Coffee House Egg Sandwich
A light, airy tea-time snack from Calcutta’s legendary Coffee House
- Cooking time6 triangles
Calorieskcal
[In this series, we tip our hats to some of our favourite dishes available in the restaurants, cafés, and cabins of Calcutta. Our purpose in doing so is to document their existence, and give people a way to recreate them if they happen to live away from the city. Make these at home, or hunt them down from the source—irrespective of how you get your hands on these items, we hope you enjoy them.]
The Coffee Houses of Calcutta are part of the national chain of cafés called Indian Coffee House. They are managed and run as workers’ cooperatives, which makes the employees the owners of the café. The Coffee House is an institution in Calcutta, and has been at the centre of many a debate, discussion, and revolution. Even the current employee-owned nature of the chain is the result of a historic labour movement of the 1950s, spearheaded by Communist leader, A.K. Gopalan, which passed the ownership of the cafés into the hands of the workers.
Among the large number of items prepared in Calcutta Coffee House kitchens is an egg sandwich. It is light, airy, with a melt-in-your mouth filling of butter and eggs. On days when some of other dishes on the menu are too greasy for your liking, try these. Or just try them anyway with a cup of coffee. In this recipe we show you how to recreate them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ingredients
- 2 eggs (boiled and peeled)
- 30 g butter (softened)
- ¼ tsp pepper (freshly crushed)
- 2 g salt
- 6 slices white bread
Method
- Divide the softened butter into small cubes and transfer to a mixing bowl.
- Using a whisk, cream the butter thoroughly until it changes color to a pale yellow. This will incorporate air into the butter, making the sandwiches light and fluffy.
- Chop up the boiled eggs into fine pieces, and add them to the butter.
- Add in the salt and pepper. The latter is the only flavouring used in this recipe. So make sure that the pepper is freshly ground.
- Mix all the ingredients together till the butter and egg yolks combine to form a creamy spread.
- Take 50 g of this filling spread it evenly between two slices of bread.
- Trim the edges, cut diagonally into triangles, and the sandwiches are ready to eat!
