This combination is irresistible – golden fried bread, creamy, soft, spiced potato, obediently melting cheese, all given a greedy slick of fresh ginger and chilli sauce, green as grass and hot as you can bear.
There isn’t a better toasted cheese sandwich than this one. Chaat masala is pretty crucial here and readily available from Indian superstores or online (you could use garam masala, but it won’t have the same tang). Sour, salty and hot, chaat masala is the transformative pinch to many different Indian dishes, and here, it is insanely good with the cheese and the chutney. Saturday lunch just got a whole lot better.
Ingredients
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tsp unsalted butter, softened, plus
300g (10½oz) new potatoes, peeled and cut into large bite-size pieces
big pinch of salt, plus ½ tsp
1 small bunch of coriander
(cilantro), leaves picked and roughly chopped
1 tbsp grated (shredded) fresh ginger
juice of 1 lemon
1 clove of garlic, thinly sliced
1–2 green chillies, finely sliced (remove the seeds if you want less heat)
200g (7oz) cheddar, gloucester or gouda cheese, thinly sliced
½ cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced
4 tomatoes, thinly sliced
2 tbsp chaat masala, plus optional more to serve
Method
Heat the oil and butter in a medium saucepan over a moderate heat. Add the mustard seeds and fry until they just begin to pop and dance around. Add the diced onion and cook for about 5 minutes, until soft and beginning to turn a touch golden.
Add the potatoes, the big pinch of salt and 200ml (7fl oz) of water and cover the pan. Cook for 10 minutes, then uncover and cook for a further 10–15 minutes, until the potatoes are soft and the water has evaporated. Drain well and spread the potatoes out on a plate to cool. In a food processor, blitz the coriander (cilantro), ginger, lemon juice, garlic, green chilli and the ½ teaspoon of salt to form a smooth chutney (add a splash of water to loosen, if necessary).
Butter the bread slices generously on one side, then turn them over and spread with some of the green chutney on the other side. Build up sandwiches (with the buttered side of the bread facing outward) with cheese, cooked potato, sliced onion, cucumber, tomato, and a big pinch of the chaat masala. Top each filling with another slice of bread, buttered side facing outward.
Fry the sandwiches in a large, dry frying pan (skillet) over a moderate heat, turning occasionally, until golden all over and the cheese is beginning to melt (or you can use a toastie maker if you have one).
Remove from the heat and serve the sandwiches with any remaining green.
This originally appeared on House & Garden UK.
