Name: Christmas leftovers: Boxing Day sandwich and pink Champagne
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 8 thick slices rye bread; For spreading: softened butter; 8 butter lettuce leaves; 2 vine-ripened tomatoes, thickly sliced; 250 gm roast turkey, thinly sliced; 250 gm baked ham, thinly sliced; Lemon, herb and garlic mayonnaise; 150 gm good-quality mayonnaise; ¼ cup (loosely packed) finely chopped mixed herbs, such as flat-leaf parsley, basil, tarragon and thyme; 2 tbsp crème fraîche; Finely grated rind of 1 lemon and juice of ½; ½ garlic clove, finely grated

Christmas leftovers: Boxing Day sandwich and pink Champagne

Australian Gourmet Traveller recipe and wine match for Boxing Day sandwich.

Serves 4

Prep

15M

Cook

Total

20M

Christmas turkey and ham are gifts that keep on giving. Load the leftovers into this tasty sandwich and put your feet up.

I love Boxing Day. The pressure’s off as far as catering’s concerned. No more last-minute dashes to the supermarket to pick up that forgotten ingredient. Now you can start getting stuck into the leftovers in the fridge and the cupboard and use your creative flair to come up with deeply satisfying snacks like this – probably eaten in front of that DVD you were given for Christmas, washed down with a glass of something cold.

Now, I could go into precise gastronomic detail about why I think this sandwich would be delicious with a glass of pink bubbly: I could tell you about how the salty sweetness of the turkey and the ham mirror the roundness of the pinot noir grape; how the sharp twist of the lemon and crème fraîche echo the sparkling acidity of the wine; how the deep, savoury taste and texture of the rye bread will find a friend on your tongue with the savoury yeasty flavours of the extended lees-ageing so important in fine-quality fizz.

Or I could be honest and admit that when I was presented with the recipe for this month’s perfect match, I immediately imagined a long, tall flute of pink Champagne in my hand, condensation trickling down the outside, a soft collar of faint salmon-coloured bubbles rising to the top, tempting me. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Ingredients

8 thick slices rye bread

For spreading: softened butter

8 butter lettuce leaves

2 vine-ripened tomatoes, thickly sliced

250 gm roast turkey, thinly sliced

250 gm baked ham, thinly sliced

Lemon, herb and garlic mayonnaise

150 gm good-quality mayonnaise

¼ cup (loosely packed) finely chopped mixed herbs, such as flat-leaf parsley, basil, tarragon and thyme

2 tbsp crème fraîche

Finely grated rind of 1 lemon and juice of ½

½ garlic clove, finely grated

Method

Main

1.For lemon, herb and garlic mayonnaise, combine ingredients in a bowl, stir to combine, season to taste and set aside.

2.Preheat grill to high. Place bread on a tray and grill, turning once, until golden (1-2 minutes), then spread with butter.

3.Spread bread slices with mayonnaise, then top half the slices with lettuce, tomato, ham and turkey, season to taste, sandwich with remaining bread slices and serve.