No Butter Grilled Cheese & Gazpacho Shooters
I bet you thought that I was going to spring some kind of healthy grilled cheese recipe on you.
Wrong, WRONG, WRONG!
Grilled cheese is designed to be inherently unhealthy. That’s what makes it so damn good…
I am going to add a few tweaks to it that will make a world class sandwich that everyone will love you for making.
Colby- Jack Cheese. No other cheese works and tastes so good on a GC Sandwich. I hate the cute “sammi” that Rachel Ray calls her sandwiches so you won’t see it here…
Back to the sandwich.
Ingredients:
2 slices Bread ( your favorite ( I think wheat GC’s suck but it’s your call) – Lightly toasted
Enough Colby Jack (a moderately thick slice) to cover your bread almost end to end.
BACON GREASE! – Instead of butter- it makes it a tad crunchier and doesn’t get soggy.
Directions:
Heat up skillet (preferably a cast iron but any wil do) to med to med-High heat. While skillet is heating up, add enough bacon grease to cover the bottom of the skillet (enough to lay the bread on and still have grease visible around it.
lay a lightly toasted slice of bread in the skillet, on the grease and top woith your slice of Colby Jack Cheese.
Put the other slice of bread on top. Heat until golden brown.
Remove sandwich and add more bacon grease as you did for the first side of the sandwich then place the uncooked side down on top of the grease and let set until it is golden brown.
NOTE: For a twist you can add creme cheese ( if you really want some rich sickness) but be sure not to cover the sandwich from crust to crust (leave an inch around the perimeter. You will see why if you try it. I prefer my GC sans Creme cheese but some people really dig it.
I really like my GC accompanied by a nice cool, small bowl of Gazspacho…
To me a bloody Mary is just like Gazpacho – Try this Shooter Drink (Pseudo Gazpacho Shooter) with your GC sandwich:
Ingredients:
2 cups Bloody Mary mix
Tomato juice
1 cup cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1 small jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 medium garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 lime, juiced
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon toasted, ground cumin
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh basil leaves, chiffonade
Fill a 6-quart pot halfway full of water, set over high heat and bring to a boil.
Make an X with a paring knife on the bottom of the tomatoes. Drop the tomatoes into the boiling water for 15 seconds, remove and transfer to an ice bath and allow to cool until able to handle, approximately 1 minute. Remove and pat dry. Peel, core and seed the tomatoes. When seeding the tomatoes, place the seeds and pulp into a fine mesh strainer set over a bowl in order to catch the juice. Press as much of the juice through as possible and then add enough bottled tomato juice to bring the total to 1 cup.Place the tomatoes and juice into a large mixing bowl. Add the cucumber, bell pepper, red onion, jalapeno, garlic clove, olive oil, lime juice, balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire, cumin, salt and pepper and stir to combine. Transfer 1 1/2 cups of the mixture to a blender and puree for 15 to 20 seconds on high speed. Return the pureed mixture to the bowl and stir to combine. Cover and chill for 2 hours and up to overnight. Serve with chiffonade of basil.
