30 Gourmet Sandwiches #29: Black Forest Ham and Caramelised Onion Grilled cheese

Black forest ham? Cambozola? Are these trendy new dog breeds?

I'll see what lidl can do for us... couldn't find cambozola, but apparantly its like a softer gorgonzola so i guess thatll do its getting grilled anyway. I couldn't find black forest ham, but i got some sort of smoked german offering. We've got a white onion, and wholemeal bread fresh from the freezer.

I'll slice the onions as thinly as I can.

I forgot to take the butter out of the fridge in advance... is this a perfectly reasonable way to butter the outside of the bread? No?

Ok enough nonsense, i'll caramelise the onions and then assemble it on the grill.

a smattering of this fluffy looking cheese. It'll all melt in there anyway.

I tried to cook the onions as low and slow as i could, but i foolishly used the beast hob so they might be a little bit burned here and there.

and a couple slices of nice looking hams, slap the top on, und auf geht's!

***

It's not as great as it looks, but its alright. Kinda smoky, hopefully not just from the burnt onion. Not quite as good as the croque monseiur, but not bad. I wish i'd made it more buttery, maybe even a bit more cheese? Mostly just tastes like cooked onion.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #28: Sweet Hot Mustard and Jarlsberg Grilled Cheese

Ohh these ingredients elude me, we have to improvise.

I just found out lidl discontinued pretzel rolls like a month ago. If I had known! Well they still have this cheese-topped pretzel log, itll have to do. Jarlsberg, i don't know her but they had Maasdam which looks like its basically just the same thing but dutch? Perfect. As for sweet hot mustard... I also don't know that. But once again, I reckon we can just wing it.

Honey, powdered cayenne pepper and swedish wholegrain mustard. That's sweet, hot, and mustard right?

I don't know whats a good ratio, but what could go wrong?

I've spread the mustard on the top, I reckon I can cram two slices of cheese in folded in halves.

I really hope this cheese on the outside doesn't burn... well i've already got a tray underneath if we did cram too much cheese in.

****

I just realised I didn't butter the outside or shred the cheese, I really wasn't paying attention. But... it turned out great! I think this type of swiss-like cheese works better melted, and mustard is a combination thats hard to beat. The subtle sweet and hot additions are nice. The roll was maybe a bit stale though, I guess it was at least a day old. If only soft pretzel bread was easier to come by... can we make that trending instead of sourdough maybe?

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #27: Roasted Beet and Chevre Grilled Cheese

 Once again, im not having any goats cheese so I settled for cream cheese since ive got some right now.

Wholemeal bread (close enough to 9 grain? i dont know how many grains) cream cheese, and pre-cooked beetroots since they're as cheap and easy as raw ones and that saves a step.

We butter the outside of the bread because we're going to grill it again. I don't think cream cheese is a good grilling cheese, but we'll see what happens.

One beetroot will do, cut into slices. trying not to stain anything... its actually so hard...

cream cheesed the inside and then put the beetroots on, might as well assemble in the panini maker because the other sides buttered.

I forgot to get sherry vinegar, but cider vinegar will probably do.. just a light sprinkle of that and some salt & pepper

cheesed up the top slice and lets SLAM it on.

***

The buttery toasted wholemeal bread was sooo appetising. and then yeah, the filling was just alright. Bit plain. It's my fault for picking cream cheese to replace goats cheese, though I probably would have liked that less. Beetroot in a sandwich is ok, its got a nice texture, but a bit like avocado, on its own its just... earth flavoured. It's just no pear and cheddar basically.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #26: Grape and Taleggio Grilled Cheese

 I've made a calculated decision to venture to waitrose and get the correct cheese again. Partially because I just dont really know what taleggio is like.

But I found it! One fancy block of taleggio, red grapes, and for the "honey wholewheat" the closest i could find is a malted multi-seed bloomer. It seems like it would match well anyway.

Ugghh this bread is too soft and this butter is diabolically hard. I guess i should stop buying cheap butter? And yes its been outside of the fridge for over a day. I can't be bothered to microwave it though the grills gonna melt it anyhow.

Now for the exciting cheese reveal! It feels like im unboxing some premium ingredient. I've never had this before, i guess its prettymuch like a brie?

Thats probably enough to melt nicely on everything.

Now i just cut some grapes in half.

Looks kind of unsettling like that! Quick lets slam the lid on and squash it into a delicious lunch.

****

Very nice, the talegg seems like a good grilling cheese that goes well with the flavourful wholegrain bread. The grapes are fine, they dont clash but im not so sold on them, they add a bit of sweetness and a lot of wateryness to an already oozing kind of sandwich. I might try making this again later but with cranberry sauce (leftover from recipe #16!) instead of grapes.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #25: Roast Beef with Horseradish and Cucumbers

We're really in the place to be for a roast beef, horseradish and cucumber sandwich. It's not really a go-to sandwich recipe for me, but maybe it should be...?

We got that traditional german pumpernickel/rye, roast beef, cucumber, a red onion, rocket/arugula, mayo, and I couldn't be bothered to buy a whole jar of horseradish when i have a tube of wasabi, which is basically the same thing!

Like for real, most wasabi in the uk is secretly horseradish dyed green. Anyway is this a good ratio? i have no idea. We'll just find out.

Since I already got that loaf of rye for the smoked salmon one, I figure thats close enough for "seedy wholegrain" bread. It's quite a crumbly and brittle bread for a sandwich though.

 

Now I can just chop a bit of the onion and cucumber for the sandwich. Red onion is a good one to use raw, the brown onions are a bit too.. yknow, oniony.

Like a pair of beef curtains... hmm thats making me extra hungry...

The crunchy veg...

And lastly, the aroogla. irregular. amoogus. leafs.

*****

Damn this is hittin... the dry beef, peppery horseradish and onion, and crunchy vegetables are so perfectly balanced. I think i did this one just right. Even the bitter, seedy bread feels like a good match. This is a good sandwich. 

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #24: Bistro Baguette

 This ones sounds conventional. The first challenge was finding a beef skirt cut, but morrisons came through.

Beef skirt steak looks nice, (its cheap too!) a sweet white onion, tomato, watercress, and since it didn't specify the mustard I thought i'd mix it up a bit with this swedish mustard, which is kind of a wholegrain and ground mix.

I'm caramelising the onions with a bit of olive oil on one side, and cooking the steak with a bit of butter on the other side. I always think butter just kinda adds something with steak, I dunno. Should I have seasoned this? probably but it didn't say to... well maybe ill add the tiniest pinch of salt and pepper.

Chopped the tomato and pulled out the watercress pieces from the mixed salad bag. Yeah I know my leaves. Like a druid.

Chunk of baguettes sliced and ready. I think i'll spread mustard on the top side, so its next to the onion.

Trouble with white onions is I can't really tell when its peeled enough, so it looks like theres some harder bits in there, they become obvious when cooked.

w-cress is in, and ive tried to slice the steak diagonally. There's plenty of it, i think im maxing this sandwich out again. Is the hungry instinct taking over?

Tomatoes and onions are in.. can we squeeze it shut without spilling it everywhere?

***

It's good yeah. The steak really is a nice cut for a sandwich, its lean and not tough or chewy. I liked the mustard and onions with the steak. I dunno, its a bit boring? What if it had some like hot sauce or blue cheese sauce or something.