A very English affair

The ingredients of this lunchtime snack don't come any more British than these:
an English muffin slathered with butter and Marmite, filled with spinach leaves and cucumber.

On the breadline

I just love corned beef!

The Aftermath Of Christmas #2

Coronation Chicken, two ways.....

Bacon & Banana Bread Toastie (with Chocolate)

In a lifetime of culinary expeditions into the unknown, this has got to be one of the most bizarre I have ever undertaken on your behalf - egged on by Miss Hannah Cave. It started harmlessly enough with a conversation the other day about me going out to buy bread - all I had in the house was a new loaf of Hannah's renowned banana bread (with sultanas).

I mused that I could try it, done on my toastie machine, with a savoury filling like bacon. Miss Cave piped up that I could spread the bread with chocolate - she'd heard (she claimed) that bacon & the produce of the cocoa bean went well together....... She even added that I would have to wrap the sandwich in greaseproof paper to prevent it from sticking.

I got the impression that she'd not just thought of this! Fresh out of baking parchment or similar, I had to curb my enthusiasm until today, after I'd been to the supermarket.

VERDICT:
Very interesting flavours!
Would I try it again?
Yes - with one proviso: it was very very sweet - I used a (milk) chocolate and hazelnut spread out of a jar; next time I'm going to make it with a bitter dark chocolate (and maybe some chilli) to enhance the flavour of the bacon and counteract the banana's natural sugars.

Tuna Tapenade Tribute

Very fishy: one round of classic smoked salmon and cream cheese, together with an open sandwich of my tapenade-inspired paste. The original that I developed uses black olives (more authentic) but today I used stuffed green ones.

Method:
Mix together half a tin of tuna chunks, 5 chopped olives, 1 scant tsp garlic puree, 1 tsp finely chopped red chilli pepper, 1 scant tsp lemon juice, 2 dstsp olive oil and 1 tsp mayo. Blend with the back of a spoon.

Sirloin Sandwich

 I picked up a piece of reduced-price rolled sirloin at Asda this morning - at just over half a kilo, too small for 3 steaks but a tad too greedy for only 2! I put it into the freezer for about 45 minutes and then carved 2 slices off before halving the remainder for 2 generous portions.

I heated a wok with a little veg oil, when it was smoking I tipped the oil away and gave the meat 20 seconds on each side; served with buttered red onions, lettuce, tomato and plenty of English mustard......