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:

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Dutch Grilled Cheese
Gooey-ness:	5
Aroma:	4
Appearance:	Very large, gooey, pungent but sweet.
Taste:	D+

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!

* Editor's note: 2 hours later we could still taste it... and it's still was not good.  But, if you like the flavor of cumin, caramelized onions and Gouda, then you'd LOVE this sandwich.

Up next week: Continued adventures with rye bread!

Report from the Field: The Virginian

This weekend some friends and I went to Charlottesville to do some shopping and to re-visit our old haunts (read: to eat our way through the numerous Charlottesville restaurants we know and love).  For dinner we opted to visit an old favorite: The Virginian. 

A little background on The Virginian (courtesy of their website), it is actually the oldest restaurant in Charlottesville having opened its doors in 1923 and remaining open in its same location through present day.  Billy Gooch and Ellis Brown, both alumni, were the founding owners of The Virginian (glad to see Gooch contributed something memorable to the University community in addition to his beautiful dorm).

It felt like we were home again as we took a seat in booth #9, which was dedicated to some alum via commemorative plaque.  I commented that we should have a booth named for us and lo and behold the initials JP were actually carved into the wall of booth #9!  Fate?  Methinks so. 

Anywho, the Virginian was a favorite spot for our post-sorority chapter meeting Monday night dinners and the usual menu item of choice was grilled cheese.

The menu describes their "Gourmet Grilled Cheese" as melted cheddar, provolone, and Swiss between two slices of golden sourdough.  While not as fancy as some of the recipes in GGC, the Virginian grilled cheese does not disappoint.  Even though there are three kinds of cheese in the sandwich, the bread to cheese ratio is actually just right (you could even argue that there's a little too much bread around the edges as the cheese doesn't ooze enough to get between the pieces of crust).  All in all, it's a beloved entree that will forever remind me of good times at UVA and Monday night dinners with the girls-- in essence, a comfort food in its truest form.

A Peek in my Fridge

So true:

Mister Crunchy

Per our previous post, today's sandwich is our first foray into the inclusion of meat in grilled cheeses.  Since our preliminary research concluded that one of the earliest examples of such a combo was the croque monsieur, it is only fitting that this be the first sandwich of this nature that we try.  Apparently the croque monsieur was being served in French cafes way back in the early 1900's, and since we know the modern American grilled cheese didn't start gaining real popularity until the 1920's and into the Great Depression, some could argue that the croque monsieur was actually the original grilled cheese!  Then again, I think we'd have some ancient Romans who would beg to differ (see previous post).  GGC calls this a "French-Style Grilled Ham and Cheese," but when literally translated croque monsieur means Mister Crunchy-- and since I like that name better that's what we're going with. :-D

This will also mark the first time I deviate slightly from GGC's approach to cooking the sandwich.  Scouring the internet for information on Mr. Crunchy (and racking my brain to recall those long ago encounters with Parisian street vendors) I found that a traditional Mr. Crunchy is typically cooked in a broiler with some of the cheese on the outside of the sandwich.  As I am scared to use my broiler, the only real modification to the recipe I am able to make is including some of the cheese on the outside of the bread.  The cheese on the exterior is the only quality that stands out from my memories of actual French Mr. Crunchies, so I felt good about the decision to slightly modify the recipe's cheese placement.

As usual we start by amassing the necessary ingredients.  This week the items that threw me for a slight loop were egg bread and black forest ham.  The only egg bread I could find was challah egg bread.  As this was kosher, I wasn't sure it was what I was actually looking for where a French grilled cheese is concerned.  A quick phone call to mom confirmed that egg bread is basically just a sweeter bread, so if it says egg bread on the label then we're good to go.  During the same phone call I mentioned that the recipe calls for black forest ham, which I couldn't find-- mom said this just means it's sweet ham, so I got some brown sugar ham from the deli instead.  Hopefully it will prove an adequate substitute.  I then grabbed some fresh tarragon, a new tub of shredded Gruyere and some Dijon mustard and was on my way!

Step one was chopping the tarragon-- for this I went to my default "chopper:" a pair of scissors.  I noticed while cutting up the tarragon that I wasn't a big fan of the aroma.  It was at this point that I decided to only include the tarragon in the GGC sandwich and to leave it out of my personal take on the Mr. Crunchy.  That meant I split the 6 ounces of Gruyere into two bowls, and mixed 3 teaspoons of tarragon into one of them.

The next step was slicing up the egg bread.  I used a serrated knife to cut it into slices that were approximately 1/4" thick (per GGC).  Since the loaf was standard loaf shape it took me a few slices to get into the part of the bread that was tall enough to be used for standard sandwich slices.  That meant that I had some end slices to sample ;-)  Indeed the egg bread is sweeter than I expected-- in fact, it was sweet enough to eat on its own and reminded me of Hawaiian bread.

As usual, the next order of business was evenly spreading the cheese onto four slices of bread that has been buttered on one side.

Then I distributed 1/4 pound of ham onto the cheese and bread and was ready to sandwich them shut, but...

"Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?"  Why yes, yes I do!  I couldn't complete the sandwich without adding about 1/2 tablespoon of Grey Poupon to each sandwich. 

Then it was off the plate and into the frying pan for sandwich number one.  I cooked it covered for about two minutes before flipping it and cooking it on the other side for a minute.  From there I kept flipping it back and forth in an effort to get the cheese to melt fully, but since the bread was so soft it started to char pretty quickly.  I think this is another example of my stove just being too hot!  I turned the heat almost all the way down to low in hopes that low and slow really would be the way to go.  The sandwiches still ended up looking black, but not smelling or tasting burned by any means.

Then it was time for my take on the Mr. Crunchy, but how to get the cheese to adhere to the outside of the sandwich?  My first effort was spreading a little bit of butter on the outside of the sandwich and sticking some of the leftover Gruyere to it.  However, immediately upon trying to put it in the pan, most of it fell off.  That didn't matter, though, because I could still put the sandwich right on top of the cheese and wait for it to melt to the bread.  Once this was done I could wedge my spatula between the sandwich and the pan and flip the sandwich with no problem.

*Commence tangent.*  I would like to take this moment to extol the virtues of a non-stick pan.  When I read in GGC that you should use a non-stick pan, I assumed that this would be basically the same as using a pan that you've greased with Pam or butter or something.  WRONG!  Non-stick pans are a miracle!  In the past whenever cheese fell into the pan it inevitably burned and stuck to the pan only to be scraped off by me during the washing process.  As you just read, the cheese that "stuck" to the pan actually easily comes right up once you're ready to flip the sandwich!  And cheese fried right in the pan tastes DEEELICIOUS!  *Tangent completed.*

For the second sandwich side, I just sprinkled some cheese directly into the pan while the sandwich was mid air and made sure to flip the sandwich directly onto the cheese.  Immediately I could see a big advantage to the cheese coating-- it makes a sort of seal between the bread and the pan that allows you to cook the sandwich for longer on each side without burning it.  This ensured that I could really melt all the cheese on the inside without charring the exterior.

While I was cooking it occurred to me that our gooeyness ratings may be effected by the fact that I have to cook each sandwich individually and while waiting to finish all the sandwiches the ones cooked first cool and lose their gooeyness.  To combat this I've decided to try a makeshift sandwich warmer next week by using my flat griddle pan on a low heat to keep the sandwiches warm while I cook (that or I'll just start eating them before I finish cooking them all :-p).

Anyway, at long last all the sandwiches were ready for tasting, so on to the reviews:

Great Grilled Cheese Mr. Crunchy: Colin's first reaction to this sandwich: "Ooh, it's like a melt!"  And indeed it is.  I tried this version before the other and was immediately overwhelmed by the kick of the mustard.  I think the tarragon enhanced the taste of the mustard and ended up giving the sandwich most of its pungent taste, and I honestly didn't like it that much (but perhaps this is because I'm not a huge mustard fan).  I could taste some of the underlying sweetness that was supposed to be created by the egg bread and sweet ham combination, but it was definitely overtaken by the mustard/tarragon.  Overall the mustard taste ended up being too strong for me, but Colin was a fan (then again he likes spicier food than I do-- and he was sick this week so his senses of smell and taste were impaired).  In fact, Colin pointed out that he liked adding EVEN MORE mustard to the sandwich to further cut the sweetness (he also commented that it would go well with tomato... there's a shock)!

My Mr. Crunchy: The crispy cheese on the outside of the bread really made this sandwich for me!  The ham and egg bread make a very sweet combination which I think was checked perfectly by the bite that the crispy cheese added.  It was enough sharpness to cut the sweetness of the bread and cheese, but not so much sharpness that the basic flavors were masked (a la the mustard/tarragon combo).  In fact, the mustard in this sandwich served to further compliment the flavors rather than overpower, and without the mustard the egg bread would have been too sweet (and even the crispy cheese wouldn't have masked that). 

Colin's concluding point was that one sandwich was very mustardy and the other was very cheesy, so an ideal sandwich would combine these two qualities to make a mustardy grilled ham and cheese with additional cheese on the outside.  I suppose that is best left for a future experiment.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	GGC Mr. Crunchy	My Mr. Crunchy
Gooey-ness:	2	3
Aroma:	2 (sweet)	2 (cheesy)
Appearance:	The GGC sandwich turned black quickly, but didn't feel too charred and hard.  My sandwich looked more orange than I would have guessed and had a harder outside, but in a good and cheesy way.
Taste:	C+*	B

* With strong objection from Colin-- he votes B-.  I say C+ since I wouldn't make this sandwich for myself again, but it still tasted fine.

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!

Stay tuned next week when we continue our European grilled cheese adventures with a Dutch grilled cheese!

Happy National Grilled Cheese Month!

Here is an interesting and shockingly timely factoid: April is National Grilled Cheese Month!  While I am unaware of the origin of this proclamation, a brief internet search yielded me several results corroborating the fact that this is the official month to celebrate the greatness that is fried bread and cheese :-P  In fact, Kraft is even sponsoring a contest that will win you a free pack of Kraft singles if you submit your favorite grilled cheese memory to http://www.iheartgrilledcheese.com/ on April 16.  While I'm not a huge fan of Kraft singles, I did find some of the other informational tidbits on the grilled cheese to be of interest (and worth sharing-- my editorial comments are highlighted in purple):

• While shredded cheese may be the preferred ingredient for making grilled cheeses, slices are quite popular as well.  In fact, 74 percent of people who buy sliced cheese make a grilled sandwich at least monthly.
• The exact origin of the grilled cheese sandwich is unknown but similar recipes appeared in Ancient Roman cookbooks.

• Grilled cheese is the No. 2 preferred non-deli sandwich nationwide.  WHAT?!  Blasphemy!  I'm guessing PB&J is number one but let's get serious-- compare the number of variations you can make with PB&J to the number you can make with grilled cheese.  There is no contest.
• The tomato is the most frequently added ingredient to a grilled cheese.
• In 2004, GoldenPalace.com, an online casino, paid $28,000 for a half-eaten grilled cheese that featured the image of the Virgin Mary.  My gashouse grilled cheeses looked sort of like aliens-- does that count?

• In 2006, Joey Chestnut won the World Green Chile Grilled Cheese Eating Championship by eating 34.5 grilled cheese sandwiches.  When is this contest?  And, more importantly, how do I enter?  Bring it, Joey!

All this talk of National Grilled Cheese month got me thinking about what it is that actually defines a grilled cheese.  The first week of my grilled cheese project Colin asked me if we could turn our grilled cheeses into turkey melts.  "NO!" I immediately exclaimed, "That would mean it isn't a real grilled cheese-- to count as a grilled cheese the cheese has to be the primary protein."

Well, flipping through GGC it would seem this isn't the case.  As this week's sandwich will prove, meat tends to find its way into many of the grilled cheese recipes (way for me to sneak in a hint on this week's sandwich).  In fact, one fact from the Kraft website that I left off is: In France, a grilled cheese sandwich is called a "Croque Monsieur," which is a hot ham and cheese sandwich that has been around since the early 1900s. 

Wow!  One of the earliest grilled cheeses featured meat?!  My preconceived grilled cheese notions are officially shattered.  It's time to break out of my archaic notions of what makes a grilled cheese and embrace the future: grilled cheeses featuring anything and everything, including other proteins.  While I'm still not sure of exactly how I feel about this new mentality, I'm trying to keep an open mind.  The reviews will speak for themselves where these sandwiches are concerned and only then will I render a verdict on the merits of meat in grilled cheeses.  Stay tuned!