At festive occasions, appetizers often go on platters and salads in bowls, and the table fills with large and small plates, forks, knives, spoons, and more. Much of that tableware can be set aside if you serve sandwiches instead. This is especially convenient when you’re hosting a gathering of young people for an event like a birthday.
Use bread or rolls that aren’t too fresh so the slices don’t crumble. Sandwiches can be made in various shapes (rectangular, triangular, etc.), and they are often decorated colorfully and arranged in a single layer on platters.
Bread for Winter Sandwiches
Ingredients: A loaf of bread and 75–100 g of butter.
Slice the loaf into 24 pieces, spread butter on them, and top each piece with one of the three following components.
With Roast Beef and Horseradish
Ingredients: 150 g of cold roast beef or roasted tenderloin and 50 g of horseradish.
Wash, peel, and finely grate the horseradish into thin strips. Slice the roast beef (or tenderloin) and place it on 8 pieces of bread, garnishing with the horseradish strips on top.
With Sausage or Ham and Mayonnaise
Ingredients: 100 g of sausage or ham, 1 hard-boiled egg, 4 tablespoons of mayonnaise, and 1 tablespoon of chopped pickled mushrooms.
Peel and chop the hard-boiled egg. Dice the sausage (or ham) and mix it with the egg, mushrooms, and half of the mayonnaise. Spread this mixture on 8 slices of bread. Smooth the top with a knife and decorate with the remaining mayonnaise using a pastry bag or a parchment cone.
With Herring and Mayonnaise
Ingredients: 1 large or 2 small herring (about 300 g) and 2–3 tablespoons of mayonnaise.
Soak the herring, clean it, and separate the fillets. Divide into 8 pieces and place them on 8 slices of bread, pressing down gently and smoothing with a knife, then garnish with mayonnaise.
Bread for Sandwiches
Ingredients: Half a loaf of rye bread (350 g), 2 1/2 tablespoons of butter, a few lettuce leaves, parsley, and 4 red pepper pods.
Remove the crust with a knife and cut the bread into slices about 0.5 cm thick. Stack a few slices together and cut them into rectangles. Each batch of cut rectangles should be of uniform size. The quantities listed below will yield 30 sandwiches measuring 5×6 cm. Spread butter on 20 rectangular pieces, leaving 10 unbuttered, and top each with one of the ingredients listed below.
With Smoked Tenderloin and Mayonnaise
Ingredients: 80 g of smoked pork tenderloin, 4 tablespoons of thick mayonnaise, 4 tablespoons of salad greens, salt, and black pepper.
Slice the tenderloin into long strips about 0.5 cm thick. Wash and dry the lettuce leaves, chop them coarsely, and mix with the mayonnaise. Spread this mixture in a thick layer on 10 buttered pieces of bread. Smooth the layer with a knife and decorate the sandwiches with a crisscross pattern made from the tenderloin strips.
With Bacon, Feta, and Pickles
Ingredients: 50 g of lean bacon, 100 g of feta cheese, a pickled cucumber, 2 teaspoons of chopped green onions, and red pepper.
Slice the bacon into thin strips and shape them with a knife into elongated pieces. Peel the cucumber, chop it into 10 pieces, and cut a triangle from each piece, finely chopping the scraps. Create a mound of feta on one edge of each bread slice. Roll each bacon strip into a spiral and place it on the opposite edge of the bread, gently pressing it into the feta. Decorate the remaining space on the slice with chopped cucumber, inserting the cucumber triangle at an angle into the feta, and sprinkle the bacon with red pepper.
