Saturday, August 20, 2011

What is missing from most grilled cheese sandwiches

It's funny how grilled cheese sandwiches often don't involve a grill. The grill is the secret to a really tasty sandwich, and doing a couple of unusual things makes a big difference too.
In this version of the grilled cheese sandwich, the bread is grilled on both sides - with three cooking actions.
Madame did deliver the "we can serve this to people" accolade, so Iguess she liked it. Of course with ripe tomatoes, home made bread, fantastic olive oil brought home from an olive grove in France and decent cheese, it is hard to go wrong.
Ingredients
4 slices of bread - preferably rustic and home made, 1/3" thick
Good quality olive oil (unmeasured - the method will describe how to use it)
6 slices of cheese (I used thinly sliced Swiss cheese)
1 tomato thinly sliced
2 Scallions thinlly sliced
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
Get the grill nice and hot. I used the gas grill on high for about 5 minutes. Then turn the heat to low. Paint each side of each piece of bread with a little olive oil. Essentially a small quantity evenly spread. Prepare the sandwich filling and head for the grill.
Place the bread slices on the hot part of the grill, and allow to cook until lightly browned and a little crunchy. This first browned side becomes the inside of the sandwiches.
As soon as the first side is browned, flip the bread over so the uncooked side is on the grill. Working very quickly, place a layer of cheese, a layer of onion, a layer of tomato and another layer of cheese on 2 of the slices. Top with the other 2 slices - ensuring that the first grilled side is on the inside - against the top layer of cheese.
Grill until the bottom of the sandwiches are nicely brown, then flip the sandwiches so the other ungrilled side is now against the grill bars. Cook until that side is nicely browned too.
Remove from grill, cut each sandwich in half, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serve hot.

No comments: