December 10, 2007

Martha's Favorite Grilled Cheese Sandwich

It came to my attention the other day that my blog was mentioned on chow.com on their own blog called ‘grinder’.  They were wondering what my favorite cheese sandwich was and I will be thrilled to share it with all of you.  I just love a sandwich grilled, with gruyere cheese and thinly sliced tomatoes on a Balthazar bread called Pain de Siegle, made with rye flour.  It definitely falls into the category of comfort food.  But, when it comes to grilled cheese sandwiches, I also love many other combinations. 

Over the weekend, Pierre and I had fun creating a most spectacular paninni.  It had many flavors of a really great paella.  We used a light and airy ciabatta, sliced in half as the base.  Next, we sautèed thinly sliced chorizo (a highly seasoned sausage widely used in Spanish and Mexican cooking) with a thinly sliced, boneless, skinless chicken breast, some roasted red peppers, a pinch of saffron threads, and 2 cloves of crushed garlic, until everything was lightly browned and the chicken cooked through.  I had some fabulous cheese called, Mahon Reserva D.O.P., from the Balearic Islands in Spain.  So, we decided to use slices of that to bind all the ingredients together.  After several minutes in the paninni press, the sandwich (sammy) emerged as a masterpiece!!!  Once again, it’s time to hit the treadmill.   

The components
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Before the press!
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Looking just about ready..
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Layers of goodness!
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