Pizza Grilled Cheese

Disclaimer: This post is a day late because I forgot to bring my notes with me to type up the full post during my lunch hour yesterday.  Sorry!

When people ask me what my favorite food is, they're often surprised to find out it's not grilled cheese.  Although my favorite does involve a combination of bread and carbs, the clear winner in the favorite food race is pizza.  Shocking, I know, but there's just something about pizza that gives it top billing in my heart (and my tummy).  Taking this into account (along with the fact that the pizza grilled cheese I pinned on Pinterest is my most often re-pinned item) I decided it was high time to bring my two loves together and make a pizza grilled cheese.

I didn't want to go with the recipe I actually pinned on Pinterest because it featured pepperoni and regular bread.  I don't like pepperoni and want to see what can be done with an actual pizza crust.  So I headed to the store and got your basic pizza ingredients with the plan of improvising a recipe.

* Pre-made pizza crust (thin)
* Fresh mozzarella
* Ricotta
* Pizza sauce
* Garlic
* Home-grown basil

So I knew that pizza dough wouldn't fully cook were I to just grill it, so I opted to cook the dough first in hopes of turning it into "bread."  This, of course, involved me tossing the pizza dough in the air while pretending to actually be an Italian pizza maker.  Sadly the dough ended up looking like this:

Yes, that's me peeking through a hole in the dough.

Well, I tried.  Upon yielding these results I opted to fold the dough back together and roll it out using a rolling pin *ahem* can of corn.  This was harder than I thought it would be, but eventually I had a workable rectangle of dough. 

I figured seasoning the dough before I cooked it would be a good idea, so I drizzled olive oil on it and spread some crushed garlic on top of that.  I also gave some sprinkles of my generic McCormick "Italian Seasoning."  I imagine this consists mostly of oregano.

Now it was ready to bake!  I had preheated the oven to 400 degrees and put the dough in for 5 minutes initially.  Checking on it at 5 minutes I decided it could use more time, so I went for 5 more minutes.

At this point it had cooked for 10 minutes total and was starting to crisp up, but just for kicks I decided to throw the ricotta on there for the final 4 minutes in the oven.

So total cook time ended up at 14 minutes.  While the dough was cooking I started trying to grate the mozzarella, but found that it didn't grate so much as it just came off in strips and strings (a la string cheese-- logically).  So I opted to break with tradition and pull the cheese into strips rather than grate it.

Once the dough had cooled a bit I used my pizza slicer to cut it into 8 squares and added dollops of pizza sauce to four of the slices.  On top of that went the mozzarella.  Colin decided he wanted a lot of sauce, so he also added pizza sauce to what would be the other pieces of his sandwiches.

Then we topped our pizzas according to our personal preference (and the ingredients we had on hand).  I opted for just basil, but Colin chose basil and super hot peppers.

I then made each pair of crusts into a sandwich and brushed each side of the exterior with olive oil.  Then it was time for a quick grill to help melt the mozzarella and to officially transform the sandwiches into grilled cheeses.

The sandwiches didn't spend long in the pan because I didn't want to burn the dough, so they were ready in no time.

Taste Review:

I think the combination of garlic, basil and fresh baked pizza dough combined to give the sandwich a nice aroma.  And as soon as I picked it up to take a bite the messiness of the sandwich took over.  The ricotta and pizza sauce combined to make it particularly runny, so multiple paper towels were necessary.  Conclusion: sauce on both sides was too much.  Just one side would decrease runny-ness.  But we're not here to talk about that, we're here to talk about the taste, and this definitely tastes like a pizza.

The crust is good and crispy with a little sweetness to it.  The pizza sauce is also sweet while the cheese is sort of neutral, and the basil definitely contrasts the sweetness of the sauce and crust.  At first I liked it, but by the end I wasn't sure if it was too bitter to really enhance the sandwich.  The ricotta was creamy, but didn't really bring much else to the table, so you could take or leave that (and potentially lean towards leaving it since it makes the sandwich pretty runny).  Colin voted that we grate the mozzarella next time so that it melts more evenly, but I'm not sure that's necessarily needed.  Overall this reminded me of a crispy calzone.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Pizza Grilled Cheese
Gooey-ness:	6
Aroma:	3
Appearance:	Bright red center with a golden crisp crust.  Looks like a panini.
Taste:	A-

Colin really liked the concept of this sandwich and gives the overall idea an A, however he suggested that it could be improved by customizing the filling to each person's taste preferences where toppings are concerned (in his case, add pepperoni, more peppers, etc.) and gave this iteration of the sandwich a B, so for overall grade we decided to meet in the middle with an 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!

Grilled Caprese

Including this week's sandwich, there are 20 sandwiches remaining in "Great Grilled Cheese" that I have yet to try and, in general, there's a reason I've been saving these for the end.  While roast beef with cheddar and blue cheese butter may sound delightful to many, I don't eat beef and I don't like blue cheese and thus have been avoiding this sandwich, and others like it, all along.  Fortunately, this week's selection was one of the few remaining choices that makes my mouth water. 

In general, caprese salads/sandwiches/whatever seem to be fan favorites, so the idea of putting it on a grilled cheese is, naturally, an appealing prospect.  So let's get right down to it.

Ingredients included:
* Crusty Italian bread (in this case I opted for a Wegmans specialty item-- Garlic Tuscan Bread)
* 6 ounces fresh mozzarella (in my case 8 ounces-- you know how I love the cheese!)
* 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes
* 2 Tbsp. dry jack or Parmesan cheese (in my case Parmesan & Romano)
* 2 Tbsp. chopped basil leaves (in this case pulled from our newly acquired home grown basil plants!)
* Olive oil

Step one was letting the tomatoes sit in very hot water for 15 minutes.  I still have zero idea why this step was necessary, but who am I to question GGC?  Maybe I was supposed to get dry tomatoes (the kind not packed in oil) and use the hot water to soften them up?  No idea.  Oh well!  After I had microwaved a half cup of water for 1 minute, in went the tomatoes.

I then turned on my broiler.  Yes, the broiler.  I wasn't sure where we were going with this step, but high heat makes me nervous!  Oh well, again-- I trust GGC.

YOWZA!

Next it was time to chop the basil-- I picked about 15-20 leaves and went to work.

By the time I finished this the tomatoes weren't quite done with their bath yet, so I took this opportunity to grate the mozzarella.  Once I had finished that it was time to remove the tomatoes and chop them.

After everything was chopped and grated I mixed all of the ingredients together.  Is it sad that I'm only now realizing that caprese salads have the same colors as the Italian flag?

Now we're ready to make the sandwiches.  After brushing one side of four slices of bread with olive oil I spread the cheese mixture evenly over the bread and topped them with another slice of bread, also brushed with olive oil.

After grilling each of the sandwiches it was time to brave an encounter with the broiler.  The recipe called for cooking the sandwiches in a heavy skillet that is oven safe but, since I don't have a skillet that meets that description, I opted to use a cookie sheet.  I put each sandwich on the cookie sheet and sprinkled the Parmesan on top.

Next it was into the broiler for 30 seconds to a minute or until the cheese is bubbling and starting to turn brown.  Well, before I hit that mark I heard my cookie sheet make a loud noise as it sort of buckled in the oven.  Fearing for its safety I removed the sandwiches shortly thereafter.  The cheese had melted, but not quite browned.

Once the sandwiches had cooled briefly, I plated them and was ready to chow down!

Taste Review:

Aside from an extra hint of charred bread courtesy of the broiler, there wasn't really an aroma for this one.  The sandwich looked very appealing with some nice color to the inside and the extra cheese on the outside (a step I'll need to repeat in the future).

The mozzarella is, of course, the perfect cheese for this sandwich.  It's creamy and provides the right backdrop to blend evenly with the other flavors.  That creamy inside was set off by the crispy exterior consisting of the crunchy crusty bread and the crispy bits of cheese.  I like that the cheese on the outside gave a hint of sharpness, but just enough to compliment rather than overwhelm the milder mozzarella.

I was able to pull Colin away from "Dogs in the City" for long enough to hear that he would've liked a little more tomato from a texture standpoint.  It's true, the filling is quite creamy, but I like that.  I think we've gotten used to lots of sandwiches with "stuff" in them, so although this sandwich was a little simpler I do think that was a good thing.  But in thinking about his desire for more tomatoes we pondered whether sun-dried is really the way to go and we think that it is.  If this sandwich used regular tomatoes there just wouldn't be enough flavor.  The basil would be the one and only standout ingredient.

The garlic in the bread was just a subtle hint in the crust, but it was great.  Again, just enough flavor to compliment rather than overwhelm the sandwich.  On the whole this makes me think of a panini I'd get at Corner Bakery (which, in my world, is a compliment-- I like Corner Bakery).  My only real criticism is that towards the end the sandwich starts to feel a little dry.  Perhaps because the bread is so crusty?  I'm not sure.  Maybe this could be fixed by adding a little more filling, but who knows.  I guess I'll just have to make it again and find out!

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Grilled Caprese
Gooey-ness:	3.5
Aroma:	1.5
Appearance:	Nice and colorful with a cool cheese topping.
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!

Chicago Field Reports: The Scout and Cheesie's Pub and Grub 2

Some of you may have noticed that I didn't post last week (or maybe you didn't, I don't judge).  This was due to my taking a work trip to Chicago.  Fortunately, we all know what a work trip means: field report!  This time I was lucky enough to squeeze in two.

The view of downtown from the McCormick Convention Center-- my home for the week.

First up was The Scout, a sports bar that my friends, Caroline and Coury, found during an impromptu Google search for good grilled cheeses in Chicago.  Since I had been remiss in planning my grilled cheese consumption prior to arrival, we opted to give this spot a try.  After a quick trip on the El, we arrived at the restaurant.  They only offered three grilled cheeses, but seeing as how each was a FOOT LONG I knew we were on to something.

We decided we'd split one since a foot long sandwich would be a lot for anyone to handle solo.  We chose the grown up grilled cheese since that seemed to have the greatest diversity in terms of variety of ingredients.  While we waited for our entree we ordered the pulled chicken nachos appetizer and oh man...

If this was any indicator of how the grilled cheese would be I was excited already.  These nachos were insanely delicious.  But my blog isn't about nachos, so on we go to the main event:

I wasn't sure how I felt about the presentation-- why cover the star of the show with a big dish of tomato sauce?  Oh well, I got over it.  Now, just to give you a feel for how large this sandwich really is, I had my friend Coury put her hand in the photo to provide a size reference point.

So yes, this is pretty massive.  After ensuring adequate photo documentation, we split it into three normal sized sandwiches and dove right in.

In case you can't quite read the menu in the photo, the sandwich includes: red onion jam, brie, Swiss, fresh mozzarella and bacon on brioche bread with tomato basil dipping sauce.  The first thing we all agreed upon was that the brie was too strong and that, when paired with the brioche bread, it was too sweet.  Add to that the sweet red onion jam and this is starting to slide dangerously close to the dessert grilled cheese category.  The fresh mozzarella is so neutral you don't really know it's there-- in fact, I'm not sure why they even opted to add it.  It was hard to get a bite that included all of the flavors of the sandwich because the ingredients weren't necessarily distributed evenly throughout the sandwich, but even if I had been able to I don't think it would've helped matters. 

Coury and Caroline felt the tomato sauce wasn't necessary thanks to the jam, but by the end of my piece I found myself using the dip more and more to try and mute some of the other flavors (namely the jam and brie).  The sandwich was just too sweet between the brioche, brie and jam to the point that it was almost too much.  I finished my slice, but was glad that I was sharing it with two other people because I wouldn't have wanted to polish off more by myself.  And despite what the beautifully charred color above might indicate, the bread was actually kind of floppy and left your hands feeling pretty greasy (two minus points in my book).  I was hoping for something a little more savory with a good crunch, so I was kind of disappointed.  Luckily, the remaining nachos were there to console me ;-)

Fortunately, a week long trip meant multiple chances to enjoy some grilled cheese deliciousness!  For my second outing I opted to re-visit a tried and true spot: Cheesie's Pub and Grub.  You may recall that when I visited Cheesie's last year around this time they had just opened.  Over the course of the last year I've been following them on Facebook and have noted their steady gain in popularity and ultimate expansion of the restaurant.  As such, I was excited to check back in and see for myself the progress that they've made (and to take my friend Caroline, a Chicago newbie, to a Chicago hot spot-- or rather, the only place in Chicago I know).

First up, and excuse the poor quality photo, was the newly expanded facade.  Hooray!  A bright orange beacon to cheese lovers everywhere.

Inside was exciting as well, with a square bar situated in the center of the restaurant with a counter on the left (not pictured) where you can place your order.  They've also expanded to serve pizza as well, which means they now serve my two favorite foods.  Additional bonus: all drinks are $4.  As if your hours at Cheesie's could get any happier :-)

The menu remains pretty straightforward with about a dozen sandwiches (including a new sandwich of the month each month).  I already knew I loved The Mac (mac and cheese on the sandwich), but wanted to make sure I tried something new.  I had seen their monthly sandwich listed online and it sounded DE-lish.  )  It was "The Edgar": Slow cooked BBQ pulled pork, covered in melted mozzarella and Swiss cheese, topped with onion straws and coleslaw on perfectly grilled Texas toast.  Sign me up!  Both Caroline and I ordered The Edgar and opted to share a side of sweet potato fries.  It was a nice night out so we decided to sit by a large open window for some pseudo-al fresco dining.

In a matter of minutes our sandwiches arrived.

Mmm, looks perfect from the outside, but let's take a peek at the good stuff:

Delightful.  In terms of taste, the pork was definitely the star of the show, but Caroline pointed out that everything has its own voice-- most notably the crunchy onions and the creamy slaw.  I agree, it was a nice variety of textures. 

The cheese takes a bit more of a back seat and tends to act as a binding agent for the other ingredients, which is useful because this sandwich has a lot of potential to be pretty sloppy.  Once again, I wasn't sure why mozzarella was a cheese of choice, but maybe its cohesive properties had something to do with that decision.  I do think with something a little sharper (maybe cheddar?) the cheese would've had its own legs next to the sweet pork (instead of just acting as a filler).  That's not to say this was a bad combination by any means-- it was delicious!  I just always want the cheese to be the featured player and am not sure that was the case here. 

The bread was a major highlight-- it was thick, but didn't feel too overwhelming and bready (sometimes with thick bread I end up pulling some of the crust off so the bread doesn't completely overtake the filling).  All in all we were both quite pleased.  To quote Caroline, "I anticipated being overwhelmed, but I find the sandwich very accessible."

And with that I conclude another successful trip to Chicago!  Cheesie's continues to reign supreme where Chicago grilled cheeses are concerned, and in general I find them a model for everything a good grilled cheese restaurant should be-- a place that doesn't take itself too seriously and offers a good variety of grilled cheeses with fun ingredients.  I love the laid back atmosphere and fact that you can get a delicious meal and cheap drink at virtually any hour of the day.  I had wanted to try Grahamwhich, the sandwich restaurant of famed chef Graham Elliot, but it's only open during business hours-- a mistake that I'm not a fan of.  The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen is the best restaurant I've been to so far and it falls victim to this same trap.  I know that, depending on the location, having evening hours can be a costly venture that doesn't see adequate returns, but I think it's still an option worth exploring.  Cheesie's embraces the fact that when people go out they want cheap drinks and good solid food and so far that's seemed to be a recipe for success.

Thanks again to my Chicago co-diners:

Coury, Caroline...

and Caroline!

Guest Post: The Two Cheese Avocado Sandwich!

It's an exciting day for The Big Grilled Cheese-- time for our first ever GUEST POST!  It couldn't have come at a better time seeing as how some weeknight plans have precluded my ability to write my own post this week.  Thankfully, Whitney and Caroline have stepped up to the plate (ba dum ching) and bring us a tasty twist on a recipe Whitney found.

Caroline, Whitney and me.

Whitney's description and notes are as follows:

Hi!!!

You must have such a good time each week! Caroline and I had fun tonight making this. :o) Attached are photos. Slight caveat: We did not have pesto. Why? 1) We are lazy and did not want to make pesto 2) We could not find pre-made pesto 3) We decided we were still lazy and didn't want to revert back to making pesto. Therefore this recipe's "green goddess" quality has been slightly rewritten and renamed. It is now: The Two Cheese Avocado Sandwich!

Ingredients: 1 avocado, 1-2 cups shredded mozzarella (dependent on how cheesy you want it), whole wheat bread (2 slices), spinach leaves (1 handful), AND the best part: basil goat cheese (sprinkle 'til satisfied)!
It was super easy to make:

Step 1: Prep Items (slice avocado, etc.)

Step 2: Begin grilling bread in pan

Step 3: Add mozzarella to bread
Step 4: After mozzarella has melted a slightly, add spinach leaves

Step 5: Wait a minute or two and then add the secret ingredient: basil seasoned goat cheese (we bought this pre-made, but you could probably just mix your goat cheese with basil and add it)

Step 6: Add avocado

Step 7: After mozzarella is melted, smush (technical grilled cheese term) the two sides together
Step 8: Voila! Yummy grilled cheese in 20 minutes or less :o)

Here is our review:
Gooey Scale: 3-3.5 We tried to get a picture of how the cheese pulled apart, my phone's camera abilities are sadly not high-tech enough!
Aroma Scale: 2 There isn't anything too fragrant, aside from the goat cheese, in this sandwich. So it was a pretty neutral smell in the kitchen.
Overall Grade: B-B+ (you pick, we didn't want to alter your grading curve)

We really liked this! It wasn't anything too special, but we did enjoy it so much that we made another batch so we could each have one in our lunch tomorrow! (fingers crossed it keeps overnight!)

Quotes from the Kitchen:
"Everything is better with avocados." - Whitney
"You can never go wrong with goat cheese!" - Caroline

Thanks to Whitney and Caroline for this stellar guest post!  They presented some interesting ideas for me to try-- most notably grilling the cheese on open faced bread (aka not assembling the sandwiches before frying).  I've also spotted the seasoned cheeses at Wegmans, but haven't made use of any yet.  This sandwich definitely gives me the motivation to give them a try! 

I like the fact that, despite the absence of the pesto, the sandwich lives up to its colorful name with the dark green spinach and light green avocado.  Those are two ingredients that I wouldn't have thought to combine, but that probably go together quite nicely. 

Now I can understand why people always tell me that my blog makes them hungry-- I definitely wish I could take a bite of this one! 

As always, any guest submissions-- be they suggested recipes, field reports, or full blown cooking features-- are always welcome!

Green Goddess Grilled Cheese

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day I bring you a holiday grilled cheese that's sure to leave a lasting impression (for better or worse).  You know I like to play into holidays when possible, but I don't like many of the traditional foods associated with St. Patty's Day (i.e. corned beef and cabbage), so a green grilled cheese seemed the order of the day.  Luckily, my friends are always on the lookout for me and my friend Whitney (who you may remember from the Crawfish Bread Grilled Cheese) sent me a recipe that fit the bill: the Green Goddess Grilled Cheese (original recipe posted here).  My only knowledge of green goddess dressing stems from my infrequent, but much beloved, trips to The Melting Pot where they serve up green goddess as one of the condiments with your entree.  I've always loved the green goddess there (requesting additional ramekins basically every time I go), so was excited to try it as the star of a tasty sandwich.

Not surprisingly, the ingredients are very herb heavy.  Something has to give it that green color, right?

1 clove garlic, 1 anchovy (skipped this-- no thank you on the anchovies for me), 1 tsp. lime zest, 3 Tbsp chopped parsley, 2 Tbsp chopped tarragon, 2 Tbsp cilantro (skipped this-- tastes like soap), 1 Tbsp chopped basil, 1 Tbsp chopped shallot (is that the same as scallions?  I hope so because that's what I got), 1/4 tsp Dijon mustard, 2 ounces cream cheese, 1 cup shredded mozzarella, 1 cup shredded cheddar, sourdough and olive oil.

Phew!  The ingredient list was long, but all of the items were very easy to find.  I was already feeling good about this one because it has two of my favorite sandwich components-- sourdough and cheddar!

Step one was mincing the garlic.  For this I employed my mini food processor :-)

We know I like to go overboard with the garlic, so I actually used more like 2 cloves.  Oh well!  Next came all the green components-- lime zest, parsley, tarragon (which smelled like spearmint to me), basil and shallot.  Since I was omitting the cilantro I did a little extra basil in an effort to maintain the right amount of herbs.  The mustard and cream cheese also went in and got blended up until it formed a nice green paste.

I then grated up 8 ounces of cheddar and 8 ounces of mozzarella and combined them in a mixing bowl.  A quick note on grated cheese-- it takes up more space by volume than not grated cheese (shocking, I know).  So in this situation with a recipe calling for 2 cups of cheese, I probably should have grated less than 16 total ounces to attain 2 measuring cups full of cheese.  BUT, I like cheese and to me 8 ounces means 1 cup, so that's what I went with.  To the bowl of cheese I added the green paste and mixed thoroughly.

Tasting this mixture I was overpowered by how pungent it was!  I think I forget that raw garlic is much stronger than cooked garlic, so I may have made a faux pas in adding more than the recipe called for.  The herbs weren't helping the situation either.  It was quite the flavor explosion.  With that in mind I decided to make 3 sandwiches as I had a feeling Colin would not a big fan of this one.

I brushed the bread slices with olive oil on one side and loaded the other with the cheese/green goddess mixture.  Closing the sandwiches with the second slice of bread left me ready to grill.  Since the filling was so dense I made sure to use my method of covering the sandwich with an additional (overturned) frying pan to trap in the heat.  I wanted to make sure that the cheese got gooey while it was cooking as I could tell this was destined to be runny!

Taste Review:

The first words that jumped to my mind upon taking a bite were creamy and STRONG!  The super pungent taste of the filling was only slightly dissipated during the cooking process, so it was still VERY strong, but at least a bit more piquant now.  The filling actually made the sourdough taste sweet by comparison, a feat that I didn't think possible.  In general, though, I felt like there were too many strong flavors all competing for top billing.  I think the extra basil and garlic weren't wise moves on my part as they both just slapped you in the face with flavor-- but then again, if I had lessened those quantities who's to say that another flavor wouldn't have taken over?  Overall I think this is best kept as a dressing since you're better able to moderate the amount you're eating.  Taken as an entree this is too strong for my taste!

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Green Goddess
Gooey-ness:	3
Aroma:	5
Appearance:	Looks like pesto or guacamole.
Taste:	B-/C+

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!

Next year is the 1 year anniversary of The Big Grilled Cheese!  I'm sure some sort of retrospective will be in order.

Oh, and also-- happy belated Pi day.  I briefly debated a pie themed grilled cheese, but figured that might be hard to figure out, so I stuck with sipping on a drink filled with my Pi(ce) cubes :-)

In case you can't see that photo too well, here's the tray for proof: