California Grill

I don't mean to give away the finale up front, but let's just say this sandwich is the first one to officially give our sole A+ winner (the Original American Grilled Cheese with yellow American) a run for its money... but will it tie the coveted A+ rating?  Stay tuned to find out!

OK, so seeing as how I just returned from California (and because my field trip there left much to be desired) I figured now was as good a time as any to try the California Grill.  I still had some sourdough bread left from my Wizard of Oz grilled cheeses, so I just needed a few additional items to get started:

One avocado, 1/2 cup high quality salsa, 8 ounces of monterey jack cheese (decreased to 6 ounces since I only had enough bread to make 3 sandwiches, not 4).

My first order of business was asking sous chef to look up a video on how to peel an avocado.  After watching said video he was feeling confident and told me to step aside while he went to work.

Once we had the avocado open we realized there were two problems-- one, the pit was so hard there was no way to remove it (we tried, but were only successful in slicing off small bits of the pit and flinging them about the kitchen) and two, there was no way to remove the skin.  Looks like I had just chosen an un-ripe avocado (I had no idea what to be looking for in terms of color/feel and my sister's text regarding avocado selection tips arrived just as I had left the store).  So back to the grocery store we went, returning home with a ripe avocado.

This made all the difference in the world!  It was peeled and ready in no time.  Once we had the just the filling to work with we went ahead and sliced it into slices that are small/flat enough to fit easily on a sandwich.

That was basically all the prep work that was required-- on to assembling the sandwich.  First came 1/2 cup of salsa evenly distributed between the three slices of bread (buttered on one side, of course).  A note about the salsa-- if it's watery it's advisable to drain off as much water as you can so as to retain the crunchiness of the bread once the sandwich is cooked.

Oooh, pretty!

Next came 6 ounces of grated Monterey Jack.

And finally, the avocado slices.

Lookin' good!  I cooked those puppies right up but soon realized I hadn't buttered the bread sufficiently because it charred very easily.  Oh well!  That's what I get for trying not to be a total fatty.

Alright, on to the good stuff...

Taste Review:

I INSTANTANEOUSLY noticed how smooth the avocado makes the sandwich.  It was perfectly creamy with just a mild flavor-- enough to notice it's subtly there, but not so much that it tries to compete with the other flavors.  Ever quotable, Colin noted "Food isn't always all about the taste."  Agreed.  Texture plays a big role here.

The jack cheese has a little punch to balance out the mildness of the avocado and the salsa adds the perfect amount of acidity without taking over.  It was just a perfect balance of textures/ingredients/flavors.  Sometimes I would get a bite that was heavier on salsa and that would definitely kick up the spice, but in a fun way not in a "too hot in the hot tub" kind of way (see, I told you I use that reference a lot)! 

When I first looked at the recipe I was surprised that sourdough was the bread of choice for this-- I picture Californians as all healthy and into something like 9 grain bread or some such.  But then I remembered this:

Boudin's Bakery in San Francisco is actually the birthplace of sourdough bread!  So for that reason the use of sourdough was a good call (well for that reason and because it was delicious).

Some bites that were jam packed with salsa and avocado got a little messy, but that was part of the fun of it :-)  I think it's good that you can flavor this to your personal taste by using any number of salsas (from mild to super spicy).  As usual, Colin and I disagreed on the appropriate level of spiciness-- I felt like the medium salsa (that we used) gave it enough of a kick without overpowering it, but Colin disagreed.  He would like his food spicier.  In fact, he doused it pretty heavily in Sriracha sauce (wait, what happened to food not always being all about the taste?).  He loves that stuff.  A lot.

Farewell, tastebuds!

Anywho, this one was a resounding success!  I was bummed that this was the week that I only had enough bread to make 3 sandwiches because both of us could definitely have enjoyed more (and will definitely be making this again sometime)!  In fact, this is kind of similar to Colin's jalapeno popper from a few weeks back; so it's a sandwich we were shooting for but hadn't quite perfected-- glad we've found this recipe to help us attain perfection.

FINAL RESULTS:

<><><><>

Sandwich:	California Grill
Gooey-ness:	3.5
Aroma:	2
Appearance:	Beautiful color combination with bright green, white and red!
Taste:	A+

That's right, folks!  We have a second A+ worthy sandwich!  I debated just giving it an A, but I realized I can't downgrade sandwiches for the sake of preserving the elite status of others.  This is a true winner and deserves to be rated as such.

Next Week: Well, let's not worry about that-- for now we will revel in the glory that is our second A+ sandwich!  Sing it with me: "I wish they all could be California griiiiiillllllsss" ;-)