Kitchen Garden Sandwich

 Now that summer is here, it’s time for garden sandwiches. Lots of vegetables from your kitchen garden or market, an egg, and a dressing spiked with mustard powder. Eat these juicy sandwiches as soon as you’ve made them, preferably outdoors, with napkins. Or serve them as an open sandwich, with the top slice of bread on the side (or omitted altogether), and tuck in with a knife and fork.

For 2 sandwiches:

Dressing:

1 tsp dry mustard powder (e.g., Colman’s)

1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp red wine vinegar

3 TBSP Hellmann’s mayonnaise

2-3 tsp heavy cream

Sandwiches:

1 large egg, hard-cooked and sliced

4 pieces of buttered bread, cut from a Pullman loaf

1 small tomato or 1/2 a large one, sliced

salt

1 scallion, slit in half lengthwise and chopped into 1-inch lengths

cucumber slices

2 radishes, shaved into thin slices with a vegetable peeler

washed lettuce leaves or other salad greens, including any young radish tops

These quantities, rough as they may be, are for two sandwiches. If you’re making just one, count on leftovers to add to another sandwich or salad.

Make the dressing while you hard-cook the egg. Mix powdered mustard to a smooth paste with sugar and vinegar in a small container; stir in mayonnaise, then slake with cream. Dressing should fall from the tip of a spoon with a light shake, without being at all runny. Adjust seasoning to taste, bearing in mind that mustard powder packs a wasabi-like punch. If you decide to make the dressing ahead of time, keep it refrigerated. Same goes for the egg.

Butter four pieces of bread to waterproof them. On the two bottom pieces, arrange a layer of tomato slices, sprinkling lightly with salt. Add spring onion, and slices of egg. Spoon over some salad dressing, letting it drop from the pointed spoon end. Add sliced cucumber and radish, and more salad dressing. Finish with a layer of lettuce, torn to fit bread. Top with remaining slices of bread (or leave open-faced if you’d rather tackle the sandwiches with a knife and fork). Eat at once, with napkins on the side.

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