the ‘wichcraft trials

When I was flipping through the book, I was surprised to find a classic – PB&J tucked in the pages among intimidating recipes like lobster with sweet potato-fennel slaw and chicken liver pate with fried onions. When I took a closer look, I knew things were not as easy as they seem. With just three ingredients, ‘Wichcraft really had to step it up a notch.

The first way they do this is by making their own jelly. They mention using strawberries, grapes, and in the spring, rhubarb, so that’s what I went with. I did not have the recipe with me so I just guessed and bough three stalks. This gave me 1.75 cups instead of the 2 C I needed so I cut the recipe by 25%. Luckily the math was easy to do.

The first thing I did was cut the rhubarb up into manageable pieces then I put it in a Tupperware container. I poured in the sugar and juiced a lemon on top. I stashed this away in the refrigerator overnight. I actually left it for two days because I was busy. By the time I took it out, it was covered in it’s own juiced. I poured the contents into a pot, making sure to scrape the undissolved sugar from the bottom. I brought it up to a boil. While it was heating, I took some pectin measured out a small amount. The book specifies 1 teaspoon. I really wish it would use weights instead of volume. Everyone should get a kitchen scale and get used to using it. It makes things so much easier! Sorry for the side rant. Let’s continue.

Oh wait, before we do, a word on pectin. Pectin dissolves in liquids and creates a matrix/gel; in other words it thickens. It occurs widely in nature but there are only a few  places to harvest it for food purposes. The best are from citrus and apples. Anyway, what’s important is you pick the correct type for the job. There are a two kinds used in cooking: high methoxyl (HM) and low methoxyl (LM). For this recipe, you want something that is slow set (because we have suspended fruit). Also, this particular type of pectin requires sugar and a specific level of acidity. In my pantry, I also had Pectin NH but did not use it because the label said it was for pastry glazes.

I ladled a bit of the hot rhubarb into the pectin to temper it and whisked it quickly with a whisk. Once I was sure everything was dissolved, I poured the pectin mixture back into the pot, brought it up to a boil again, and removed it from the heat. I let it sit by my sliding glass door for a while to cool down. It actually took quite a long time because it was basically molten hot sugar.

The second trick to ‘Wichcraft’s PBJ is they mix in butter with their peanut butter. They admit this is evil but offer that they feel it’s “substituting one fat for another,” and as long as you use the same amount, there’s no harm done. I don’t know if that makes sense from a nutritional perspective, but I am not complaining. I did not want to make my own peanut butter like they do (besides there isn’t a recipe and I was too lazy to look one up), so I went to Trader Joe’s to get some. I was presented with four types: organic unsalted, organic salted, regular unsalted, regular salted. I went with the organic salted. In some ways, i wish consumers were given less choices. I stood there for five minutes just thinking to myself “I want the peanut butter I ate as a kid. Was that salted or unsalted?”

When it was time to put the sandwich together, I spread some butter on two slices of buttermilk white bread. I laid down a smooth layer of peanut butter on one slice and some rhubarb jelly on the other. Slapped them together, cut diagonally and enjoyed. And enjoy I did. We all know that peanut butter and jelly go great together. And we also know, or at least I know, that butter and jam go together. So, by the transitive sandwich property, the three must go together. What if we added bananas?

Resources: Organic salted peanut butter (Trader Joe’s), rhubarb (Albertson’s), Genu Pectin LM-20AS (Le Sanctuaire)

In the book, Tom and Sisha write that they did not have a tuna fish sandwich on their menu until one day a magazine doing a piece on the shop wanted to take a picture of one. So , being accommodating yet not compromising, they created one. This sandwich took three days to make and I suspect the ‘Wichcraft team did not think about the pantry of the home chef when they made it. Things like lemon confit and homemade mayonnaise are things they probably make and use daily, but not most of the book’s readers. Anyway, here we go.

The first thing I did was make the lemon confit. Anticipating this dish, I ordered some tuna from La Tienda; the good stuff. I halved the recipe so I needed 6 oz of tuna. I used a combination of Bonito del Norte and Reserva Bonita del Norte, both from Ortiz. Many people think the words “low quality” when it comes to canned seafood. They may be surprised to know that the Europeans, especially Italians and most definitely the Spanish take their canned seafood very seriously. Some of the stuff in cans is better than the fresh locally caught fare.

Anyway, the combination of the two cans, drained of oil, yielded close to 6 oz. Close enough. I mixed it with some EVOO (shoutout to the crazy Rachel Ray), red wine vinegar, capers, fresh oregano (thanks CSA), salt and pepper and shallots (I didn’t have red onions). I added a 1/4 tsp extra vinegar because I didn’t think it had a good enough kick. Notice there is no mayo in the tuna. They specifically said they hated the traditional tuna salad recipe because of the mayo.

Next, I cut off the top of the fennel and thinly sliced it. I reserved the fronds which had a fragrant licorice smell. I marinated it in some olive oil and lemon juice. I also pitted and loosely cut some green olives marinated with garlic. I got this from the olive bar at Vons. The recipe calls for Nicoise olives. Sorry, I didn’t find those and I was not going to buy a whole jar of them. I only bought about 7 since I don’t even like olives.

The recipe calls for the use of one baguette. It does not mention removing any of the flesh, toasting it, or anything. Since my Vons baguette was an odd size (more like 3/4 of a baguette and fatter), I just cut off the ends so there was a bit les tapering. Then, I cut the loaf in half and using my MAC breadknife, split it in half lengthwise. I put the lemon mayo on one of the slices of my sandwich, leaving Liz’s mayo free. I layered the tuna salad, fennel, olives, confit, and fennel fronds. I wrapped them up in saran wrap and brought it over to Liz’s to share. I thought the sandwich had too much bread. Next time I am usign a different bread or removing some of the inside. I also thought it was a bit too salty. In retrospect, that makes since since nearly every individual ingredient had salt in it. I don’t mind my foods a little intense though so it was not too terrible. I would make this again if I happen to have the ingredients laying around. In other words, never. In all honesty though, the only item I would need to get now that I have the lemon confit made, is fennel. Canned tuna is in the pantry, capers are in the fridge, I can use store bought mayo instead of fresh, and I can skip the olives.

Here’s what Liz, the Wicked ‘Wich of the West had to say about this sandwich -

Having heard about ‘Wichcraft,” my expectations were pretty high for my first bite of a designer sandwich. What made this ‘wich stand out is that I had never tasted this combination before. Everyone knows you can’t go wrong with peanut butter and chocolate or strawberry and banana, but how many people have tasted tuna with fennel, olives, lemon confit and capers? It was a new flavor experience, and it was a good one! There was a nice mix of textures. And although I’m not a fan of fennel’s flavor, it worked in this combination.

The next time David tackles this sandwich, and I hope he will, I’d like to join him in the kitchen. To make it more of a crowd pleaser, I’d suggest a little less bread and a little less salt. Until then, I’ll be looking for another excuse to eat lemon confit.

Resources: Cuisinart Imersion Stick Blender, Benriner Mandoline, bonito tuna (Ortiz via La Tienda).

This was an optional item for my sandwich (look for it after this post), but since it was easy to make, I decided to go for it. The really disappointing thing about homemade mayo is it lasts 2-3 days and it makes  1 1/2 cups. That is A LOT of mayo. Even if I spread it on both sides of a sandwich, I’d have to eat a boatload of ‘wiches to use it all up. Anyway, off to making lemon mayonnaise (by the way, did you know it was spelled with two n’s? I kept seeing the red underline from spell check come up every time I typed mayonaise. Oops.)

Mayonnaise is basically an emulsion of egg yolk and oil. In this case, a single egg yolk is able to create all this mayonnaise. I separated one egg into a bowl. I actually broke it mid crack. For some reason, this whole batch of eggs I got from Vons have very week yolk membranes. Weird! I added some Dijon mustard, chopped garlic, cayenne pepper, lemon juice and zest. I put this all in the work cup of my immersion blender. I fired it up and nothing really happened because the blade is recessed into the stick blender to prevent you from chopping up your countertop or bowl accidentally.

The recipe calls for grapeseed oil (for it’s neutral flavor, I’m sure), but I didn’t have any. I substituted canola oil which is also quite neutral in taste. I used a measuring cup with a spout so I could control my pour. You want a slow and steady stream into the egg mixture while you are blending. Halfway through, I added a tablespoon of water. The recipe calls for 1 cup of oil but that seemed like too much to me so I cut it to 3/4 cup. When I was done adding the water, I added an additional 1/4 cup of oil from the lemon confit. Thank goodness I had just made it earlier, right! The downside is I doubt the oil had much time to infuse with the lemons.

I finished with some salt and pepper, covered it, and put it in the icebox (that’s right, I said icebox! What’s next, “pop”?)

Resources: canola oil (Trader Joe’s); dijon mustard (generic Vons); Microplane zester; oil from lemon confit