Grilled Cheese Throwdown: the Grilled Macaroni & Cheese Sandwich a.k.a. "The Farmer's Daughter" (Recipe & Gallery)
12:38PM in Apr0n, cbus tagged appetite porn, experimental, food porn, grilled cheese, grilled cheese throwdown, hibernating, local food week, local matters, macaroni and cheese, recipe, test kitchen, winter is coming I was emailed by Laura from Wild Goose Creative five days ago. She said that as a participant in the 2011 BaconCamp, they thought I (along with the others in the email no doubt) would be interested in participating the Grilled Cheese Throwdown qualifier.
Local Matters will be launching its own events lineup for Local Food Week (9/30 - 10/6) here in Columbus on Saturday October 1 with the Grilled Cheese Throwdown. Totally worth the five dollar ticket price; it should be great.
So, in the five days since the email, what have I come up with? First there was the Beer-battered double-fried monster, which would have just been a good mix sans deep-frying. I liked it, but the wow factor was in the ingredients, and I could get wow out of execution as well, but wanted something inventive. Second was Grilled Cheese a la French Tiramisu. Basically I wanted to make a savory play on the ladyfingers with a french toast style egg-wash and substitute the mascarpone for brie and butter cheese. But seriously, 80 ladyfingers sandwiches? Not likely. The question became one of wow and mass production. And the solution?
The Grilled Macaroni & Cheese Sandwich. For short, I call it...
The Farmer's Daughter
Here's a link to the whole gallery so you can get a visual overview.
Here's how you make it.
Start with some classic macaroni and cheese.
We will be making a large batch for this for a few reasons. Mac 'n Cheese is great to freeze, we need to have multiple samples for polishing technique, and (if we qualify) we will need to prep 80-100 servings. For purposes of this example We are making two 9x13 casserole dishes of MnC.
Begin by starting enough water to boil 3 pounds of ditalini (or some other small, regularly shaped pasta). Add the li'l tubes when boiling, bring to al dente. Move forward with making a bechamel, 3/4c flour to butter for your roux, then scald in 2c half & half, and then 1 1/2 cup milk. Next we add 8 ounces each of cheddar and colby-jack. While gradually stirring in the cheese, bit by bit, sautee onion until soft and sticky, add one large, minced poblano pepper and 5-6 cloves minced garlic.
So now you've got some 2 1/2 - 3 quarts of mornay (roux based bechamel with cheese melted in it) to mix with your 3 pounds of ditalini. Toss it up real nice and even, then pour out into 2 9x13 casserole dishes (ceramic/pyrex) and bake at 350'f for about 30-45 minutes or until the pasta has absorbed most of the liquid. Mind that you don't want the past to get crispy (a little tough is okay, but crisp lips sink ships), so stir it every so often if it starts browning or looking too dry.
This MNC will serve as the base for your 'flatbread' or "flats".
Now I like to think, and may have been told this once, that it is good to know your ingredients. It makes sense, and it is ultimately the responsible thing to do. So I strongly urge you at this point to site down and have a nice bowl of the MNC. You could also do so prior to baking (it would be a bit saucier, but the texture wouldn't be as amazing).
To begin making a flat, spray the inside of a 9", round springform pan with coconut oil then dust lightly with flour (keeps from sticking and browns gently). Preheat oven to 425'f. Using approximately room temperature MNC, measure out 8/3 c (2 2/3) in 1/3 - 1/2 c increments and pour into pan. (You want the flour on the bottom to remain even, so try to minimize pushing them around on that surface.) Bake for 15 minutes.
Release but don't remove springform and allow to cool for a few minutes until pan edges are not searing to the touch. Re-tighten before next step.
Prepare two egg washes. The "Group" wash will be of a larger quantity (depending on how many flats you will be making), the ratio being 1 egg to 1 Tbsp water. The "Solo" wash will be just 1 egg frothed up with 1 Tbsp water (you will need one of these for each flat you do). Mix the solo wash in a pourable container.
I chose to take a slightly Provençale approach to flavoring, as it is a mornay and, effectively, a scrappy quiche blend. Anyway, I sprinkled my herbs (parsley, tarragon, rosemary) on top at this point; if you do herbs for yours, now is the time so the wash can distribute them.
Pour solo wash around middle and edge rings of flat first, center ring last. Bake at 425'f another 15 minutes.
Remove and unsnap your pan's corset. Put a cutting board (gently) over top and flip the flat onto the cutting board so the bottom "crust" is butt up. At this point, your flat is done and should have a light brown but sturdy crust. There will be white and yellowish parts if the solo egg wash had some unmixed parts, no biggie. It should have an edge like this;
Reach for the group wash and your brush, whip it up a bit, then apply generously to that toasty bum. Dust a flour breading (with garlic, onion powder, salt, and black pepper) on top, then sprinkle some corn meal last to finish her off.
Heat some canola oil in your cast iron skillet to medium/medium-high, once there pour out extra oil. Flip skillet over cutting board with flat in middle, flip cutting board over and return skillet to heat.
moneyGrab your cheese; I chose a mix of 3 ounces each of sliced gouda and havarti to give it a mild tang, and creamy melt. Put one cheese each on one half and the other on the opposite (you are going to fold in half along the cheese meridian), then top one side with thinly sliced tomatoes. Around the rim, pour or spray enough water (or tomato juices if there is some) to steam-melt the cheese and quickly cover with a tight fitting lid. You may want to give a clean perforation to the cheese meridian with your spatula at this point. Reduce heat to medium.
Flip the flat over once (a) the cheese is melted and (b) sliding a spatula underneath (1) comes out clean and (2) the bottom has browned (or almost gotten there) to a nice gold. If the top side looks good flip over to ensure the other side is nice and golden. The lower and slower you go with it the crispier the bottom can get before burning.
Anyway, remove from pan, trim as necessary. I have serve the half flat in halves, quarters, and fifths and the sandwich holds up in each of the portions so feel free to rely on its structural integrity.
The qualifier was yesterday for the Grilled Cheese Throwdown. I was actually 90% packed when the alarm went off to start, and I had had time to bake a third flat in anticipating any kind of mishap and to be able to select the best ones to cook (of which the third I made was the best, naturally). I don't know yet how I did, but I did get a good nod on novelty. I made two flats' worth of sandwiches with a nice plating along thinly sliced tomatoes. and had plenty of leftover flat and sandwiches to share with the competitors.
Last night I made the third flat for dinner (I split it with my roommate) using Guggisberg's Farmer's cheese. It went well with the Roastier Tomato Eggplant Soup I made the other day, this time I put a slice of the Farmer's cheese on top (not vegan, like the grilled cheese).
image not enlarged for texture, i just got real close. but it's off the richter scaleThe Farmer's Daughter has a home-y, comfortable feel to it. It's not as bizarre as it sounds (grilled cheese on flat bread made out of macaroni and cheese). It is all comfort food; grilled cheese, mac and cheese, and quiche (if you don't recognize quiche as comfort food you've never had a fresh warm slice for breakfast in an Ohio winter). The ingredients have a wholesome, relaxing taste and it's a lot of fun to enjoy. For science, I recommend you try it.
Before I get into future iterations, I need to thank some people; Cameron first for incubating this, Carolyn for pushing the baking idea (I had already done it but the reinforment helps), my cousin Bill for helping with the skillet portion, Maureen for the cement, and Kate for the thickness. Each one of these people pushed me over the obstacles I was at in their own way.
Future iterations:
- Heuvos Mornayros (yeah you know me) - Ramp up the peppers in the MNC (i.e. pureed anchos in adobo in mornay); chili powder/paste, oregano, cumin sprinkle; fried chorizo; swap to a smoked cheese with chipotles
- Grilled Lorraine - mostly the same but swap to a sharper cheese and add ham
- Grilled Cheese Cube - Figure out how to make it into a cube, brown, slice on a bias, and then pour in fondue; also make it inside out (i.e. inject inside with cheese then dip in cheese)
work papers, for Science!Well that's enough grilled cheese for this week. Very exciting stuff I must say. Spawned two stackexchange questions and half a dozen posts. I would not necessarily recommend you go make the investment in making the Holy Hog's Hell chili unless you need to trigger an epic episode, or are otherwise buying a ticket for a vision quest. This however, is a recipe that's economical (you're paying it forward cooking this much MNC in bulk, and only 2 2/3 cups is needed for the Farmer so you can freeze the rest). This is a recipe you should make in preparation for hibernating.
Note: This recipe contains no outgoing source links except by doubling back to the Betty Crocker one for mornay, which is actually just a write-up I refer to occasionally. This one, aside from Cameron mentioning grilled cheese and macaroni & cheese in the same sentence, has no pre-existing structure. If you know of a place that has anything like this let me know.
Also, you should reproduce this recipe for science. It is actually simpler than you think, but it combines a plurality of beginner-level techniques that are each worth learning for their own sake (roux, mornay, temp tweaking, and egg wash / breading for sauteeing in zero oil).
mfg
I just got the email. I did not qualify for the Grilled Cheese Throw Down. Sad Puppy Eyes for the World. I am sad I won't be able to share with you.
