Avocado-Egg Salad & Poached Salmon Sandwich

Succulent poached salmon and eggs combined with creamy avocado, sautéed onions and fresh basil makes a substantial sandwich. The ingredients all blend together perfectly to create a gourmet-tasting experience. This sandwich takes a little work to prepare, but is not short on taste. It can be served warm or chilled.



How to cook a perfect hard-cooked egg: Place egg (or eggs) in a saucepan with sufficient cold water to cover the egg to a depth of about 1 inch. Cover and bring water just to boiling point. Remove from heat and let stand 15-20 minutes. Cool immediately in ice water to reduce the formation of a dark ring around the yolk where the white meets the yolk.



Note: Sandwiches taste best if the bread is fresh and sliced as thinly as possible. Chill an unsliced loaf of bread in refrigerator for a few hours if you want to slice it thinly, but be sure to wrap it well in waxed paper so that it will not dry out.



Makes: 4 sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 5 hard-cooked eggs, peeled
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 Tbs. chopped fresh basil
• 1 Tbs. minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 2 avocado, peeled, diced 
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 8 thin slices bread, toasted if desired (I used my fresh baked amaranth honey bread)
• 8 small basil leaves

For the poached salmon:

• 2 (about 12 oz.) skinned salmon fillet
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 2 Tbsp. dry white wine
• 1 tsp thyme

Directions:

To poach the salmon, fill medium shallow saucepan or skillet with enough water to cover about two-thirds of the salmon fillet. Bring water to a gentle boil over medium heat. Add the wine, thyme, salt, pepper and salmon, cook 10 minutes or until salmon just begins to flake. Remove salmon from poaching water and cool. Flake into bite-sized pieces.

In a sauté pan over medium heat, warm the olive oil. Add the onion and sauté for 3-5 minutes until light brown.

Dice the eggs into a bowl. Add the mayonnaise, avocado, spices, herbs, lemon juice and sautéed onions, mix to combine evenly.

To make each sandwich, top a slice of bread with basil leaves, then put about one-fourth of the avocado-egg salad and then sprinkle with herbs. Spread the poached salmon on the remaining 4 bread slices, and serve as an open-faced sandwich or put two slices together and cut in half.

Serve with fresh tomatoes or greens.