The Sonoma

As you may have noticed, I didn't post last week, which usually means one thing-- I was traveling!  And for once, it was for fun!  This time I was on vacation in (mostly) sunny southern California.  I got in some relaxing time in Laguna Beach, some meh time in LA, and some GREAT time in San Diego!  Proof that I was there:

 

And what better way to celebrate a vacation than to honor it with a grilled cheese tribute?  So why is this week's sandwich called "The Sonoma" if I was in southern CA?  Well, mostly because "The California Grill" has already been used as a sandwich name.  But the reason we ended up choosing "The Sonoma" as a name is because we came across some habanero jack cheese in Safeway made by Sonoma Jack (yes, of Sonoma, CA).  We all know Colin loves spicy food, so this was a no brainer.  We had to use this cheese. 

The thing we loved most about food in southern California (aside from the abundance of quality Mexican fare) was the fact that they would include avocado on virtually anything!  I feel like it's far too rare here on the east coast to see abundant avocado options on menus, so we jumped at the chance to eat some at virtually every meal.  For this reason, no California-style sandwich would be complete without the addition of some avocado.  So even though this steals some elements from other sandwiches (The California Grill and Colin's Jalapeno Popper), we're always happy to tweak old recipes to create something new and delicious.

Ingredients:
1 avocado
1/4 - 1/2 pound deli sliced turkey
1 wedge Sonoma Jack Habanero Jack Cheese
Pepperidge Farm Sourdough

The beauty of sandwiches that we make up is that they are invariably easy to make.  This one took probably about 5 minutes of prep which consisted of grating the cheese and slicing the avocado.  Done!

So to assemble the sandwiches we added:

Turkey first-- two or three slices per sandwich.

Followed by...

the avocado. 

And finally...

the habanero jack.  Side note: I tasted the habanero jack to see how it was similar/different to generic pepper jack, and for me it was spicier!  The peppers tasted almost sweet at first, but then the fire took over and left a stronger after effect than I'm used to with pepper jack.  Colin, on the other hand, couldn't really taste much spice at all (I continue to contend that he has no taste buds).

Note: I made one of the sandwiches without turkey just to see how it would taste (and the half sandwich is also mine-- I wasn't as hungry as Colin).

You know where we're headed from here.  Grill 'em up and serve 'em!

Taste Review:

One of the first things we notice about the sandwich is that beautiful bright green avocado!  Anytime we have avocado on a sandwich it instantly looks delicious.  We could smell the aroma from the melted cheese, probably because it had that pepper aroma in addition to the standard melted cheese. 

The first words out of both of our mouths as we ate were that the sandwich was really creamy!  Avocado is so amazing-- it just gives that smooth creaminess that is subtle and a perfect addition to virtually any sandwich. 

Shocking factoid: I recently planned a meeting that was held in La Jolla, CA and some attendees actually complained that there were TOO MANY avocado options at meals.  They said that they don't even like avocado!  When I recounted this story to Colin he literally slapped me.  I feel that adequately conveys our mutual incredulity over the fact that some people might not enjoy such a delectable treat, but I digress.

Lucky for me, the habaneros didn't taste as spicy on the sandwich as they did when I was eating just the plain cheese.  This was probably thanks to the neutralizing effects of the bread and avocado.  I think the turkey helped to temper the spice as well because my turkey-less sandwich was noticeably spicier than my sandwich with turkey.  On the sandwich without turkey it was also easier to taste the actual avocado as a flavor whereas when combined with the turkey its flavor is sort of muted and you really only notice it for its creamy effect.  Not to say one sandwich is better than the other, it just all depends on your mood.

FINAL RESULTS:

 

 

Sandwich:	The Sonoma
Gooey-ness:	4
Aroma:	2.5
Appearance:	Bright green filling = deliciousness!
Taste:	A

We were both quite pleased with this one :-)

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!

Mexican Grilled Cheese

As usual, apologies for the lack of post last week-- business trip to Atlanta.  Moving on!  This week's sandwich comes to me courtesy of what is arguably the most famous grilled cheese blog of all (aside from mine of course ;-) ): Grilled Cheese Social.  OK, so it's not arguable-- GCS is the most famous grilled cheese site hands down, which means that this sandwich is sure to be a hit!  I guess I've been on a bit of a spicy kick lately as this is the second sandwich I've made in the last month that features jalapenos, but it also features a cheese I've yet to try on a grilled cheese (manchengo).  So let's get down to business.

Ingredients:
* Bread of choice (GCS suggested Texas toast, but we all know I loves me some Pepperidge Farm sourdough)
* Garlic powder, chili powder and paprika
* 1 cup of grated manchengo per sandwich
* Pickled jalapenos
* Ear of corn

One of the goals of this sandwich is to take advantage of the opportunity to grill!  Sadly, I do not have an outdoor space in which to do this.  So after some Internet searching on how to grill indoors I decided to just go ahead with trying to "grill" my corn over one of my stove burners (I have a gas stove).  After removing the husk and silks from the corn and jamming it onto the end of a big fork I was as ready as I was going to be.

I took my time and gradually turned the corn over the burner until I had a nice charred appearance all around.  I got nervous a few times as small silk strands caught fire or the corn made strange popping noises, but fortunately I did not have to utilize my contingency plan for if the corn caught fire: throw it in the sink and run.  Once done I had a messy burner and a piece of corn that looked like this:

Excellent.  I should mention that I am pet sitting this week and had a very attentive audience for the entirety of my time in the kitchen.

It's like I have fans!  Maybe I should start my own cooking show?  Or maybe I should wait until I have actual humans expressing interest in my endeavors.  Oh well!

Next up I needed to make some smoked chili butter, which just involved combining some butter with about 1 tsp. each of chili powder, paprika, and garlic powder.  We all know how I love some flavored butter, so this step got me pretty excited (especially since I was met with success the first time I made spicy butter back with my broccoli and cheddar sandwich).

Don't worry, I actually mixed it together.

Next I sliced the corn kernels off the cob, which was much easier than I thought it would be-- it just shaved right off!

After grating the manchengo I was ready to assemble the sandwiches.  I did 3.5 this week because Colin was starving but I was not, so 2 for him, 1.5 for me.  First I buttered one side of the bread slices and placed them face down on my plate.  Next came a hearty handful of manchengo on each slice of bread.

Followed by the corn.

And, who could forget the jalapenos?  They came in a can as whole peppers, so I sliced them up so that they'd lay flat on the sandwiches.

This was followed by the rest of the manchengo and the second slice of bread (buttered on the exterior, of course).

The final sandwiches were pretty thick!  So the grilling process definitely called for the two spatula approach, but the extra effort was well worth it once I saw the delicious sandwiches!

Taste Review:

The bread is nice and crunchy (as always) while the inside is smooth without being creamy.  There's lots of flavor in this sandwich!  I love that the corn is sweet and strong enough of a presence to stand up to the spicy jalapenos, but not so strong that it's the only flavor in the sandwich.  The jalapenos aren't pure spice though, they also have a vinegar-y flavor due to the fact that they're pickled.  But the pickling didn't really impact the sandwich one way or the other. 

I'm not sure if I could really taste the chili butter.  It might just be blending into the spiciness of the jalapenos, but I'm sure it adds some subtle flavor notes that I'm not even picking up.

As usual, I could have gone for more cheese.  It's melted well, but not as gooey as a softer cheese (like Gouda) might be.  Obviously this is the nature of the manchengo, but we do love a nice gooey sandwich, so perhaps we could feign gooey-ness by adding more cheese.

At first I was proud of myself for not being overwhelmed by the jalapenos, but the more I ate the hotter my mouth got.  I decided to try some sour cream for dipping and that hit the spot.  It helps to neutralize the spice while retaining the sandwich's flavor.  It also adds a little more of a creamy element, which is something we said was missing due to the lack of gooiness from the cheese.  But, seeing as how Colin has no taste buds and loves all things super spicy, he said he thought the level of spice was just right and no condiments were needed.  For once our stances on condiments were reversed.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Mexican Grilled Cheese
Gooey-ness:	3
Aroma:	2
Appearance:	Bland colors for a bold sandwich.
Taste:	A-

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!

P.S. While we're on the subject of me cooking with Mexican inspired items, check out the dulce de lece brownies I made for Colin's co-worker's birthday!

Deelish

Pulled Pork and Fried Pickles

Apologies to all for a lack of post last week (we went out to Spacebar and there wasn't really a need to re-review it), but I plan to make it up to you with an extra delicious creation for this week. 

Not too long ago I got a comment on one of my posts asking if I've ever experimented with pickles on my grilled cheese.  Up until then I hadn't, but it sounded like a great idea, so I started plotting the best way to bring some pickles into the mix on a future sandwich.  After the resounding success of the onion ring grilled cheese, I decided that fried pickles may just be the way to go here. 

But while brainstorming sandwich specifics with Colin, we decided that just pickles and cheese may not be quite right.  Somehow we happened upon the idea of pulled pork as an additional ingredient.  I had encountered a delicious pulled pork grilled cheese during my second trip to Cheesie's Pub and Grub in Chicago, and while it was good, our iteration is different.  The main difference is that we decided to go with Carolina-style barbeque instead of the sweeter/ketchup based barbeque that Cheesie's used.  We hoped that the Carolina barbeque's vinegar base would compliment the acidity of the pickles and leave room for the cheese to shine.  With the basic recipe in mind we were ready to get down to business.

Ingredients:
* Pepperidge Farm Sourdough (the creme de la creme of grilled cheese breads)
* 8 ounces cheddar
* 8 ounces jack
* Carolina-style pulled pork (I didn't have time to make my own, so store bought had to suffice)
* Dill pickle slices
* Flour, beer, egg, and seasoning for beer batter
* Vegetable oil for frying

I started off by heating about 2" of vegetable oil in a pan while I worked on mixing up the beer batter.  This is done by combining 1 egg with 1 cup of flour and adding 1 cup of beer; but in this case I accidentally added too much beer.  Fortunately the great thing about beer batter is that the recipe is pretty free form-- too much beer?  Add some more flour.  I also sprinkled in a little garlic powder and Cajun spice and was ready to roll.

Next up I coated the pickle slices and tossed them in the hot oil.  I'm not sure how long I ended up cooking the pickles, but I just eyeballed it and made sure to take them out once they turned golden brown.

Finished pickles would sit on a paper towel to allow their excess oil to drip off.

While I was frying sous chef had been working on grating the cheeses, so all that was left to do once the pickles were done was to heat up some of the pulled pork.

Made in Nebraska?  Wow, it must be authentic.

All this involved was microwaving the tub of pork, so that took no time at all.

Colin's step-sister Ellen was joining us for dinner this week so we decided to make 3 sandwiches (we figured these would be hearty enough that we wouldn't need two per person).

Step one: Butter one side of each slice of bread and place face down, then distribute the pickles evenly on the bread.

Step two: Add as much pork as you see fit.  I just sort of gave it a solid layer of pork that wasn't so monstrous that I didn't also have room for the cheese.

Step three: Add as much cheese as you see fit which, in my case, is a lot.  These were pretty thick sammies by the time I was through with them.  Finally, top each sandwich with another slice of bread and butter the outside.

These fried up quite nicely (as is always the case with Pepperidge Farm Sourdough), but definitely required a dual spatula attack to flip them so as not to lose lots of filling.  For a refresher on what I mean by the dual spatula method, here's a shot from back when I used it on the Havarti and Dilled Cucumbers on Rye.

Keeping pressure on both sides means the sandwich stays together.

The cheese melted quickly and in no time we were ready to go!

Taste Review:

As usual, aroma is the first thing we assess and in this case there really wasn't one.  I think if we had cooked the barbeque pork ourselves that would've been the dominant scent, but in this case there wasn't a particularly noticeable scent.  Biting into the sandwich the first thing anyone commented on was the gooiness of the cheese.  It was melted very evenly and spread nicely over the barbeque.  Speaking of the barbeque, we all agreed that using Carolina barbeque was a wise decision.  You could taste its flavor and spices, but it didn't have an overwhelming sauce.  Although, as usual, Colin wanted more meat.

Now let's talk pickles.  Part of the reason I don't usually like pickles on my sandwiches is because they're too salty but, thanks to the batter, the pickles are both salty and sweet-ish (not sure sweet is the right word for beer batter, but the batter does help to control the salt level, which gives it a sweet effect).  One observation about the pickles was that they weren't crispy, but that was a non-issue which can likely be attributed to the fact that the pickles were thinly sliced.  We all agreed that the batter could use some more flavor-- maybe some spicier pepper or more garlic, or really whatever floats your boat.  The additional flavor in the batter would only help the pickles to stand out, which in my mind is a good thing.  Something that had frustrated me during the batter dipping process was that the batter tended to run off of the pickles quickly, so in addition to adding more flavor to the batter I would also maybe let the pickles soak in the batter for a little longer to see if that helps them to absorb more batter.

We've already noted that the cheese helped the sandwich seem gooey but, while gooey, the sandwich wasn't at all creamy.  By this I mean the pork was on the drier/crumbly side and Colin argued that it would need more sauce to qualify as true "Carolina barbeque."  I said I liked it this way and would worry that too much sauce would make the sandwich soggy.  Ellen suggested serving additional Carolina barbeque sauce (vinegar based) on the side sort of like an au jus, which I think would be good because then you could control your own level of soggy.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Pulled Pork and Fried Pickle Grilled Cheese
Gooey-ness:	3
Aroma:	1.5
Appearance:	Let's be honest, the grayish-brown color of the pork makes this one look kind of ugly.
Taste:	A-

I fought hard for this A- and Colin still doesn't agree.  He says that more meat and more sauce are necessary to make this true Carolina BBQ, but I remind him that this is supposed to be a GRILLED CHEESE.  I think this was a great balance of flavors that added a savory element, but still allowed the cheese to shine.

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!