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