Rainy day. Egg & seeni sambol toasties for breakfast. Yum!
The thing with seeni sambol is that once prepared, you can keep it for days. The thing with me is, I don’t eat kiribath unless there is seeni sambol or fish ambul thiyal. So Mother Dearest always makes sure that there is extra on the rare occassion that she does make seeni sambol.
Today just happened to be one such day when we had some seeni sambol left over! So the decision was made. It shall be seeni sambol & egg toasties for breakfast today!
A delicious, yet simple treat. Practically child’s play. Here’s what you need.
Ingredients
- Bread
- Seeni sambol (can alternate with pol sambol and is equally yummy, if not more)
- Two eggs – One for each sandwich
- Cheddar cheese (optional)
Method
1. Fry the eggs sunny side up. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Leave the yolks runny.
2. Layer the sandwich. Egg goes first on top of the slice of bread. Then goes the seeni sambol on top of the egg. Then give it a generous sprinkling of shredded cheddar cheese. Close the sandwich with another slice of bread.
3. Pop it in a panini grill. If you don’t have a panini grill, you can always heat up a skillet and pop it in that. The aim is to get both sides of the sandwich appropriately browned and crunchy and get the cheese inside melted and gooey. Do NOT pop it in a regular sandwich toaster. It will press the sandwich too hard and cause the egg yolk and melted cheese to fall from the sides.
This sandwich literally sings in your mouth. The freshly toasted bread will be crisp and crunchy while the ooey-gooey center of half-set egg yolk and melted cheese will give you mouthgasms. The flavorsome sting of the seeni sambol will be cushioned by the mellow, cloudy taste of the runny egg yolk while the cheese will give the sandwich a milky, salty kick. Heaven.
Finagle has a multigrain bread that I am absolutely in love with. That is what I have used in this sandwich. Me being gastritis prone cannot stomach refined wheat products in the mornings. So this multigrain bread has been my lifesaver so far. You of course can use any type of bread you like; white bread, roast paan, kade paan, wholemeal bread, home baked, etc.
I love cheese. I want cheese in everything. The cheddar in this can be substituted with a good mozzarella if you can find some. Of course for those who do not like cheese or cheese is not readily available in the refrigerator, you can omit it altogether and it will be good to go anyway. Although, the thought of a sandwich without cheese appalls me. It would deprive this otherworldly sandwich of its coveted richness. But for those who like things spicy, extra seeni sambol without the cheese would be ideal.
Pol sambol is a great alternative too and I personally prefer pol sambol to seeni sambol. I did not have any pol sambol at hand today. Hence the use of seeni sambol. I’ve noticed that these classic combos are made available at Panino as well. Good on them.
The trick is getting the eggs done just right. They should be firm enough to hold their shape but mushy enough to squirt once you bite in. When cooking the eggs, you must also give them some cooking leverage for the time it spends in the panini grill/the frying pan. This is the point where I always mess up. There is a danger of overcooking and under cooking the eggs. This morning they came out just right.
Couldn’t resist taking a bite before photographing it. I see the bite has served its purpose as well. You can just about see the gooey goodness sandwiched between those two slices of crispy bread. It can be a bit messy to eat but what the hell, all good things in life are indeed, messy ;)
