Mackerel & Marmite sandwich

"Is this an April Fools' joke?" you ask.  Read on, friend, read on...

One of sitcom's all-time greatest characters, George Costanza in 'Seinfeld', is a man seemingly always on the hunt for a good sandwich. In fact 'Seinfeld' is a repository of food anecdotes - there's the episode featuring the muffin top, then there's the quest for the perfect rye bread, and the epic episode 4: season 9 titled 'Blood' in which the hilarity (not to mention aphrodisiacal qualities) of pastrami is revealed. Am sure bagels feature prominently in several episodes too.

Anyway, back to the sandwich. Who knows if George would approve of this eccentric concoction, but last weekend's barley bread had been gobbled up by Monday, so I was at a loss what to do for lunch today. Inspiration struck - as it does - while reading about Japanese Zen arts. No, I'm not going to bake a green tea bread, but I concluded there must be something to eat in the kitchen, thus saving a trip to the supermarket, or worse, to those ghastly sandwich chains. 

A brief rummage through the store cupboard revealed Swedish rye crispbread, Marmite... and then I remembered the tomato mackerel I picked up at the Scandinavian Kitchen last night (brain a little fuzzy today after the wine tasting). 

Eureka!

So today's luncheon is an umami-lover's sandwich, with restorative properties (headache all but gone now). Who said frugal eating was boring?!

Ingredients:

• couple of slices rye crispbread
• discrete coating of marmite
• tomato mackerel with extra ketchup 
• some fennel fronds from a fennel I bought (parsley, dill, etc. would also be great)

You could of course gild the lily by adding anchovies, worcester sauce and parmesan for a really explosive umami-hit. All I can say is the result was a success, and that I prefer marmite on rye crispbread to regular toast...so there you go, a happy fusion of Scandi and Anglo-Saxon flavours!  

Enough musings on the joys of a good sandwich, library seclusion awaits. 

Watch this space for hot cross buns over the weekend, in anticipation of Easter ;-)