Victorian Watercress Tea Sandwiches for High Tea and Picnics

"During Victorian times, children used to take watercress sandwiches to school in place of meat ones. I love them, especially when cut into small trianges and served with a cuppa (cup of tea!). Use the freshest bread - I like to use wholemeal, and a fresh salted farmhouse butter. I have included a soup idea at the end of the recipe, to be made with the excess stalks! So a soup and sandwich recipe then!"
 
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photo by Ambervim photo by Ambervim
photo by Ambervim
photo by French Tart photo by French Tart
photo by French Tart photo by French Tart
photo by French Tart photo by French Tart
photo by French Tart photo by French Tart
Ready In:
5mins
Ingredients:
4
Yields:
8 Rounds of Sandwiches
Serves:
4
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ingredients

  • 2 bunches watercress
  • softened butter
  • 16 thin slices bread
  • sea salt and black pepper
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directions

  • Snip the stalks from the watercress and place the leafy ends on kitchen paper to absorb any water. Butter the bread generously, arrange the watercress over 4 slices and season. Top with the remaining bread, cut into triangles or fingers and serve.
  • NB. (Don't discard the watercress stalks; they can be made into a soup. Soften a chopped onion in a pan with butter, add 250ml whole milk and bring to the boil. Add the stalks, cook for 1 minute then liquidise until smooth and foamy.).

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Reviews

  1. This is a very traditional tea sandwich. Choose the best-quality bread as possible. Never serve end slices. Freezing the bread before cutting and then spreading makes for easier handling.<br/><br/>Radishes and flat leaf parsley or cucumber and mint or apple or pear can be used instead. The butter may be flavored with fresh herbs, however I mix 1 part butter with 2 parts cream cheese instead of plain butter. <br/><br/>If you need to make tea sandwiches in advance and need to keep them from drying out, cover them loosely with a sheet of wax paper and then place a damp kitchen towel over the wax paper (never place a damp towel directly on top of the bread because the sandwiches will become soggy). Refrigerate.<br/><br/>When ready to serve, remove from refrigerator. Uncover sandwiches just before serving.
     
  2. WOOHOO! Made for afterschool snack, lol with proper tea. ;) i used Pepperidge Farms thin sliced whole wheat bread, Irish butter, freshly ground salt & pepper. Even THE PICKY ONE loved it!! i could eat many, many more but need to start dinner, lol. Another day.... and I saved the stems for the soup! xoxo made for ZWT6 on behalf of the ZESTIES.
     
  3. Using fresh ingredients, it's hard to go wrong with this one.
     
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Tweaks

  1. This is a very traditional tea sandwich. Choose the best-quality bread as possible. Never serve end slices. Freezing the bread before cutting and then spreading makes for easier handling.<br/><br/>Radishes and flat leaf parsley or cucumber and mint or apple or pear can be used instead. The butter may be flavored with fresh herbs, however I mix 1 part butter with 2 parts cream cheese instead of plain butter. <br/><br/>If you need to make tea sandwiches in advance and need to keep them from drying out, cover them loosely with a sheet of wax paper and then place a damp kitchen towel over the wax paper (never place a damp towel directly on top of the bread because the sandwiches will become soggy). Refrigerate.<br/><br/>When ready to serve, remove from refrigerator. Uncover sandwiches just before serving.
     

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<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! 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