Twelve Days of…

With only a little more than 12 days until Christmas, and buckets and buckets full of holiday recipes slamming the internet waves, we at the Troika Table are here with a little somethin’ different.

You know what I really love? A Christmas cookie.

You know what I love even more?

A grilled cheese sandwich.

And so, in honor of the season and things that are better than Christmas cookies, we bring you –

A few things about this series:

1. We will very seriously attempt to bring you one grilled cheese per day for the next consecutive twelve days.
2. “That’s a lot of grilled cheese…” you say? We really like grilled cheese. And so should you.
3. Full disclosure: We will be pulling a few grilled cheeses from our past and as such we probably won’t be eating said grilled cheeses for twelve days straight, and maybe you shouldn’t either. I mean, twelve days of grilled cheese in a row is a little much. Even for us.
4. We assume you know the basics of making grilled cheese; however, this post will cover my preferred method.
5. In the event we are not able to post a tried and true recipe, we will post a link to a recipe for a grilled cheese, because let’s face it, the internet also has buckets and buckets full of grilled cheese suggestions.
6. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll sneak a cookie recipe in too.
7. Maybe.

~~~

First up, a humble, simple grilled cheese – nothing too fancy, just, you know, some cheese. And bread. And mustard-and-green-onions-and-a-fried-egg-on-top.

Grilled Cheese No. 1
à la Croque Madame

For one serving:

• two slices of bread
• enough cheese to satisfactorily fill your grilled cheese (I used cheddar and smoked mozzarella)
• one green onion, roughly chopped
• mustard – for this, I prefer a sweet, Bavarian style. Honey mustard would be good. Dijon if you dare.
• one egg
• butter and olive oil for pan

1. Slather as much mustard as you’d like on each slice of bread.

2. Arrange cheese slices in an even layer on one slice of bread; top with most of green onion. Dot with a bit more cheese to keep things held together. Important: DO NOT mess with the other, mustard-ed slice of bread yet.

3. Heat pan over medium-low heat. Add a little butter and a splash of olive oil. Take the untouched slice of mustard-ed bread, briefly dip the un-mustard-ed side in the melted butter and oil, then place the slice, mustard side down, on top of the slice prepared in step two. Illustration:

The mustard side of the other piece goes on here. Easy peasy.

4. Carefully place sandwich in pan. Cover with a lid (this facilitates melting of cheese without burning the bread. Very important.)

5. After 3-5 minutes, flip the sandwich.

6. After a few more minutes, your grilled cheese will be successfully and perfectly golden and ooey-gooey melty. Place your work on a plate, but keep your pan on the heat as our work here is not done. The pièce de résistance:

7. Add a nub more of butter just to prevent sticking, and crack that egg into the pan. Fry to your preference: I like mine salted, peppered, and medium.

8. Slip egg onto sandwich. Top with any remaining green onions.

9. You know what to do now:

 

See you tomorrow, dear readers.

–Kara