Grilled Cheese is magical. It makes everyone smile, moan with delight, sigh heavily, or wax poetic– and it may even cure pain and heartache. It is also a very good thing to serve to a crowd of hundreds, which is what we did last week in Orlando.
We were there with Elkay, the company that custom designed our SGS’s (Sexy gorgeous sinks, for those of you who don’t know this story). Elkay re-created our kitchen in their booth at the enormous Kitchen and Bath Industry Show in the Orlando convention center and hired us to come cook in our home-away-from-home kitchen on the convention floor. Yeah, we can do that.
Here is the grilled cheese magic. We demoed six recipes repeatedly over the course of the week, including a knock-out dessert, spiced nuts, pizza (with caramelized onion!) and more. But as always, it was the grilled cheese that drew the biggest, most voracious crowds. It was the grilled cheese that the maintenance guys told me they kept hearing people talking about. Grilled cheese magic.
Here’s the take-away, in case you don’t happen to be cooking for hundreds in a replica of your home kitchen in an enormous convention center. No matter what the occasion– be it a quickie weeknight dinner or a gathering of 50 of your nearest and dearest–and no matter how hoity-toity gourmet snooty or low-brow hip street-foodie you and your guests are… make some version of grilled cheese, and you will be a magical hero. Even if you aren’t in the land of Disney.
The sweet-tart cherry wine sauce may be made in advanced and refrigerated for up to about 1 week, or frozen for a couple of months with no compromise to the flavor or texture. And by all means make a double or triple batch: it is as good with pork chops and roast chicken as it is spooned over ice cream.
| Servings 6 | |
- 1 1/2 cups frozen dark sweet cherries coarsely chopped
- 1/4 cup dry red wine
- 2 tablespoons chopped shallots
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 12 slices firm white bread
- 18 ounces Gruyere cheese, thinly sliced
- 1 1/2 cups baby arugula
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter softened to room temperature
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- Combine the cherries, wine, shallots, sugar, vinegar and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until thick and syrupy, 18-20 minutes; cool.
- Place 6 slices of bread on a work surface and top each with 1 1/2 ounces of the cheese. Spread about 1 rounded tablespoon of the cherry mixture over the cheese; top with 1/4 cup of the arugula and the remaining cheese and close the sandwiches with the remaining bread. Spread the outside (top and bottom) of each sandwich with the butter.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add 2 sandwiches and cover the pan. Cook, turning once or twice, until the cheese has melted and the outside of each sandwich is golden brown and toasty, about 4 minutes per side. Repeat with remaining sandwiches. Let the sandwiches stand a minute or two before cutting them in half.
Just for fun, a few Grilled Cheese-related photos from our week in the land of Disney…
First we prep:
Then we cook. (…and learn we are kitchenware fashionistas. Sorta). Our kitchen at the convention was a replica of our home, so Anolon sent all our favorite pans to use at the show. We’ve been cooking in these these cobalt blue cast iron pans ever since we used them for a project last year, but it was fun to learn how on-trend we are: cobalt was THE color at the Kitchen and Bath show.
Here’s David, talking the crowd through a few key ingredients. Check out how much this kitchen looks like our’s, shown here.
Meanwhile, I try to keep the hungry people happy.
If I dropped the sugar could I use a port or zin?
With a zin I think it would be the same amount of sugar, but if you use a Port, then yes, I would cut back on the sugar.