I used to love the little chicken sandwiches we used to get for tea at the old colonial hotels, and at home while grandmothers were still around. I never got around to getting the recipe from mine, so I sent out a Facebook SOS for it a few weeks back.
Because food is soul, especially soul-food like the delights of granny's table.
Anyway, plenty of people responded with their versions of the simple chicken sandwich, but nothing was quite what I was so keenly missing... till Sue turned up with her's. I tinkered with it a little, true, but it's a brilliant recipe, perfect in its simplicity, and absolutely delicious. Here's the picture-book.
Because food is soul, especially soul-food like the delights of granny's table.
Sweet mustard, mayonnaise and chicken pâté, between hot buttered toast :-)
Chicken, marinated for half an hour in lemon juice and minced half a small onion and garlic.
Heat two teaspoons of mildly-flavoured oil (sunflower, canola) over a medium flame, and toss the chicken and the marinade in. The lemon juice might sizzle a bit, so be careful.
When the chicken turns golden, pour two cups of water, and simmer covered. Cook till the chicken comes apart easily when prodded with a fork.
Then, take it off the flames and let cool in a plate.
While it's still warm, take it apart with a fork, and mash it with salt, pepper, and a little butter.
And now, for the mayonnaise. Take a couple of eggs. Actually, if you worried what you eat, just take one. Then, use a spoon (I'm using a daal-er haata) to scoop out the yolk.
Pour it into a separate bowl.
Now, take half a teaspoon of red and black mustard seeds, a large pinch of salt, and a quarter teaspoon of sugar. Grind into a paste with a little water. Of course, one could use prepared mustard, but I prefer the seeds.
That's the mortar-and-pestle at work.
Add the mustard to the yolk(s). Whisk together very, very well, preferably with an electronic whisk (since I haven't enough muscle-power to make a proper whisked mix).
Now, alternate adding oil and water+vinegar (or lime juice) to the eggs, and blending it into the mixture. Do this till half a cup of oil and half a cup of water is all whisked in.
Cut the crusts off sliced bread. Because I'm delicate and they hurt the insides of my mouth. If you like, you can toast and butter them lightly before layering on a little of the chicken pâté.
Lightly coat the other piece with the mayonnaise. Or slather it on. Personally, I'm fond of the slather :-)
Club them together, and cut diagonally across. Make a whole plate of them. Incidentally, if you don't toast them before, I strongly recommend toasting them after.
With the leftover egg white, make a white-only omelette. Put it on a sandwich.
Put another sandwich on top of it. And you have a chicken-omelette-mayonnaise club :-)
Trust me, it's delicious. Deeeelicious. Try it with a pot of tea, and soon!
