Primanti Brothers-Style Grilled Cheese

Anyone who has been to Pittsburgh should know the glorious foods that result from the application of French fries to basically anything and there is no greater manifestation of this combo than a Primanti Brothers sandwich.  The first time I had one I didn't even know what had hit me.

Officially the sandwich involves coleslaw, tomato, and french fries as the topping to your choice of meat and cheese (for me that's traditionally been turkey and provolone).  You can add extra meat or extra cheese or even an egg and, in my experience, any combination is really a good one.  But as you can see in the photo above, the sandwich isn't grilled.  Now, I'm not one to try to improve on a winning formula, but this sandwich was so good I had to include it in my blog-- and for it to be in my blog it has to be grilled!  So, let's get down to it :-)

Ingredients:
* Deli sliced honey ham
* Provolone
* Coleslaw
* Tomato
* Frozen French fries (or really any french fries will do-- in an ideal world I would've gotten some waffle fries, but that wouldn't be true to the original)
* Pepperidge Farm Sourdough (I believe they usually use plain white bread, but we know how obsessed I am with the P. Farm Sourdough)

The only significant prep work to be done was cooking the french fries according to the package instructions.  I had purchased pre-made coleslaw, but in retrospect making my own would have been better (this slaw was too runny, but more on that later).

Once the fries were done it was straight to sandwich assembly.  Since these were going to be massive we opted for one per person and started off with two slices of provolone (yes, I'm deviating from the norm and going with slices this week) on two of the slices of bread.

Next came the honey ham.

Followed by the coleslaw.

And then another layer of provolone.

Next the tomato slices.

And yet another layer of provolone (I mean, for it to be a grilled cheese the cheese has to be the star of the show).

And finally the French fries.

It was tricky to get them to stay on the sandwich, but we prevailed.

Good gravy, this sandwich is huge!  I was already having visions of fries flying as I attempted to flip the sandwich in my frying pan.  This would require extreme care.

I cooked the sandwiches one at a time, covering them while they cooked on each side, and had some right tasty looking sammies in no time.  I couldn't wait to dive in.

Taste Review:

Our first observation was that the sandwich was colorful-- yellow fries, red tomatoes, greenish coleslaw, pink ham.  A feast for the eyes as well as the tummy.  The sandwich was pretty runny though-- tomatoes are watery and the coleslaw is way creamy, so those were forces to be reckoned with.  The ham and the coleslaw were both sweet and that helped to offset the saltiness of the bread and french fries.  Despite the multiple layers, the cheese wasn't really a strong flavor.  You could tell it was there because it gave a smoothness and creaminess to the sandwich, but the coleslaw was the main taste in the sandwich-- probably because it was so creamy since it was pre-made.  This is where I revisit my point that making my own coleslaw would have been a smart choice.  It was just super creamy and sweet and tended to overtake the other flavors on the sandwich.  As usual, Colin had gotten out his hot sauce, but he said he didn't actually need it-- I think there were enough different flavors and elements to the sandwich that he didn't need to add one more.

As mentioned, my only minor gripe with the original was the soft bread, so grilling the sandwich brings it to the right consistency (in my opinion), but the runniness of the coleslaw was frustrating as it attempted to counteract the nice crispiness of the bread.  So, in case you haven't caught on yet, changing the type of coleslaw is the main improvement I would make to this one.  One other minor modification would be to use bigger French fries-- just because that would be yummy.  But back to the coleslaw-- if you took that away from the sandwich it would feel like more of a grilled cheese because then the cheese would be the star of the show, but we do like this sandwich as is even if it's not, strictly speaking, a grilled cheese.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Primanti Brothers Grilled Cheese
Gooey-ness:	5 (RUNNY, but not because of the cheese)
Aroma:	1
Appearance:	Big and colorful.
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!

Despite the need to improve the coleslaw situation, this sandwich was deeeelish.

Field Report: Piu Bello

Greetings, Loyal Readers!  I am officially welcoming myself back to the main land after a trip to beautiful Puerto Rico! 

While there I enjoyed some sun, fun, and sand(wiches). 

I didn't have much luck in finding a full fledged grilled cheese restaurant in San Juan (I doubt they made a tasty grilled cheese in the cockfighting ring across the street from my hotel), but I did still get the chance to taste a Caribbean themed classic: The Cuban Sandwich. 

As it turns out, Cuba is really just the communist doppelganger to our beloved little Puerto Rico.  Parallels include the fact that Bacardi was founded in Cuba, but is now headquartered in Puerto Rico; both islands have US military bases; classic movies set in Cuba tend to be filmed in Puerto Rico (i.e. Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights) and have you looked at their flags side by side?

So what better sandwich to try in Puerto Rico than The Cuban?  According to ye olde sandwich lore, The Cuban rose to fame as the choice lunch entree of cigar factory and sugar mill workers.  However, the sandwich originated back when travel between Cuba and the US was a bit more free flowing; meaning workers, wares and ideas tended to constantly pass back and forth from Cuba to southern Florida without restriction.  So it's impossible to say whether it truly originated in Cuba, or whether it has equally strong roots around Key West and Tampa.  With such vague origins, it's also safe to assume that the contents of the sandwich are hotly contested-- but purists know that a traditional Cuban must include pork, ham, mustard, dill pickles and Swiss cheese.

But enough blabbering, let's get to the good stuff!  I sampled the sandwich at "Piu Bello" a diner-style restaurant whose main feature was actually gelato.  I chose here because I didn't have a car and it was within walking distance to my hotel.  Done.

The sandwich was a no-frills Cuban: ham, marinated pork, Swiss cheese, pickles and yellow mustard on ciabatta bread.  There was A LOT of cheese, so even upon first glance I knew that this would definitely qualify as a grilled cheese (the abundance of pig product had left me dubious when I ordered).  The first bite was hijacked by the sweetness of the ham.  Luckily, the pickle and mustard were there to counterbalance. 

Again I'll say that the cheese is super gooey!  I loved that there was plenty of it so that I could get a good chunk with every bite (this made it easy to maintain a pretty solid cheese:pig product ratio).  Speaking of pig, I wasn't sure I could really distinguish between the pork and the ham.  My best guess is that the pork was a little more savory and marinated in herbs whereas the ham was sweet, but this might have just been because the pork was positioned adjacent to the very not sweet pickles.  I'm not really a big pickle person, so by the end I was removing some pickle slices here and there to keep the salt quotient to a minimum.

All in all this was a delectible treat perfect for my first lunch in a tropical paradise!  I immediately followed my meal up with a stroll on the beach and a tropical drink. 

Jealous?  I am too now that I'm back to reality.  It was so beautiful down there I might just have to fill the grilled cheese restaurant void and set up shop as a one-woman grilled cheese stand out in the Piñones food cart strip.

Hawaiian Grilled Cheese

Aloha!  Can anyone tell me what's better than going to Hawaii?  That's right-- bringing Hawaii to you!  Sadly there is no way to do that, but I figured I could try via a Hawaiian Grilled Cheese.  This is listed in the dessert section of GGC and looked sweet as sweet can be (seriously, you put sugar on it).  Ingredients are as follows:

1 loaf of Hawaiian sweet bread, 8 ounces of fromage blanc, 1/2 cup diced pineapple, 1/4 cup sweetened coconut, and 2 Tbsp. sugar (not pictured because it was in a styrofoam cup that I stole from my office-- no sense in buying a whole huge bag of sugar when I only needed 2 Tbsp.).  You'll note there's also some ham in the frame-- this is because I wanted to expand on the recipe and try something similar to a Hawaiian pizza (aka ham and pineapple).  I figured that could be my entree and the one without ham could be dessert!

Step one was spreading the coconut on a baking sheet and putting it in a 300 degree oven for 6-7 minutes.

It came out smelling yummy and looking like this:

While that was cooking I had been working on starting the rest of the filling.  Since I had a can of pineapple chunks lying around I wanted to make use of them, but the recipe calls for minced pineapple-- so I chopped the chunks up, but noticed that this caused a lot of the juice to run out, so I'd sort of try to scoop the juice into the bowl with the minced pineapple to preserve it.  Turns out this might not have been the best idea (I'll explain in a second). 

Once the pineapple was minced I added the fromage blanc to it.  I had never tasted fromage blanc before, and for those of you who haven't either I would best describe it as a sort of cross between Greek yogurt and sour cream.  So I stirred that in with the pineapple, the 2 Tbsp. of sugar and the toasted coconut.

Next I cut up four large slices of the Hawaiian bread (that I then cut in half to make manageable sized sandwiches) and buttered one side of each.  I was first introduced to Hawaiian bread when they used it for communion at church and man is it delicious!  It tastes just like dense angel food cake (needless to say, I was snacking on the excess).

The obvious next step was applying the pineapple mixture evenly to the slices of bread.  This is when I realized that my addition of the pineapple juice may not have been the best idea.  The mixture was really runny, almost like a thick soup consistency.  This didn't leave me feeling good about the prospect of it actually staying on the sandwich as I cooked it.  Oh well, I trust GGC to not lead me astray.

Next it was time for my rebellious deviation from the recipe-- I added the sliced brown sugar ham to two of the sandwiches.

I still wasn't confident that this would be enough to counteract the sweetness (I had sampled the mixture and it was pure sugar).  Lucky for me, I still had a smidgen of jack cheese left over from the spicy double jack sandwich, so I grated the cheese up and added it to one of the ham sandwiches.

Oh Snap!  Getting Crazy!

The instructions advised (after adding the second slice of bread) that I cut off the edges of the bread to make a tight seal around the sandwich.  They had suggested this for the hazelnut goat cheese grilled cheese and not following that suggestion was a mistake then, so I decided to give it a try this time.  However, after two cuts I realized this was just going to make more of a mess than it would save.

Notice the bread does not look pinched together at all.

Oh well, onwards and upwards!  Into the pan they went.  Since these were relatively small it was easy to fit two in the pan at one time.  GGC noted that Hawaiian bread is very soft, so it both tears and burns easily.  With this in mind I had the heat set to low and carefully tried to cook them.  I think my non-stick pan might be losing its thunder, though, because bits of the bread did keep sticking to the pan.  I opted to add a dash of non-stick cooking spray for the second round and that helped immensely.

First pass at cooking was NOT a pretty sight.

I ended up with the following results:

Does anyone else feel like the ham sandwich is sticking its tongue out at you?  Just me?  OK then...

They weren't quite as toasted as I usually like my sandwiches (I let my fear of burning them/the difficulty in flipping them scare me into not cooking them for long enough), but resolved this when making the second batch by cooking them on a slightly higher heat.  Here's one of those:

Taste Review:

I started off with the "entree" aka sandwich with ham.  It was literally hard to hold it because the bread is so soft (and prone to holes).  Immediately upon tasting it I was grateful for the ham-- the sandwich is so sweet that there has to be something to balance out that sugar and the ham was definitely trying.  I didn't notice the jack cheese (which is surprising because usually it's a good sharp contrast), but I'm sure it must have been helping because things were SO SWEET that anything even slightly balancing it out would make a difference.  The obvious need for the ham made me curious as to what the non-ham sandwich would taste like, so I switched over and tried some of that one.

fromage blanc is just there to provide a base to which the sweets can be added.  I went ahead and finished this one so I could move back to the better tasting ham.

Coming back to the first sandwich only reaffirmed how crucial the ham is to counteract the sugar.  Again I wished that I had charred this sandwich more, but live and learn!  However, even with the ham I still might call this a dessert grilled cheese.  The ham was trying to mute the sweetness, but the sugar was just so strong it was hard to overpower. 

A potential tweak to the recipe to tame the sweetness would be to not add sugar.  I'm not sure why sugar was deemed necessary when everything else was so sweet!  And if that isn't enough de-sweetening for you, changing out the type of bread might help too.  I would like to see this to move closer to literally being a ham and pineapple grilled cheese (similar to a ham and pineapple pizza).

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Hawaiian Grilled Cheese	Hawaiian Grilled Cheese with Ham
Gooey-ness:	5 (runny, not gooey)	4.5 (less runny b/c of ham, but still runny)
Aroma:	2	2
Appearance:	Both sandwiches looked yellow and mushy/goopy, one of them just happened to have some ham hanging out as well.
Taste:	B-	B

Too sweet for me (which is saying a lot because I have the biggest sweet tooth known to man), but could be improved upon by toning down some of the sweeter ingredients and playing up some savory ingredients.

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 Week: Back to the savory side with a super cheesy creation!

Field Report: Angelina's Coffee and Yogurt

It turns out for the meeting I'm working in Miami we actually finish up relatively early in the evening!  That means that I had the night to myself to present a second field report!  Angelina's is actually the first thing that came up when I searched "Grilled Cheese Miami," so despite the un-sandwichy name, I figured it was worth a go (especially once I read the positive reviews of the Adult Grilled Cheese menu).

So I hopped in a cab and headed over to an area that I think was called the mid-city mall (no idea if this is correct, but whatever).  The restaurant itself was a pretty small pay by weight yogurt shop that also featured a menu of crepes, flatbreads and GRILLED CHEESES! (duh)  There were 9 sandwiches total on the adult grilled cheese menu, and while I was tempted by several I opted for the number 7: Gouda, Havarti, red onion, ham and spinach leaves on rye. 

The sandwich itself definitely looks "adult."  It was served with a nice strawberry and goat cheese summer salad and had an even proportion of ingredients that reminded me more of a regular panini than of a grilled cheese. 

This was the second instance I had of trying the combination of Gouda cheese and red onions, and I would say that this was a MUCH greater success than the Dutch Grilled Cheese was.  The red onions added some nice flavor to the sandwich without being too overly strong and the smoothness of the gooey cheese actually did help to temper the pungency of the onions. 

Speaking of the cheese, it was kind of cool that they put cheese on both slices of bread-- as in there was bread, cheese, filling, cheese, bread.  I liked the way this made a nice gooey bread combo in every bite!  Even though the Havarti was a little bit more gooey than the Gouda, neither was overly runny.  Like I said, there was just enough melty-ness to the sandwich to keep the ingredients all balanced.  At first I thought that the sandwich wouldn't be cheesy enough, but as I kept eating I realized the Gouda was sort of sticking to the roof of my mouth and that I was getting a progressively cheesier taste.  By the end I was actually starting to wonder if Gouda is too rich for me?  I'll banish that thought for now as any cheese that's as consistently ooey gooey as Gouda MUST be a cheese I like, right?  Right?  Fingers crossed this isn't the first in a slippery slope towards lactose intolerance... eek!  Perish the thought!

As usual, 'twas a successful field report-- although I would still say this lands more on the panini end of the spectrum than it does on the true grilled cheese end (I can't help but still be a bit biased against grilled cheeses with meat).

Apple, Ham and Cheddar on Sourdough

It feels like forever since I made my last grilled cheese!  Two weeks adds up quickly :-)  So, let's dive right in.  This week's sandwich features a combination that I've often heard about, but never tried: apple and cheese.  I like apples, I love cheese, so this sounds like a recipe for success.  In case you can't already tell, the ingredients for this sandwich are very straightforward.

The recipe calls for: 1 small Granny Smith apple, 1/4 pound smoky ham, 6 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, sourdough and butter.  I was excited to get to use the same delicious sourdough from Wegman's that I used for the crab-feta melt (it was a crowd pleaser then, so I knew it would be again).  When looking for cheddar I was sort of overwhelmed with the number of options Wegman's offers and wasn't sure which qualified as "regular" cheddar.  I ended up going with a "Classic Reserve Extra-Aged Vermont Cheddar" that had been aged 2 years.  I'm not sure why, but I tend to prefer white cheddar to orange (to me it just tastes sharper and more genuine).  Upon tasting my first sample I knew I had made the right choice-- both Colin and I agreed that it was high quality and just sharp enough without being too strong.

The first step was slicing the apple into 1/8" slices.  The recipe called for a 5 ounce apple, and since mine was heavier than that I only used about 2/3 of it.  Although my slices did not come out neat and even, I still got the job done.

Aside from shredding the cheese, this was really the only prep work that was required, so that was nice!  I'm always a fan of an easy to assemble sandwich.

The recipe is intended to make 4 sandwiches, but since the sourdough was smaller than a standard loaf of bread I went ahead and made 6.

As usual I started with the bread (buttered on one side) and evenly distributed the ham on each slice.

Next came the apple slices:

And, finally, the cheese!

This was already shaping up to be a pretty thick sandwich, and adding the second slice of bread didn't help matters.  Oh well!  GGC suggested flattening each sandwich a bit using your spatula, so I made sure to do that to each before I started cooking (and again while I was cooking).

Once I started cooking I immediately recalled one of the reasons I love Wegman's sourdough: it browns so nicely and evenly!

The cheese was also melting quickly and evenly (I think because the bread is a little porous and lets heat in easily) to the point that I hardly needed to cover the sandwiches while they cooked (not to say that I didn't, but only had to do so as a precautionary measure).  Another positive was that, despite their thickness, the sandwiches were actually really easy to flip!  I think that's because the ham and apples are solid enough to stay in the sandwich without too much help, and once the cheese started to melt a bit it was clumped together and less apt to fall out.  So, if ease of cooking is any indicator then these were going to be good!

Once all 6 sandwiches were cooked and waiting on the sandwich warmer, we were ready to go.  Colin, the resident condiment king, smelled the sandwich while it was cooking and selected some condiments to taste with it.

I suppose it wouldn't be a true tasting without him giving his input on the need for ketchup, but looks like he expanded this week to also include a sample of Dijon mustard.

Anyway, time to taste!

Taste Review:

In my first bite I tasted the ham, then the apple and then the cheddar in that order.  So at first it didn't seem like the flavors were going to blend together, more like they were going to sort of co-mingle but still stand on their own.  As I kept eating I found that this wasn't entirely the case-- I started tasting the smokiness of the ham combined with the sharpness of the cheese, but slightly tempered by the vague sweetness of the apple.  So even though the apple wasn't a standout flavor, it did a lot for the sandwich because it added a crispness and freshness that allowed the sandwich to be gooey and like a classic grilled cheese, but to still have a fresh crunch.  This was especially good since the sourdough was kind of chewy-- some crispness was definitely needed. 

The sandwich was kind of greasy, but I think that's because the bread is porous, so rather than cooking off a bit, the butter sort of sank into the bread.  Again, this is where the apple came in handy-- it gave a light and fresh taste to what would otherwise be a traditional greasy/gooey grilled cheese.

Some potential criticisms are that it ends up being a bit too sweet with the apple and ham, but I think for the most part the sweetness and sharpness successfully balanced each other out.  In an effort to control the sweetness Colin added some Dijon mustard.  He liked this combo because it gave the sandwich more of a kick in the form of added spice (surprise, surprise, Colin likes spicy food), but for me this was too much.  He declined to try it with ketchup because it just wouldn't have been the right flavor combo (it's true-- ketchup + apple?  No thank you). 

Additionally, if you want to really get the full taste of the ham you might want to add more.  As it stood now, the ham seemed to be there just to provide smoky flavor, not to actually stand out on its own.  This is an individual preference, though, because I liked it just fine.


Overall I was a big fan of this one-- as predicted, the apple provides a light fresh edge to a sharp and delicious grilled cheese making it a perfect treat for summer!

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Apple, Ham and Cheddar on Sourdough
Gooey-ness:	4
Aroma:	3
Appearance:	Green apple adds color to the gooey cheddar cheese and perfectly toasted sourdough.
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!

Next Week: The first in a two part series involving salami and cheese.