Breaking bread

Give the regular sandwich a fun twist with these easy recipes, which are perfect for breakfast, lunch or even to satiate a midnight craving

Open-faced egg & mushroom sandwich

Ingredients

• Egg - 1
• Button mushrooms - 1 cup
• Dijon mustard - 1-2 tbsp
• Onion - 1 small
• Chilli cheese sauce (can be replaced with any herbed cheese spread) - 3 tbsp
• Seven seeds mix (can use any seeds of your choice or skip) - 1 tbsp
• Feta cheese - 2-3 cubes/tbsp
• Butter - 1 tbsp
• Chilli oil - 1 tsp
• Microgreens or any other fresh herbs of your choice
• Bread of your choice - Sourdough, sandwich bread, anything works
• Hot water - 1/2 cup
• Salt and pepper

Method

• Horizontally slice the onion. Add butter to a non-stick pan and add the sliced onion. Add 1/2tsp salt and saute the onions until they turn brown. Keep aside.
• Cut mushrooms into half, add it to the pan, add little salt and saute for a minute. Add Dijon mustard and mix well to coat the mushrooms thoroughly. Cook them until they start sticking slightly and browning starts. Remove the pan and keep it aside.
• To make poached egg - break one egg in half a cup of hot water and microwave it for 30-40 seconds.
• Toast the bread slice in a toaster until brown and slightly crisp.
• Spread chilli cheese sauce or any other herbed cheese generously on the slice.
• Spread the mushrooms and onions on the slice generously covering the entire slice.
• Add the poached egg on top, sprinkle salt and pepper and a little chilli oil.
• Crumble fresh feta on top and finally top it with microgreens and seven seeds mix.

- Sneha Vachhaney (@snehavachhaney on Instagram)

Roast beef sandwich

Ingredients

• Beef (undercut, single piece of even thickness) - 400 gm
• Tomatoes - 2 medium-sized thinly sliced
• Arugula - 1 small bunch
• Leaf lettuce - 1 small bunch
• Pickles (optional)
• Italian basil (optional)
• Classic mayonnaise - 6 tbsp
• Red Fresno chillies - 3-4
• Onion - 1 small
• Garlic - 6-8 pods
• Kasundi mustard - 4 tbsp
• Ghee/white butter - 2 tbsp
• Red wine - 1?2 cup
• Whipping cream - 1 tbsp
• Salt
• Fresh black pepper
• Bread used: Mini baguette

Method

For the beef

• Preheat oven to 200°C. Season the beef with salt and a generous amount of freshly cracked black pepper. Let it rest for 15 to 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, heat a cast iron skillet on a high flame. Add the ghee into the skillet followed by the garlic and rosemary. Place the meat onto the rosemary and as much of the garlic as you can. Sear the meat until it’s brown on all sides (this should take about two minutes on each side, so about 6-8 minutes in total depending on how rare or well done you like your beef.)
• Put the skillet into the oven and let it cook for 20 minutes at 200 degrees C.
• Remove the skillet after 20 minutes and let the meat rest at room temperature for another 20 minutes. Wrap the meat tightly in aluminium foil and let it rest in the fridge for 4-6 hours at least, ideally overnight.
• Remove it from the fridge an hour to 90 minutes before you wish to assemble the sandwich. Slice the meat into half- centimetre wide pieces. Cut against the grain, otherwise the sandwich can get stringy.

For the sauce

• Once the beef is in the fridge, put the skillet back on the stove on medium heat, discard the rosemary. Pour in the red wine and deglaze the pan. Make sure you get all the bits stuck to the bottom.
• When the wine begins to thicken and all the bits are off the pan, turn off the flame and add the cream and stir it in until you have a nice rich brown sauce.

For the mayonnaise

• Chop the onions and Fresno chillies into fine pieces. Add a little salt and pepper. Mix this into the mayonnaise.

Assembly

• Make a deep slit in the bread all the way through leaving just enough to ensure the bread doesn’t separate into two halves.
• Spread the mayonnaise on the bottom side, and kasundi mustard on the top. Lay out the sliced tomatoes. Lay out the sliced beef.
• Pour the sauce over the beef. A couple of leaves of Arugula and lettuce. Pickles and basil leaves. Some fresh black pepper if you like.
• Close the bread.

- Bharavi (@thishappenedinmykitchen on Instagram)

Dessert sandwich

Ingredients

• Soft bread/buns - 2 slices
• Peanut butter -1 tbsp
• Nutella or any chocolate spread - 1tbsp
• Chunky fruit preserve -1 tbsp
• Banana - 1 small
• Strawberries or apples - 4 or 1/2 respectively
• Sprinkling of sea salt

Method

• Slice the bun into 3 portions
• Layer bun 1 with peanut butter and dot it with chunky fruit preserves/ marmalade.
• Spread a generous layer of Nutella on slice two and top with diced banana and strawberry or apple.
• Stick the top on and enjoy a dessert sandwich.

- Uttam and Radhica Muthappa (@bmd.gourmet, @curlysuepork on Instagram; 9900026681)