Some of you
know that we have been rehabbing the downstairs of our house, so that we can
begin teaching cooking and later Reiki and yoga. http://www.freshfunfoods.com/ourkitchen/ The contractors are great guys, doing top
quality work at a reasonable price. If
anyone wants a quote on a concrete counter or vinyl flooring, I’d be happy to
set you up with Brett, Bill and Tim.
The gas
company is a different thing. We are
changing over to LP from electric, so some piping and electrical work needs
doing. The guy showed up last Friday
with a big tank, but insisted that he couldn’t do the wiring or punch a hole in
the wall to run copper to the new stove.
I would have to find a contractor to do that work, and then he’ll come
back. If his company wasn’t the
cheapest, I’d go elsewhere, although I don’t really have a choice, since it
would take about two weeks to line up another supplier. Bill is knocking out the work right now. After a few calls, I found Green Propane in Hatfield. Their manager was out this morning and by 9:00 am had speced out the job and given me a price that was far lower than the previous company. Installation and hookup is scheduled for early Thursday morning. Additionally, the cost for the gas is $.50 lower than the other guys, a big win all around.
I feel like
I’m camping, cooking in such a stripped down way. Remember that I normally don’t think anything
of using a half dozen knives to make a salad.
The whole idea of chopping on a cutting board on a card table and then
cooking either on an electric griddle or a crock pot bugs me a bit. We’ve have not pasta in a couple of
weeks. It is a hassle to brew my last
remaining addiction, coffee, in the morning.
I had to go into four rooms to retrieve a knife, butter, bread jelly and
finally the toaster for breakfast yesterday.
The high
point, and this may sound silly, has been the rediscovery of my love for
grilled cheese. Seriously, you would not
expect a heavy weight chef to go nuts over something as simple as melted cheese
on grilled bread. Maybe it answer is in
the process or the ingredients or the limitations that only having an electric
griddle being loaded on my head. Whatever,
grilled cheese is good, food of the Gods on a cold day and something you should
make right now.
Start with
the bread. It has to be good, as it
makes up most of the sandwich. Stay away
from grocery store air bread, no flavor plus it burns quickly. You’ll want something that has character and
texture. Bakers on Broad in Souderton is
your place for good bread. http://bakersonbroad.com/ The baguettes are everything you expect from
French bread, the whole wheat is toasty and nutty, their Italian loaves are
great smeared with garlic butter. Slice
it yourself. You’ll want slightly
thicker slices than their machine will produce.
Use top quality cheese. Cheddar
and Asiago are my favorites and both are available in any supermarket.
Electric
griddles are cheap these days. I saw one
at Kohl’s for $7.95 on Black Friday.
Even if you do spend $30, consider it disposable, that’s the society we
live in. It will be Teflon coated, so
use only plastic spatulas. Your griddle
will have one of those dials to adjust the temperature, but don’t trust
it. These things are normally blazing
hot or cold, not much in between. Size,
not more than 25 inches across. The space
is wasted and the Teflon tends to burn out on the unused space. Don’t buy a used electric griddle. It is probably unsafe. You are only buying someone else’s problem.
Today, I’ve
provided a recipe for an Italian grilled cheese sandwich. You’ll be able to cook the whole thing on an
electric griddle, even sautéing the rapini.
Do yourself a favor, grate your own Locatelli cheese. The bagged stuff has “powdered cellulose” in
it to prevent caking. Powdered cellulose
is better known as sawdust.
Ummmmmmmm!!!! You’ll also need to
make garlic butter for this sandwich. It’s
a good thing to have hanging around in the fridge, since you’ll learn to use it
on pasta, vegetables, garlic bread, grilled chicken…
_____
Italian Style
Grilled Cheese Sandwich
4 slices of
Italian bread, ½ inch thick
8 slices
sharp provolone cheese
2 oz. Locatelli
cheese, grated
½ bunch
broccoli rabe (rapini)
2 tsp. garlic butter
4 tsp. olive oil
salt and pepper
Heat the griddle to high. Trim the thick bottoms from the broccoli
rabe. Pour 1 tsp. of olive oil onto the griddle. Sauté the broccoli rabe for five minutes,
until cooked, but still crisp. Move the
broccoli rabe off to the side of the griddle.
Pour the remainder of the
olive oil onto the griddle. Put the bread
on the griddle, spread a ½ tsp of garlic butter on each piece of bread.
Top each with a slice of provolone
cheese. Divide the Locatelli cheese
equally and spread it on top of the provolone.
Top the sandwiches with the broccoli rabe.
Cook for two minutes. Put the tops on the sandwiches and cook,
flipping every two minutes, until the cheese has fully melted. The bread should be browned evenly. Remove from the griddle, cut in half and
serve immediately.
_____
Garlic
Butter
8 tbs.
unsalted butter
4 tbs. olive
oil
4 cloves
garlic, chopped
2 tsp. fresh
parsley
2 tsp. fresh
oregano
½ tsp.
pepper
pinch of
salt
In mixing
bowl, soften the butter by leaving it sit at room temperature for an hour.
Add the
remaining ingredients; mix with a rubber spatula, folding the aromatics into
the butter. Put the garlic butter into a
plastic container and refrigerate.
No comments:
Post a Comment