Flower Sandwiches with Cloumage
This week’s market sandwich pops with color. It’s made with nasturtium flowers and leaves which are slightly peppery, and blue chive blossoms, sweet and only mildly oniony. The other main ingredient is Cloumage, a soft fresh cheese, sold at the market from Olio di Melli’s cooler of Massachusetts’ cheeses (and also available at the Windfall.) Flower flavors are often subtle so we tamed Cloumage’s tang by draining and softening it with heavy cream, and added pepper to play up the nasturtiums.
Flower Sandwich with Cloumage
Per Sandwich:
1/3 (one third) cup fresh Cloumage cheese, drained
2 Tbs. or so heavy cream
several grindings of black pepper
3-4 small nasturtiums
3-4 small nasturtium leaves
1-2 blue chive flower pompoms
1-2 chive leaves, snipped
1 slice bread (we used a slice of Pain D’Avignon’s French Pullman loaf)
butter
For the Cloumage cheese: drain Cloumage for 15 minutes or more while you assemble the other sandwich ingredients. Mound cheese on a piece of paper towel, gather up edges and place in a small strainer to drain. Blot gently to dry cheese as much as possible. Meanwhile in a small bowl infuse cream with freshly ground black pepper – make it as peppery as you like. Stir peppery cream into drained Cloumage a bit at a time until it’s smooth and soft, adding a little more fresh cream if needed, so the balance of creaminess and acidity is just right for you. (Can be made ahead and kept in fridge until needed.)
Wash flowers, nasturtium leaves, chives; let dry on a clean towel. Snip chive flower pompom at its base to separate all the little star-shaped purple flowers. (Compost the hard flower stalk.)
Lightly butter bread. Spread peppery cream over bread and cut into four neat squares with a damp sharp knife. Set the four squares on a plate, recreating the slice but with a little space between each piece. Scatter with snipped chive leaves and flowers. Add nasturtiums (halved if large) and their leaves, pressing lightly. You can add a bit of everything to each piece of bread or just go free-form.
