Pimento Cheese Grilled Cheese

This week we're going off book and featuring a non-GGC sandwich.  Recently a friend of mine asked if I had ever tried a grilled cheese made with pimento cheese.  I had not (and, shamefully, can't remember having ever actually tried pimento cheese), so I decided to give it a go.  My initial research yielded me an interesting factoid: pimento cheese sandwiches are a signature item at the Masters Tournament.  Don't believe me?  Well, check out this link.  What almost perfect timing!  Sadly I didn't learn this in time to make the sandwich for the actual Masters Tournament, but I'm only about a week and a half late and can take this opportunity to test out a recipe for use next year. 

I went ahead and used the original recipe from the above link (not the blogger's modified version).  The ingredients seemed easy enough, but I did make one mis-step.

The recipe called for wheat bread, but I couldn't help but try it on my beloved Pepperidge Farm sourdough.  Add to that some extra sharp Vermont cheddar, onion, mayonnaise and chili sauce and I was on the right track.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find pimentos in the store.  I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't even know what I was looking for, so I ended up mistakenly buying pre-made pimento spread.  Well, the whole point of this recipe is to make my own pimento spread, so this would not do.  I called my grocery shopping consultant (Mom) and asked for a description of pimentos and had no trouble finding them on my second trip to the store (oddly enough, they were in the Hispanic food section).  For those of you who may also struggle as I did, here they are:

Anywho, I assumed that the recipe I found excluded some important "/" marks and that the recipe did not actually call for 14 cups of pimentos, so I started out with this big guy and finely chopped him until I had about 1/4 cup (making sure to drain the juice from him as much as possible as I worked).

Then I went ahead and grated half of my block of cheddar (approx. 4 ounces).

Next came all of the mix ins-- the diced pimentos, 2 T mayonnase and 1/2 t. hot sauce.

I mashed this together pretty thoroughly with a fork until I had the following:

It said salt to taste, but since I never salt my food I just left it as is.

Next it was time to assemble the sandwiches.  I buttered one side of two slices of sourdough and piled on the pimento.  I used almost all of the cheese on just two sandwiches (maybe because I love cheese so much), but that was fine, just note that you'd have to multiply the recipe for more people.

Next came a few thin slivers of sweet onion.  I was a little nervous about putting raw onion on the sandwich, but decided to trust the recipe.

Unfortunately, my other ingredient mis-step was an inability to locate watercress.  I took several turns about the produce section to no avail, so I decided to do without  (I mean come on, who needs more veggies? :-P).

I believe the Masters variety is served as is, but it wouldn't be a grilled cheese if I didn't grill it!  So into the pan they went and mere minutes later I was ready to devour the melty perfection.

Taste Review:

The first word that popped into my head when I tasted this sandwich was "feisty!"  I'm not sure exactly why since that's not a standard sandwich descriptor, but something about the blend of flavors makes this quite a fun sandwich.  The sandwich has a good texture to it-- that perfect blend of crunchy bread with just the right amount of creamy filling (although sometimes the filling gets a little runny and falls out of the sandwich).

The use of a roasted pepper reminds me of the Two Cheese Mediterranean, but it was improved here by the fact that the pepper had been finely diced rather than being served as one big slippery pepper (it was almost too much to handle in the other sandwich). 

Even though I was worried about what the raw onion might do to the sandwich, it proved to be a great addition!  It was the middle ground between the slightly sweet pimento and the sharp cheddar (I think the key being that this is a sweet onion).

The most shocking statement of the night came from Colin who said that he felt the level of spiciness was actually good and that he wouldn't add any condiments (or anything else) to the sandwich because it already contains everything he would add (read: Sriracha).

I can see why people like pimento cheese as a dip.  I would happily scoop this onto a cracker, veggies, or any other appropriate dipper, so including it in a grilled cheese was certainly a great move!

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Pimento Cheese Grilled Cheese
Gooey-ness:	5
Aroma:	2
Appearance:	Very orange!
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!

Overall it's a sandwich that is truly worthy of The Masters!

Two Cheese Mediterranean

First and foremost, sorry for the delayed post!  I came down with a nasty virus last week which means I had to put off uploading my photos and completing this post, so this sandwich was actually enjoyed a week ago (pre-illness).

As is sometimes the case, this week's sandwich was chosen based on the ingredients I happened to have on hand.  I had about a half of a loaf of sourdough bread and in reading through recipes I saw that one of the sourdough sandwiches also called for capers and spinach, both of which I also happened to have.  Sold.  Two cheese Mediterranean it was.

In addition to the sourdough, 1/2 cup baby spinach and 1 Tbsp capers that I had on hand, I purchased 2 ounces feta, 1 tsp finely grated lemon peel, 4 ounces Gruyere and 4 whole roasted red peppers.  The recipe also called for 1/2 cup kalamata olives, but those would have doomed this sandwich from the start since I don't like black olives.  Instead I got some "lemon artichoke pesto."  I figured artichokes have a bit of an acidic/salty taste to them and the sandwich already had lemon peel, so it must be a complimentary flavor!  Now let's get down to business.

Step one was mixing together the feta, artichokes, lemon peel and capers.  This in and of itself looked tasty enough to eat-- maybe as a dip of some sort?  But I suppose that's best left for another time.

Next I drained the red peppers and halved them so I had two nice flat pieces for each pepper instead of one big one.

That was basically the only prep work needed!  From there I buttered four slices of bread (well, really sous chef did the bulk of the work this week-- I wasn't having the best day) and spread the feta mixture evenly over the bread. 

Next came the Gruyere (applied more liberally than the 4 ounces the recipe called for) followed by the roasted red peppers. 

I wasn't sold on the inclusion of the baby spinach (nor was sous chef), so we opted to only add it to two of the sandwiches.

From there it was on to grilling!  This went smoothly for the most part save for the fact that the red peppers make the entire inside of the sandwich a little slipperier, so I had to be extra cautious when flipping (this one definitely called for the dual spatula method).

Taste Review:

There wasn't a distinctive aroma unless I got up very close to the sandwich in which case I could smell the red pepper pretty clearly.  The first flavor I notice is lemon, probably due to my decision to include the lemon-artichoke pesto (thus multiplying the sandwich's lemon content).  I wouldn't say it was overpowering at first, it just made its acidity known.  However, the more I ate the stronger the lemon taste became.  It made me wonder if I'm prone to notice the lemon more because I'm not used to lemon flavors in my savory foods, so it stands out as abnormal in addition to being a strong flavor on its own.  Colin actually lobbied for no lemon whereas I was an advocate for removing the capers.

Surprisingly the feta doesn't stand out like you think it would.  Feta is such a strong cheese that it's hard to imagine it being a muted flavor, but I guess an excess of lemon will do just that.  The same was true for the Gruyere-- in fact, the Gruyere was even less prevalent because it's a somewhat mild cheese to begin with.  You could tell there was cheese on the sandwich because of the texture, but if I hadn't made the sandwich myself there's no way I would've known that it was Gruyere.  The same was true for the spinach-- it was virtually non-existent.

The one ingredient in addition to the lemon that really stood out was the roasted pepper.  The peppers gave a subtle sweetness to the sandwich that was a good counterbalance to the acidity of the lemon.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Two Cheese Mediterranean
Gooey-ness:	2
Aroma:	2
Appearance:	Vivid red and white center.
Taste:	B

Overall it was tasty, but ultimately forgettable. 

Today is my birthday!  So I'll be headed out of town tomorrow for a birthday getaway, which means no sandwich this week.  But, I do promise to try for a field report from my exotic mystery location... oooh ahhhh.