The next time you head out for a road-trip or hike, consider these three sandwich recipes. They are delicious, filling and will remain super-fresh for anything between two to five hours without turning soggy.
Also read: 7 prime tips to keeping your sandwiches super-fresh
Egg Mayo
A road-trip tradition for many, but this delicate number needs to be eaten early on.
Makes 4 sandwiches
• 4 eggs
• 1½T creamy mayonnaise
• ½ red onion, minced
• 2t very finely chopped dill, fronds only (no stalks)
• Sea salt and freshly ground white pepper
• 8 slices (1cm thick) fresh white sandwich loaf
Fill a medium-sized pot with water and bring to the boil. Add the eggs and cook for eight minutes. Drain and plunge the eggs into cold water. Remove, crack the shells, peel and leave to cool.
Grate the eggs on the fine side of a box grater. Add the mayo, onion and dill and mix well until thoroughly combined. Season to your liking.
Make the sandwiches, cut them in half, wrap tightly and keep cold.
Grating the egg and mincing the onion super-fine makes this filling more of a sandwich spread that holds together and adheres to the bread.
Pastrami on Rye
This classic will last a little longer and the meat makes it a more substantial hunger-buster.
Makes 4 sandwiches
• 70g sweet and sour pickled gherkins, finely chopped
• 50g butter, softened
• 4 slices 70% sourdough rye, sliced 7mm thick
• 8 thin slices pastrami
• Dijon mustard, to taste.
Combine the gherkins and butter and mix well.
Divide one tablespoon of gherkin butter between two slices of rye and spread evenly from edge to edge.
Lay a slice of pastrami on the buttered face of one slice, folding in any overhanging edges.
Imagine where you will cut the sandwich in half and add about a teaspoon of Dijon mustard on either side of that.
Lay over another pastrami slice, folding in the edges.Cover with the second slice of rye, cut in half and wrap tightly.
Compressed Loaf
Find a scenic stop for a leg stretch and whip this out with a board and bread knife. Or carve it up before leaving home and wrap tightly in foil to keep it in
one piece. This solid, self-contained sandwich is perfect for padkos, picnics or a day on the beach – and you make it the night before, ready for an early departure.
1 loaf = about 10 slices
• 1 ciabatta* (about 450g)
• 100g sliced Italian salami
• 100g sliced mozzarella**
• 70g sliced provolone (a sweet, sharp or smoked Italian cheese)
• 80g sliced mortadella (an Italian cold cut studded with pistachios)
• 100g sliced Continental (cooked) ham For the relish
• 250g (1 punnet) tricolore peppers***
• 425g jar green olives**** (we used queen olives), drained, pitted and finely chopped
• 2T capers, drained and finely chopped
• 3T flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 1T red-wine vinegar
• 3T extra-virgin olive oil
To prepare the relish, preheat the grill and place a rack in the middle of the oven. Put the peppers on a foil-lined baking sheet and grill, turning periodically, until the skin is blackened in places. Fold up the foil on the tray to seal the peppers inside. Once they are cool enough to handle, peel, remove the seeds and finely chop.
Combine the relish ingredients and mix well.
Using a sharp bread knife, cut off the top of the ciabatta, about 2cm down from the top so you have a ‘lid’. Cut inside the edge of the remaining bottom without cutting through the base and pull out the bread inside.
Spread half the relish onto the hollowed-out base and up the sides. Arrange even layers of salami, mozzarella, provolone, mortadella and ham. (Alternatively, use the mortadella to separate the two cheeses.)
Spread the remaining relish evenly on top and cover with the ‘lid’ – if necessary, pull out a little of the bread inside the lid to accommodate the filling. Press down gently.
Wrap tightly in brown or baking paper and tie tightly with string – like a parcel. Place on a wooden board at the bottom of the fridge. Top with two or three heavy boards to weigh it down and leave overnight.
Use this recipe as a blueprint and adjust according to your budget and taste. Aim for 280g deli meat and 170g cheese so, for example, a simple trio of salami, mozzarella and ham could also work.
• We found Woolworths’ in-store bakery ciabatta was the perfect balance of not too hard, not too soft.
• Woolies has a range of handy pre-sliced cheeses, or get cheese sliced to order at any deli counter.
• To roast peppers on the braai, see Getaway March 2017, or buy roasted peppers from a deli or in a jar. Once chopped, the peppers should fill a half-cup measure.
• You can also use a mix of half green, half black olives. When pitted, they should fill a cup measure.
The Keep-em-quiet Snack Pack
Keep the kids happy by filling individual brown-paper bags as a surprise second reveal, and hand out when ‘are we there yet?’ kicks in. Lasts 5 hours.
• Pack fruit that won’t bruise easily, drip or require wet wipes. Apples are the best bet.
• Make your own trail mix with almonds, dried cranberries, toasted coconut flakes and chunks of dark chocolate.
• Choose raw nuts, not roasted-and-salted, to avoid greasy hands.
• Bake hardy biscuits that don’t have a major crumb factor (see Pip pa’s Ginger Biscuits in Getaway February 2017).
• Add a dried-fruit roll, droëwors or homemade popcorn.
• Encourage eating over the brown paper bag to catch any crumbs and collect apple cores or debris in the bag before discarding.
What wine?
If you’re packing padkos, chances are you’re headed somewhere special of the bush, beach or berg variety. And for winos, that means you need to make space in the boot for at least two bottles. Firstly, a fruity white for spritzers on arrival. Let the purists snigger as you mix equal parts soda and wine over ice – let’s wait to see who lands up more lip-smackingly refreshed after the long drive. A zesty Riesling or Sauvignon Blanc will do nicely, especially if it’s on the right side of the price/quality equation so it mixes and matches with aplomb. Secondly, you’ll need a meaty red for the traditional fi rst-night braai.
What label?
The spritzer With a 3.5 star rating and a price tag of just R37, Excelsior Purebred White 2016 is an example of the kind of Best Value wine we’ve got in SA (bestvaluewineguide.com). It’s also a bottle with legacy: the De Wet family have farmed Excelsior for five generations going back to 1859, which explains how even their third-tier range is a ‘quality quaffer’.
The braai wine Zandvliet in Robertson may be a famed Shiraz champion, but there’s nothing pretentious about their My Best Friend range that includes a super drinkable Cabernet/Shiraz Cape blend for R48. It’s fruity and spicy, made to be unscrewed and poured immediately – and because it’s unwooded, has a distinctly ‘nouvelle’ character that lends itself to being a little chilled before drinking. Better take two bottles…
The green giant When it comes to Earth-friendly vineyards, few can match the fully organic fields at Reyneke in Stellenbosch, where ducks reign supreme and words ending in ‘cide’ are strictly verboten. If you haven’t tried this label yet, now’s the time – starting with the charmingly named Vinehugger Merlot 2014 (about R80). Bursting with plums and red berries, it’s like Mother Nature tickling your taste buds.
This story first appeared in the April 2017 issue of Getaway magazine.
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Our April issue features a guide to the Otter Trail, the sunniest roadtrip in SA, and 12 awesome farmstays.
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