Monday, April 20, 2009

Grilled Cheese Goodness #3



I'm a bit behind on my promise of a grilled cheese per week this month, working nights will do that to you. I think I made up for it with this amazingly delicious treat. I love cheese with fruit and anything sweet as is demonstrated in my first sammie of the month with the Apricot Mustard. But I especially like apples with cheese and figured what could be better in a grilled cheese than a Granny Smith. We had some Rosenberg blue cheese leftover from delicious burgers the boy made a few weeks ago and I decided to pair that with a homemade green apple chutney and since the blue cheese is so strong I toned it down with some Emanthaler cheese. All in all it was a perfectly tasty and rich sandwich.

Grilled Cheese with Green Apple Chutney
makes 2 Sandwiches

4 slices of whole wheat bread
1/2 wedge of Rosenberg Blue Cheese - cut into thin slices or crumbled
2-4 slices of Emanthaler cheese or any type of Swiss
Apple Chutney (see recipe below)

1. Preheat your panini press according to the directions for making sandwiches. Layer blue cheese and 1/2 to a whole slice of Emanthaler on 2 slices of bread. Go easy with the blue cheese as it's strong and will get very melty and spread, just be sure the slices has a nice thin layer of cheese. Top with 1/2 of the apple chutney. Top chutney with another thin layer of cheeses and remaining slices of bread.
2. Place one sandwich at a time onto the press (unless it can handle two at a time). Close press and toast for 5-7 minutes, until toasty grill marks appear. Remove from press let sit for 3 minutes, cut and serve.

Green Apple Chutney

1 medium Granny Smith apple - peeled and cut into 1/2" dice
2 slices red onion - diced
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp dry white wine
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 Tbsp sugar

1. In a small saucepan heat olive oil over medium heat. Add apples into heated pan and saute over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add in onion and saute for another 5 minutes.
2. Add in cinnamon stick, ginger, sugar lemon juice and wine. Stir to combine. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes until apples get tender and juices reduce down. The apples should be soft but still hold their shape, you don't want it to be like applesauce.
3. Remove from heat and serve or use in a fabulous grilled cheese.



I chose to use my panini press to make this sandwich because I knew I wouldn't need to butter the bread to get it all toasty and delicious. I love blue cheese and was excited to use it this way, but recognize that's it's extremely rich and didn't think the sandwich needed the additional richness from the butter. The panini press was a good call and the bread was perfectly toasty and the sandwich was perfect even without the butter. That being said if you don't have a panini press this can of course be made traditionally in a pan with buttered bread like this one. If you are in the market for a panini press check out the Breville one I have in my Amazon store, while I haven't tried it yet it can also be used to grill meats and veggies. Either way you make this sandwich will work and while it takes a bit more time than some of my others, it's still extremely easy and well worth the extra time to make the homemade chutney. Enjoy!

1 comment:

NKP said...

Sounds great! I love cheese and fruit together too.