Several years ago, our good friends Barb and Kevin came up to the Upper Deck for a long weekend (pre nupitals and kids) and Barb made this delicious Grilled Cheese Lunch from Cottage Life Magazine. Now I don’t have the exact recipe, but it’s not rocket science so I wing it and I’ve been making it ever since. It’s really easy, and you only put into it what you like! I like a little tomato salsa with my grilled cheese, and since we ran out of the store bought kind, I whipped up one I refer to as Kitchen Sink Salsa, because I threw everything I had in the fridge into it. Oh, by the way, it’s adult grilled cheese because there is booze in it (no wonder I like it so much!). For this version, we used JT’s No Knead Olive Bread.
Adult Grilled Cheese
Adult Grilled Cheese
- 2 slices of artisan bread per person (this is a heavy lunch, our slices were about 3″ x 4″ x 1/2″ thick) buttered one side
- 1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese (you can use gruyere or any full bodied cheese, except the processed kind – YUCK!)
- 1 medium green onion sliced thinly and chopped
- 2 tbsp cognac or scotch (we used Palinka) – anything with a good full taste will do
- 1/2 clove garlic minced finely
- Mix cheese, green onion and garlic well. Add cognac and mix again.
- Spoon 1/2 the mixture onto 2 slices of bread on the non buttered side and compress with the back of a spoon.
- Put the second slice of bread on top, butter side out.
- Heat cast iron skillet to medium high. Carefully place sandwiches into the pan and press down. Brown side one and flip.
- Turn heat off and cover skillet and allow the other side to brown, and the cheese to melt.
Kitchen Sink Salsa
- 6 cherry tomatoes
- 2 sundried tomatoes in oil
- 1 green onion
- 1 tbsp tomato ketchup
- 1 tsp lime juice
- 1 clove garlic minced finely
- 1 tbsp olive oil (or the oil in the sun dried tomatoes)
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp coriander
- 1 tsp Spanish smoked paprika
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- 1-2 tsp heat (cayanne, hot paprika, anything you have will do)
- 2-4 tbsp chopped cilantro (I didn’t have any at home, but it would have been tasty!)
- Add all of the above into a small processor and pulse a few times (you don’t want a smooth paste, but a chunky salsa)
- Season to your taste. Enjoy with the grilled cheese.
