The Big (Grilled) Cheese: Gouda

Showing posts with label Gouda. Show all posts

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Field Report: Spacebar

It's time for a long overdue field report right here in my own backyard. Although I have tried The Big Cheese Truck, this was my first visit to a local restaurant that specializes in grilled cheese. Spacebar is a new kid on the block where local grilled cheeses are concerned, but the key is that they are (as far as I've found) the only local restaurant that has dedicated their menu to the greatest sandwiches of our time: grilled cheeses (some of their melts border on non-grilled-cheese territory, but their intent is still clear). Located just down Lee Highway from my apartment, Spacebar sits in the heart of Falls Church, so on our way to a concert at the nearby State Theater we decided to check it out.

The parking lot is pretty tiny, which is not ideal for a restaurant that's about 6 miles from the closest metro station, but we snagged a space and headed in. It's clear that Spacebar's ideal vibe is a night spot that serves a variety of craft beers and grilled cheese sandwiches, so it wasn't that crowded when we came in around 7:00 PM, but presumably business picks up later in the evening. We ordered at the bar, seated ourselves in a booth, and enjoyed a beer apiece while we waited. In no time our sandwiches and side of tater tots arrived (Spacebar is owned by the same people who run Galaxy Hut, another local favorite known for its sides of tots).

After much deliberation during the ordering process I had selected Gouda and Havarti on multi grain. The first thing I noticed about the sandwich was how gooey it was. Cheese was oozing onto the plate as soon as it arrived. As we all know, I LOVE CHEESE, and as far as I'm concerned, the more the better. I was excited and dove right in. The gooeyness was, of course, the first thing I noticed. That along with a perfectly charred bread instantly put a smile on my face. The super gooey texture of the Gouda blends well with the Havarti flavor, so the sandwich has a perfect balance between charred bread and gooey cheese. Just looking at it right now makes my stomach growl again. The only minor issue I encountered was that the crust seems dry because the cheese doesn't tend to ooze out of there as much as it does out of the center. I solved this problem by eating the crust first (dipped in ketchup) and saving the cheesiest bites for last (I always save the very best bite for last, and you know you do too).

Colin had selected pastrami and Swiss with sauerkraut on rye. He didn't have as much to say as I do because he was busy scarfing his down (I took that to be a good sign). Since I'm not a mind reader I can't give you his bite by bite analysis, but he remarked on the sandwich's nice even melt. His was gooey as well despite the abundance of non-gooey fillings like pastrami and sauerkraut. He noted that for both of us the presentation is understated (a lonely sandwich on a white plate), but that the taste is excellent and more than makes up for what presentation may lack.

In summary, our visit showed us that Spacebar does well with both simple and complex sandwiches and we agreed that the trip was a success and that Spacebar will now be added to our regular restaurant rotation. Plus, you gotta love the tots!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

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).

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

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).

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Field Report: The Big Cheese Truck

Although my vacation schedule didn't allow me to do a standard post this past week, I did get in some quality grilled cheese time nonetheless. Starting with:

The Big Cheese Truck at Movie Under the Moon! I love Movie Under the Moon as it is, but once I heard that the Big Cheese truck would be making an appearance (and that The Wizard of Oz, one of my all time faves, would be playing), I knew I had to go.

Ironically the same day that I saw that the Big Cheese would be coming I had been thinking to myself that I was disappointed that a grilled cheese truck of some sort would never make its way all the way out to my office and that the next time I had a weekday free I should go in search of the truck. Well, it must've read my mind!

They didn't have a super extensive selection and many of their choices are quite similar to sandwiches I've tried before, but I'm always pumped to get a new take on an old favorite. Since we were at Movie Under the Moon, I decided to try the "Midnight Moon," which (as you can see) consisted of goat Gouda and caramelized onions on multigrain. The description reminded me of the much-hated Dutch Grilled Cheese, but it sounded different enough that I was willing to give it a try.

Here's the sandwich-- pretty straightforward.

And here's the sandwich after being savagely ripped open by me :-P

I was interested to find out what goat Gouda tasted like. Turns out it's basically like a firmer goat cheese (rather than being easily spreadable and runny it has some more substance to it). I liked the combination of the goat cheese and the caramelized onions (in this case caramelized white onions rather than the red onions used for the Dutch Grilled Cheese), but could've used more cheese. The bread was really hearty, so it was easy for some of the would-be gooiness to get muted by the dryness of the bread. On the whole I liked it and found myself wishing that Colin and I were hungry enough to split a second sandwich. I think this was partially due to their high quality ingredients-- they use artisan cheeses sourced exclusively from Cowgirl Creamery and bread from Lyon Bakery, both hipster-esque DC foodie spots. I'm glad I got to encounter the DC grilled cheese truck and look forward to the day when our paths may cross again.

Stay tuned for my mass production grilled cheese making at the beach (special guest appearance by the Cheese Whiz Kid).

Friday, April 15, 2011

Dutch Grilled Cheese

This week's sandwich is definitely our most adventurous yet-- not just because it involves more elements than we have used so far, but also because it incorporates ingredients and flavors that I haven't had much experience with in general. Reading through the recipe I knew I recognized Gouda cheese, but couldn't remember exactly what it tasted like. In addition to that I vaguely remembered having a distaste for rye bread, but couldn't quite recall why. And I certainly had no idea what cumin tasted like. Apparently the recipe's combination of Gouda and cumin is intended to mimic a Dutch cheese called Leyden cheese which (according to Wikipedia) is a yellow cumin spiced cheese made in the Netherlands from semi-skimmed cow's milk. Logical all around considering Gouda is a yellow cheese made in the Netherlands and we are literally adding cumin to it.

While searching for my ingredients I had a hard time deciding exactly what to do where bread was concerned as the recipe called for rye bread with caraway seeds but, as I mentioned, I don't like rye. I called my trusty shopping resource (Mom) to get her opinion on what I should do. She said that rye is a pretty strong flavor and that if I remember disliking it that it's probably too strong for my taste. However, while browsing around I found some rye bread that didn't have caraway seeds in it and I decided that this would be a good compromise since the bread is still made with the same basic grain, but doesn't have too strong of a taste for me to still enjoy it. The bread itself is VERY dense, which I think is part of what makes it so unique.

Moving over to the spice aisle I saw that a container of cumin seeds cost ~$6, so I called my shopping resource back to see if she had any I could use. I was in luck, but it was powdered cumin instead of cumin seeds-- as it saved me a good chunk of change I decided the substitution was acceptable.

The first step after accumulating the ingredients was thinly slicing a medium sized red onion and caramelizing the slivers. Within seconds of cutting into the onion my eyes were welling up, so I could already tell this was going to be the highest score for pungency we've had yet.

I've tried caramelizing onions before but was never successful (and now I know why). You need to put about 1 tablespoon of butter in your non-stick pan and slowly cook the onions on a low heat until they turn a soft deep brown. I hadn't used any sort of lubricant before, which caused the onions to burn before they were cooked appropriately. Apparently, even if the butter proves insufficient and the onions do start to burn you can add a tablespoon or two of water and be back on track. All in all this took about 30 minutes of cooking low and slow, but they looked delicious by the end!

Before

After

While I was cooking the onions I also grated the Gouda. The cheese came with a thick red rind on it and per GGC's instructions, the rind was to be removed before grating. I was surprised by how yellow the cheese looked! And by how soft it was. It was similar in consistency to American cheese in that it's firm enough to be solid, but is soft and crumbles easily when you try to grate it.

So now the cheese was grated and the onions were cooked. I then moved the onions over to a separate plate and wiped out the pan with a paper towel (but didn't wash or rinse the pan). According to the recipe I was supposed to then put 3/4 teaspoon of cumin seeds in the pan to warm them and bring out their flavor and then crush them with a mortar and pestle. Welllll as mentioned, I didn't want to fork over the dough for the seeds and (surprise, surprise) my mortar and pestle were at the shop getting polished (is that an action that can be performed on a mortar and pestle? I assume yes since it's made of marble). Anyway, that is neither here nor there-- what matters is that I had to improvise a bit. I decided to just put 1 tsp of cumin into the pan to see what happens.

As soon as I peeled the seal back from the cumin I was overwhelmed by the smell. Said smell is best described as... Indian food? Sweat? Indian food that is sweating. Regardless, this was not going to help the sandwich ingredients to be any less pungent. Oh well, into the pan it went! Whereas the scent of the red onions had lessened as I cooked them, the cumin only got stronger to the point that I ultimately got it off the heat to try to stop the smell. I briefly debated not even adding it to the cheese since I didn't like the smell at all, but I figured I had already deviated enough from the recipe and didn't want to further interfere, so I went ahead and mixed it in.

Next step (as usual) was evenly distributing the cheese on top of two slices of rye bread (that have been buttered on one side) and topping them with the caramelized onions. Then you add the second slice of buttered bread on top to complete the sandwich. Now we're ready for grilling!

This was the biggest sandwich yet in that it occupied most of the pan and couldn't be completely covered by my standard smaller frying pan. When it came time to flip it I needed two spatulas to lift it one of which began to buckle under the weight! I think this has to do with the fact that the amount of cheese and filling we usually use for two sandwiches was on just one and the bread was particularly dense.

From there it was just a matter of the standard grilling on each side. The Gouda melts very quickly-- probably because it is so soft and well grated, but also because this recipe called for cooking on medium high heat instead of medium low (most likely because of the bread's density).

This was my first use of my sandwich warmer secondary pan idea and it worked really well! When both sandwiches were done they were still warm and gooey and ready to be eaten.

Taste Review: Our initial reaction was very bland-- that the sandwich pretty much tasted like any other sandwich and that the pungent smell that had been there in the ingredients was gone. The main thing that stood out at first was how GOOEY the sandwich was! Not only were there strings of cheese connecting my mouth to the sandwich after every bite, but I would have to literally wrap them around the sandwich in order to get them to cut. The caramelized onions made the sandwich taste sweet, which was muted by the flatter taste of the rye bread. Overall I liked that taste since I have a big sweet tooth.

Sadly, as we kept eating things started to go downhill. As soon as we got a whiff of the cumin the pungent aroma was back and not in a good way. Colin thought the onions were too sweet and didn't find the sandwich satisfying. I agreed that the more I ate the less interested in the sandwich I was (the opposite of how I think you should feel-- when you're eating something good you never want it to end)! The texture was the best part in that it was a substantial sandwich with lots of gooey cheese, but the taste and excitement just weren't there. Per usual, Colin thought that ketchup made it taste better since it cut the sweetness of the onions. All in all, this one was a disappointment. Neither of us ended up finishing our sandwiches: