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! |
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