Emmentaler on Rye with Sweet & Sour Onions

Grilled cheese sandwiches have been one of my favorite lunches as far back as I can remember.  In my youth, bliss was known as a slab of Velveeta sandwiched between two slices of Wonder Bread. Truth be told, while it’s not often, there are days when I revisit that old favorite just to wax nostalgic about the carefree days when I sat at the kitchen table in my mother’s warm kitchen, munching on a gooey sandwich, swinging my legs back and forth all the while.  These days I look for variety.  I’ve found it in one of my favorite books on the subject, Great Grilled Cheese: 50 Innovative Recipes for Stovetop, Grill, and Sandwich Maker and then I saw this recipe in The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.  Oh, my!  This sandwich is singular in its deliciousness.  The nutty, melted cheese, paired with the not-too-sweet, not-too-sour onions is a marriage made in heaven.  The onions can be made ahead making this easy to throw together when you want to dazzle someone at lunch.

Emmentaler on Rye with Sweet & Sour Onions

Onions
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 large red onion, halved and thinly sliced (about 2 cups)
2 teaspoons brown sugar, light or dark
¼ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper

Sandwiches (Serves 2)
Four ½ inch-thick slices rye bread
2 tablespoons butter, salted or unsalted, softened
¾ cup (about 3 ounces) Emmentaler or another Swiss cheese (I used Gruyere), grated

Cook onions: Heat the olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the brown sugar and salt, lower the heat to medium-low, and cook another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the vinegar, and scrape and stuck onion bits from the bottom of pan with a spoon. Simmer for 1 to 2 minutes, until the onion mixture thickens, and season to taste with black pepper. Cool to lukewarm, or store in an airtight container in the refrigerated until needed, up to 5 days.

Make sandwiches: Generously butter 1 side of each slice of bread. Arrange one slice, buttered side down, on a plate. Spread thickly with jammy onions (about 2 tablespoons per sandwich; you’ll have extra). Sprinkle with half the grated cheese. Arrange a second slice of bread on top of the cheese, buttered side facing up. Repeat with the remaining slices.  Heat a heavy 12-inch skillet to medium-low, or an electric griddle set to 325. Once it’s hot, place the sandwiches on the griddle, and cook them until crisp and deep golden brown, about 5 minutes per side. Slice the sandwiches in half and serve immediately.

This post is linked to:

On the Menu Monday

Totally Tasty Tuesdays

Try a New Recipe Tuesday

Chocolate Toffee Cookies

I'm very fortunate to have two sons who love cook, and two daughters-in-law who love to bake, all of whom are only too happy to share the results of their labors. Today's blog post is courtesy of daughter-in-law, Emma Brunner, who shares her version of Smitten Kitchen's adaptation of Bon Appetit's recipe for Chocolate Toffee Cookies.

These cookies are positively addictive. Emma first gave me a small bag of them, three I think, dropped off by my son during one of his weekly visits. He was hardly out the door before I was taking my first bite, and I think I downed all three before his car had backed out of the driveway.  Naturally I sent out a request for more, and the second time was given a much larger bag.  Not trusting myself, I ate a few and put the rest in the freezer. As it turns out, they are just as delicious eaten straight from the freezer at two o'clock in the morning as they are at room temperature during reasonable hours of the day.

Emma Brunner, Baker Extraordinaire

 Emma's cookies, I think, look better than those on the Smitten Kitchen blog. The reason being that Emma scooped and dropped the dough rather than rolling it into a log and slicing them off in rounds before baking.

The recipe below is the one Emma used with a few revisions. According to Emma, "I followed the recipe to the letter except I reduced the brown sugar from 1-3/4 cups to 1-1/2 cups, and chose the option of semisweet over bittersweet chocolate. Just like in the recipe I beat the eggs and sugar for 4-5 minutes until smooth and glossy. I put my dough in the freezer for 45 minutes to an hour, used a 1-ounce cookie scoop, and lined my cookie sheets with a silicon mat. I noticed that mine turned out best when baked for 12-13 minutes and left on the cookie sheet for a minute or two before removing with a spatula."   

Delicious!  Thanks, Emma!

Chocolate Toffee Cookies

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Bon Appetit

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 pound bittersweet (not unsweetened) 

or semisweet chocolate, chopped

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

1 3/4 cups (packed) brown sugar

4 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

5 1.4-ounce chocolate-covered 

English toffee bars (such as Heath), coarsely chopped*

1 cup walnuts, toasted, chopped

Flaky sea salt for sprinkling (optional)

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in small bowl; whisk to blend. Stir chocolate and butter in top of double boiler set over simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove from over water. Cool mixture to lukewarm.

Using electric mixer, beat sugar and eggs in bowl until thick, about 5 minutes. Beat in chocolate mixture and vanilla.

Stir in flour mixture, then toffee and nuts. Chill batter until firm, about 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment or waxed paper. Drop batter by spoonfuls onto sheets, spacing two inches apart. Sprinkle with a pinch of flaky sea salt, if you’re using it. Bake just until tops are dry and cracked but cookies are still soft to touch, about 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on sheets. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.)  Makes about 2 dozen.

This post is linked to: 

 Foodie Friday

Sweets for a Saturday

Sugar and Spice

Leek Fritters with Garlic and Lemon

You may remember that wonderful package of cleaned, sliced leeks (read: all of the work is done) that I used in the capellini recipe here. My plan, following the capellini, was to try the leek soup recipe on the package, but then I stumbled upon this recipe while flipping through 

Deb Perelman's The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

and had to give it a try. For years I have been trying to make fritters, latkes, potato pancakes, whatever you want to call them, with only minimal success. Largely, I found them soggy and tasteless. No matter how many additional ingredients I'd add, none of my attempts were memorable. So when I found this recipe using leeks, one of my favorite vegetables, I couldn't wait to try them. I've adapted the recipe from the one in the book by substituting Melissa's leeks for those you have to labor over, reduced the quantity of the other ingredients in order to compensate, and swapped Old Bay for the cayenne pepper in the original. What a delicious way to eat vegetables. Finally, I said to myself, a fritter with taste!  They're also quick, easy, and not at all bad for breakfast the following day.

Leek Fritters with Garlic and Lemon
Adapted from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

1 6-ounce bag Melissa's cleaned and sliced leeks
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 scallion finely sliced
1/8 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
1 egg, beaten to blend
Canola oil for frying
1 teaspoon butter for frying

Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Pour leeks into pot all at once. When water returns to a boil, cook for 3 minutes until slightly softened but not limp. Drain, and wring them out in a dish towel or piece of cheesecloth.

Transfer leeks to a medium bowl; stir in scallions. In a small dish, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, pepper, and Old Bay Seasoning. Stir the dry ingredients into the leek mixture, and then blend in the egg until mixture is evenly coated.

Heat oil and butter in a large sauté pan until oil shimmers. Drop small dollops of the leek mixture into the pan (I used a cookie scoop for this). Cook for 2-3 minutes until golden, flip, and cook 2-3 more minutes. Makes 6.

Garlic Lemon Cream

1/4 cup sour cream
1-1/2 teaspoons freshly squeezed Meyer Lemon juice
Gratings of lemon zest
Punch of Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped garlic

Whisk ingredients together until smooth. Top each fritter with a dollop before serving.

This post is linked to: 

On the Menu Monday

 Totally Tasty Tuesdays

Try a New Recipe Tuesday

Foodie Friday

Food on Friday