The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tiny sandwiches, made for tea time
Kim Jordy, the proprietress of the whimsical Tea Leaves & Thyme tearoom in Woodstock, has mastered the art of the tea sandwich.
At afternoon tea in Jordy’s historic Victorian cottage-turned-restaurant on Woodstock’s Main Street, guests who come to sip tea from delicate china cups can also munch on ethereal little finger sandwiches that disappear in a bite or two.
Jordy, who learned how to serve a proper tea from her English mother, concocts traditional cucumber sandwiches from rounds of ultra-thin white bread layered with minty cream cheese, a curlicue of sour cream and a snip of radish. They are as precious and artfully constructed as sushi and petit fours.
Not that her tea-sandwich repertoire stops there, by any means.
She also slathers bread with ham salad, pimento cheese and chicken salad, trims off the crusts and slices them triangles and rectangles, some with multiple layers. For the children, there are bunny-shaped bites stuffed with a raspberry-cream cheese filling. “Its little bottom has been dipped in chocolate,” Jordy says of her lapine-wich, an image that causes me to giggle.
Over the years, I’ve taken the occasional high tea at frilly hotels like The Dorchester in London and The St. Regis Atlanta in Buckhead. But until just recently, I hadn’t put much thought into the diminutive sandwiches that appear on tiered trays alongside scones, tarts, macarons and other dainties wherever afternoon tea is served, from Manchester to Melbourne.
That is, until I espied the Deviled Ham Tea Sandwiches that chefs Kevin Gillespie and Andreas Muller have served since opening the doors of Revival, Gillespie’s home-style Southern restaurant in Decatur, two years ago.
When Gillespie created his sweet, mustard-spiked deviled ham, he wasn’t thinking of ladies in hats and white gloves. It was a tribute to the menfolk in his family.
“That recipe is one that my dad and his brothers would make to take with us when we would go hunting and fishing,” Gillespie says. “I always loved it, even though we only ever had it on saltines. I started to play around with it as a tea sandwich in an effort to church it up a bit more.”
Gillespie and his team dab the ham spread onto warm buttered rectangles carved from white pullman loaves. Sure enough, when I mixed up a batch of the devilishly delicious ham, it reminded me of the quick, pickup-truck lunches my dad used to scarf down on our South Georgia farm when I was a kid.
Though the Revival creation has been the gateway drug of tea sandwiches for me, I’ve since discovered other memorable versions all over town.
At Tipple + Rose Tea Parlor and Apothecary in Virginia-Highland, Chef Calavino Donati makes chef-y modern creations like the Tea-Brined Duck Salad Tea Sandwich she features on special holiday menus. She also whips up her own “Boursin,” a mixture of cream cheese, goat cheese, feta and herbs, and smears it on delicate cucumber and smoked salmon sandwiches stuffed with arugula or watercress.
I thought the duck salad — made from a whole roasted duck that’s first submerged overnight in a bath of Lapsang Souchong tea, brown sugar and soy sauce — a bit too complicated for home cooks. But you can find it at Tipple + Rose on Easter, Mother’s Day and other special occasions.
I did try Donati’s Smoked Salmon and Home-made “Boursin” Tea Sandwich and her oldfashioned Deviled Egg Salad and found them both divine.
On a recent Sunday morning, I got in the kitchen and stamped out a bunch of Jordy’s cucumber sandwiches, plus her sweet little treat of pineapple, cream cheese and pecans spread on triangles of cinnamon-raisin bread. I put some of Gillespie’s deviled ham on circles of squishy white bread and dusted the tiny sandwiches with herbs.
And I remembered Jordy’s tea-sandwich tips.
Never put wet cucumber or tomato directly on bread, or you’ll make a soggy mess. Instead, use a fat-based spread (butter, cream cheese, mayo) to serve as a barrier between bread and wet ingredients. The sandwiches will travel better and last longer.
But not too long. They are quite addictive and tend to vanish quickly.
For parties, teas, ladies lunches, showers, funeral gatherings and afternoon snacking, there’s nothing like a good tea sandwich. You can keep it as simple as prosciutto and butter. Or doll it up with curried chicken salad or chilled shrimp with dill mayo, and it will be fit for the Queen of England.
Just be sure to trim the crusts, make a pot of tea and hold your pinky high. Finger foods with a nice brew combine for a proper outing.