WATERCRESS SANDWICHES

What You Need

1/2 bunch of finely-chopped watercress
50g of salted butter
4 slices of pumpernickel bread

Here’s How

Put the watercress and softened butter into a food processor and blend. Remove and roll into a cylindrical shape inside a piece of greaseproof paper. Place in the refrigerator to chill. Once chilled, open it up and slice into pats. To serve, spread them on large pieces of pumpernickel bread or serve one pat per small round of pumpernickel. You can use this watercress butter over fish, grilled meat or vegetables – even mashed potatoes too. It’s absolutely delicious.

There is something wondrous about bitter green leaves like watercress. The Romans believed that eating them created a sensation of prickly nostrils, which in turn brought about a burst of vitality. In fact their experience of this sensation, which came as a result of eating watercress, was so great that they named this green vegetable nasturtium which in Latin means ‘torment of the nose’. The name has long remained. The official name for the kind of watercress we use to make sandwiches is Nasturtium officinale.

What could be more traditional for high tea than watercress sandwiches? Maybe part of the reason for this is not only watercress’s stimulating properties, but the fact that it goes with just about anything from avocados and cucumbers to potatoes, cheeses and anchovies – even pears, apples and plums do well garnished with watercress. I like to make my watercress sandwiches on very thin pumpernickel bread. They are far more delicious than the usual over-processed, floppy white that is traditionally used for making tea sandwiches.

Watercress sandwiches are just about as traditional as you can get. And little wonder, for watercress is one of Europe’s oldest salad stuffs. Even the Greek playwright Aristophanes wrote about watercress, insisting that it carries strength and courage in its nature, and anyone who eats it can draw on these two virtues. In biblical times, watercress was considered one of the bitter herbs of the Passover – used to remind the Jews of their time of enslavement.

In Britain watercress has grown wild for hundreds of years at the edges of free-flowing streams. Sadly, this delicious water-loving plant is no longer something you want to gather wild unless you’re very sure of the purity of the water in which it grows Increased pollution in our waters and the possibility of stagnation increases the risk of liver fluke and of toxicity in the plant.

I use watercress with just about everything from potatoes to baked vegetables such as parsnips, beetroot, red and yellow peppers. I think it goes beautifully with oranges, lemons, grapes and pears in fruit salads. I’ve even been known to chop it finely and sprinkle it over fruit coulis, both for its color and because its bitter flavor counteracts the sweetness.

Watercress is easy to prepare for sandwiches. You simply chop it fine and mix it into softened butter, then chill. You can use this butter also over meat and fish as well as spreading it on bread for open-faced sandwiches. I usually sprinkle mine with coarsely-ground black pepper.

Watercress also makes great soup. Even putting it to boil in a good soup stock with some potatoes, lots of garlic and a bit of olive oil, then puréeing the lot makes a soup to delight everyone.

Watercress salads too are great. I like nothing better than to use watercress itself – if it’s fresh and young – as a salad on its own. I don’t even bother to tear the leaves off, but I use the whole stems as well, served with a vinaigrette dressing and freshly-slivered Parmesan on top, with lots of freshly-ground red peppercorns and some Maldon sea salt. Like red mustard, mustard leaf, rocket and wild rocket, watercress adds a hot, tangy quality to almost anything you serve it with.