These anchovy puff-pastry finger sandwiches make a brilliant Christmas canape
A year ago today, I went to a dinner of Jane Grigson recipes cooked by the chef Anna Tobias. Mulligatawny soup, faggots, mash and buttered sprout tops, steamed ginger pudding and custard, eaten around a table the size of my bedroom by a fog of candlelight – it was, to steal a title from Jane, a very Good Thing. It was the starter, though, that stuck in my memory like a Post-it, which was partly to do with the fact it was the first thing I put in my mouth (starters have the unfair advantages of anticipation and hunger), but also because it was an anchovy matchstick.
Actually, “matchstick” is a bit misleading size-wise; it was more toast soldier size: two fingers of puff pastry, sandwiching hard-boiled egg cream and an anchovy fillet, baked until risen and golden brown. Like all fried and puffed things, the key to anchovy matchsticks is eating them as quickly as you can while they are hot, otherwise they lose their charm. That night, in the basement of Italo delicatessen in the middle of Vauxhall, south London, the matchsticks were a warm concertina with a salty, piquant heart that only anchovies can provide. Following that dinner, I made two batches of anchovy matchsticks, one with egg, one with just anchovy, at my parents’ over the Christmas holiday. While not quite as good as Anna’s, they established a new tradition of gathering around the oven door to eat hot, salty matchsticks and drinking home-measures of negronis – as if we don’t have enough traditions already.
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2ShnGQh
