Last week on facebook someone posted a photo of a recipe from the culinary past (the 70s) showing a square wholemeal loaf filled with some pinky-brownish medium laced with chunks of vegetables beside a slice of it on the plate. Not all comments were favourable or even polite, but as son chef Ivan pointed out, even some of the most awful looking food can taste wonderful.
Seeing that reminded me of one of Mum’s favourite cocktail party canape numbers. She and Dad occasionally held a cocktail party of drinks and nibbles for up to 30 people on behalf one of the organisations they supported. Our home had decent sized dining and lounge rooms, so was perfect for such events. I loved being able to help prepare for such occasions, by making these canapes from bread sticks stuffed with a mixture that makes my stomach churn a little these days.
One of those little jars of Pecks Anchovette Paste, ~150gm? was mashed into about ~500gm butter. The anchovette’s flavour was very strong, so a little went a long way, producing a light warm flesh coloured filling that was stuffed into the bread and chilled for a few hours in the fridge before slicing and serving. The colour was a bit vomitous, but it was really delicious, and made a good stomach lining if you were downing a few serious drinks! That volume of flavoured butter was at least equal to, but often bigger than, those little packaged pieces of butter that many restaurants serve with their bread while you’re waiting for the main meal. So by today’s standards, each slice was a serious cholesterol bomb, and most people had several !
I liked that concept of stuffed baguettes, but instead of butter I thought lite cream cheese would provide the perfect matrix to hold together together lots of tiny pieces of really flavourful foods, like salami, sun dried tomatoes, gherkins, finely diced peppers, finely chopped onion, grated blue cheese, celery, olives, capers, smoked fish, cashews. There are so many possibilities for deliberate or random combinations.
Last wednesday last I had just decided to shop for ingredients for a test run to go with the beef and veg soup already simmering on the stove top, when Gail offered to have mahjong at her place next day if we all brought along something, and I immediately committed to making and bringing a plate of this recipe. Here’s what I came up with –
Yesterday, we ate the last few slices with the rest of the afore mentioned beef and veggie soup, and after 2 days in the frig those stuffed bread slices were still perfectly ok.
In more detailed discussion with chef Ivan today, he mentioned the traditional New Orleans Muffeletta Sandwich, and from watching this video or checking out the images I really wonder how anyone can get their mouths around it for a bite! Many years ago we attended an outdoor evening concert with some friends, and for our contribution to the group’s picnic dinner, I made and took along a variation of this concept, although I don’t remember what the recipe book called it. It was a cobb loaf, with the top/lid cut off and set aside, and the soft bread inside removed and replaced with layers of cold meats cheese, nuts, olives, finely chopped various well flavoured things. when the fillings were all rammed in until they filled the cavity, the lid was put back, and the whole thing tightly wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for 5 -6 hours. That evening it was served in wedges with wine or beer, and I’m sure we must have had paper plates and plastic knives and forks. A perfect picnic meal… so how come I had completely forgotten about that over the last 25 years??