Skills you will learn in this recipe
Boiling eggs; making sandwich fillings; filling & cutting sandwiches
Links to the last recipe
Cooking with eggs
Sometimes there’s just nothing we fancy more than a really nice homemade sandwich, and we don’t get enough opportunities to have them for lunch. Bibi would often do a selection of sandwiches for supper, especially on a Sunday, or for lunch on a Saturday, and we’d ‘fight’ over which selection of fillings to do. So now Emily & Estella do the occasional ‘sandwich dinner’, often with this trio of fillings as they are all favourites and provide a nice variety. And sandwich dinner always comes with crisps!
Our three chosen fillings today are Emily’s Special Tuna, Cheddar & Pickled Onion and Warm Egg. But you can do any combination you like – we give a few more favourite fillings at the end of this post. Each sandwich is great in its own right too.
We’ll prep them in the order you should too, starting with the tuna.
Emily’s Special Tuna
This tuna mayo variant was born from Emily’s attempt to recreate a particularly delicious tuna sandwich she had in a California roadside diner. It gets pretty close, and is probably our go-to sandwich.
Use the best quality tuna you can afford for the best results. The good news is you won’t need much as there are other ingredients to bulk the filling out. The small tin of Albacore above could make two rounds of sandwiches if we needed it to (today we just kept some as we only wanted one round). We also used a light mayonnaise as we prefer it, but any mayo is fine. We also knew, given our tuna today was in spring water not oil, that we’d need to use more mayo than usual, so light is a healthier option too.
The very best tuna tends to be in jars in olive oil, or you can get very expensive tinned ones, usually Spanish. You don’t need to go that high-end here as the filling mix has a lot of strong flavours, meaning a very expensive tuna variety is a waste. But a decent quality tuna will pay off in terms of texture and delicacy of flavour (and smell nicer!).
Drain the tuna in a small colander or sieve, and then mash it very thoroughly with a fork. You want a very fine, broken up texture here as this is a filling so you don’t want any lumps.
Now prepare the other key filling ingredients. We like to use celery for crunch, red onion for sharpness, and cornichons or other dill pickles as they go so well with tuna. We also add lemon and a little hot sauce. It’s a great combination, but the tuna mayo is also a good base for other classic combinations – sweetcorn, cucumber, spring onion, peppers etc. Play around with what you like, but this particular mix truly is a classic.
All your key components need to be cut fine or your sandwich will be lumpy. The onion in particular needs to be really fine, and used in moderation, or the flavour will be too harsh.
Jake sticks his nose in
Red onion is great in this dish, and also brings colour, but if you find it too harsh raw, spring onions are a great alternative option with a similar but softer flavour profile.
Top and tail the celery and split it lengthwise into batons which are thin enough to give you small dice when chopped. Today one stick was fatter than the other, so one went into two batons and the other into four.
Now cut the celery batons into small dice down their length as below. A good tip is to hold two or three batons together when doing this – it speeds things up and helps make the dice more uniform. But if you’re not that confident a chopper yet, do each baton separately.
Chop the red onion really finely – as fine as you can manage. You can learn how to chop in our onion Tip. A little raw red onion goes a long way – today we used just half a very small red onion. You can see how fine you need to get it below.
Chop the gherkins to a similar size as the celery. Today we had little cornichons so it was easy to get them quite fine. Larger gherkins are great too – you’ll need only a few though, and to cut them into batons first. We like quite a lot of gherkin in our mix!
Zest and juice a lemon. You can find out how in our Tip. You’ll need the zest of one whole unwaxed lemon, cut finer, and the juice of about half to one lemon, depending on how big it is. You now have everything ready to assemble your filling!
Jake sticks his nose in
When you have prepped everything and got your key ingredients in place it is known as a ‘mise en place’. It saves time and prevents errors to do this upfront – unless you have a long resting, cooling or cooking time within a recipe, which you can then use for later prep.
Add the mayonnaise to the tuna. How much depends on personal taste and also what type of tuna you have – if it’s in oil you’ll need less, but if in water, like ours was today, you’ll need a bit more. You want it moist but not wet, probably 3 to 4 tablespoons. Mix it in well.
Jake sticks his nose in
We mentioned tuna quality at the start, but tuna also takes various forms and comes in various liquids. We tend to avoid tuna in brine as it is too salty. Also steaks are nicer generally than chunks.
Season with black pepper and salt to taste. Then add your other seasonings. Lemon zest and juice; a good glug of your favourite hot sauce, to taste. We like green Tabasco as it goes well with tuna, and used a large shake, but we also add a little red Tabasco too for heat, as we do like it spicy. Mix well, taste and adjust as needed. Don’t add too much lemon juice or the mix will become too wet. Today we used about half a lemon’s worth.
Finally add the chopped celery, onion and gherkin, and fold in.
Chill in the fridge before serving. If you let the mix stand for at least an hour it will develop the flavour, and chilling will help firm it up, making it easier to fill your sandwich. Remove from the fridge about half an hour before serving so it’s not fridge cold, otherwise the flavours won’t be as pronounced.
Your first filling is ready!
Warm Egg
This is the next filling you’ll need to start to prep as the egg takes a while to cook, but it will be the last sandwich you fill as this sandwich is much nicer when the egg is warm. You can use the egg cooking time to prep your final filling.
First boil the eggs to your desired doneness. Find out how in our Tip. We like to use an egg that has a solid white but a slightly jammy or fudgy yolk. Today we boiled them for about 4 ½ minutes. Remember to also allow time for your eggs to come to the boil from cold – this can take another 5 mins or more before the timed boil. Two eggs will generously fill one round of sandwiches, but you can stretch it to two rounds.
While the eggs are cooking, place a generous few knobs of butter in a small bowl, and season well with salt and pepper. Once cooked, drain the eggs and drench briefly with cold water to stop the cooking and make them cool enough to handle, then peel. You can find out how in our Tip.
Put the peeled eggs in the bowl with the butter, then chop with a knife. You will need to work quickly here, or your eggs will cool before you fill the sandwich. We find a table knife works better for this than a kitchen knife.
Mix to ensure the chopped egg is well covered in the seasoned butter. Your next filling is ready, and you will want to fill your sandwich straight away.
Cheese & Pickled Onion
While the eggs are cooking, prep for your final sandwich. This is not so much a recipe as an assembly job!
We use a good quality mature cheddar and tangy, brown pickled onions, plus a light mayonnaise. But any firm cheese you like is good, and you can replace the mayo with butter as the spread if you prefer.
Jake sticks his nose in
This combination is great, but you can also use any pickles you like, silverskins, gherkins or sandwich pickle etc. We particularly like cheddar and pickled beetroot. If you like beetroot, definitely give it a go!
Slice the cheese and pickles medium thick.
Your final sandwich is ready to fill!
Filling Your Sandwiches
You will need to fill and cut both your cheese and tuna sandwiches before your egg one – the egg is best served warm so needs to be filled and cut last, straight after the egg is cooked.
We like to use a seeded bread for our sandwiches as we think it fits all three fillings. For the egg and cheese sandwiches we use it as is; for the tuna we think it is nicer slightly toasted. We only use a spread on the bread for the cheese sandwich as the other two fillings are already quite moist and already have either mayo or butter in.
For the tuna sandwich, lightly toast the bread. You don’t want full toast here as the sandwich will be too dry – pop the bread out when it is just turning toasty and slightly golden, as below, and still retains some softness.
Fill generously with the tuna mix and cut into two or four triangles. We find this sandwich is nicer and easier to cut if you really press down on it first.
For the cheese sandwich, first spread the bread with a little mayonnaise, then generously layer in the cheese, then the pickled onion slices, then top and cut.
For the egg sandwich, and working quickly once the warm egg is chopped, generously fill the sandwich, cut and serve immediately. We were working so fast we didn’t get pictures of us topping and cutting!
Lift all your sandwiches onto a large plate or platter, and serve with crisps. Today we chose our favourite beef flavour.
Enjoy your sandwich dinner!
Other sandwich fillings we like:
- Cheese & pickled beetroot
- Cheese, lettuce & mayonnaise
- Chicken & stuffing
- Mashed cheese & tomato
- Bacon & brown sauce
- Tinned red salmon & cucumber
- Ham & hot mustard
- Cream cheese & avocado
Sandwich Dinner
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- First prepare the tuna filling. Drain and mash the tuna with a fork. Zest and then juice the lemon. See our lemon Tip. Add the zest, chopped finer, and about half the lemon juice to the tuna and mix well.
- Chop the celery into small dice. Chop the cornichons or gherkins into similar sized dice. Very finely chop about half the red onion. See our onion Tip. Add all three to the tuna mix and stir well.
- Add 3 to 4 tablespoons of mayonnaise to the mix, and stir in. Add a generous shake of green Tabasco, and small shake of red Tabasco or other hot sauce and season with salt & pepper. Taste and adjust seasonings, spiciness and lemon accordingly.
- Chill in the fridge for at least half an hour to develop the flavour – an hour is better and longer is fine. Remove from the fridge about half an hour before serving.
- Add the eggs to a small saucepan, cover with cold water and bring to the boil – allow time for this, at least 5 mins. Boil to the desired doneness. See our egg Tip. We like about a 4 ½ min egg, with firm white and a fudgy yolk.
- While the eggs are cooking, add 2 or 3 large knobs of butter to a small bowl and season generously with salt & black pepper.
- When the eggs are done, drain and drench with or plunge into cold water to stop the cooking and make them cool enough to handle.
- Peel the eggs and add to the bowl with the butter. See our egg Tip.
- Chop the eggs roughly with a knife, mixing with the seasoned butter.
- Fill your sandwich with the egg mix while it is still warm, and serve immediately.
- Slice the cheese medium thick, getting enough to fully cover one slice of bread.
- Slice the pickled onions, again medium and enough to cover one slice.
- Fill the tuna and cheese sandwiches first, leaving the egg until just before serving so it is still warm.
- For the tuna, lightly toast the bread until it is just going golden, but retains some softness. Fill generously with the tuna mix, press the sandwich down and cut.
- For the cheese, spread a small amount of mayonnaise onto each slice of bread. Cover with the cheese slices, then the pickled onion, then top and cut.
- For the egg, working fast after the mix is chopped, fill the sandwich, top and cut.
- Serve the selection, with crips on the side if liked.
- Enjoy!
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