Would you like a Victorian cucumber and water cress sandwich with your tea? How about trading in butter for coconut butter. Maybe white bread for whole grain? I made these for a dear friend whose doctor told her to stay away from dairy for life.. I wanted to assure her that there was life after dairy with this recipe.
Victoria is the capital of British Columbia in Canada..
This work trip was a dream come true..a dream I had 15 years ago when I first heard about the seaplane from Vancouver to Victoria.
Picture skimming the surface of the sea and then slowly taking off into the sky to get an aerial view of Vancouver Island.
Here I can’t stop smiling.. thrilled to bits about landing in victoria on the sea plane.
| Ingredients 1 cup shredded unsweetened dessicated coconut 4 slices whole grain bread ¼ English cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced 4 sprigs watercress |
Spice Mix ½ tsp Crushed black mustard Herbamare or salt to taste Crushed black pepper |
Makes 4 sandwiches
Pots n pans |
Method
Wash, peel and thinly slice English cucumber. Sprinkle with salt & let stand about 10 minutes to let it drain water.
Watercress gives a beautiful peppery flavor to recipes. Soak in cold water for few minutes to revive sunken leaves. Separate roots from leaves. Then, rinse once again in clean water and pat dry before using in cooking. Trim away thick fiber stems.
Run coconut in food processor till it becomes butter. SOS Most of the sites I’ve visited suggest 10 minutes in the food processor, but maybe its the miracle of my quick and speedy food processor, it took less than 1 minute for the butter to form. Remove from food processor and reserve. btw you’ll have coconut butter for this time and a few other times so keep the rest in the fridge.
Trim off the crusts from bread. I was looking for whole grain bread but I found an amazing new option. Quinoa bread that made excellent sandwiches. Sandwiches come out much better if bread has had a chance to harden slightly in the fridge overnight. That also helps when you are trying to trim crusts. Here is a good resource on cutting bread for different types of sandwiches. I went the triangle route.
Take 2 slices of bread & spread coconut butter on each. I used 1 tsp butter in all for 2 slices of bread, feel free to use less or more depending on your taste.
Lay watercress leaves on top of one of the buttered bread slices. Line cucumber slices on top of watercress.
Sprinkle ground mustard, black pepper and herbamare or salt. SOS Herbamare is a wonderful herbed salt available in costco.
Top with watercress.
Close sandwich with the 2nd buttered slice.
Cut sandwich in a diagonal so you end up with triangular sandwiches.
Suggested Pairing
May I suggest serving these absolutely delicious sandwiches with ginger clove chai. I ate one sandwich by itself and felt something missing. So even though I was longing to polish off the other, my patience in making myself that tea paid off. Best combination that.. cucumber watercress sandwich on coconut butter with ginger clove tea. Do try it out & let me know how you make out.
Fun facts
Sometimes Victoria is described as “a bit of Old England” because of its beautiful gardens. I checked out Beacon HIll Park & it was great to see greenery when Toronto trees have lost their leaves…
Here’s the historic Fairmont Empress where we stayed..
What’s more, Victoria is located on Vancouver Island, which is the biggest island on the west coast of North America. Its also the oldest city of Western Canada. Victoria averages 2200 hours of sunshine per year, now isn’t that interesting?
That’s 2200 hours to play sports, enjoy yourselves outdoors and have fun! Annually, it snows just about 10 inches, so no worries there, you don’t need a lot of warm jumpers and socks.It boasts an incredible boardwalk…
I hope you’ll also get a chance to visit lovely Victoria, but if you don’t rightaway, why not make yourself my contemporary take on a classic victorian sandwich..I’ll leave you with one last glimpse of the seaplane.
–soul of spice–
charuyoga 
Wow! It looks like you enjoyed weekend to fullest. Great trip and pictures!
It so was Vini. I was almost in tears when I had to return.. Victoria & Vancouver are breathtakingly beautiful places in the world. a must visit for anyone who loves nature..
OHH you stayed in the Empress!? How was it on the inside!?! Such a gorgeous building! I love the seaplane photos yay!! Andd this sandwich looks delicious!
One word! Awesome… I Do like the service at every single fairnont I’ve stayed but to be honest I didn’t spend a lot of time indoors. Instead hung out with the cool & laid back Victorians 😉 and drank in a lot of nature on walks. Next time I’d like to bike around….Again if anyone asked me on seaplane altitude I’d have no clue. I had my face pressed against the window looking out all the while when the pilot talked altitude;) the victorian inspired sandwiches were fun. Victoria must be easily the prettiest city I’ve ever seen!!!!
Wonderful pictures 🙂
Thank you.. Hope it gave you an idea of how gorgeous Victoria is..
So glad you enjoyed yourself in my town! But did you know…..Victoria is rumoured to be the most HAUNTED capital in North America!! Oh and did you get a chance to go out to Goldstream to see the salmon?
Oh Dear ! I didnt know that 🙂 really really wanted to go to goldstream but friends suggested it might be too late, & I would just see remains.. I guess you know this.. but do you know how LUCKY you are to be surrounded by nature in victoria.. Can’t wait to visit again..