@timothyeverson1795

1 month ago

Spicy Olive Feta & Garlic Grilled Cheese (Don't hate it till you try it, there's an amazing level of salinity that can be reached with the combination of olive, feta and additional cheeses):

Ingredients:
Sourdough or White
Green Chilli, Jalapeno or Habanero
Cheddar, Mozzarella, Gruyere, Feta
Kalamata Olives (if push comes to shove just use Castelvetrano)
Butter
Italian herbs (if you don't have, mixed herbs is fine)

Compound Butter:
Ok firstly you can do one of two things, either compound butter goes on the outside, or the inside. Don't do both sides otherwise it could end up being overkill. I use green chili most of the time because of accessibility but jalapeno is nice if you want to use it instead, or habanero in minor amounts if you're feeling adventurous (we are trying to eat something comfortably edible but still delicious)

If you put it on the outside you're gonna make a compound butter of raw garlic and chilli. Mince the garlic and dice chili until its relatively fine and combine with butter. This gets employed before entire grilled cheese goes in the pan. It's to ensure the garlic and chili doesn't burn further if you decide to pre-saute the two before combing with butter, which leads us to option number 2.

If you want to put it on the inside, grate (yes, fine grate it) garlic and dice chilli, saute in oil or butter and combine with more butter after cooked (you can brown it gently if you want, it's preference, just don't burn it obviously). During assembly this will go on the inside of the sandwich and the outside will use either plain butter or mayo. It's your choice, i dont like using mayo (yes i can cook it properly where it browns correctly) i just prefer the flavour of butter.

Sandwich assembly:
Any bread at hand is fine, but try the sourdough, I have very high hopes. I just use white bread, but I haven't had a good sourdough in a couple of months.

I prefer the raw garlic and chill method on the outside. It separates the heat from the flavour of the cheeses (to an extent) and the salinity of the olives. Don't slice the cheeses (except for the feta), instead grate cheddar, mozzarella and gruyere, combine and layer on the bottom slice (normal butter on the inside, not too much, this is going to be pretty rich). Take olives roughly diced (not whole, halved or quartered, smaller) and spread across the first layer of cheese. This ensures that the moisture released from the olives doesn't make the sandwhich soggy. Season with italian herbs, very little though, dont go overkill. Take sliced feta and layer on the entirety of the seasoned cheese and olive pieces. Spread the rest of the cheese over the top of the feta and close with top slice (also buttered gently).

If you want to do the compound butter on the inside, you're basically just going to invert the sides but you can use more butter on the outside for browning as compared to the raw garlic and chili method.

Cook both sides until cheese has melted and both bread and garlic has browned. If the garlic burns a little for the sake of browning the outsides of the grilled cheese it's totally fine, don't panic, it has a pretty decent flavour of its own!




Now you're probably wondering why i specified grating over slicing huh. Tbh this is just my usual method, from what I've tested with the generic cheddar and gouda that I use at home it helps with the cheese pull a lot. I'm not sure if there's anything going on in terms of the molecular gastronomy but I think Andrew Rea looked into it a couple of years ago in an episode of Binging With Babish. I need to go and double check but eh, I'm lazy, somebody else do it.

Anyways good luck.

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