Recipe: Hot-smoked salmon and endive club sandwiches

Sandwiches

Hot-smoked salmon is flaky and very moist and does not slice like cold smoked salmon. There seem to be two varieties of endive commonly grown in New Zealand. Here, we're not using the tight-leafed French endive, or witloof, but curly endive, also known as frisée, which is more like its relative the lettuce. It's great to grow, as you can pick the leaves as needed. If you can't find curly endive, use another green lettuce, but I admire endive's mildly nutty, firm leaves.

Makes 24

• 260g hot-smoked salmon
• 285ml (1 cup + 2 tbsp + 1 tsp) Sandwich Mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp prepared horseradish
• 1 tbsp finely chopped chives
• ½ tsp flaky sea salt, plus extra to taste
• ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper, plus extra to taste
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 18 slices white sandwich bread
• 200g butter (softened)
• 30g (about 20 leaves) curly endive (washed and dried)

1. Remove skin from salmon. Place salmon in a bowl and break into chunky flakes. Add 3 tbsp of the mayonnaise, the horseradish, chives, salt, pepper and lemon juice and gently combine. Check for seasoning.

2. On a clean work surface, place bread slices in 3 rows of 6. Butter all slices then spread with Sandwich Mayonnaise. Generously spread first row of slices with salmon mixture. Season with salt and pepper and cover each with a second slice of bread, buttered side down.

3. Butter top layer of bread and spread with mayonnaise. Top with endive then final slices of bread, buttered side down.

4. Using an electric knife, remove all crusts then cut sandwiches into 4 squares or triangles.

• Recipe reproduced with permission from Ruth Pretty Cooks At Home by Ruth Pretty (Penguin Group NZ, RRP $65).