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Photo: S. Subramanium

Layer by layer South Indian Sandwich by Chef Rakesh Kumar

The idea is simple. People these days have started to experiment with sandwiches. Did you hear of the 5000-dollar sandwich made in the U.K.? You can fill it with the fanciest ingredients and make it as expensive as you want. India also has started experimenting. In Bangalore, for example, there are juice and sandwich bars. People line up outside for fresh juice and sandwiches of their choice. Now Lebanese bread sandwiches are gaining popularity. Hotels have also opened sandwich bars.

There is so much experimentation going on these days. Now, there is hardly anything like a traditional sandwich. People have even tried naan sandwiches. But that didn’t take off so well. It ended up looking more like a roll than a sandwich.

Here we retain the average size, filling and appearance of the real thing. Even though uthapams are round and not rectangular like bread, it still looks like a club sandwich. But we serve it with chutney and not ketchup. Ketchup is used only to cover the blemishes of dishes! Chutneys go much better.

3 cups uthapam dough

1 tbsp palak puree

1 tbsp tomato puree

3 tbsp oil

2 large lettuce leaves

4 tomato slices

4 cucumber slices

1 cheese slice

10 gms butter

1/4 cup boiled chicken

Salt to taste

Pepper to taste

1 tbsp coconut cream

1 double fried egg

1 serving coconut chutney

1 serving tomato chutney

1 serving mint chutney

Divide uthapam dough into three parts. Mix palak puree in one part, tomato puree in another part and leave the third part as it is. Prepare three mini uthapams with those three different uthapam doughs, using oil. Let the uthapams cool.

Apply butter on all three uthapams, just like buttering toast. Take the plain uthapam and arrange a lettuce leaf on it, topped with a tomato slice and finally the cucumber slice. Cover it with the tomato uthapam. Dice the boiled chicken, add thick coconut cream and season it with salt and pepper. Place this chicken mix on the tomato uthapam, top it with another lettuce leaf and then the double fried egg. Place the palak uthapam on top of it.

Butter both sides of the sandwich and put in the sandwich griller, ensuring grill marks are prominent for visual appeal. Remove from the grill, cut in two halves and serve on a garnished plate with the three chutneys.

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