Ħobż Biż-Żejt – The Best Sandwich Nobody’s Heard Of (Spring Recipe)

In this video, I explain the traditional Maltese sandwich, hobz biz zejt, and recreate it with my own seasonal twist using fresh spring ingredients like broad beans, green garlic, and preserved artichokes. I also add mackerel for a more sustainable seafood alternative to the typical canned tuna.

Ingredients I used:
Broad beans (fava beans, ful)
Green garlic
Maltese olives
Kalamata olives
Capers
Preserved artichokes
Mint leaves
Ftira (Maltese bread) (you can sue ciabatta or sourdough)
Bidni extra virgin olive oil
Xwejni flaky sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

If you love Mediterranean flavors, seasonal cooking, or traditional recipes with a modern twist, this is the sandwich you need to try!

If you liked the video and want to see more videos like this please like, comment or subscribe to let me know and I’ll make more of it 🙂

Hops biz literally translates to bread with oil. But it is so much more than that. It’s effectively the national sandwich of Malta. It is one of the best sandwiches in the world or at the very least it is one of the best or the best sandwich that nobody has heard of. Of course, I’m incredibly biased. If you didn’t know, I am Maltes. And for those of you out there who think that Maltes is just a type of dog, this is a map of the world. This is a map of Europe. And this this is Malta. And now that we’ve got that geography lesson covered, let’s talk sandwiches. As I mentioned before, the base of the sandwich is a combination of really good bread, really good olive oil, and typically some sort of tomato product. Whether that be a smooshed on fresh tomato or really good quality conserva or tomato paste. Um, that is the foundation of the sandwich. Another really common addition is canned tuna. Typically a bunch of pickles. So usually capers or olives, uh jardinera is a popular one, pickled onions, some sort of pickle and fresh components. So that could be herbs like basil mint. I found lettuce you find like random vegetables people like to put in beans like kidney beans or butter beans. There’s a ton of different variations depending on how you like to make it and where you buy it from. So today I’m going to make my own variation on this beloved sandwich. We’re going to use some amazing springtime ingredients. I’m going to prepare them hopefully in a way that you have not seen before. And I’m going to teach you both how to make a really good classic Hobsbate in the process of this, but also how to use fresh seasonal produce in a way that makes sense and that I think could be really delicious in this sandwich. I am super excited to make the sandwich. So, we’re going to jump straight into it and start with broad beans or as we call them malties fool. This is going to be one of the big flavors inside of the sandwich and a way which we’re deviating from the norm. So, let’s jump straight into it. Start by removing the outer shell of the broad beans by splitting them down the middle and nudging the beans out. Then using your fingernails or a small knife, break open the second shell and retrieve the tender little bean inside. These fresh beans are sweet and tender and delicious, but you can use frozen ones in a pinch. Next, I’m slicing up some green garlic, but if you don’t have this, regular garlic will work just as well. Now, I would usually boil fafa beans, but this time I’m getting a pan nice and hot before drizzling it generously with olive oil and sauteing my beans with a generous pinch of salt. While these cook, let’s quickly run through the rest of our ingredients. For some salty vinegary punch, I’m using some juicy local olives, some calamata olives for a little contrast, and some capers, which are like little explosions of briney deliciousness. These are all common additions for hubs biz. But I’ve also got some preserved artichokes which I’m roughly chopping up which should not only taste delicious but it also feels very seasonally appropriate. Back to our beans. I cook these for 2 to 3 minutes tossing regularly before adding my green garlic and sautéing for a couple more minutes. At this point it is time to assemble our sandwich. For my bread I’m using a multisiraa, but you can use something like a chabata or a couple slices of sourdough. It’ll work just as well. To this we are spreading plenty of tomato paste. Also try to find a good brand here. Outside of the Mediterranean, I’ve tasted some really lowquality tomato paste which just do not do the job here. The local stuff is sweet and savory and delicious. And so I spread this out edge to edge. Now arguably the most important ingredient here is our olive oil. I’m using a local endemic maltese oil which I adore and I’m being very liberal with it and following up with some salt and pepper on both sides. Now, while canned tuna is the norm here, I am substituting it with canned macro. I love the flavor and richness of this fish, and I’ve never used it in a hobb before, so this should be interesting. Next to our briney powerhouses, to the stone and olive, just pinch the center and pull it out. I like nice big chunks of olive, so I just roughly tear the meat into quarters. I’m a big fan of the salty ingredient here, so I add roughly five olives and maybe eight to 10 capers in the sandwich, as well as loads of preserved artichoke. I’m also of the opinion that soft herbs are a must inside the sandwich. So, I opt for lots of torn mint that I think would complement the rest of the ingredients, especially the beans perfectly well. These additional ingredients also deserve a generous doussing of olive oil and a couple grinds of black pepper for good measure. Now, when people add beans, they usually add a few beans to a hops. But here, I wanted to have loads of these delicious morsels in every bite. So, I added a considerable amount to the sandwich. And that’s it. The sandwich is done. Well, almost. I gave the sandwich a bit of a squish so that the layers can intermingle a little bit before we dig into it. And also, if you give it a squish and it sounds like a juicy boy, you’ve done this right. And here we have it. The sandwich is finally ready. And I am so excited to dig in. First things first, let’s talk about the beans. Now, this is the first time I have tried this technique. Massive thank you to Ivon Jordan who gave me the inspiration to try this out. Usually, I blanched them, but by sautéing them, you get like a little bit of a crust on the outside with a ton of really nice flavor, especially the garicky flavor, a really nice creamy bean inside. And while I’m not usually a fan of the usual butter beans or kidney beans or whatever kind of bean inside of Hobbs Biz, I think that this would be delicious. But there’s only one way to find out. So, let’s dig in. So, it has everything that I know and love about the usual habitate. The brininess from the capers and the olives, sort of accentuated a little bit by those preserved artich chokes. That was kind of a first for me. Love them. The canned mackerel. Usually I use canned tuna, but we overfish the crap out of tuna. Mackerel is a much more sustainable alternative. And you do not miss the tuna. It provides the same thing. If anything, this is a little bit fattier, a little bit oilier. just works so well with the sandwich. The I won’t call it the star of the show because the the sandwich itself, the bread, the tomato, the olive oil, that is the star of the show. But the beans, what an amazing supporting grow. Usually people just use like canned kidney beans or canalini beans or butter beans, whatever. And they add sort of like a almost like a graininess to the sandwich. I don’t mind them because I love beans. Beans are great. But this Oh, the green garlic adds such a nice flavor. The beans are like creamy but have a little bit of texture to them. the mint perfectly seasoned everything. Like I cannot say enough good things about this sandwich. Now, if you’ve never had a hobb, just have the basic barebones hobbs. So, tomato, oil, bread, some olives, some capers, salt, pepper, maybe some herbs. That’s kind of all you need. But this variation absolutely turn. I am super super happy with it. But yeah, that’s the sandwich. I loved making this episode. So, I’m definitely going to be doing more sort of like of my own personal takes and maybe seasonal variations on dishes that I love and maybe local dishes if that’s something that you guys are interested in. Thank you so so much for watching. If you’d like to see me make some amazing plates of pasta, both simple and complicated, you can check this video out here. Please subscribe if you haven’t already and you enjoyed this video. But thank you for watching and I’ll catch you in the next one. Bye. Dirty, dirty sandwich.