I love cheese toast the way it is done in India—with some chopped fresh green chilies and cilantro thrown in. We like to serve it with tea, as we seem to love the combination of spicy snacks and very hot tea! You can use any white bread (or brown, if you prefer), any cheese you like (I happen to like sharp cheddar), and the chilies could be fresh green ones (about 1/4 teaspoon, well chopped) but the pickled Greek ones are fine too, and, as I always have them on hand in my refrigerator and I like the tartness they provide, I use them instead. Some Anglo-Indian recipes have the yolks of hard-boiled eggs mixed with mustard spread inside the sandwich as well. I make my sandwich in a frying pan, but a panini press, if you have one of those, would work too.

　　

Ingredients

serves 1

　　2 slices of bread

　　2 thin slices of cheese (sized to fit the bread)

　　5–6 rings of pickled hot Greek peppers, drained and patted dry

　　1 teaspoon very finely chopped cilantro

　　1 tablespoon butter, melted, or olive oil

　　

Step 1

Put one slice of cheese over one slice of bread, making sure to cover it completely. Spread the pepper rings on top evenly. Sprinkle the cilantro over that. Now cover with the second slice of cheese and then the second slice of bread and press down.

　　

Step 2

Brush a small, heavy frying pan with half the butter or oil and set on medium-high heat. When hot, put down the sandwich, pressing down on it. Cook until golden brown, still pressing down with a spatula. Then brush the top of the sandwich with the remaining butter or oil, flip the sandwich over, and brown the second side, pressing down again. Cut it in half, if you like, and serve immediately.

　　Excerpted from At Home with Madhur Jaffrey: Simple, Delectable Dishes from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka by Madhur Jaffrey. Copyright © 2010 by Random House. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.Buy the full book from Amazon.