Elegant Tarragon and Tomato Butter Tea Sandwiches

"These delightful and rather unusual tea sandwiches combine the delicate French herb tarragon, with ripe tomatoes, garlic and shallots – a change from the usual basil and tomatoes. The tomatoes are gently poached with all the seasonings until a thick puree or butter is obtained; the tomato butter is then cooled and you are left with a wondrous sandwich filling, bursting with flavour and colour! The butter can be used for all manner of things, including a topping for a pizza or for toasted sandwiches. Use fresh bread, white or wholemeal, and garnish with fresh tarragon leaves. Any excess butter can be stored in an airtight container for up to a week in the fridge. NB: Prep time includes chilling time for the butter."
 
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photo by Baby Kato photo by Baby Kato
photo by Baby Kato
photo by Baby Kato photo by Baby Kato
Ready In:
1hr 30mins
Ingredients:
8
Yields:
6 Rounds of Sandwiches
Serves:
3-6
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ingredients

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directions

  • Heat the olive oil in a small pan and fry the shallots and garlic until soft.
  • Add the tomatoes to the shallots with the tarragon. Simmer for 15-20 minutes until reduced to a thick pulp.
  • Press through a sieve and leave to cool. Once cold, beat the purée slowly into the softened butter.
  • Season, and make into sandwiches with the white bread. Cut into fingers or triangles and serve as part of an afternoon tea, or a picnic lunch!

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Reviews

  1. Although these are perfectly lovely on their own, I went ahead and confit my tomatoes, shallots, and thyme since I did not have tarragon. Meaning, I braised them in enough olive oil to cover them in a 300 F oven until soft. This gives even lackluster grocery store tomatoes fantastic flavor. I also added a few garlic cloves and a few sprigs of Italian parsley to the confit oil. I strained the vegetables and herbs from the oil before adding to the softened butter, reserving the oil for sauteing other vegetables and in pizza dough. I put this delightful compound butter on thinly sliced soft white bread. I would like to try Challah bread as another reviewer said, and brioche. Thank you for sharing this recipe, it will be handy for summer tomatoes from the garden.
     
  2. Made a double batch of these for a Holiday Tea Party this weekend and everyone loved them! I'm thinking I can use this as a pasta sauce, less the butter. Love the flavors of the shallots and tarragon, extremely tasty! Thanks for sharing!
     
  3. Tartlette these are incredible little gems. I enjoyed them so much. They are certainly worth the extra effort. These little sandwiches are so pretty and unique. I made a small batch just for myself, using challah egg bread, what a decadent treat, they turned out to be. So tasty, savory, rich, creamy and smooth. I can't wait to share these with my friends this summer. Thanks for sharing my friend. Made for Summer Herbs - Month Tarragon/09 :)
     
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p><strong><span>The sunflowers in the field behind my house in SW France:</span></strong></p> <p><img title=Sunflowers src=http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/copperhorse58/DSCN8221.jpg alt=Sunflowers width=640 height=480 /><br /><strong><span><br /><br />I am British (English-Scottish), but I was born in South Africa and have lived all over the world, including Hong Kong, Germany, Cyprus, USA &amp; Singapore. I have also been very fortunate to have travelled extensively over the years.........I still have wanderlust! <br /><br />I used to be an English Literature &amp; Art History teacher &amp; lecturer; before that, I trained and worked as a Graphic Designer for many years. I now live in France with my husband &amp; my daughter who has just started university in September 2006. We also have one very chatty Burmese cat Willow, who allows us to live with her here! (I used to have three cats, I recently lost Monty, a beautiful seal point Siamese and before that, Rama, who was a debonair blue point Siamese cat - I would love to have another Siamese cat or cats in the future!)</span></strong></p> <p><em><strong><span>This is my Burmese Cat, Willow, sunning herself on the log pile in the kitchen garden:</span></strong></em></p> <p><strong><img title=My src=http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/copperhorse58/ABaconButtyandSundryFoodPhotos34.jpg alt=My width=640 height=480 /></strong></p> <p><strong><span>Here is my lovely Monty, a seal point Siamese, and Willow, sitting&nbsp;in the kitchen garden last year, and a few months before Monty died; he was 18yrs old:</span></strong></p> <p><img title=Monty src=http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/copperhorse58/AbsolutelySinfulStickyToffeePudding.jpg alt=Monty width=640 height=480 />My</p> <p><strong><span>This is my wonderful old boy, Rama, a blue-point Siamese, who died when he was 20yrs old - excuse the old and much sellotaped photo:</span></strong></p> <p><img title=Rama src=http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r271/copperhorse58/Rama1stOctober2004164.jpg alt=Rama width=517 height=639 /></p> <p><strong><span>My favourite pastimes are: reading, writing, painting &amp; drawing, photography, gardening, anything creative, walking, travelling, dining out and of course COOKING! I love all types of cuisine, but especially Traditional British - and NO it is NOT all bad!! I particularly love food associated with the changing seasons plus traditional feasts &amp; festivals, as well as Slow Cooking. I also enjoy French &amp; North African cuisine, come to think of it, there isn't much I don't like! <br /><br />My husband &amp; I run a Chambres D'Hotes, (Bed and Breakfast) called Auberge de la Fontaine here in beautiful South West France; we specialise in Gourmet Food &amp; Wine Breaks, French Antiques &amp; Restoration courses, French Language courses and French Cookery classes. Our home is completely furnished with Antique French furniture that we have rescued &amp; restored ourselves. Our charming village has one of the oldest Churches in the region &amp; it is famous for its connection with the St.Jacques de Compostella Pilgrimage route, as well as being within the Cognac &amp; Bordeaux wine growing area. <br /><br />We have a wonderful garden where we grow ALL of our own herbs and most of our fruit and vegetables. I specialise in rare, unusual and old-fashioned herbs, which I grow in our walled garden. As well as growing herbs, I also grow many different varieties of lavender, old-fashioned shrub roses and heirloom fruit and vegetables. <br /><br />We have lived overseas for many, many years now - but we both still love going home to Northern England, near Scarborough &amp; York, to visit our family &amp; friends. We also love indulging in dining out when we are there, in a wide variety of EXCELLENT Gastro-Pubs that we have in North Yorkshire; and popping in to have a Pint of REAL ENGLISH ALE in our local pub is a always a must!! <br /></span></strong></p> <p><br /><a href=http://photobucket.com/images/merci%20beaucoup target=_blank><img src=http://i420.photobucket.com/albums/pp287/vi-vie15/Merci/hb09izl7.gif border=0 alt=merci /></a> <br /><br /><strong><span>A Message to all who make and review my recipes! I try very hard to reply to EACH and EVERYONE of you who kindly makes, reviews and photographs my recipes! However, sometimes I am so busy in the B and B, and with other things, that I may be late in sending a personal thank you message, and sometimes I forget completely! I would just like to thank you ALL in advance, and just in case I am late or forgetful in sending a personal thanks. I am always very humbled by anyone who chooses to make one of my recipes, and I love reading the reviews and seeing the beautiful photos that are posted. Merci beaucoup encore! <br /><br />A note about my recipes. All of my posted recipes, whether they be my own concoctions or adaptations from a book or a famous chef, have been tried and tested at least once, by ME! I try to make sure that I am the guinea pig and not you! However, if there is anything you would like ask me about one of my recipes, or a query that I may be able to help you with, please do write and I will try to answer your question as soon as possible. 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