It is a very thick, satisfying sandwich that my mother made for me for lunch, and her mother before that, and on and on for who knows how many generations. During my kindergarten days in Islamabad and Yemen this would be packed in my bag along with a box of orange juice. It never fails to remind me of Islamabad, long drives every morning in the hills, from and to home, light filtered through a canopy of trees. 

A platter of these sandwiches would be ideal picnic fodder, with a beaker of lemonade.


(Beforehand, you will need to have prepared green chutney and egg salad. Good recipes are here and here.)

To make one sandwich:

  • 4 slices white bread
  • green chutney (preferably spicy; the flavour diffuses through the bread better)
  • egg salad
  • ketchup
  1. Cut the crusts off the bread with a breadknife.
  2. On one slice, spread the green chutney thickly. Lay another slice on this one, as with a typical sandwich.
  3. On the face of this slice, spread the egg salad thickly. Take a third slice of bread and lay it on top.
  4. Squirt ketchup onto this slice and spread smoothly.
  5. Now lay your final, fourth, slice of bread onto the ketchup-ed surface.
  6. Cut the sandwich diagonally for triangles, or horizontally for rectangles (easier to eat).


Enjoy!


A variation on this is the traffic light sandwich, the preparation for which is outlined below:

  1. Cut a slice of white bread in half.
  2. Lay one of the halves in front of you, vertically (the wider sides going vertical).
  3. Mentally divide it into thirds: top-third=red; middle-third=yellow; bottom-third=green.
  4. Spread ketchup on the top-third square. Make the coating thick.
  5. Spread egg salad on the middle-third square. Make the coating thick.
  6. Spread green chutney on the bottom-third square. Again, be generous!
  7. Remember the other half of bread?  Press a small cookie cutter onto it thrice, to form three circles running down it vertically. (As with a traffic light).
  8. Remove the bread-circles so the holes remain. (You can make round little open-faced PB&J sandwiches with the bread-circles).
  9. Put this slice of bread on top of the other, more colorful one.
  10. Now you have a traffic light! If any of the lights seem only meagrely coated, you can add more to them now, with a spoon.
  11. Pop it into the oven and lightly toast until golden-brown.

Note: My mother never did this, but you might want to--mix some saffron in your egg salad to make it a bright yellow--the traffic light sandwich will be all the cheerier for it.