Black Bean, Zucchini and Monterey Jack Cheese Quesadilla

It had been awhile since we last tried a quesadilla, so I figured now was as good a time as any to dive back in!  There are only a handful of quesadilla recipes in GGC, so I picked the one that sounded most appealing: the Black Bean, Zucchini and Monterey Jack Cheese Quesadilla.  As usual, acquiring the ingredients was pretty easy:

3 medium sized zucchinis, ricotta cheese, monterey jack cheese, tortillas, oregano, red wine vinegar, black beans, a jalapeno, olive oil, and a small onion (not pictured).  Well, actually, the small onion was not included as I thought I had an onion in the fridge at home-- and I did!  But it was moldy :-(  Sadly I didn't notice my roommate's extensive onion stash until it was too late.  Oh well!  I resolved to forge ahead.

Step one was dicing the zucchini into approximately 1/4" cubes and sauteing it in a pan with 2 Tbsp olive oil.  This is the step where the onion would've come into play as well, but not this time :-(  Also included with the zucchini is the chopped jalapeno (stemmed and seeded, of course).

I let these cook together for about 8-10 minutes, or until the zucchini was feeling soft, but not mushy.  Once that was done I added in 1/3 cup of black beans and 2 Tbsp of red wine vinegar.

And stirred and cooked for a little longer while also preparing the tortillas for action (which just entailed removing the tortillas from their baggie and brushing olive oil on one side of them).

Finally came 1/4 cup ricotta cheese.  In this recipe the ricotta is intended to hold the zucchini/black bean mixture together, not so much to have an actual taste.

The recipe called for 4 burrito sized tortillas, but taco sized tortillas were on sale, so I think we can all easily deduce which I chose (I would just have to use 6 instead of 4).  I had grated 8 ounces of monterey jack and spread some on the bottom half of each tortilla.  To that I added about 1/6 of the zucchini mixture.

From there it was fold and fry! 

And in no time we were ready to dine.

Taste Review:

I was surprised at how strong the zucchini tasted-- it was the dominant  flavor from bite one (which is surprising because usually jack cheese makes its presence known).  Even though we had cooked the zucchini it wasn't mushy (like the eggplant got when we made this little number), it actually stayed pretty firm, so I was glad that the ricotta was there to provide some much needed creaminess.  But, zucchini as the star of the show meant that the quesadilla was actually sort of bland.  It needed some sort of spice (for once, sous chef's desire to add salsa to all foods wasn't off the mark).  Luckily we had some good chunky salsa we had used for some Mexican themed fondue on Valentine's Day and were able to add some to the quesadillas.  The addition of more vegetables via the salsa muted the zucchini a bit, but not in a bad way-- more in that the zucchini sort of became part of the salsa.

As hindsight is always 20/20, were I to go back and make this one again I would opt for more black beans and less zucchini.  Using 3 zucchinis is definitely excessive, so I'd go for maybe 2 zucchinis and 1 cup of black beans.  That would probably help to give it a little more sweetness (which I always love) and enhance the Mexican feel of the dish.

Now, on to some serious business.  Colin and I agreed on the grade for this one but, when looking at the quesadillas of the past, realized that it definitely outstrips the Salmon and Brie Quesadilla (which initially received the same grade we intended for this one).  The end result?  Salmon and Brie has been demoted.  Check out The Leader Board to see where it ranks now (or just follow the link to that post).

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Black Bean, Zucchini and Monterey Jack Quesadilla
Gooey-ness:	4.5
Aroma:	2
Appearance:	A green and white interior makes for an interesting color combination.
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!

As mentioned, it was a little bland, but still good.  Colin said it best when he observed "There hasn't been a sandwich using jack cheese that I haven't liked."

Mascarpone Ganache Grilled Cheese

Just in time for Valentine's Day the Day After Valentine's Day, I bring you a perfect dessert grilled cheese treat.  I'm not sure about you, but for me Valentine's Day itself was actually pretty anti-climactic.  Sous chef was called away to NYC for business and left me all by my lonesome :-(  Fortunately, I was well stocked and able to turn to my favorite intoxicant to give me solace-- dark chocolate.

Awhile back my friend Whitney shared with me a link to a fancy restaurant in New Orleans that was serving up a triple creme cheese with dark chocolate ganache grilled cheese.  This sounded like a great way to combine my two loves, so I flagged it in my inbox to try at a later date.  Well, what better date than Valentine's Day?

After a cursory Google I confirmed that it is, in fact, possible to make ganache using mascarpone cheese instead of heavy cream.  This was all the information I needed to plow ahead with little further thought!

Since I spent so little time conceptualizing the sandwich, the ingredients were very easy to assemble.  I had some leftover white bread from last week so added to that some mascarpone and dark chocolate chips and was ready to go.  I also kept some heavy cream on hand in case things went awry with the modified ganache.

Step one was putting 1/3 cup mascarpone into a saucepan on medium low (emphasis on low) to melt.  This happened shockingly quickly.  On a whim I decided to add 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract just to affirm that this mascarpone was destined to be sweet, not savory.

While that continued to melt together I measured out 1/2 cup of Ghirardelli 60% cacao chocolate chips.  Shortly thereafter the cheese was all melted and starting to bubble a bit.  This meant it was warm enough to combine with the chips.

I poured it over on top of the chips and started stirring the two together.

Until it formed a super creamy and delicious ganache!

That was about all the prep that was needed aside from spooning some of the ganache onto one of the slices of bread and creating a sandwich.

I lightly buttered each side of the bread and put the sandwich in the pan on low heat.  I wanted to make sure to keep the temperature on the lower end so as to not make the ganache too hot and runny.  After a few minutes both sides were lightly toasted and ready to go. 

But what would a Valentine's sandwich be without a little heart? ;-)  I also spooned a little decorative ganache on top to complete the effect.

Taste Review:

Some of you may recall that I've already ventured into chocolate grilled cheese territory, but last time it was with Nutella and goat cheese-- which was sweet, but had a sharp bite after taste.  This time, there was still a strong chocolate flavor, but it was nothing but super sweet!  The crisp crunch of the bread gave it a little different texture/flavor, but the chocolate was BY FAR the dominant element.  Even though this sounds like a recipe for a cake, the crispy bread and light butter taste made it clear that this is its own unique entity-- a sort of cross between a sandwich and a cake.

One modification I would make, were I to make this again, would be to cut off the crusts.  I remember GGC suggested doing this for the hazelnut goat cheese melt because it creates a sort of seal around the edge of the bread.  This may be the case, but I would opt to do it more because the chocolate to crust ratio was off (not enough chocolate around the crusty part). 

The key takeaway here is that this sandwich was RICH!  I always contend that there is no chocolate item in existence that is too rich for me, so I could handle it, but I can see where someone with a lower chocolate tolerance might be in trouble.  This is certainly not for the faint of tongue :-P

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Mascarpone Ganache Grilled Cheese
Gooey-ness:	5 (runny inside, but not too messy)
Aroma:	2
Appearance:	Dark filling gives an interesting contrast to the white bread.
Taste:	B

Again-- I liked it, but since it was so rich and may not appeal to the masses I'm not giving it as high of a grade as I could.

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!

Mozzarella Stick Grilled Cheese

At long last work has calmed and I'm back and cooking with gas (ba dum ching)!  I'm grounded on the travel front until May, which means ample uninterrupted grilled cheese time :-)  Since it was my first time back in my home kitchen in quite awhile I decided I needed to return with a bang.  While GGC rarely steers me wrong, I didn't see anything jump out at me to indicate that it was appropriately exciting for my triumphant return; so I turned to the interwebs and found Martha Stewart's recipe for Grilled Mozzarella Sandwiches.  They basically look like some sort of cross between french toast/grilled cheese/mozzarella sticks; but they sounded mighty tasty and there was even a video of her making some with Mario Batali, so with two expert recommendations I decided it was definitely worth a go.

This recipe actually reminds me of one that I was really into one summer back in my elementary school days (in fact, maybe it's the same recipe).  I was hooked on making this sandwich, or one very much like it, all summer both because it was tasty and because the ingredients were so easy to come by:

White bread, 2 large eggs, 1 lb fresh mozzarella, 1/2 cup heavy cream, 1 tsp. thyme leaves, and a pinch of salt.  The recipe also calls for a grinding of nutmeg, but that sounded kind of weird to me, so I skipped it.

The first step was to slice up the fresh mozzarella and distribute it evenly over four slices of bread and then complete the sandwiches with another four slices of bread. 

This is all you need to make the actual sandwich, but the recipe also suggests that you cut the crusts off of each sandwich (this reminded me of PB&J sandwiches for little kids-- look how cute they are).

Once the sandwiches were ready I mixed up the "batter" to dip them in.  First I whisked 2 eggs together.

Next came the half cup of heavy cream and the teaspoon of thyme.

While I was mixing up the batter I had been letting the pan heat up with 2 Tbsp of olive oil in it.  Once I could see the oil starting to smoke I added 1 Tbsp butter (the model of a healthy meal, right?) so that the pan was fully ready for the sandwiches.  I coated the first sandwich in the batter (making sure to fully cover both sides) and dropped it into the pan.

That first instant in the pan made me think of a deep fryer-- the oil and butter had gotten so hot that the sandwich started hissing as soon as it made contact with the pan. 

The recipe says to cook the sandwich for 2 minutes on each side and the beauty to me was that, since the bread was so saturated with the batter mixture, it was hard to burn the sandwich-- so even if I left it on one side for a little too long it was no big deal, it just made it a little crispier. 

There wasn't really a need to cover the sandwich while cooking because the cheese was literally right up to the edge of the bread and was prone to getting melty and starting to ooze out.  Watching this happen did leave me wondering why the recipe advised me to cut off the bread crusts.  I'm not sure I really see an advantage to doing so.

The cooking process is what really sealed the deal in my mind that this is basically a mozzarella stick in sandwich form.  Wouldn't you agree?  I do love mozzarella sticks, so I couldn't wait to try this one!

Taste Review:

The first bite tasted like a very creamy and salty piece of mozzarella cheese meaning the cheese is definitely the star of this sandwich.  But, while the cheese itself tastes salty, the rich egg/cream batter gives it a hint of sweetness to balance things out.  Add to that the subtle flavor of the thyme and you have a relatively complete, albeit mild, flavor profile.  The recipe was definitely simple, but not in a bad way. 

Colin, as usual, wasn't satisfied by the simplicity of the sandwich and opted to dip it in marinara sauce.  I tried this as well and must say that marinara sauce on the sandwich solidifies the comparison to a mozzarella stick.  In fact, with the marinara sauce it was virtually impossible to distinguish the sandwich from a mozzarella stick.  One minor difference, though, is that the crust on a mozzarella stick is crispy and crunchy, but the bread on the sandwiches was mushy no matter how long the sandwich had been cooked (some were in the pan for longer than others).  Not to say either way is bad, they're just different.  I like the softer texture for a sandwich, so I was happy.

One complaint we had was the consistency of the cheese.  It ended up being stringy and rubbery instead of gooey and smooth.  As you tried to eat, full chunks of mozzarella would come out with each bite if you weren't careful.  Part of me wonders if this could've been avoided if I had heeded my own usual advice and grated the cheese rather than slicing.  Oh well, lesson learned for next time.

Action shot of the stringy effect.

FINAL RESULTS:

Sandwich:	Mozzarella Stick Grilled Cheese
Gooey-ness:	4.5 (stringy, not gooey)
Aroma:	2 (smells like frying, but sandwich doesn't have its own aroma)
Appearance:	Looks like a mozzarella stick.
Taste:	B+

While gooier cheese would have been better, overall I can't complain-- this was a winner (but definitely on the fattier end-- I recommend eating sparingly)!

Field Report: The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen

I'm back from my first San Francisco trip for the year and have a particularly tasty field report in store.  To start off, I can safely say that this is the best grilled cheese restaurant I've been to this far and you can take that to the bank.  Now let's discuss why.

I was in San Francisco for work and took the opportunity to do two of my favorite things: see a friend and eat a grilled cheese (or two).  I met up with my friend Maria and she escorted me to the restaurant of my choosing: The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen.  I lucked out that I had an early flight into the city because the restaurant is only open for breakfast and lunch (closing around 3:00 or 4:00 PM).  We made our way over to the area immediately surrounding AT&T Park, where the restaurant is located, and were greeted by a patio surrounded with spatulas!  It was promising already.

Much like most grilled cheese restaurants, the menu featured a select few sandwiches-- in this case 7.  Maria said the line is usually out the door, so we lucked out in that we didn't have to wait.  The only minor downside to no wait was that I didn't have enough time to fully contemplate which sandwich to order.  When pressured to order at the counter I caved and got the two that especially caught my eye: The Mousetrap (Tilamook sharp cheddar, creamy havarti, monterey jack on artisan sourdough) and The Mac Sandwich (Mac 'n' cheese stuffed into a grilled cheese).  But in all honesty, they all looked delicious!  I would happily go back to try the remaining varieties any day of the week. 

Maria also got The Mousetrap along with a bowl of tomato soup.  Another signature item of theirs are varieties of flavored lemonade.  The featured flavor that day was cranberry lemonade-- something that sounds great in theory, but that is extremely sour in actuality.  I had to tell Maria that I wasn't cringing at her, my face just involuntarily contorted in reaction to the sourness of the beverage.

My hostess with the mostess and her cranberry lemonade.

Anyway, after a short wait our sandwiches arrived and ecstasy ensued.  I started with The Mousetrap.  There was just SO MUCH CHEESE!!  And as all of the cheeses on the sandwich are among my favorites, that was definitely a good thing.  No one cheese stood out over the others, which meant that the flavors blended together to produce a general cheesy goodness.  The bread was thick and crusty which can often be a detractor in my book, but in this case it was a great way to balance out the intensity of the cheese.  The bread tasted like toast-- meaning it was perfectly charred without being too greasy or buttery.  All in all this was like a basic grilled cheese in that it was just bread and cheese, but I would definitely call this a Grilled Cheese Super Deluxe! 

SO MUCH CHEESEEEEE!!!!

Maria's Mousetrap with tomato soup.

Next up was The Mac Sandwich.  You may recall that I've tried a mac and cheese grilled cheese back at Cheesie's Pub and Grub in Chicago.  It was so delicious then that I didn't think it was possible to improve upon it.  I was wrong!  This was even more AMAZINGGG!!!  The sandwich at Cheesie's had that bright orange style mac and cheese that we all know and love, but this variety had what was clearly homemade mac and cheese, which I found superior.  There was also a little kiss of garlic flavor that just made the sandwich.  You could tell that there was a little sharpness and bite to the mac and cheese, but it was just indescribably perfect.  The inside was nice and soft/mushy, thanks to the macaroni, which made the sandwich smooth and delicious.  I give this a RESOUNDING A+! 

As you can see, I really did mean that this was the best grilled cheese restaurant that I've been to so far.  I would go back here in a heartbeat and am jealous of all San Francisco residents who can visit whenever they want.  I guess now I've just got incentive to go out to San Francisco on the early flights so I can snag lunch as soon as I arrive!  I'm headed back to San Francisco again next week, but then am in town for the foreseeable future, so standard grilled cheesing will recommence upon my return.

Belated Christmas Treat: Brie and Fig

We all know that I'm a fan of holiday tributes in grilled cheese form (most notably, and singularly thus far, The Pilgrim).  But it's not fair to let one holiday sandwich steal the spotlight, especially from the best holiday of all-- Christmas!  Now, I realize I am writing this post a solid 3 weeks after Christmas took place, but let's ignore that fact and let our minds wander back as we pull up a seat next to the proverbial yule log...

The tricky thing about conceptualizing a Christmas grilled cheese is that I couldn't easily think of savory ingredients that are Christmas specific and would prove to be tasty on a grilled cheese.  Candy canes?  No.  Gingerbread?  Hmm... actually a gingerbread and cream cheese grilled cheese would have been interesting, but maybe next year.  Pine needles?  Absolutely not. 

Luckily a classic Christmas carol came to my aid-- who can forget the time honored classic We Wish You a Merry Christmas?  It starts out happily enough, but almost immediately Mr. Crosby and company are demanding figgy pudding and threatening to not leave until their demand is met.  I don't know about you, but the thought of a hungry pack of singers refusing to leave my doorstep until I provided them with congealed fig (or whatever figgy pudding is) is both disturbing and intriguing.  What makes figgy pudding so tasty that these people go from house to house begging after it?

Well, since I have no idea what's in figgy pudding my only guess is that the figs are what make it so tasty, and just like that my Christmas ingredient dilemma was solved-- fig it is!  I'm a big appetizer fan (yes, I'm that girl who will sometimes order the appetizer sampler as my meal), so naturally when I think fig I think of baked brie en croute.  It's a simple enough recipe-- put some brie and some jam in some puff pastry and voila!  So it's easy enough to de-construct the recipe and turn it into a sandwich (trust me, any time it's a BGC original recipe it will be simple if only due to my complete lack of general cooking knowledge and skill).

So, for the sake of keeping it simple my ingredients were as follows:

Milky brie, Italian pane bread and roasted figs.  Ignore the fact that the brie wrapper has clearly been tampered with-- I was hungry!

Really the only variable I had to deal with was how to handle the figs.  Upon first sight and touch, I realized that figs are not something I'll ever want to eat on their own.

They're slightly larger than a walnut and are very squishy and slimy.  Henceforth when singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" I will now demand chocolate pudding instead of figgy pudding, but I digress.  I wasn't entirely sure what the best way to prepare the figs for the sandwich would be, so I decided to just start slicing them and see where that got me.

This is where it got me.  Strips of fig were good enough for me.  The only kind of gross element were all those seeds!  They sort of congealed together to be part of the fig, but would come off and be all grainy if you scraped them away.  No. Thank. You.  Oh well!  I'm sure the whole will be better than the sum of its parts.

Next came a hearty slathering of brie onto a piece of the bread.  I didn't do any sort of precise measuring in terms of quantity, but you can rest assured that the cheese spread was at least a half inch thick.  I followed this up with a few strips of fig.  The sweet smell of the figs was strong, so I didn't want to add to much and have the mild brie completely overtaken.

This is what I ended up with.  I think it's pretty adequate in terms of coverage (but I think the figs look sort of like anchovies, am I right?)

I want to pause and take a moment for a quick tribute to how beautifully delicious brie really is.  Let's all take a second to enjoy this photo:

Oh yummy!  It's a wonder I had any cheese left to actually put on the sandwiches!

Alrighty, so you know the rest of the story-- butter on each side, cook while covered in a non-stick pan until both sides are evenly browned and the sandwiches look a little something like this:

Feasting my eyes on this culinary delight I knew Christmas had come early :-P (Cheesy, I know.  Apologies).

Taste Review:

As you can see from the fact that it is literally dripping out of the sandwich in the above photo, the brie is VERY runny!  Even though this particular brie was described as milky, I would say it's actually creamy like butter-- rich and creamy enough to be just right.  The fig has more of a cinnamon-y taste, but isn't overly powerful, more of a nice compliment to the decadent cheese.

This photo looks sort of gross, but it captures the essence of the gooiness pretty well.

The most noticeable difference between a traditional brie en croute appetizer and this sandwich is the addition of the grilled bread.  The light char on actual pieces of bread are what really cement this as a sandwich and not just an appetizer.  It really tastes like a grilled cheese, not just cheese and cracker; but the essence of the original dish is still there-- this is just a much heartier version of the beloved brie en croute.  All in all this was a winner!  Perhaps I could even serve mini versions as an appetizer one day when I magically become coordinated enough to start hosting dinner parties!

For some reason my usual "Final Results" table isn't working, so I'll just give you the skinny in a more straightforward style:

Brie and Fig on Italian Pane

Aroma: 2
Gooey-ness: 6
Appearance: Nearly bite-sized sandwiches with cheese oozing out of every side.
Overall Grade: B+

I've got a lot of business travel coming up, so posts will continue to be sporadic for a bit.  I know, I know, it makes me sad too, but I gots to earn the dough to make the bread that I then put cheese on and grill and write about :-)  OK-- yes, lame.  I'll stop typing now.