The Pilgrim

Happy day before Thanksgiving to all!  As mentioned last week, my goal for this week was to find an appropriately Thanksgiving-themed grilled cheese and I definitely hit the jack pot courtesy of The Grilled Cheese Academy (which isn't so much an actual cooking institute as it is a marketing website for the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board), so to them I say:

(I also commend them on the success of their marketing campaign).

The ingredients were easy to find, particularly because it's the holiday season and cranberry sauce is on sale!  I snagged the following:

3 Tbsp cranberry sauce, 3 Tbsp Dijon mustard, butter, sage (I couldn't find fresh sage, so bottled had to do), honey wheat bread, 8 ounces each of Wisconsin Gouda, turkey breast and spinach.

First up I prepared the cranberry-mustard by combining the cranberry sauce and Dijon mustard.  I decided to use 4 Tbsp of cranberry sauce instead of 3 because I know Dijon mustard tends to have a kick to it that I'm not always the biggest fan of-- so ideally more cranberry sauce would balance it out.

Next I mixed 1/2 stick butter with about 1 Tbsp of the sage to make sage butter.  I must say I wasn't nearly as excited about this as I was about the garlic-cheese butter, but anytime we're adding a little zest to the butter I'm on board.  After grating up the Gouda I was ready to go. 

Down went four slices of honey wheat bread that had been buttered on one side.  Next came the cranberry mustard (it said to do 1 Tbsp per sandwich and serve the rest on the side, but I just decided to use it all). 

Which was followed by the Gouda, evenly distributed over the bread.

The recipe actually calls for 16 slices of Gouda, but since I'm opposed to cooking with slices unless absolutely necessary (and not having any idea what "16 slices" translates to in terms of ounces), I figured 8 ounces total would work just fine-- and it did :-)

I hadn't read the recipe too closely (surprise, surprise), so I realized a minute too late that I wasn't supposed to put all the Gouda down at once-- just half of it.  So I took some back off of each sandwich and added the 8 ounces of turkey to the sandwiches in the removed cheese's place.

The spinach was to come next, but the sandwiches were already looking so tall that I decided to only include spinach on two of the sandwiches.  All of the sandwiches were then topped with the remaining Gouda and a second slice of bread and voila! Into the pan they went.

Thus far my only experience cooking with Gouda has been the less than stellar Dutch Grilled Cheese, so I was hoping this would prove a more successful endeavor.  I had forgotten how quickly and smoothly Gouda melts!  It was starting to ooze out of the sandwich within about a minute of being placed in the pan.  This meant all of the sandwiches cooked up pretty quickly, which is always a good thing when they look so delicious!

Taste Review:

The sandwiches were very visually appealing-- good colors inside with a nice browned exterior (you could even see the sage flecks on the bread).  Colin thought it looked sort of like a club sandwich (although I think that was mostly due to the turkey).

The fact that I was able to slice through the sandwich like it was warm butter clued me in to the fact that the insides would be very creamy and indeed they were!  Colin was so awestruck by the creaminess that all he could say was "Oh man!  Oh man!"  When I asked for further elaboration on his thoughts he cut me off with a "Shh... don't talk" at which point he commenced singing Take My Breath Away TO the sandwich.  I could see his vote was in.

The sandwich is really so creamy that it's almost like you don't have to chew.  The cranberries and Dijon mustard balance each other out very well-- both could be strong flavors on their own, but compliment one another nicely.  I was glad I added some extra cranberry sauce because, as usual, the Dijon was a little too spicy for me-- I like things on the sweeter side.  It said it all when Condiment King Colin acknowledged that this sandwich needs no additional condiments.

I didn't really notice a difference between the sandwich with spinach and the one without because the main focus was the creaminess of the cheese and the cranberry mustard.  As for the sage, I don't know what that tastes like on its own, but I could tell there was a light herb undertone and obviously that's to the sage's credit.  I think it was there to give the illusion of seasoned turkey (like you would have at a Thanksgiving dinner).

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	The Pilgrim
Gooey-ness:	4
Aroma:	2.5
Appearance:	Looks like a colorful club 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!

Looks like I can add this sandwich to the list of things I'm thankful for this year.  An added bonus is that it's probably not hard to re-create this with your Thanksgiving leftovers!  All you'd need to buy is the Gouda :-)  Happy Holidays to all!  See you next week (not sure what we've got in store for you then).

Garlic-Crusted Sourdough with Cheddar

Does the title already have your mouth watering?  Good, mine too.  Obviously I've seen this sandwich in GGC for quite some time, but have been "saving it" for an occasion when I was in the mood for a particularly tasty treat-- and that time is now!  This looked like a simple but super satisfying option, so it was perfect for a dreary Wednesday night.

The ingredients didn't deviate much from those of a no-frills grilled cheese: sourdough, cheddar, butter; but this recipe also called for 2 medium cloves of garlic and 1/4 cup very finely grated Parmesan.

These were all easy items to come by (so easy, in fact, that despite accidentally leaving my grocery list at home this week I was still able to recall exactly what I needed).

Step one was bringing about 3 cups of water to a boil in a small saucepan.  While the water was heating up I took care of peeling my garlic cloves and once the water was boiling, in went the garlic.  I must say I'd never thought about boiling garlic as a means of cooking it, but it sounded like a good way to mute a little of the punch that raw garlic tends to pack.

As that boiled I took care of grating ~8 ounces of the cheddar cheese I had selected (in this case, Wegman's brand 12 month cheddar).  I did a little taste testing as I grated (surprise, surprise) and found that this wasn't quite as sharp as the cheddars I usually go for.  Oh well, Pooh Corner taught me long ago that it's always good to try a little something new!

Once the garlic had boiled for 5 minutes I fished the cloves out of the water and squeezed them through my (newly acquired and already greatly appreciated) garlic press.  The ease with which the garlic was pressed was proof of the usefulness of the boiling step.

You may recall my excitement over the "cheese butter" creation I first tried as part of the Spicy Double Jack.  Well, little did I imagine that cheese butter can get even better!  That's right, this time I was making GARLIC cheese butter!  Ohhh babyyy. 

So to the pressed garlic I added 2 Tbsp butter and 1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese.  After mixing that together I had a hard time controlling my urge to eat the butter directly from the bowl.  "Gross, you wanted to eat butter?!" you say?  Well, look at this photo and tell me you wouldn't want to do the same:

OK, fair point, the garlic cheese butter appeal is lessened by the lack of the live and in person garlic aroma, but you still can't deny it looks delicious!

And with that the prep work was done.  The garlic cheese butter gets spread evenly over 8 slices of bread, cheddar cheese is spread evenly over four of those slices (that are then topped with the other four) and we're in business!

As this sandwich was made on the Big (Grilled) Cheese's officially endorsed favorite bread of all time (Pepperidge Farm Sourdough), the sandwiches all grilled up perfectly brown in no time at all :-)  The only minor hiccup was the fact that having cheese in the butter makes the sandwich stick to the pan ever so slightly, so I had to be sure to gradually scootch the spatula under the sandwich to loosen it before flipping.

Taste Review:

Now, I know Keats has taught us all that "A thing of beauty is a joy forever," but I don't think he was taking into account perfectly cooked grilled cheeses when making this assertion.  These sandwiches are definitely things of beauty, but they will not be a joy forever as I couldn't wait to start snacking!

As having garlic in the name would suggest, the aroma was intense and DELICIOUS!  I love the smell of sauteed garlic and when the sauteing is being done as part of a grilled cheese making process well, sign me up!  But, the garlic would not allow itself to be contained to just producing a delicious aroma-- it also took over the flavor of the first few bites of the sandwich.  I LOVED the fact that the garlic flavor was so obvious-- it sort of reminded me of cheesy garlic bread, but Colin was lukewarm on its strong presence.

At first I was surprised that GGC chose cheddar for this sandwich since I was picturing it more like an Italian sandwich (maybe with some Fontina or something), but the cheddar is actually a perfect choice because it's able to stand up to the strong garlic flavor so that both are powerful, but equally so (like Kirk and Picard... can you tell sous chef came up with that analogy?)  You may recall my mentioning that this particular cheddar was less sharp than the cheddars I usually choose and, luckily, it actually proved to be the perfect fit to balance out the garlic!  As you continued to eat, the garlic started to take more of a back seat (that or you just got used to the flavor being there) and you started to taste more of the other elements (the Parmesan and cheddar).  The only note I have related to the Parmesan is that it makes the crust chewier than I thought it should be.  Perhaps if I cooked it longer it would get a little crispier?  But then I wouldn't retain the perfect golden brown char that the Pepperidge Farm Sourdough is renowned for.

Original American Grilled Cheese in that it was simple but tasty.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Garlic-Crusted Sourdough with Cheddar
Gooey-ness:	4
Aroma:	4
Appearance:	Looks creamy and classic!
Taste:	A-

I was torn between an A and an A-, but ultimately decided that while good, this sandwich didn't get me quite as excited as some of our A recipients have (i.e. Havarti and Dilled Cucumbers on Rye or the Italian Ham and Cheese).

Next week I'll try to cook up a little pre-Thanksgiving treat... even if GGC doesn't have a Thanksgiving-esque recipe, I'm sure I can improvise something ;-)

Feta and Eggplant on Pita with Sesame-Yogurt Sauce

I know it's going to be hard to follow up the grilled cheese martini post (it became my most popular post of all in the span of like 3 days), but it's time for me to get back to edible (rather than drinkable) sandwiches.  This week's sandwich serves as a bit of a cautionary tale as to why one should read the whole recipe before starting to cook.  I'm not saying the time invested wasn't worth it in the end, but let's just say I was not prepared for ~1 hour of prep work.  But, since there's a lot to cover let's jump right in!

We have two components to the sandwich this week-- a filling and a sauce.  For the filling we need 5 Tbsp. olive oil, 1 small onion, 1 large jalapeno pepper, 2 cloves garlic, 1 large eggplant, 1 tsp. sesame oil and 6 ounces feta cheese.  For the sauce we need 1 Tbsp. sesame seeds, 1/2 cup plain yogurt (or sour cream), 1/2 tsp. ground cumin (which I happily skipped over-- by now we all know my feelings on cumin), 1/4 cup loosely packed mint leaves, 1/4 tsp. fresh lemon juice and salt and pepper.  Of course pita bread was also a necessity.

Phew!  Quite the little shopping list we have here!  For the most part everything was easy to come by (I didn't find the sesame oil, though).  The only slight hiccup came when choosing appropriately sized pita bread.  I knew each sandwich would only use half of one pita (filling would go in the pocket), so the smaller "standard" sized pitas seemed too small.  Instead I opted for pitas that were about the size of dinner plates.  In retrospect this probably wasn't the right choice, but live and learn.

My first task was making the sauce-- if only I had read all the way through the directions I would have known that I could've prepared the sauce a day in advance to save time, but c'est la vie.  I started out by toasting the sesame seeds on a low heat for about 5 minutes.  I was actually surprised by the noticeable change that took place.  They went from bright white to perfectly toasted!

Once they were ready I mixed them into the yogurt along with half of the mint and the cumin and lemon juice (had I chosen to add those ingredients-- I don't like cumin and I didn't have lemon juice). 

I popped that into the fridge and was ready to move on to making the filling.  This is where things start to get time consuming.  Step one was cooking the sliced onions in 2 Tbsp. of olive oil until they are limp, but not brown.  "Easy peasy," I thought, "I cook onions all the time."

Welll.. sort of easy... until I turned them partially brown :-/

While those were cooking I was spending some time slicing and dicing my eggplant and jalapeno.  And by that I mean my sous chef was doing it.  My usual sous chef was out of town, so in a fortuitously good twist of fate my more experienced sibling sous chef was able to step in and show me how to peel an eggplant before dicing it into 1/2" dice for me :-)  She did so well with that that I also tasked her with finely chopping the jalapeno (after I removed the stem and seeds).  Once I saw how much eggplant we were working with I quickly realized I would be needing a larger pan, so I went ahead and transferred the onions over to an appropriately sized skillet.

Once the onions were cooked it was time to add the jalapenos and the 2 cloves of minced garlic.  That all cooks together for about a minute before you add another tablespoon of olive oil, let it warm up for a minute and then reduce the heat to medium low in preparation for the eggplant.

So here I am, moving right along with the recipe, all is well and then I read "Add the eggplant, stir to coat it with oil and cover.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes or until eggplant is dark brown and very soft."  What?!  OK, 30 minutes might not sound like a long time to you, but since I ate lunch at 11:30 AM and it was 8:00 PM when I read that there was to be at least 30 more minutes of cook time, I was not a happy camper.  Needless to say, the bag of pita bread was opened shortly thereafter :-P

So yes, I left the eggplant to cook and would come and stir it once every ~5 minutes until I ended up with something like this:

Mmmm it smelled so good!  Next the recipe called for the sesame oil, the remaining mint, and salt to taste.  I'm not big into adding salt to my food and I've already said I skipped the sesame oil, so all that I added was the rest of the mint.

Now it was time to let the eggplant cool (while covered) for... 15 MINUTES?!  Good thing there were 5 4 more pitas in that bag.

Once the filling was (finally) cool to the touch it was time to drain off any excess oil (of which there was none since I didn't add any) and stir in the feta.

Next I cut two of the large pitas in half and brushed doused each side with some olive oil. I was only making 3 sandwiches so I divided the filling into 3 even portions and stuffed it into the pockets. 

This is what convinced me that I had chosen the wrong sized pita bread.  There was plenty of room around the edges of the pita that was not occupied by filling.  If this had been made with the smaller pitas then they would've been stuffed to the brim (as I imagine they should be).

From here it was same old same old-- cooking each sandwich for 2 minutes on each side (while covered) until the pita is golden brown.  At long last they were ready to be served! (with the sesame-yogurt sauce on the side).

Taste Review:

The initial aroma we all smelled was just the toasted olive oil, not any sort of scent from the actual sandwich filling.  But, since I've learned that initial scents can be deceiving-- I had to let my taste buds tell the true story.  The first bite was very sweet thanks to the cooked onions and the soft eggplant.  I love the taste of cooked sweet onions.  The feta isn't gooey at all (it's just not the nature of the cheese), but it gives the necessary tang to compliment/offset the sweet filling.

Next it was time to assess the sauce.  I think the sandwich stands just fine on its own, but the sauce does provide a nice cool element if that's what you're in the mood for.  The sesame seeds in the sauce are very mild-- I could taste them if I really focused on trying to discern that flavor, but wouldn't have necessarily noticed them otherwise.  Speaking of mild, the jalapeno had virtually NO spice.  I imagine this is because I had removed the stem and seeds, but the sandwich could've used a bit more of a kick (where was Colin and his Sriracha when we needed it)?

The flavor that does take over (if you happen to get a bite of it) is the mint.  We were divided on whether or not the mint was good.  I wasn't huge on it, but my mom and sister both liked it.  I think my main issue with it was that I hadn't chopped up the leaves, so you either got one huge bite or none at all.  If it were chopped I could see myself getting on board even though mint isn't a flavor I traditionally associate with Mediterranean dishes.

One miscellaneous note to highlight is how MESSY the pita is.  I literally didn't know how to approach eating it because the filling falls out of the pita so easily (since the bread is so thin on either side when you create the pocket).  We all had to get forks to finish it up.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Feta and Eggplant on Pita with Sesame-Yogurt Sauce
Gooey-ness:	1: not at all gooey, but VERY messy!
Aroma:	2
Appearance:	Looks like a Mediterranean quesadilla.
Taste:	B+

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!

The feta wasn't the main focus like it should be for a true grilled cheese.  This filling could stand on its own as an appetizer and, while it's tasty, I'm not sure I'd say it's a prime example of a grilled cheese (remember, the cheese must stand alone).

Next Week: I don't have my cook book with me as I'm writing this post, so TBD.

Field Report: Grilled Cheese-tini

Alright, loyal readers, you've seen me mention the grilled cheese martini served by Beecher's Handmade Cheese shops here and here, but little did I know that one day I would be graced with the opportunity to try this storied beverage. 

For those of you unwilling to click through these links to find out more about the martini, let me give you an overview.  The drink is quite literally infused with grilled cheese-- as in they make some of their signature grilled cheeses and douse them in vodka (allowing the liquor to soak up the grilled cheese essence).  That vodka is served in a martini glass with a tomato juice ice cube, muddled basil, and a balsamic reduction on the rim with bits of crispy prosciutto.  Sound weird to you too?  Good.  But, being a true grilled cheese anthropologist, I had to do my due diligence and give it a try.

Let me set the scene-- I'm in NYC with sous chef because he won tickets for us to go see Conan O' Brien while he was filming his show in NYC! 

 
After a day of wandering Times Square and goofing off in FAO Schwarz we headed downtown to the Beecher's shop to meet up with my friend Amanda for a drink... *ahem* for THE drink.



We headed down to "The Cellar," the bar/lounge located under the Beecher's cheese shop.  Colin and Amanda weren't ready to get adventurous with me just yet, so I was the only one to order the grilled cheese martini.  Note: It's not actually on the menu, you have to be "in the know" (or able to Google) to order this one.

And here she is!  Wow-- it looked just as interesting as it was described to be.  I could actually sort of see little bits of what I assume were grilled cheese sandwich floating around in there.  It certainly smelled like a grilled cheese too-- well, a grilled cheese doused in vodka.  Alright... no time like the present to take the plunge!

You need only look at this photo to determine just what I thought of the drink.  Incidentally this is the second sip I took-- we didn't capture the first on film, but I was told it was an even more intense reaction.  The fact that I'm posting this photo even though I look like a double-chinned granny is testament to just how committed I am to painting a complete and accurate portrait of this drink. 

After the initial shock wore off I was able to look at things a little more analytically.  But, let me preface my analysis by saying that nowadays I'm not a big drinker.  Even when I drank more, martinis were always too strong for me, so take this with a grain of salt (or a crumbling of prosciutto as the case may be).

I know it sounds redundant, but this definitely tastes like an alcohol-soaked grilled cheese.  It was sort of bitter with a cheesy and pungent aftertaste.  At first the tomato ice cube wasn't doing much for it, but as it melted it definitely started to take over as the more dominant flavor (like a weak bloody mary accompanied by some cheese).  The balsamic/bacon rim helped to add some salt/sweetness that was MUCH needed to cut the bitterness, so I focused my sips on that part of the glass and started thinking "OK, maybe I can do this."

 
But the more I sipped the more disheartened I became.  As I started to use up a lot of the bacon and as the tomato juice took over more and more I realized that this was not doing it for me.  Again, it could be because I'm not a martini girl to begin with, but it was just too much-- it was starting to give me a headache.

I'm not gonna make it :-(

The dregs-- note the cane cola in the background that I had already switched to drinking.

Oh well!  I gave it the old college try and can officially say I've experienced a whole new level of grilled cheese.  Even though I didn't like it, I would still recommend that people try it even for the sheer novelty of the experience.  I imagine not many people can say they've had a drink that is quite literally a grilled cheese in a glass.  Maybe those with more adventurous palates will actually like it!  As for me, I would've been better suited to stick with the drink I found earlier at FAO Schwarz: