Cucumber sandwiches East and West.

My first encounter of the cucumber sandwich kind came when I was living in Mumbai as a teenager.  Although more than fifteen years have passed, I remember the Indian version quite distinctly.   It was usually served in the afternoon, as an accompaniment to warm cups of sweet, milky tea.  Spread with mint chutney instead of cream cheese, the sandwiches were otherwise almost devoutly faithful to the Western version: I do not remember eating sliced white bread as part of any other meal while in India, but somehow, somewhere, each household seemed to keep a loaf hidden away so as to always be prepared to put together a plateful of these delightful finger sandwiches at a moment's notice.  Did some of these chefs de cuisine also spread butter on the bread?  My recollection is shaky on this point.  But at least in the shade of my memories, the sandwiches were always crustless and cut into sharp triangles.  I also remember that I, without fail, always ate more of them than was dignified. 

Fast forward to 2011, when we’ve got cucumbers of all shapes and sizes (green and yellow / long and short / skinny and pleasantly plump) crowding up the produce drawer, threatening to take over the refrigerator for all time.  A brand new issue of Food & Wine arrives and, within it, a delicious take on the standard Southern American version of the old teatime favorite (reproduced below).*  Fast and easy, these were just the thing for a late lunch when served with a side salad on a hot summer’s afternoon. 

Because we are both greedy and lazy when it comes to lunch, we ignored the instructions to cut them into beautiful rounds, used only one kind of cucumber, and made them sloppy and a little bigger than finger sandwiches.  Ours were more like smallish half-sandwiches.  But even these larger versions found themselves gobbled up in an astonishingly short period of time.  I still love the white bread and chutney version, but these have definitely earned a spot on the rotation. 

* Note to F&W: you had me at “rye bread.”

Cucumber-Rye Tea Sandwiches

(From Food & Wine, August 2011)

1 large seedless cucumber, peeled and cut into 3-inch lengths

3 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
36 slices of party rye or 18 slices of rye bread
12 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 scallion, finely chopped
1 Persian cucumber, thinly sliced
Freshly ground black pepper


Using a box grater, coarsely grate the cucumber lengthwise, stopping when you get to the seedy center. Transfer the cucumber to a bowl and stir in the vinegar, lemon juice, sugar and salt. Let stand for 15 minutes.


If using rye bread slices, use a 2-inch-round cookie cutter to cut out 36 rounds from the bread. Cover with a slightly damp towel.


Transfer the grated cucumber to a colander to drain; squeeze out the excess liquid. Return it to the bowl and stir in the cream cheese and scallion. Spread the cucumber cream cheese on the bread rounds, top each with a Persian cucumber slice and arrange on a platter. Sprinkle with pepper and serve.