So last night I tweeted this pic of my dinner, a scampi sandwich with homemade tartare sauce and then was flooded with responses on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Some shocked that I would put scampi in a sandwich, which seems odd as they are perfectly happy with a fish finger sandwich, most now with hardcore cravings for scampi or fish finger sandwiches, but also many wanting to know how I do my tartare sauce, well I cheat.

If you want to make your own mayonnaise from scratch for this then Nigel Slater has a good recipe but if I’m having a scampi sandwich for tea it means I’m tired and time short and need some quick comfort food and not to be faffing about making my own mayo, which to be fair I never bother with anyway at the best of times.

Ingredients:

• handful of good frozen whole tail scampi
• few leaves of iceberg or gem lettuce
• sliced cucumber
• 2 slices of bread (don’t go posh here, go for a squishy one rather than crusty one)
• tartare sauce (see below)

Tartare sauce:

• 2 heaped tablespoons mayonnaise
• 10 cornichons, chopped
• 1 heaped tablespoon mini capers (the larger ones are too vinegary)
• juice and finely grated zest of half a lemon
• handful chopped parsley
• half a finely diced shallot (I love onion in sandwiches)
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon garlic infused creamed horseradish (from The Garlic Farm)
• freshly ground black pepper
• pinch smoked sea salt to taste

Method:

1. I prefer to oven roast my scampi to avoid an oily sandwich but cook as you prefer until golden and crispy.
2. Make the tartare sauce by simply stirring everything together.
3. Spread a layer of tartare on each bit of bread then a layer of lettuce, cucumber and then scampi, top with the other slice of bread, slice in half and behold the wonder of an epic scampi sandwich.