Recipe: Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Two Ways

I've been craving grilled cheese sandwiches for months now, and I have no idea why.  I remember the grilled cheese sandwiches I used to get when I was a kid, at the babysitters'.  They were made with loads of butter (or margarine, I can't recall), a certain name-brand white sandwich bread with the nutritional value of drywall (and approximately the same taste), and a certain name-brand cheese-like product that looked more like a petroleum product than like a dairy food.  And I LOVED them, much to my mother's horror.  Of course, now I allow margarine into my house exactly once a year (for Purim, because my friend's mom's recipe is quite insistent about margarine instead of butter and Ruth prefers her mom's recipe).  I don't allow that particular name brand of sandwich bread into my house at all.  Ditto for pseudo-cheeses that look like they belong in an oil field.  But, uh, yeah, I still wanted grilled cheese. 

So after months and months of saying, "No, grilled cheese is bad for you, you don't need that crap, eat an apple," and assorted other counter-blandishments, I decided that once was unlikely to hurt.  Besides, cheese has calcium, and since my diet contains a pitifully low amount of dairy I justified it on calcium grounds.  Hey, pregnant women have higher calcium needs than other people you know.  You wouldn't want the Fearless Fetus to have brittle bones or anything like that, would you?  (I ignore the people pointing out that I could drink skim milk.  I stopped drinking milk when I was eighteen and my mother couldn't legally force it on me anymore and haven't looked back since.) 

I'm not sure why grilled cheese is called "grilled" cheese, because you'd have a really hard time making it on a grill.  Traditionally it should be made on a well-greased griddle.  We don't own a griddle, so I used a fry pan.  I decided that I would make two sandwiches, one with cheddar and one with smoked gouda.  That would be more exciting, at least for me, and would use up some of the cheese that had been in our fridge for a while.  When I served them, I halved the sandwich and served each of us one half of each sandwich. 

Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Two Ways (serves 2; approx. $1.61/serving)

4 slices Cheese Bread

1 ounce (approx.) smoked Gouda cheese, sliced

1 ounce (approx.) extra-sharp Cheddar, preferably a New York cheddar, sliced

1 ounce butter

1 tablespoon (approx.) olive oil

Equipment:

• Frying pan
• Pastry brush
• Spatula

1. Brush one side of each slice of Cheese Bread with the olive oil.  You don't need a lot; this is just to keep the bread from burning much.
2. Lay the cheese in a single layer on the oil-free side of two pieces of bread (cheddar on one, gouda on the other.)
3. Top with the other slices of bread, oil-side up. 
4. Melt the butter over medium-low heat in the frying pan. 
5. Put the sandwiches into the pan.  Toast until the cheese begins to get runny.  Watch the heat carefully here, since you don't want to burn the bread or the cheese!
6. Carefully flip the sandwiches and cook until the bread is well toasted.
7. Halve each sandwich along the diagonal. 
8. Serve one half of each sandwich to each diner. 

Comments

[zerrin]

It sounds like a heaven of cheese. I'm a big fan of cheese but never had it grilled. It looks so appetizing.

[Chris]

Grilled cheese is excellent comfort food. Love the use of your cheese bread here. Great idea.