Sandwich Tuesday: Low Carb Tea Time Tuna Lemon Dill Canapes

Hello LilyOnTheLam.Com Readers:


If you saw last Tuesday's blog post, you'll know that I have been taking 24-7 Low Carb Diner Blog's posted recipe for low carb coconut flour slider sandwich bread and adding my own twist to it.


I have been a wild inspired maniac trying different flavor combinations.  The spice and extracts cupboard has been ransacked!  This is some serious experimentation, people!


One of my absolute favorite vacations is spending a week sailing on the 65 foot trimaran Yacht Promenade in the British Virgin Islands (BVI).  (Read Captain Kerry's blog here.)  In Roadtown, Tortola, BVI - where the Yacht Promenade departs from - is a terrific spice and gift store called Sunny Caribee.  They have a great collection of spice mixes.  Their packaging is also very cute and makes great gifts.  Luckily they have a mail order store, so I do not have to fly to Tortola every time I need some spices!  (Although if you'd like to pay my airfare, I'd be glad to go on a spice run!)


One of my favorite features from Sunny Caribee is that many of their spice mixes come in refillable grinders.  I did not really pay attention to this until I gave my mother a ginger grinder.  My mother called me, all breathlessly excited and exclaimed: "And when the ginger is all used up, I CAN PUT WHATEVER I WANT INTO IT!  IT'S WONDERFUL!"  


Evidently, a refillable grinder had opened up a new world of joy, decadence and the omnipotent power of CHOICE for my Mother.  All that from a ginger grinder?  Who knew?  So if your mother is like my mother, you could expand her horizons or just all out blow her mind for the low cost of a Sunny Caribee spice grinder.  


In addition to the apparently earth-shattering refillable grinder, for me an added bonus of Sunny Caribee products is that many of their spice mixes are salt-free.  This is one of my biggest annoyances with local spice shops, every spice mix seems to be loaded with salt.  I want to add flavor, not sodium.  I remember one time I was making pizza (OK I was throwing some extra toppings on a frozen pizza).  I had another company's "Tuscan Herbs" grinder mill.  I love Italian seasonings, so I completely doused the top of the pizza in the lovely fresh ground green herbs before sliding it in the oven.  I then turned the grinder around and saw that the first ingredient was salt.  I had turned a perfectly gorgeous large pizza into a massive salt lick.  Ugh.  


My wicked paramour at the time, a rodent we shall call Sergio ... oops I mean a rat we shall call Sergio ... oops I mean a bug we shall call Sergio ... um you get the drift - Anyway Sergio was quite inebriated at the time - this was one of those 1 a.m. pizzas.  He wolfed it down but said "Um, it's kinda salty."  Understatement of the year.  I had taken one bite, had choked and spit it out.  Alcohol can't dull my taste buds' sense of salt!  Needless to say, I hate herb grinders that are filled with salt!  I have a smoked sea salt grinder, a regular sea salt grinder, a Black Hawaiian lava ash something something salt grinder and a Pink Himalayan something something salt grinder - I have lots of salt choices, so keep the salt out of my herbs PLEASE.  Hmmm, sodium-induced rage?  


My favorite Sunny Caribee spices/spice mixes are:  Paradise Pizzazz, Diablo (which does have salt but it is HOT HOT HOT fiery seasoning - use only a tiny bit unless your stomach is lined with asbestos!), Citrus Pepper Plus, Ginger Galore, Jerk Spice and Bloody Mary Mix.  Their "Boursin Bowl" comes with a wooden bowl, a canister of their top-selling Herb Pepper Blend Mix and a "Make Your Own Boursin" cheese recipe.  I have given this as a gift to several friends.  (Who doesn't love Boursin?)  


My all-time favorite Sunny Caribee spice mix (that I use ALL the time) is their salt-free Down Island Dill Spice Mix.  It is incredible and tastes good on everything!  The store also sells crafts, art and soaps.  If you are ever in Roadtown, Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, you have to check it out.  Otherwise check out their website.  I find the quality of spices from Sunny Caribee to be far superior to more expensive spice stores in the United States.     


While I wish I were sailing in the British Virgin Islands right now, I am instead in my kitchen ... rummaging through my spices to find flavor combinations for the coconut flour bread.  I spy my favorite Sunny Caribee Down Island Dill Spice Mix and I think "A-ha!  Lemon dill coconut flour bread!"  Unfortunately, I don't have a lemon and I am out of True Lemon packets.  But I did have a bottle of lemon extract.  I have absolutely no memory of purchasing this bottle of lemon extract, but I was glad to find it!  

So I decided to make a lemon dill version of the coconut flour bread recipe.  I added lemon extract and Sunny Caribee's Down Island Dill Seasoning Mix to the batter.      

I wasn't sure if the lemon extract would be too harsh a flavor.  Should I add sweetener to mellow it out?  Nah - let's live on the wild side (or the bitter side?)  Just the lemon extract and Down Island Dill spice mix, no sweetener.  I added a splash of lemon extract - no more than 1/4 a teaspoon.  I did not want to over-power the bread.  I did add a healthy dash of the Down Island Dill spice mix.  If you do not have Down Island Dill, it is a mix of dill, garlic, onion, sesame seeds and other spices.  I would add dill, a dash of garlic powder and a dash of onion powder as a substitute.  

I added the spices and extract to the egg, oil and cream in the coconut flour bread recipe before adding baking powder and coconut flour.  If I were making this lemon dill bread again, I would increase the amount of baking powder because as you will see later the "loaf" was small and lopsided.  I think the lemon extract might have counteracted some of the baking powder, so I would add an extra 1/8th a teaspoon of baking powder.

Speaking of teaspoons, have you seen my new measuring spoons?  If you said "Yes" to this question, I would have to respond with "Stop breaking into my home to check out my kitchen gadgets!  Crazy stalkers!"  

A long time ago, I purchased Matryoshka (Russian Nesting Dolls) Measuring Cups in white from the MoMA Design Store.  Then in February this year, I was in New York City to see Kevin Spacey in Richard III at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.  No trip to New York City is complete without a shopping stop at Pearl River.  I was extremely excited to see that Pearl River also sold the Matryoshka Measuring Cups.  However not only did they carry the white ones that the MoMA Design Store sold, but they had the measuring cups in RED as well!! 

Friends, I have a confession to make.  My name is Lily and I am a shopaholic.  I HAD to have the red measuring cups.  HAD TO.  HAD TO NOW.  It was an urgent, ardent, burning desire that had to be fulfilled.  I rationalized that having the RED Matryoshka dolls were actually more culturally authentic.  "It's an homage to Soviet Russia!", my shopping voice reasoned.  Heaven forbid I turn my back on the opportunity to salute a fallen Communist regime!  My purchasing choices could be construed as a political affront to Mother Russia!  I had no choice - it was extremely important to the global political climate that I buy the red Matryoshka Measuring Cups.  We have world peace thanks to me and my credit card. 

(Side Note #1:  Another amazing trip I took- was over two weeks long where we visited Latvia, Russia, Estonia, Sweden and Finland.  Russia was wild and amazing and beyond most anything I had experienced.  Every morning, our tour manager played Boney M's "Rasputin."  When I was a kid, I was obsessed with World War II History as well as the reign of the last Czar of Russia - the Imperial Romanov family.  Yeah, yeah, I was a big nerd (still am!)  I knew all about Rasputin and  the multiple assassination attempts before they finally succeeded in killing him.  But this damn song is now what I think of whenever I hear "Rasputin."  Thanks a lot Matt, tour manager from Western Australia - you've emotionally scarred me for life!)

 

(Side Note #2:  Miss C. is now the proud owner of my white Matryoshka Measuring Cups.  So not only did I salute a fallen Communist Nation and restore world peace, but I helped a friend out who had some sort of weird measuring cup accident.  I don't remember all the details, I just know something happened to one of her measuring cups.  Maybe said lost measuring cup became involved in one of those kidnap for ransom schemes... you never know with my friends.)  

I was all set with the red measuring cups in my hot little shopaholic hands when I saw something that made my credit card dance inside my purse.  Pearl River also sold Fred & Friends Matryoshka Measuring Spoons ("M-Spoons") and a Fred & Friends Matryoshka storage container plasticware set ("Store-M's")!!  WHAT?  MORE MATRYOSHKA STUFF?  MINE, MINE, MINE - HAVE TO HAVE IT, MINE, MINE, MINE!    

As you may have surmised ... I bought the M-Spoons and the Store-M's ... Matryoshka Mania!  It was honestly a necessity.  How could I measure out coconut flour with just a plain old measuring spoon?  You feel my pain, don't you?  Anyway so that is the perfectly rational, perfectly not going to be starring on an A&E Reality show story behind my measuring spoons.  (And I love them!!) 


For the record, I learned while finding the links for the items I just mentioned that Fred & Friends also has a Matryoshka water carafe and kitchen timer.  I have had to take several deep breaths and do a mind focusing exercise to keep me from grabbing my credit card and ordering them online.  It's been a struggle, but I am hanging in there.  Thank you for your prayers and demonstrations of love and support.  Sigh ... I will not buy the water carafe and kitchen timer ... I will not buy the water carafe and kitchen timer...


Away from my insanity and back to the BREAD.  I took the following picture of this mug right after it came out of the microwave.  The steam made it hazy ... it's like my lemon dill coconut flour bread requested a blurry shot to avoid showing its wrinkles.  Who knew my lemon dill coconut flour bread was such a diva Hollywood star?

When I removed the "loaf" from the cup, it was smaller than previous loaves I have made.  It was also floppy and slightly caved in.  It smelled wonderful, but it wasn't winning any points in the looks department.  You'll never be a star, lemon dill loaf!  Ahh sure, you'll play the best friend's frumpy wife or Shoe Store Clerk #3 ... but you'll never play THE LEAD.  You're all washed up in this town before you even started, lemon dill loaf!  

Oh wait, in my kitchen- smell and most importantly, TASTE win out over looks ... lemon dill loaf, there might just be a part for you in my play after all.  The title of my play?  "Lily Eats Lunch."

My new rule with working with coconut flour bread is to make the loaf ahead of time, let it completely cool and dry out a bit.  The reason I do this is that the "bread" tends to have a cake-like texture, so I am doing whatever I can to make it more like bread and less like cake.  I find that drying out the very moist bread overnight, slicing it thin and toasting it before use helps make it seem more like a wheat flour bread.  I made this bread the day before.  You can see in the picture below that I didn't tap the mug to get rid of air bubbles before I "baked" it in the microwave.  Listen, if my food pictures were perfect I'd question why I was not working as a top food photographer ... so in my food pic imperfection, I am actually illustrating that I made the correct career choice vs. trying to be a food photographer.  My career?  Rodeo barrel clown.  (Or is it barrel rodeo clown?  Or rodeo clown in a barrel?) 

I was really happy that the dill was so evenly distributed within the baked coconut flour bread.  (I am less happy admitting that proper dill distribution makes me really happy.)

I toasted the lemon dill bread to further dry out the bread and try to add a slight crunch.  (Picture above - untoasted and sad.  Picture below - toasted and golden - everyone looks better with a tan!)

I took a can of tuna packed in water and drained it.  My cats climbed on top of each other to build a tower of cats to try to swat the remains of the tuna juice out of my hands.  My kitchen is like wandering into a cat ninja hideout.  Always keep your wits about you and don't forget your nunchucks.  You never know when a gang of roving cats are going to take you down.  That's pretty much my life's philosophy.   


After appeasing the cats by giving them the drained "tuna juice," I added 1 teaspoon of my basil lime mayonnaise and a few shakes of dried onion pieces.  Only add dry onion if you're going to let the tuna salad sit in the fridge for awhile - allowing the onion time to soften up.  Otherwise you will bite down on hard onion bits.  Unless you're into that- and if so, more power to you!  


I normally would also add more Down Island Dill to the tuna salad, but I left it out to see if I could taste the dill in the coconut flour bread.  I really liked the flavor of this bread.  Some may prefer putting a packet of sweetener in the batter, but I liked it just the way it was.  Next time I make this recipe, I'd like to try putting in a packet of True Lemon and/or some lemon zest to really intensify the lemon flavor.  I would put more dill in the batter too or fresh dill.  


I put the tuna salad in-between the two slices of lemon dill bread, but then decided I'd rather have two open-faced canapés instead.

Here are my two lovely open-faced "Low Carb Tea Time Tuna Lemon Dill Canapes."  I call them "Tea Time" because on the first taste of this open-faced sandwich I thought "Wow, this tastes like something I would have at a tea room."  The lemon and dill flavors really makes this little slider seem more rich and "deluxe" than just a regular old open-faced mini sandwich ... hence the "canapé" title.  If I were throwing a party, I'd whip up several different flavors of seasoned coconut flour bread.  I'd then slice the loaves thin - toast or fry the slices- and serve with a variety of toppings.  Cute, savory and lush tasting cocktail appetizers or tea snacks.  Fancy, fancy, fancy - and better yet, easy, easy, easy to make!   

    
Sure my particular tuna canapés may not be the most pretty to look at - if I were a food stylist, I would have tried to pipe the tuna salad in a lovely little swirly tower and added sprigs of fresh dill on top of them as a garnish.  But the tag line of LilyOnTheLam.com is "Hi, my name is Lily - and I'm the world's worst food stylist/food photographer."  Maybe I should put that in the header for this blog.  Truth in advertising, people!


I am crazy about this lemon dill coconut flour bread (and matryoshka doll kitchen gadgets too)!  If you decide to try this recipe, please let me know your thoughts about it in the comments section.

P.S.  I wrote this blog post several weeks before I posted it online.  Talking about Sunny Caribee and how much the Yacht Promenade is one of my favorite vacations to take EVER really made me miss sailing with Captains Kerry and Bazza on their gorgeous 65 foot trimaran.  About a week after I wrote this blog post, I emailed Captain Kerry and booked a cabin for 10 nights in 2013.  I will be counting the days!  So look forward to some British Virgin Islands LilyOnTheLam.com blog posts in 2013! 

Disclaimer - I do not receive any compensation for saying how much I love Yacht Promenade and Sunny Caribee in the blog post above.  It's a pure love from my heart!  (And my honest, uncompensated opinion.)

However regarding Google Affiliate Ads (see box below), if you do buy anything from the Google Affiliate Ads; I may be eligible for some sort of tiny finder's fee ... so reader consider yourself advised ... Lily likes money to fund her shopping trips, so a little blog advertising is necessary ...

Too bad Google Affiliate Ads do not have Russian Nesting Doll Measuring Spoons... but here's some cute heart ones instead.