How about a ham sandwich? With pressgurka?

From “Mind Of A Chef” via Food Thinkers by Breville and with a recipe from Magnus Nilsson, this ain’t yer average pork filled, two slices of dry white bread (as British Rail used to supply)….

No, this is a recipe from a 2 Michelin-starred chef at Fäviken; but as he insists on using the stupid US-entric way of measuring despite being a good Swede, I’ve changed the ingredient amounts to metric, where applicable.

Ingredients

• 250g cane sugar
• .5l white vinegar
• .75l filtered water
• 2 medium cucumbers
• 80g kosher salt
• 4 thick slices crusty sourdough bread, cut in half
• 60g butter, at room temperature
• 30g Dijon mustard
• 300g sliced smoked ham

Instructions

1. Combine the sugar, vinegar and water in a glass mixing bowl and stir until sugar dissolves.
2. Thinly slice cucumbers using slicing disk attachment on food processor or a mandolin. Place cucumbers in a strainer set over a large bowl and generously salt the slices. Stir with a wooden spoon until every piece of cucumber is coated in salt. This is quite a lot of salt but will help draw some moisture out of the cucumbers so they can absorb the pickling syrup later.
3. After three or four minutes the cucumbers should be soft and will have released some liquid into the bowl below. Brush off any excess salt, add them to the bowl of pickling syrup, and let pickle while you assemble the sandwiches.
4. Spread a bit of butter and Dijon mustard on each slice of bread; then top with the ham. Check to see that the pickles have absorbed some of the pickling syrup. Once they are nicely crunchy and balanced place a small handful of the quick pickles on top of the sandwiches and serve.

It should turn out looking something like this 🙂