Sugared Walnuts & a Fully Loaded Tomato Sandwich!

~ Menu ~ 

Fully Loaded Tomato Sandwich 

Glass of Merlot 

A spoonful of Ice Cream and a few leftover Sugared Walnuts 

Coffee

A lovely sunny day today and no-one about, which makes it even better. We spend half of our life on a campsite in Cornwall and the high season can be very crowded and wearing. Spring and autumn, on the other hand, are delicious; just us, the crows in the trees and peacefulness.

After breakfast I went for a walk along the cliffs – some of the loveliest in Cornwall – picked a few blackberries and came back with purple lips but still starving. My fridge was pathetic today and didn’t come up with any inspiring leftovers so I decided to fall back on a great favourite on mine – Tomato Sandwich – but not just any old tomato sandwich, one ultra augmented with all sorts of goodies. Before I put the lid on it looked like this …

I used wholemeal bread spread with a little mayonnaise (Hellman’s Light which takes as good as non-light mayo to me) and then a spoonful or two of chilli-spiked pasta sauce. Over this I dolloped a little Garlic and Herb Boursin and then topped all this tasty creaminess with sweet cherry tomatoes, a few salad leaves and crunchy red onion. After taking this picture I put on the second slice and devoured the lot washed down with some red wine, of course. It was so delicious that writing this I feel like eating it all over again.

For dessert I just had a an abstemious amount of homemade coffee ice cream (for which, of course, I used my excellent no-churn ice cream recipe) sprinkled with a few candied walnuts, recipe below.

Sugared Walnuts

200g sugar 

100ml water 

½ teaspoon ground black pepper - optional 

2 pinches salt 

250g walnut halves

• Preheat the oven to 350˚F, 180˚C, gas mark 4 and set a lightly greased baking tray beside the stove.
• Heat together the sugar and water over low heat, stirring till the sugar has dissolved.
• Turn up the heat and boil to a light syrup - this only takes a few minutes, a little of the syrup dabbed on a plate should form a thread when you lift the spoon.
• Stir in the rest of the ingredients.
• Spread onto the baking tray and put in the oven for 10-15 minutes till crisp - keeping an eye and a nose out in case they start to overcook.
• Cool, breaking up any clumps and use whole or chopped in or on ice cream, in salads or just in your mouth.

NOTE: You will have noticed the optional black pepper in the recipe - this makes sugar spiced walnuts which are perfect in this lovely blue cheese salad.  These lovely sugar glazed walnuts are a boon in so many dishes!