Whitebait sandwich

Simon Wright (French Cafe) prepared 400 of these for the FAWC opening party in 2013 and they had us all week at the knees, so you can imagine my delight when he announced at his Electrolux Masterclass that I attended the next morning that he was going to show us how to cook them and provide us with the recipe. Woohoo! Eating them the night before, I assumed they would be complex but far from it – it’s a whitebait custard between slices of white bread. They are exceptional and a very clever Simon Wright twist on a whitebait fritter. If you can get your hands on some whitebait this is the way to cook them.

Ingredients

1 loaf	White bread
4	Eggs
100 ml	Cream
1	Lemon, zest
1 Tbsp	Chives, finely chopped
250 g	Whitebait, fresh (Main)
1	Butter, soft
3 Tbsp	Olive oil

Directions

1. Wrap the bread in plastic wrap and freeze overnight.
2. Heat oven to 100C.
3. Place the eggs, cream, lemon zest and chives in a bowl, season with flaky sea salt and whisk.
4. Divide whitebait between five 6cm x 4cm silicon moulds or non-stick muffin moulds, pour in enough egg mixture to cover and mix well in with the end of a spoon.
5. Place in the oven for about 35 minutes or until the whitebait custards are cooked but still have a very slight wobble in the middle.
6. Allow the whitebait custards to cool in the moulds, carefully unmould and refrigerate until required.
7. When ready to serve, heat oven to 230C. Remove plastic wrap from the bread and slice thinly (about 3mm if possible).
8. Using a 6cm pastry cutter cut 10 circles from the sliced bread and discard the trimmings.
9. Butter the bread lightly and stick the buttered side of the bread circles to the top and bottom of the whitebait custards to form a sandwich.
10. Heat olive oil in an ovenproof frying pan, add the whitebait sandwiches and place in the oven for 4 minutes turning them once halfway through the cooking time.
11. Remove the whitebait sandwiches from the frying pan and place on absorbent paper.
12. To finish, place the whitebait and some lemon mayonnaise on a plate and serve with a watercress salad.