Mushroom and Monterey Jack Panino

This week I continue to work my way through Great Grilled Cheeses with the Mushroom and Monterey Jack Panino.  I'm pretty indifferent about mushrooms, but I know I love jack cheese (and sauteed onions), so I felt pretty good about this one.

Ingredients:
* Olive Oil
* Sweet Baguette (no idea what this meant, so I just got a regular baguette)
* 8 ounces Monterey Jack
* Small Onion (thinly sliced)
* 1/2 pound button mushroom caps (sliced 1/4" thick)
* 1 Tbsp Fresh Thyme (or in my case, not fresh)
* Salt and pepper to taste

I started off by sauteing the onions in olive oil until they started to get soft and brown.

Once they were ready I added in the mushrooms and thyme...

and cooked until the mushrooms shrank/softened enough for me to consider them cooked.  GGC advises salting and peppering to taste, but since I'm not one to add salt to my food I skipped that.

That was literally it!  Easy enough prep-- just slightly time consuming given that each of the saute steps takes a few minutes.

While I was cooking my sous chef was grating the cheese and preparing the baguette by cutting it into four quarters and then cutting those quarters into sandwich style pieces.  Unfortunately we bought the ingredients for this one a few days before we actually made it, so the baguette had started to harden a bit, but you'd ideally be working with a fresher/softer piece of bread.  Remove a little of the bread from each section of the baguette to make small troughs for your filling.  First goes the mushrooms/onions:

Then pile on that cheese!  Literally.  You'll be smushing it together and into the bread in an effort to actually make it stay as part of the filling.

Next you just top the bottom halves with the other half of each bread section (which have also had some of their filling removed) and brush the exterior with olive oil. 

As I'm sure we all know (and as seen in this photo), baguettes are round, which means it's pretty tricky to get them to stay on one side while you're grilling them.  I had issues with them sort of rolling around in the pan (which meant that at best the sides were cooking a bit and at worst the sandwiches completely fell apart).  I combated this by putting multiple sandwiches in the pan at once so they could lean on each other, and by holding them still with my spatula until the cheese had melted enough to hold things together.  So this sandwich was a little more labor intensive on the grilling, but it was worth it to get a perfectly gooey sandwich.

Taste Review:

As you can tell from the photo, it sort of looks like a deli sandwich or cheesesteak.  I think it's because the bun is so big and the sauteed onions and mushrooms are common enough ingredients on deli sandwiches and burgers.

My reaction to the first bite I took-- it's good, but bland.  I think part of the reason I'm indifferent to mushrooms is because they don't really have a taste to me, so to have a bland veggie as the centerpiece of the sandwich makes for a sort of bland sandwich.  But the more I ate the more I realized that the blame for blandness doesn't lie with the mushrooms-- it's the bread.  The bread is so big and crusty that it swallows up any flavor.  I think a whole grain bread might be better for this sandwich.  By the end I had removed half of the bread and was eating it like an open faced sandwich, which made for a much better filling to bread ratio. 

The filling itself had some nice gooey cheese and I always love sauteed onions.  The mushrooms actually did have a little flavor thanks to the thyme, but it was very subtle.  I think the fact that the sandwich looks like a Philly Cheesesteak made Colin wish that it actually was a Philly Cheesesteak, so he wasn't over the moon for this one, but agreed that it's got good ingredients that just aren't used in the right way.  He agreed that we should try this again, but with different bread.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Mushroom and Monterey Jack Panino
Gooey-ness:	3
Aroma:	1.5
Appearance:	Looks like a Philly Cheesesteak.
Taste:	B

Pulled Pork and Fried Pickles

Apologies to all for a lack of post last week (we went out to Spacebar and there wasn't really a need to re-review it), but I plan to make it up to you with an extra delicious creation for this week. 

Not too long ago I got a comment on one of my posts asking if I've ever experimented with pickles on my grilled cheese.  Up until then I hadn't, but it sounded like a great idea, so I started plotting the best way to bring some pickles into the mix on a future sandwich.  After the resounding success of the onion ring grilled cheese, I decided that fried pickles may just be the way to go here. 

But while brainstorming sandwich specifics with Colin, we decided that just pickles and cheese may not be quite right.  Somehow we happened upon the idea of pulled pork as an additional ingredient.  I had encountered a delicious pulled pork grilled cheese during my second trip to Cheesie's Pub and Grub in Chicago, and while it was good, our iteration is different.  The main difference is that we decided to go with Carolina-style barbeque instead of the sweeter/ketchup based barbeque that Cheesie's used.  We hoped that the Carolina barbeque's vinegar base would compliment the acidity of the pickles and leave room for the cheese to shine.  With the basic recipe in mind we were ready to get down to business.

Ingredients:
* Pepperidge Farm Sourdough (the creme de la creme of grilled cheese breads)
* 8 ounces cheddar
* 8 ounces jack
* Carolina-style pulled pork (I didn't have time to make my own, so store bought had to suffice)
* Dill pickle slices
* Flour, beer, egg, and seasoning for beer batter
* Vegetable oil for frying

I started off by heating about 2" of vegetable oil in a pan while I worked on mixing up the beer batter.  This is done by combining 1 egg with 1 cup of flour and adding 1 cup of beer; but in this case I accidentally added too much beer.  Fortunately the great thing about beer batter is that the recipe is pretty free form-- too much beer?  Add some more flour.  I also sprinkled in a little garlic powder and Cajun spice and was ready to roll.

Next up I coated the pickle slices and tossed them in the hot oil.  I'm not sure how long I ended up cooking the pickles, but I just eyeballed it and made sure to take them out once they turned golden brown.

Finished pickles would sit on a paper towel to allow their excess oil to drip off.

While I was frying sous chef had been working on grating the cheeses, so all that was left to do once the pickles were done was to heat up some of the pulled pork.

Made in Nebraska?  Wow, it must be authentic.

All this involved was microwaving the tub of pork, so that took no time at all.

Colin's step-sister Ellen was joining us for dinner this week so we decided to make 3 sandwiches (we figured these would be hearty enough that we wouldn't need two per person).

Step one: Butter one side of each slice of bread and place face down, then distribute the pickles evenly on the bread.

Step two: Add as much pork as you see fit.  I just sort of gave it a solid layer of pork that wasn't so monstrous that I didn't also have room for the cheese.

Step three: Add as much cheese as you see fit which, in my case, is a lot.  These were pretty thick sammies by the time I was through with them.  Finally, top each sandwich with another slice of bread and butter the outside.

These fried up quite nicely (as is always the case with Pepperidge Farm Sourdough), but definitely required a dual spatula attack to flip them so as not to lose lots of filling.  For a refresher on what I mean by the dual spatula method, here's a shot from back when I used it on the Havarti and Dilled Cucumbers on Rye.

Keeping pressure on both sides means the sandwich stays together.

The cheese melted quickly and in no time we were ready to go!

Taste Review:

As usual, aroma is the first thing we assess and in this case there really wasn't one.  I think if we had cooked the barbeque pork ourselves that would've been the dominant scent, but in this case there wasn't a particularly noticeable scent.  Biting into the sandwich the first thing anyone commented on was the gooiness of the cheese.  It was melted very evenly and spread nicely over the barbeque.  Speaking of the barbeque, we all agreed that using Carolina barbeque was a wise decision.  You could taste its flavor and spices, but it didn't have an overwhelming sauce.  Although, as usual, Colin wanted more meat.

Now let's talk pickles.  Part of the reason I don't usually like pickles on my sandwiches is because they're too salty but, thanks to the batter, the pickles are both salty and sweet-ish (not sure sweet is the right word for beer batter, but the batter does help to control the salt level, which gives it a sweet effect).  One observation about the pickles was that they weren't crispy, but that was a non-issue which can likely be attributed to the fact that the pickles were thinly sliced.  We all agreed that the batter could use some more flavor-- maybe some spicier pepper or more garlic, or really whatever floats your boat.  The additional flavor in the batter would only help the pickles to stand out, which in my mind is a good thing.  Something that had frustrated me during the batter dipping process was that the batter tended to run off of the pickles quickly, so in addition to adding more flavor to the batter I would also maybe let the pickles soak in the batter for a little longer to see if that helps them to absorb more batter.

We've already noted that the cheese helped the sandwich seem gooey but, while gooey, the sandwich wasn't at all creamy.  By this I mean the pork was on the drier/crumbly side and Colin argued that it would need more sauce to qualify as true "Carolina barbeque."  I said I liked it this way and would worry that too much sauce would make the sandwich soggy.  Ellen suggested serving additional Carolina barbeque sauce (vinegar based) on the side sort of like an au jus, which I think would be good because then you could control your own level of soggy.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Pulled Pork and Fried Pickle Grilled Cheese
Gooey-ness:	3
Aroma:	1.5
Appearance:	Let's be honest, the grayish-brown color of the pork makes this one look kind of ugly.
Taste:	A-

I fought hard for this A- and Colin still doesn't agree.  He says that more meat and more sauce are necessary to make this true Carolina BBQ, but I remind him that this is supposed to be a GRILLED CHEESE.  I think this was a great balance of flavors that added a savory element, but still allowed the cheese to shine.

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!

Jalapeno Popper: The Sequel

This week is Colin's birthday, so I wanted to be sure that our sandwich reflected his tastes, which means one thing: it must be spicy.  You may remember that around this time last year Colin created his own jalapeno based sandwich.  We liked it then, but there's always room for improvement/innovation, and I had seen a jalapeno popper grilled cheese recipe floating around on Pinterest, so I decided to give it a try.  This one actually remains a little truer to the basic structure/ingredients of an actual jalapeno popper.

Ingredients are as follows:
* Jalapeno peppers (we used 3 total that we picked from our very own jalapeno plant, but four would have been ideal)
* Sourdough
* Cream cheese
* Cheddar
* Jack
* Butter
* Tortilla chips

Our first order of business was bisecting the jalapenos and putting them in the broiler for about 12 minutes (until their skins turned black like this):

Next I put them in a ziplock bag for them to stew in their own steam for awhile.  This makes it easier to peel off the skin.

While those were steaming I started preparing the sandwiches.  Since we only had 3 peppers we were only making 2 sandwiches (instead of our usual four), but again-- the ideal would be 4 peppers, 2 per sandwich.  I started by spreading 1 tablespoon of cream cheese on each slice of bread (4 Tbsp total).

Once that was taken care of I turned to the jack and cheddar cheeses.  The recipe calls for "1/2 cup jack and cheddar cheese, shredded," so I just went ahead and shredded as close to one cup as I could eyeball, trying to get an even representation of both cheeses.  Once that was done, I spread half of the cheese evenly on two of the slices of bread (saving the other half for later).

Once this was all done the jalapenos were about ready to be handled again, so I took them out of their bag, carefully peeled their skins off, and sliced them into strips.

They were then, of course, added to the sandwiches.

Next the recipe called for one tablespoon of crushed tortilla chips per sandwich.  An interesting choice, but I'm no stranger to putting creative ingredients on my sandwiches, so I was on board.

I then topped the chips with the remaining cheddar and jack.

From there it was all standard operating procedure-- sandwich the bread together, butter the outside of the sandwiches, and grill them up!  Before too long we had some delicious looking sammies on our hands.

Taste Review:

While the jalapenos were roasting they emitted a nice roasted pepper fragrance, but once they were inside of the sandwich their scent was muted by the cheddar cheese (the dominant aroma for this one).  Since we couldn't smell the jalapenos as strongly at this point, we were worried that they would also be overpowered from a flavor standpoint-- we were right; but it wasn't because of the cheddar cheese.  There's actually such a strong cream cheese presence that the cream cheese is what overpowers the jalapenos.  This might be an unfair judgment against the cream cheese since we didn't have as many jalapenos as we would've liked (and when I got a bite with the jalapeno it tasted like a great combination!) but this was all further evidence that we could, in fact, use some more jalapenos on this guy.

Surprise, surprise-- Colin elected to eat his sandwich with salsa and he said that this was a necessary decision.  He wasn't a fan of the strong cream cheese presence and needed another flavor to counter it.  We both agreed that the sandwich could use less cream cheese, but Colin argued that it shouldn't have any.  He actually had added some pepper jack to his sandwich and said that the pepper jack, monterey jack, and cheddar would be a perfect combination for this sandwich (with more jalapenos, of course).  The cream cheese does help to keep the filling creamy, but we started to wonder if there were other ways to do that as well (its rich flavor just wasn't the right fit).  We thought that maybe mixing sour cream in with the cheddar and monterey jack before adding it to the sandwich would give the adhesion necessary to keep the cheese on the sandwich gooey and would be a more appropriate flavor.

Last comment: the tortilla chips tasted chewy instead of crunchy, so they didn't really add much to the sandwich.  I'd say they should be a side dish with some salsa instead.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Jalapeno Popper 2
Gooey-ness:	3.5
Aroma:	2
Appearance:	Bright orange and yellow with green spots.
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!

Mac and Cheese Grilled Cheese

It's finally time.  After two wildly successful samplings of a mac and cheese grilled cheese here and here, I decided I needed to have a go at making one myself.  I know it may seem excessive to try what is essentially the same sandwich three times, but let's get serious-- this is a grilled cheese with mac and cheese in it!  This will never get old! 

But where to begin?  Obviously a killer mac and cheese recipe is the key to success for this sandwich.  A brief online search yielded me the modestly titled "World's Best Mac and Cheese."  This recipe had two things working in its favor: 1) It was from Martha Stewart's website (to quote my friend Caroline, "Martha hasn't let me down yet!") and 2) It's culled from Kurt Beecher Dammeier's cook book (of Beecher's handmade cheese fame, see here and here).  These positives were enough to sell me on using this recipe for my sandwich.  So let's get down to business:

The first thing you may notice about this picture is that there are FOUR different packages of cheese.  Looks like I definitely found my killer mac and cheese (literally, my arteries were already scared). 

Step one was making the cheese sauce, which would serve as the key ingredient in the mac and cheese equation.  You can follow the recipe here, but I'll talk you through it as per usual.

Starting ingredients:
* Milk (3 cups)
* Cheddar (16 ounces)
* 1/2 stick butter
* Flour (1/3 cup)
* Jack (1/2 cup)
* Salt, chili powder and garlic powder as needed

I started out by making a roux with the flour and butter. 

Once that was sufficiently blended I started adding the milk gradually. 

The recipe's directions seem to indicate that you can pour all of the milk in at once, but I opted for a more gradual process so I could make sure that the milk was fully blended with the roux before adding more milk.  I wanted to make sure it mixed together evenly.  Once everything was combined in the pot I let it cook for 10 more minutes, all the while stirring regularly.

While I was doing this, sous chef was working on grating the cheeses.  We had two 8 ounce bricks of cheddar.  One was Cabot Seriously Sharp and the other was Lucerne Sharp.  I love Cabot cheese, but Lucerne was on sale, so I figured a blend of the two would provide a little extra dimension to the cheese sauce.

Once the cheese was all grated and the milk mixture was thickened a bit, I removed the milk from the heat and added in 15 ounces of cheddar cheese (saving 1 ounce for later), 1/2 cup jack cheese, and dashes of chili and garlic powder (just eyeballed this).

Even though the burner wasn't on anymore, the milk was still warm enough to melt the cheese as I stirred the two together.

This photo actually makes it look like I was stirring much faster than I actually did, so just picture a nice slowish/even stir.  Anywho, once that was mixed together I couldn't resist trying a bite.  And once I had one bite I had a hard time resisting the urge to dunk my head in the pot and slurp up all the sauce.  I was instantly sold on this recipe regardless of how the macaroni and sandwich portions turned out (sacrilege, I know)!

Once Colin pried the tasting spoon out of my hand I was able to continue.  The official mac and cheese recipe calls for penne pasta, but that's penne and cheese, not mac and cheese, so I decided to use good old elbow macaroni.  However, since it's so much smaller (AND WE HAD SO MUCH CHEESE SAUCE) we doubled the quantity we prepared-- probably closer to 12 ounces than the 6 that were called for by the recipe.  Per instruction, we cooked the pasta for 2 minutes less than the suggested cooking time on the package.

Once this was cooked, strained and ready to roll it was time for the macaroni to take a bath in the cheese sauce.

Oh macaroni, how I envy you... wait, that sounds really creepy.  Revision: MAC AND CHEESE, GET IN MY BELLY!  But sadly it still wasn't quite time to chow down.  We still had to bake it.  Not gonna lie, there was still a very high cheese sauce to macaroni ratio, so you probably could do with making more pasta, but when has too much cheese ever really been cause for concern?  Answer: Never. 

Correction, maybe there is one exception:

But I digress.  After greasing my standard 13"x9" baking dish I poured in all of the macaroni and cheese.

Add to that a topping consisting of the remaining ounce of cheddar, an ounce of Gruyere and another dash or two of chili pepper and it's ready for the oven.

20 torturous minutes later it was all done!

Correction, the mac and cheese was done-- the sandwich was just beginning.  When I have a filling as decadent as mac and cheese I find it best to keep the rest of the sandwich pretty simple, so I opted to go with our tried and true friend: Pepperidge Farm Sourdough.  I buttered one side of one slice of bread and PILED on the mac and cheese.

I topped that off with another slice of bread and was ready to grill.  A few short minutes later I had a delectable treat just begging me to scarf it down.

Taste Review:

Well, I didn't have to wait for the actual sandwich to be ready to assert that the mac and cheese itself is AMAZING.  I fully endorse the "World's Best Mac and Cheese" moniker.  The sandwich had a strong aroma thanks to the fact that the filling had cooked for 20 minutes before we ate it, so that was appreciated.  One of the positives of cooking the filling independently of the sandwich is that you don't have to grill the sandwich for that long.  Since the filling is already gooey, once the bread is toasted then you're ready to go.  On the flip side, this could be a negative in the eyes of some.  The filling is so gooey that I kind of wanted something to stand up to it (like how you sometimes have bread crumbs on mac and cheese).  Colin said he thought the bread was fine though, so this is all a matter of personal preference. 

Creamy, rich and ooey gooey are the words that repeatedly came to my mind as I ate.  It was so rich I could've maybe used a slight counter-- maybe garlic bread?  Colin had (surprise, surprise) added hot sauce to his, so it hit just the right note for him.  But in general it was a delight all around.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Mac and Cheese Grilled Cheese
Gooey-ness:	5
Aroma:	4
Appearance:	SUPER CHEESY!
Taste:	A

Yum yum-- I've yet to go wrong with a mac and cheese grilled cheese, and now I know that I can whip up a professional grade version in my very own home!

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!