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.

The Sonoma

As you may have noticed, I didn't post last week, which usually means one thing-- I was traveling!  And for once, it was for fun!  This time I was on vacation in (mostly) sunny southern California.  I got in some relaxing time in Laguna Beach, some meh time in LA, and some GREAT time in San Diego!  Proof that I was there:

 

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!

Onion Ring Grilled Cheese

This week continues my adventures in turning my favorite junk foods into grilled cheeses.  We've already covered pizza and mac and cheese, so now it's time to go to work with one of my all time favorite side dishes: onion rings.  I've adapted a recipe from the Wisconsin Grilled Cheese Academy, the source that gave us the brunch grilled cheese and the pilgrim.  Based on the resounding success of these two recipes I felt pretty good about creating my own spin on one of their creations.  The main modifications I made were: a different batter for the onions, onion rings instead of straws, and no cauliflower; but this probably doesn't mean much to you without first seeing what I did do, so here we go!

Ingredients:
* 4 ounces cheddar
* 4 ounces pepper jack
* Sourdough
* Yellow onion
* 1 egg
* 1 can of beer
* 1 tsp. garlic powder
* 1 cup flour
* Vegetable oil
(Ignore the olive oil in this photo-- not sure why I got it out).

The recipe I was modeling my sandwich on called for making a tempura style batter, but that required more ingredients than I was willing to buy, so instead I decided to go with a good old fashioned beer batter (finally I find a use for the Miller Lite that's been in my fridge since our house warming party about 3 months ago).  Making the batter was simple.  Mix together the flour, the egg and the garlic powder and add 1 cup of beer.

I'm sure this would be even better if you used fancy beer, but that's not how I roll (at least not tonight).

I set that aside while I cut up the onion.  I opted to cut it into thin-ish rings.

While I was making the batter and slicing the onions I was also heating about 3"-4" of olive oil in a large, deep pot.  The recipe advised letting it get up to 350 degrees, but since I don't have a thermometer I just left it on the burner on high and hoped for the best.  To determine if it was ready to go I coated one small onion in batter and carefully lowered it into the pot.  It started to sizzle immediately, so I knew we were good to go with the frying.

From there I started coating the onions in batter in small batches and CAREFULLY placing them in the pot.  The last thing you want in this scenario is scalding oil splashing up on you, so I found it best to use a fork to coat the onions in the batter and lower them into the pot, and tongs to remove the fried onions (when I used tongs for both steps, the batter on the tongs started to cook when I fished out the onions and I had a bit of a mess on my hands).

The onions didn't have to cook too long, just enough to get the outside nice and golden brown.

We continued working in small batches (me handling the batter and sous chef handling the frying)...

Until we had a nice little mound of homemade onion rings!

After lightly salting them and sampling one... or two... or several, we were ready to assemble our sandwiches.

I had already grated 4 ounces of cheddar and 4 ounces of pepper jack.  We only had enough bread to make 2 real sandwiches and one heel sandwich, so I actually would've grated a little more if we had 4 full sized sandwiches.

First I spread the cheddar evenly over three pieces of bread (that had been buttered on the opposite side).

Then came the onion rings-- PILED on, which was followed by the pepper jack-- sprinkled on.

Colin also added some of his super spicy peppers to his sandwich.  Clearly he hasn't learned from his painful (literally) experience with them a few weeks back.  I then topped the sandwiches with the other slices of bread (also buttered on one side).

I'd like to talk a bit about the thickness of the sandwich for a minute.  When we cooked the onion rings they had a tendency to all stick together as the batter fried up, so we actually had several large clumps of onion rings.  Rather than try and break them apart I opted to just pile them on the sandwich.  After all, we wanted to use all of them!

Next it was time to grill-- the cheese had been sitting next to the stove as we fried the onion rings, so it was already a little warm which meant it melted that much faster.  So after a few short minutes in the pan we were ready to serve!

Taste Review:

Throughout the cooking process, the strongest smell were the fried onions. Anytime you deep fry something I think you get a pretty strong deep fried aroma.  The first thing we tasted upon biting into the sandwich was the cheddar and the pepper jack. I was surprised to find that the pepper jack didn't overwhelm the cheddar, but acted as almost aftertaste.  It gave just the right hint of pepper without taking over. The onions in the beer batter were a little sweet and their crunchiness added a lot to the sandwich.

I was worried that the sourdough would be too dense of a bread given how much filling we were working with, but as usual it proved to be the perfect choice. The bread's density helps to contain the filling and compliments it with just the right flavor.

There's a lot of cheese around the edge of the sandwich (probably because it rolls off of the onion rings as it melts), so the first few bites around the edges are like a regular grilled cheese, but when you get to the onions, the sweet and spicy combo of the onions and pepper jack is so good!  Shockingly, Colin said "you don't need to add anything to this sandwich."  I think he could've done with not adding his hot peppers though!

Can you see his eyes welling up?  Well, I promise-- it was happening.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Onion Ring Grilled Cheese
Gooey-ness:	2.5
Aroma:	3.5
Appearance:	Looks a little like the brunch grilled cheese-- brown, white, and orange are the dominant colors.
Taste:	A

The only reason I don't give an A+ is because the sandwich is so heavy.  I wouldn't expect otherwise from any sandwich involving something deep fried, but it was still pretty intense.  Colin said he wished it was a little gooier, but I think more cheese might make this too much to handle.  Nonetheless, if I were to open a grilled cheese restaurant, this would be on the menu; and yay for acquiring a new skill-- deep frying.  I can't wait to try beer battering again with different seasonings incorporated.  My arteries are already excited.

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!