There are plenty of Sushi rice recipes on this blog, so I won't repeat myself, and this is just an idea. I used lots of seaweed, nori, seaweed salad and a Japanese dried seaweed that looks like the wrapping of a scary mummy.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

I first created these cute sandwiches about 20 years ago in Japan, the lack of brown bread there meant that every time we had a party I was really keen to offer something that was rare - yet not expensive (I was able to buy pumpernickel, cream cheese and edible flowers in an international deli) so that I could make plenty and feed large crowds.

Yesterday I held a fundraiser tea party with Slow Food Waitakere for Oxfam, and decided to make my flower sandwiches again, also as a topic of conversation (are they sweet or savory? Can you eat the flowers? What kind of bread is this?). All you need is pumpernickel (this comes from Germany and it is already sliced), cream cheese (like Philadelphia), fresh herbs (I used chives and basil), a pinch of salt, and lots of edible flowers, micro greens or seed sprouts. 

Chop the herbs and mix with the cream cheese (add a little milk to make it spreadable) and a pinch of salt. Spread the herb cheers over three layers of pumpernickel (including the to payer) and stack. Cut into the desired size. Top with edible flowers and leaves.

This was part of the first station of our tea party: the herbal tea corner, with different hot and cold herbal teas, rose and orange biscuits, strawberry meringues and scones with cream and jam.

But we also had an English High Tea table, with leaf Indian tea, cupcakes, club sandwiches, asparagus rolls, and more scones, meringues and chocolates.

Then in the kitchen there was more or an Italian fare with bread and focaccia, Italian biscuits, orange cake and chocolate cake… and coffee!

The last room was for the Japanese tea party, I forgot to take a photo during the preparations, fortunately Regina got this one, with guests! Here we had mango agar agar, brown rice crackers, Japanese sweets with bean paste, nashi and persimmons, and green tea.

 

You can see them in the deli department of all the supermarkets, little red peppers stuffed with feta, and they are not cheap! But mostly, if you have a big party they go too quickly! But for a fraction of the deli price you can buy a couple of jars of sweet pickled peppers and a block of creamy feta, and then you just need a few herbs from the garden, and a little milk to thin down the feta. And a bit of patience!

Cut the feta (goat or cow) and place in a bowl, then with a fork start to mix it, adding some milk until you have a paste as thick as Greek yogurt. If you cannot find feta cheese, or for a milder flavor, use cream cheese. Chop some herbs like basil, dill, chives and/or parsley (or what you have fresh in the garden). You can use just one herb or a mixture of herbs. Or you can use an already flavoured feta, or dried spices like black pepper and cumin seeds (a combo that I particularly like with cream cheese). 

Mix the herbs with the feta mixture. In the meantime drain the pickled peppers and place open side down on a plate to drain all their liquid for 30 minutes or so. Then with a teaspoon fill all the peppers with a little feta mixture. This take time but it isn't difficult, as the cheese mixture is soft and will 'pour' easily inside the little peppers. Finally refrigerate everything for a few hours (better overnight) so that the feta mixture will set, and serve as an antipasto or canapés. Leftover feta mixture can be used as a dip.