alright...let's be realistic here; this is just a fancy grilled cheese sammich.
upon my first visit to extraordinary desserts on union and ash in SD, i tried this for lunch ('course, it was served as a sexy panini, plated with sophistication and loooove), and thought it was extremely flavorful. it was always on the backburner to try it out, but just never got around to it, 'til now.
It was a great learning experience, as I've never caramelized onions before. The gruyere is a little pricey, but it's great for melting and was a nice change from my usual hard cheese fetish.
Anyway...so here we go. Besides the lengthy process of caramelizing onions, it was fairly easy.
::gathering my raw materials::
Ingredients
2 slices of whole wheat bread (or whatever bread you like--sourdough, rye, white, etc)
4 oz sliced Gruyere
1/2 onion sliced vertically (don't dice)
1-2 tbsp dijon mustard
2-4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
Directions
On medium heat, add your butter and olive oil to a medium sized frying pan. Once hot, add your onion slices. Make sure there's enough oil to coat the slices, and drop the heat down to low/medium.
About 10 minutes into their simmer stage, add a dash of salt. Some people add sugar as a part of the caramelization process. My sister told me about a tip she learned on America's Test Kitchen--add a little water, lid the pan, and let them slow cook. I didn't lid mine, nor add water--this may be why they came out a little...er...crispier than I would have liked. = )
OK so while they're cooking, you can do other stuff. I used this time to slice my Gruyere.
Slice it thin enough where it'll melt easily. Doesn't have to be perfect. If you have one of those rad cheese slicers, have at it. But again, since it's going to melt, just try to get it as thin as possible.
So turning back to your onions, just move them around a little, but wait for them to do their thang...
and wait
and wait...
alright...so again, next time i'm gonna cover them, add more liquid, and let them get...stickier. but hey, i didn't burn them, so i was pretty stoked for that...
take your onions away from heat, and put them aside. get your bread and slather on some dijon mustard on both sides.
Plop your onions on one side, and your sliced gruyere on the other. or layer some gruyere on both sides, and onions on one side.
Close the sandwich, and spray a medium skillet with cooking spray. Bring up to medium heat.
Using a spatula, gently press the top of the sandwich, and allow the bottom to brown. Flip the sandwich and repeat this process until the cheese is melted.
Once nice and melted, remove from the pan and transfer to a plate. Enjoy with pickles, chips, a salad, or alone.
The patience is in the onions caramelizing. Otherwise, it's fairly quick. Gruyere is a bit steep in price, but it melts nicely and compliments the onions. I was glad to have tried it. Next step...buy a panini press = )
All-in-all, looks great! If you're really feeling indulgent, you could have buttered your bread slices on the other sides and fried them up that way :)
ReplyDeleteOh, and you so don't need a pannini press, you can use a cast iron pan (or one of them grills, if you want grill marks) and squash the sandwich with another pan and a heavy can (you might wanna put parchment paper in between)....but really it's the same thing. Heck, you could even use your non-stick!