Even though the ingredients are pretty basic—bread, butter, eggs, radishes, cucumbers—there’s something about making tea party sandwiches that feels special.
It’s where you take humble ingredients and make them tiny, pretty temptations.
There are so many various of sandwich fillings for a tea party, but I’m sticking with four sandwiches: a classic egg salad, cucumber and goat cheese, proscuitto and brie, and the centrepiece—a radish sandwich crowned with a radish rose.
I start with the radish sandwich since the rose will probably take the most work to make. It’s the centrepiece sandwich, so I’m cutting a circle in my bread to make a round tea sandwich. Do this once slice at a time, otherwise you will mangle the bread.
I save the crusts to make homemade breadcrumbs and/or homemade croutons for salads. Butter the rounds and top one buttered side with a thin layer of thinly sliced radishes (my mandoline worked magic here). Top that with the other buttered round, then butter the top of that round. The butter is key to help your radish rose stick.
For the radish rose: cut thinly sliced radishes into half moons. This will make it easier to bend the radish pieces and have them stick. Working for the centre out, take the smallest radish half moon to start the centre of your rose, fanning out until you have something resembling a flower.
Let’s work on the next tea sandwich: egg salad. Start by putting six eggs in a pot of cold water, cover the pot with a lid, and put it on high heat. Let the eggs come to a rolling boil for 1 minute, then remove it from the heat. Turn on a timer and let them sit, covered, for 12 minutes for perfectly boiled eggs. Drain the eggs and throw them into an ice bath to cool down before peeling.
Once the eggs are peeled, use a pastry cutter to mince them. I add a handful of chopped parsley, a couple of tablespoons of minced onion, 1/4 cup mayonnaise, and a hint of really good smoky paprika.
Mix that thoroughly then start building the sandwiches. I’m cutting the bread into triangles, then buttering each triangle before spreading the egg salad onto one side. Top it with the other buttered triangle, then dip one side of the triangle into a plate of minced parsley.
Time to make cucumber finger sandwiches. Cut the bread into rectangles, butter one side and spread cream cheese or goat cheese onto the other rectangle.
Top with thinly sliced cucumber.
Now that a layer of cucumber is on the goat cheese, top it with the other buttered rectangle, buttered side down, then butter the top rectangle and add another layer of cucumber. Easy peasy.
Time for the last sandwich for my tea party: cut more rectangles, butter both sides of the bread, add a hint of dijon on one side, top with proscuitto and brie. Drizzle a bit of basil oil on the brie, then top with the buttered rectangle. Garnish with a tiny basil leaf.
And now it’s time to arrange my tea platter, whip up a pot of tea, and enjoy our tea party on the terrace. The sun is shining and the tea party makes everything feel special.
— Trish Hennessy
A Year in Sandwiches 