The Big (Grilled) Cheese: March 2012

Thursday, March 29, 2012

The Best of the Best

Last week's post covered the highs and lows of my grilled cheesing so far. But one thing it didn't cover were the highest highs of all! So this week, Colin and I both chose our own favorite sandwich and mutually agreed upon an additional best overall sandwich that we'd like to re-highlight today. I know you can probably guess at who made the cut based on the leader board, but it's more fun to take a full blown trip down memory lane :-)

Since I was making three different types of sandwiches that called for A LOT of ingredients. I'm sure loyal readers can start to guess where we might be headed based on some of the ingredients pictured above.

Yummy-- assorted sandwiches looking good enough to eat!

First up is Colin's favorite:

The Pilgrim

This Thanksgiving themed sandwich has proved that it's a winner year round! The extra gooey Gouda cheese gives the sandwich an absolutely perfect texture to the point that the sandwich virtually melts in your mouth. I never would have thought to combine mustard and cranberry sauce, but it's a surprisingly good combination. The turkey is just the right meat-- anything else would be too heavy. It's just subtle enough to allow the other flavors to shine too making it a perfectly balanced treat! It's a little spicy, a little sweet, and a lot delicious.

Next up, Janet's favorite:

(Disclaimer: I made these sandwiches after coming home from the gym but before showering, so real life me was not suitable to be photographed. I used a photo of myself as a substitute.)

What do you mean? Of course that's me! *Sigh* OK, you caught me.

This sandwich officially endorsed by Morgan Freeman.

OK, that's not true either.

Apple, Ham and Cheddar on Sourdough

Sorry for the sub-par photography all around, but I had already eaten half of my sandwich by the time I remembered to take a picture-- yes, it's that delicious :-) What I love about this sandwich is the way the freshness of the apple enhances things. That sweet crunch in the middle (along with the sweet ham) is a great way to cut the sharpness of the cheddar. Since I LOVE cheddar cheese, this is a great choice for me because (as usual), the cheese in no short supply. This is also the sandwich that brought me back to eating/enjoying ham, and that in and of itself is an accomplishment.

And now, at long last, the moment we've all been waiting for! Colin and I had no question on which sandwich is the best. Every time someone asks me about my blog and what the best sandwich I've made is, this is the first one I mention. So without further ado, the official Janet and Colin favorite sandwich:

The California Grill

Where to begin? There are so many great things about this one. First off, let me say that the type of salsa used is CRUCIAL. Since the jack cheese and the avocado have pretty set in stone tastes, the way the salsa tastes is the way the sandwich will taste. Second, make sure you DRAIN the salsa! It should be sort of bruschetta like when you put it on the sandwich otherwise the sandwich will be too soggy (a problem I ran into for the first time with this batch). But moving on, jack cheese is one of my other favorite cheeses for its simple flavor that is also a bit sharp. Combine that with a nice spice from some salsa and the cooling avocado and you've got pure, unadulterated deliciousness. The avocado makes the sandwich so creamy while the jack cheese keeps it gooey. It's heaven on a plate.

So there you have it! The best of the best of our grilled cheeses so far. I'm sure there are many more tasty treats to be had, but in the mean time I encourage everyone to try all of these.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

The Year in Review

Guess what the 21st marked? The official 1 year anniversary of the Big Grilled Cheese! To celebrate I decided to take a stroll down memory lane to re-cap some of the highs and lows of the last year. So, without further ado, here we go!

Ingredient Hall of Fame:

Favorite Bread: Pepperidge Farm Sourdough. I've never used this on a sandwich and not liked it.

Favorite Cheeses: Even after trying a broad range of cheeses, my favorites are still some of the most basic-- Cheddar (preferably 2 year old Wegmans cheddar), Havarti and Jack.

Favorite New Discovery: Flavored Butter. This is a revolutionary cooking technique that I am sure I'll be employing for a number of dishes in years to come. Why it never occurred to me to mix herbs/seasoning/spices/whatever with butter is beyond me, but I'm eternally grateful that I've been shown the light.

Glorious!

Best and Worst:

Best Field Report:
The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen.

With its limited hours, this elusive spot had evaded me during my first few San Francisco trips; but it was worth waiting for. It's no surprise that I would like the results of a sandwich featuring my three favorite cheeses (The Mousetrap), but add to that the best mac and cheese grilled cheese I've had and I'm in heaven. Perfectly toasted bread? Check. Casual sidewalk dining in the San Francisco sun? Check. Happy Janet? CHECK!

Disappointing.

Worst Field Report:
Icon Bar and Grill.
The fact that this wasn't a restaurant discovered during my standard grilled cheese recon done before I travel to a city should have tipped me off to the fact that it would be sub par. The grilled cheese here was living proof that sandwiches aren't necessarily made better just by having a lot of different cheeses on them. Bitter goat cheese and arugula created a bland sandwich that was hardly worth my time (especially since I could've spent the same meal re-visiting Beecher's for one of their delicious signature sammies).

Best Original Creation:
Colin's Jalapeno Popper.

The key to success here was drawing on some favorite flavors and elements-- namely guacamole, jack cheese, and spicy foods. This showed how great specialty breads can be when used with complimentary flavors. Even though Colin and I disagreed as to whether this was better with or without meat, we both liked some variation of this sandwich enough to want to make it again...and again...and again.

Worst Original Creation:
Inside-Out Grilled Cheese.

What's even going on here?!

While I haven't given up on this concept, I am happy to forget about this attempt at the inside out premise. Interestingly enough this is one of the only other grilled cheeses to make use of a specialty flavored bread and while that element was delicious, the rest of the sandwich was all over the place. It wouldn't stay put together as a sandwich and the final result was so salty I could barely tell what was what. I am determined to make this work one day, but probably with completely different ingredients and construction.

Underrated:
Cheesy Gashouse Grilled Cheese.

I made this one so early on in the game that it's easy to forget about it, but it's an out of the ordinary but simple and delicious sandwich that can likely be made with ingredients you already have. Plus, you get the bonus of mini grilled cheeses courtesy of the center of each sandwich!

Aww, how precious :-)

Strangest Use of a Grilled Cheese:
Grilled Cheese Martini.

The name says it all.

The Worst Grilled Cheese:
Portobello and Provolone.

Beefy, smelly, runny, crazy looking. All in all an unforgettable sandwich in the worst way.

The Best Grilled Cheese:

... still to be revealed! Stay tuned for a full recap of Colin and my respective favorites as well as our mutually agreed upon best sandwich of all! (so far)

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Green Goddess Grilled Cheese

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day I bring you a holiday grilled cheese that's sure to leave a lasting impression (for better or worse). You know I like to play into holidays when possible, but I don't like many of the traditional foods associated with St. Patty's Day (i.e. corned beef and cabbage), so a green grilled cheese seemed the order of the day. Luckily, my friends are always on the lookout for me and my friend Whitney (who you may remember from the Crawfish Bread Grilled Cheese) sent me a recipe that fit the bill: the Green Goddess Grilled Cheese (original recipe posted here). My only knowledge of green goddess dressing stems from my infrequent, but much beloved, trips to The Melting Pot where they serve up green goddess as one of the condiments with your entree. I've always loved the green goddess there (requesting additional ramekins basically every time I go), so was excited to try it as the star of a tasty sandwich.

Not surprisingly, the ingredients are very herb heavy. Something has to give it that green color, right?

1 clove garlic, 1 anchovy (skipped this-- no thank you on the anchovies for me), 1 tsp. lime zest, 3 Tbsp chopped parsley, 2 Tbsp chopped tarragon, 2 Tbsp cilantro (skipped this-- tastes like soap), 1 Tbsp chopped basil, 1 Tbsp chopped shallot (is that the same as scallions? I hope so because that's what I got), 1/4 tsp Dijon mustard, 2 ounces cream cheese, 1 cup shredded mozzarella, 1 cup shredded cheddar, sourdough and olive oil.

Phew! The ingredient list was long, but all of the items were very easy to find. I was already feeling good about this one because it has two of my favorite sandwich components-- sourdough and cheddar!

Step one was mincing the garlic. For this I employed my mini food processor :-)

We know I like to go overboard with the garlic, so I actually used more like 2 cloves. Oh well! Next came all the green components-- lime zest, parsley, tarragon (which smelled like spearmint to me), basil and shallot. Since I was omitting the cilantro I did a little extra basil in an effort to maintain the right amount of herbs. The mustard and cream cheese also went in and got blended up until it formed a nice green paste.

I then grated up 8 ounces of cheddar and 8 ounces of mozzarella and combined them in a mixing bowl. A quick note on grated cheese-- it takes up more space by volume than not grated cheese (shocking, I know). So in this situation with a recipe calling for 2 cups of cheese, I probably should have grated less than 16 total ounces to attain 2 measuring cups full of cheese. BUT, I like cheese and to me 8 ounces means 1 cup, so that's what I went with. To the bowl of cheese I added the green paste and mixed thoroughly.

Tasting this mixture I was overpowered by how pungent it was! I think I forget that raw garlic is much stronger than cooked garlic, so I may have made a faux pas in adding more than the recipe called for. The herbs weren't helping the situation either. It was quite the flavor explosion. With that in mind I decided to make 3 sandwiches as I had a feeling Colin would not a big fan of this one.

I brushed the bread slices with olive oil on one side and loaded the other with the cheese/green goddess mixture. Closing the sandwiches with the second slice of bread left me ready to grill. Since the filling was so dense I made sure to use my method of covering the sandwich with an additional (overturned) frying pan to trap in the heat. I wanted to make sure that the cheese got gooey while it was cooking as I could tell this was destined to be runny!

Taste Review:

The first words that jumped to my mind upon taking a bite were creamy and STRONG! The super pungent taste of the filling was only slightly dissipated during the cooking process, so it was still VERY strong, but at least a bit more piquant now. The filling actually made the sourdough taste sweet by comparison, a feat that I didn't think possible. In general, though, I felt like there were too many strong flavors all competing for top billing. I think the extra basil and garlic weren't wise moves on my part as they both just slapped you in the face with flavor-- but then again, if I had lessened those quantities who's to say that another flavor wouldn't have taken over? Overall I think this is best kept as a dressing since you're better able to moderate the amount you're eating. Taken as an entree this is too strong for my taste!

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Green Goddess
Gooey-ness:	3
Aroma:	5
Appearance:	Looks like pesto or guacamole.
Taste:	B-/C+

Gooey Scale	Aroma Scale
1 = still cold/hard	1 = can’t smell a thing
2 = slightly melted but still firm	2 = tender waft
3 = melted evenly	3 = makes your stomach growl
4 = melted and slightly runny (starting to get those cheese strings between your sandwich and your mouth when you take a bite)	4 = strong scent
5 = runny	5 = overpoweringly pungent
6 = sloppy mess!

Next year is the 1 year anniversary of The Big Grilled Cheese! I'm sure some sort of retrospective will be in order.

Oh, and also-- happy belated Pi day. I briefly debated a pie themed grilled cheese, but figured that might be hard to figure out, so I stuck with sipping on a drink filled with my Pi(ce) cubes :-)

In case you can't see that photo too well, here's the tray for proof:

Friday, March 9, 2012

Grilled Cheddar and Broccoli with Cayenne Butter

I'm back! Sorry for skipping a post last week-- I was caught up with moving preparations. That's right, sous chef has earned an additional title: roommate. Just add inconsistency in posting to the list of reasons why I could not be a full time blogger (along with an overall lack of readership, hehe).

Anyway, let's dive right in. I had a moderately difficult time choosing the sandwich for this week because we're sort of getting down to some of the sandwiches I've been avoiding thus far (meaning a lot of the remaining options don't get me salivating like some of the varieties I've already made). In the end I opted to go with one that is a sandwich representation of a much loved soup: broccoli and cheddar. I've been in Panera enough times to know that many people feel you can't go wrong with some broccoli and cheddar soup served out of a bread bowl, so what more logical step from there than broccoli and cheddar on sourdough? I don't like broccoli (or most cruciferous vegetables for that matter), but thousands of happy Panera customers can't be wrong.

Necessary ingredients include: 1/2 lb broccoli, 8 oz. high quality cheddar (but then, do I use anything but high quality ingredients?), 1/4 cup slivered almonds, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, butter, and a loaf of sourdough (Pepperidge Farm as always).

First up was cutting the broccoli into florets-- no problem (once I googled what a broccoli floret actually is). Turns out they're just individual smaller versions of the big broccoli tree. Each ended up about 1.5" - 2" long. I placed those in boiling water along with the salt to cook for about 3 minutes (or until bright green and tender but not mushy).

While that was cooking I melted a pat of butter in my frying pan and added the almond slivers (stirring occasionally until toasted-- or, in my case, slightly burned).

Oopse!

Once the broccoli was done cooking I strained it and further cut the florets into more manageable bite sized pieces.

I let those sit while I grabbed a small bowl to mix 2 Tbsp soft butter with 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper. Among the many useful skills GGC has taught me, adding herbs, spices, cheese, etc. to butter is definitely among my favorite!

I think we all see where things are headed from here. First I spread half of the butter evenly on four slices of bread and placed them face down on my prep plate. Next came the broccoli (on 3 out of 4 sandwiches-- I'm leaving one just plain cheese in case my aversion to broccoli is too strong to be overcome even when the broccoli is smothered with cheese).

Next came the 8 ounces of grated cheddar.

Followed by the almond slivers.

And topped off with the remaining four slices of bread (spread with the remaining cayenne butter).

That was that! Fry them up and we were ready to roll.

Taste Review:

The sandwiches looked really great! Something about that bright orange and bright green got me pretty excited for how they would taste (despite my broccoli aversion). Unfortunately, the first bite was pretty bland. If I hadn't made the sandwich I probably wouldn't have been able to tell what it was. But, I did take a bite starting around the crust (an area notoriously devoid of filling), so I remained optimistic that things would pick up as I ate. Right I was-- the center of the sandwich was hearty and perfectly gooey without being messy. I couldn't taste the bitter taste that I usually associate with broccoli, the broccoli was more there to act as a contrast to the sharp cheddar. All in all I was liking it, adding further anecdotal evidence to the fact that I like basically any sandwich involving cheddar and sourdough.

The cayenne butter definitely gave a clear after taste without making the sandwich too spicy to enjoy. I couldn't taste the almonds too much, but they did give a slight additional toasted taste to the sandwich. Colin and I agree that we could do without the almonds. They give a crunch to a sandwich where we wanted things to be creamy.