally you will get strange looks from people, but it's worth it.

Chuck in a dollop of mayo and squeeze in the juice of a small lemon.

To make the "tuna mix", the key component of your sandwich, you need to drain the can of tuna (I use tuna canned in spring water), pop it into a bowl, add a dollop of mayo, a squeeze of lemon and mix. At Brookview we used to mix the tuna with our "mayo mix", which was essentially a mix of mayo, yoghurt, lemon juice and cracked black pepper, and the yoghurt does give it a certain acidity/freshness, so I did add a splash of it to this also.

I warned you! It ain't the prettiest...

It will not look the most appetising, but it should taste good (if you like tuna of course!). Make sure you add a heap of cracked pepper to give it some pizzazz! You want it to be quite mushed up and wet as you will have to spread this onto sandwich bread, which has a tendency to tear at the best of times.

Next step of your mise en place, slice some gherkins, not too thin as you still want some bite (around 3mm), pat them dry with some paper towels. This is important, nothing worse than a soggy sandwich.

First layer of the club: tuna mix on brown bread.

I find it is most efficient to make several sandwiches at a time, layer by layer.

Be quite generous with the tuna mix, and make sure to spread it right to the edge. Even though the crusts will be cut off it will make your sandwich look much fuller. When spreading the tuna mix, don't push down too hard, rather "pat" it in, otherwise there will be tearage!

Next (second) layer: white bread with smear of mayo and wholegrain mustard.

Congratulations, you have made it to the next layer. Be wary with the smear of mustard, you just want a little "pop" of it, not for the entire sandwich to taste like it.

Top with your pre-prepared gherkins.

Some slices of the tasty cheese (gruyere also works nicely).

Pop on another slice of brown bread with another light smear of mayo (this is your glue!), et voila! You're done! Almost. If like me you needed to prepare these clubs ahead of time, no problemo! Tuck them (gently!) into an airtight container with a couple of layers of paper towels between them and they will keep beautifully, in fact, I almost recommend this as it allows the flavors to really develop. You can leave them out of the fridge for a couple of hours but obviously in the fridge thereafter.

Cross-section of your sammie!

Finally, you will need to cut off the crusts. This may seem like a waste, and I will often stuff myself with the crusts because I feel bad throwing them out...Not a good idea. You will be too full to actually enjoy the fruits of you labour. Just remind yourself that this crust wastage is a necessity for the sandwich to be the best it can be!