Author Laura Werlin has the thanks of a grateful grilled cheese eater -- me. Before giving Great Grilled Cheese as a gift to someone who is an avowed grilled cheese lover, I never thought about grilled cheese. Here's why grilled cheese is important: it's quick, it's easy, and it's a perennial favorite.
Laura's contribution is to offer us a new way to think about grilled cheese, one that calls for new ingredients and creativity. Whether it's important to you to love Velveeta or to leave it behind will probably dictate how you feel about her suggestions.
Great Grilled Cheese introduced me to the idea of apples in my sandwich. I can tell you it revolutionized my ideas about sandwich making, and now apples frequently figure in my ideas about something interesting to put in a sandwich I want to dress - or bulk - up. (I will say that using green apple as a substitute for celery in tuna salad some time ago was, as far as I know, my own idea and another illustration of how necessity is the mother of invention).
Her suggestions include brie and apricot jam on a baguette; spinach and goat cheese on a croissant; blue cheese and fresh figs on crusty Italian bread.
I do love cheese, especially brie and goat cheese, and I am delighted to have suggestions for using them in new ways.
This is also a great book to have if you've just gotten a sandwich maker and wonder what to do with it. As appropriate, Laura offers instructions on how to make each sandwich with either a skillet ("stovetop method"), a gas grill, or a sandwich maker. And, if you've got a Foreman grill, you've got a sandwich maker.
Here you'll find variations on all the classic and beloved cheese sandwiches: Reuben, Croque Monsieur, Monte Cristo. Laura shows you how to turn classic Toad in the Hole (here "Gashouse Eggs") into a cheesy sandwich with the addition of Monterey Jack, Swiss, or Gruyere cheese.
I think that the wonderful thing about dressing up a grilled cheese sandwich with variations is that it can really be gourmet fast food, depending on which ingredients you use. It's something that you can whip up in 20 minutes with the ingredients you have on hand which is a blessing when you're both hungry and tired.
Grilled Cheese, Please! answers my need for a grilled cheese sandwich that uses Camembert ("Say Oui to Normandy" and "Camembert and Comte" with mushrooms), and offers 5 (5!) recipes that call for bacon, including Chips and Guacamole Grilled Cheese and Welsh Rarebit (which also calls for Guinness so you know it's traditional and therefore good). "Say Oui to Normandy" calls for a green apple (Granny Smith or Pippin), which you know makes me happy!
Laura offers practical tips on the best kind of skillet to use, how best to grate cheese, how best to melt cheese, which kinds of bread are best to use, great recipes from great grilled cheese joints like Hammontree's in Fayetteville, Arkansas and the all important Bread to Cheese Ratio. This volume is especially key for cheese lovers, offering recipes for cheeses from around the world, from Colby in Wisconsin to Fontina, Gruyere, Emmentaler, Gloucester or Cheshire, Mahon, Gouda, Feta, Parmesan, and Gorgonzola, in chapters titled "Veggies and Cheese," "Global Grilled Cheese," "Regional American Cheese Favorites," "Grilled Cheese on the Go," and others. There are also intriguing recipes for sandwich relishes, from guacamole to tomato jam and apricot jam.
Finally, after reading Grilled Cheese, Please! I went into the kitchen and made a quesadilla with Colby Jack, coarsely chopped red onion, thin tomato slices, fresh basil (the basil made the sandwich) and black pepper. I can't tell you how, but it was inspired by Laura.
The wonderful photos in both books are by Maren Caruso and these handsome, colorful and easy to handle books are publish by Stewart Tabori & Chang. Genius! I can't wait for volume three.
Laura Werlin is also the author of two books on cheese: The New American Cheese (2000) and The All American Cheese and Wine Book (2003).
Laura's contribution is to offer us a new way to think about grilled cheese, one that calls for new ingredients and creativity. Whether it's important to you to love Velveeta or to leave it behind will probably dictate how you feel about her suggestions.
Great Grilled Cheese introduced me to the idea of apples in my sandwich. I can tell you it revolutionized my ideas about sandwich making, and now apples frequently figure in my ideas about something interesting to put in a sandwich I want to dress - or bulk - up. (I will say that using green apple as a substitute for celery in tuna salad some time ago was, as far as I know, my own idea and another illustration of how necessity is the mother of invention).
Her suggestions include brie and apricot jam on a baguette; spinach and goat cheese on a croissant; blue cheese and fresh figs on crusty Italian bread.
I do love cheese, especially brie and goat cheese, and I am delighted to have suggestions for using them in new ways.
This is also a great book to have if you've just gotten a sandwich maker and wonder what to do with it. As appropriate, Laura offers instructions on how to make each sandwich with either a skillet ("stovetop method"), a gas grill, or a sandwich maker. And, if you've got a Foreman grill, you've got a sandwich maker.
Here you'll find variations on all the classic and beloved cheese sandwiches: Reuben, Croque Monsieur, Monte Cristo. Laura shows you how to turn classic Toad in the Hole (here "Gashouse Eggs") into a cheesy sandwich with the addition of Monterey Jack, Swiss, or Gruyere cheese.
I think that the wonderful thing about dressing up a grilled cheese sandwich with variations is that it can really be gourmet fast food, depending on which ingredients you use. It's something that you can whip up in 20 minutes with the ingredients you have on hand which is a blessing when you're both hungry and tired.
Grilled Cheese, Please! answers my need for a grilled cheese sandwich that uses Camembert ("Say Oui to Normandy" and "Camembert and Comte" with mushrooms), and offers 5 (5!) recipes that call for bacon, including Chips and Guacamole Grilled Cheese and Welsh Rarebit (which also calls for Guinness so you know it's traditional and therefore good). "Say Oui to Normandy" calls for a green apple (Granny Smith or Pippin), which you know makes me happy!
Laura offers practical tips on the best kind of skillet to use, how best to grate cheese, how best to melt cheese, which kinds of bread are best to use, great recipes from great grilled cheese joints like Hammontree's in Fayetteville, Arkansas and the all important Bread to Cheese Ratio. This volume is especially key for cheese lovers, offering recipes for cheeses from around the world, from Colby in Wisconsin to Fontina, Gruyere, Emmentaler, Gloucester or Cheshire, Mahon, Gouda, Feta, Parmesan, and Gorgonzola, in chapters titled "Veggies and Cheese," "Global Grilled Cheese," "Regional American Cheese Favorites," "Grilled Cheese on the Go," and others. There are also intriguing recipes for sandwich relishes, from guacamole to tomato jam and apricot jam.
Finally, after reading Grilled Cheese, Please! I went into the kitchen and made a quesadilla with Colby Jack, coarsely chopped red onion, thin tomato slices, fresh basil (the basil made the sandwich) and black pepper. I can't tell you how, but it was inspired by Laura.
The wonderful photos in both books are by Maren Caruso and these handsome, colorful and easy to handle books are publish by Stewart Tabori & Chang. Genius! I can't wait for volume three.
Laura Werlin is also the author of two books on cheese: The New American Cheese (2000) and The All American Cheese and Wine Book (2003).
No comments:
Post a Comment