Lox and Caviar Sandwich

I know. I probably lost you at “caviar”. For the record, the stuff we bought was under $20, I probably used $2 worth, and the rest of the jar will last us YEARS. Still…I know I probably lost you at caviar.

So while I’m on a winning streak in being relatable to my readers: this dish was inspired by a recipe I saw in The New York Times from Le Bernardin, a restaurant which currently holds three Michelin stars and is also currently ranked as one of the top 50 restaurants in the world.

And it was because I knew of Le Bernardin and these Michelin/rating facts, and because I knew Eric Ripert is the living KING of seafood that I clicked this article in the first place. Because this is the kind of random knowledge I have. Food. Food is my jam. I can name multiple molecular gastronomists, but if you paid me a million bucks I couldn’t tell you who’s playing in the Superbowl.

Again…I’m really racking up the points on relate-ability.

Every Christmas Eve, we do our Feast of Seven Fishes. While it’s supposed to be a single sit-down meal, we can’t handle that any more. We do seven small plates throughout the day, starting with breakfast [realistically, we’re doing “well” if we make it through 5 out of 7 on Christmas Eve. This is now taking us multiple days to complete.]

To me, the feast itself is the tradition. My parents go beyond that and like to think of some of the dishes as tradition. So, we’ve come to a healthy compromise: I’m allowed to do (at least) one new dish every year and we have (at least) three repeats from previous years.

We also have shifted the cooking duties. Back in the day not only was it always the same dishes, it was always the same cooks: my mother and my Belgian grandmother. Once we realized my father made amazing crab cakes (one of the annual repeats), he joined the team. This last year it was a 3-2-2 split to me-my mother-my father, with me starting with breakfast.

I knew I wanted lox–a natural choice. We often have lox and cream cheese bagels, but that seemed too much when you have six more courses to go. A previous Christmas Eve I did a deconstructed lox bagel on hashbrowns. And that’s a solid dish. But I wanted my something new.

One major change in this recipe from the one in the Times: the bread. The original recipe called for brioche (which would be awesome and buttery and the sweetness would have played nicely with the saltiness of the caviar and the cheese). And my folks, not having bought it before, went up and down every aisle in their shopping trek until they found it.

So, why didn’t I use brioche?

Label: “naturally and artificially vanilla flavored”

Smelling this bread would put you into a diabetic coma. Also, not sure how vanilla would work with the other ingredients. (Don’t worry: we don’t throw out food. That loaf is in the freezer, where it probably will remain until I come home again and figure out what to do with it.)

Anyway, this really isn’t *that* fancy. And if you want to leave off the fishberry jam, that’s fine too.

LOX AND CAVIAR SANDWICH

INGREDIENTS:

• High-quality bread, cut very thinly
• Butter
• Caviar
• Gruyere, sliced ery thinly
• Lox

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Butter the outsides of the bread
2. On the inside, layer as follows: gruyere, caviar, lox.
   
   

   

   
3. Grill the sandwiches, flipping once.