30 Gourmet Sandwiches #30: Banana and Fromage Blanc Grilled Cheese

 Last one! Lets end it on a sweet treat.

I got a cinnamon & raisin bread (is a fruit loaf the same thing?), i dont know what the closest thing to fromage blanc is but I got ricotta cheese, and then we got a banana, vanilla extract and icing sugar.

I've actually never had ricotta before. I thought it would be lumpy and sour like cottage cheese tbh but I guess its more like mascarpone? Thats nice. I'll mix up 3 tablespoons with a little bit of sugar and vanilla.

This is quite a small banana so ill just use it all.

Gently folding the banana chunks into the creems cheems. Could deffos use a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg but thats what the breads for i guess!

Bread! Its quite small but dense, and we're to butter just the outside!?

Once again, im using my tamagoyaki pan for crimes. This is how much I think I can fit into the sandwich, ill have to eat the rest.

Oh my goddd the leftover cream cheese and banana mix is soo good! I should just have a bowl of this for breakfast. Ok its probably toasted enough time to take a weirdly closeup photo.

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Well im sold on sweetened ricotta and banana, thats very nice. I'll be honest with you though... I think maybe I liked the chilled leftover filling more than the warmed sandwich. Somehow the heat made it seem a bit... blander? I do like all the components though, its easy to like.

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!

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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.

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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 #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.

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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 #8: Eggplant Parm Sandwich

So like the sandwich version of eggplant parmesan ? Well, it also seems a bit simpler too.

Crusty rolls, eggplant (aubergine), tomato, basil, mozzarella and parmesan.

First i slice up the eggplant and pick the 3 chunkiest discs. I can save the rest for something else, ill probably just throw them in a pasta.

Brush both sides with olive oil and lay on a nice coating of salt and pepper, and let them fry!

Thinly slice discs of mozzarella to match, and dice a tomato. Don't have to do any more with the tomato and basil really, i guess they stay raw.

once they are looking browned on one side I can flip em over and add the mozzarella, cover the pan with a lid and hope the mozzarella melts nice and quick.

I'll half one of the crusty rolls, might as well have 2 of these today and save the other bread roll and cooked eggplants for tomorrow.

That cheese has melted nicely! Now we just assemble!

oh its a mystery... for the finishing touches i use a thin cheese slicer to top it with parmesan flakes.

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It's picture perfect! Another recipe that demonstrates the power of fresh and good quality ingredients. It's a classic blend of flavours, the caprese salad trinity. Its basically just bruschetta but the fried eggplant makes it feel a bit more substantial.

30 Gourmet Sandwiches #7: Croque Monsieur

 Cheese toastie chain! Looks like a similar recipe to the last one, but this is supposedly a croque monsieur... though... aren't they supposed to have bechamel sauce? Maybe that's not mandatory.

Authentic or no, i've managed to get some proper fancy gruyere cheese, so probably big  points for that! And plenty of simple smoked ham, dijon mustard, and the last of the sliced bread from my freezer.

Like last recipe, we gotta butter up both sides.

Is this too much cheese? well we bought it just for this so we might as well not be stingy.

A thick layer of ham, look how much ham there is in the reference image, that's so much ham to me.

And a good spread of mustard too. My stuffy nose can forget about it.

I'm popping a tray under my grill this time, we learned a lesson about cheese overflow.

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Très bien, this goes down real nice. The cheese is stinkier than cheddar but has that continental truffle-like mustiness that makes it seem fancy and its overall still a very good toasting cheese. The ham and mustard are satisfying without being too much. All round good, but is it better than the pear and cheddar? Im thinking maybe not quite. Perhaps its a little simple, obvious. Cheese and ham, not exactly a bold new concept. Have I become pretentious?