A messy Sandwich with Roasted Shallots, Grilled Gruyère and Chutney
I'm in a mountain mood again, losing myself in thoughts of a warm wooden hut with an open fire place and wide snowy views. This calls for onions and cheese on my sandwich, or rather, tiny shallots roasted in their skin until they turn sweet, sticky and juicy, almost caramelised with aromatic gruyère, grilled until golden brown and bubbling. With these two pictures (and flavours) in my mind, I knew that I wouldn't need much else for today's messy sandwich.
I bought a crunchy sourdough bread, a rustic French loaf, strong enough to compete with the final addition to my hearty sandwich, homemade chutneys and marmalade. Our kitchen table was covered in jars with plum, rhubarb, red pepper and apple chutney, and in a moment of culinary cockiness, I decided to try it with some of my tangerine jam. I started by roasting the delicate onions for less than half an hour before I snipped the ends off and squeezed their juiciness onto the hot grilled cheese. One bite after the other, I tried all the different fruity spreads to come to the conclusion that the golden citrus fruits are interesting but quite a challenge for the taste buds and my plum chutney is the winner. Onions, gruyère and plums simply can't go wrong!
A Sandwich with Roasted Shallots, Grilled Gruyère and Chutney
For 3 sandwiches you need
rustic sourdough bread 3 or 6 slices (if you want a closed sandwich)
small shallots, in their skin, 9 - 12
gruyère, or another strong, hard mountain cheese, thinly sliced, 200g / 7 ounces
a fruity chutney, for the topping
black peppercorns, crushed in a mortar, for the topping
olive oil
Set the oven to 200°C / 390°F (I used the Rotitherm setting).
Coat the shallots in a little olive oil and roast in the hot oven for 25 minutes or until soft, turn them after 15 minutes. They should feel soft when you push them down gently.
Spread the gruyère on the slices of bread and put them under the grill for 1 - 2 minutes until the cheese starts bubbling. Snip the ends off the onions and squeeze them onto the cheese. Sprinkle with chutney and pepper and enjoy!
Truffle and Grilled Scamorza Sandwich
What a year, full of excitement, with more ups and downs than a roller coaster, with many amazing people who I got to know in the real and digital world. So much has happened through eat in my kitchen that I feel unbelievably thankful for, the blog became a catalyst on so many levels. Marilena taught me about her fantastic Milk Pan di Campobasso from the Molise region, I got to know Arnold the beekeeper in Malta, I met Joanna Bonnici, Mary Licari and the young Maltese chef Kurt Micallef in their kitchens. I could show you Emmanuel Cini's ancient salt pans in Gozo and share so many other meet in your kitchen stories with you. The white pages I fill every week with one of my biggest passions, stories about my beloved food and kitchen, are more than just a tiny space in the endless spheres of the internet. Any recipe that made us happy at our home in Berlin and that's been cooked or baked by you in your kitchen, every email and conversation we shared, every picture that sparked your attention and tickled your appetite, it all left the digital world and entered real life, mine and yours. This is just wonderful, overwhelming and sometimes, hard to believe. I feel thankful for this experience! And that's how I want to end this challenging year, with gratefulness and humbleness. As long as a year is packed with lessons which make me grow and people who give me so much love and support, I can say that it's been a good year!
I want to end 2014 with a sumptuous treat, I spoiled us a little with an ingredient which I don't have in my kitchen so often, black winter truffle from Piemonte. The Italian tartufi is a culinary treasure, aromatic, powerful and delicate. It's not as fine as the region's famous white truffle but today I'm making sandwiches with grilled cheese so the black one is just perfect. I bought them at the market from a young Italian man who also makes fantastic pasta and when I told him that I would use them for a sandwich he told me to try it with grilled Scamorza. This is very popular in Tuscany, truffle with grilled Scamorza on crunchy slices of bread. The smoky and earthy flavours merged wonderfully, I just added some crushed black pepper. There couldn't have been a better culinary end to this year!
I wish you an inspiring 2015, enjoy and indulge!
Meike xx
Truffle and Grilled Scamorza Sandwich
For 4 sandwiches you need
rustic white sourdough buns (or bread), cut in half, 4
black truffle, very thinly sliced (with a truffle slicer or a very sharp knife), 10g / 1/2 ounce
smoked Scamorza cheese, thinly sliced, 200g / 7 ounces
black peppercorns, crushed in a mortar, to taste
Spread the cheese slices on the bottom sides of the buns and put them under the grill for a few minutes until the cheese starts to melt and bubble. Put the truffle slices on the warm cheese immediately and sprinkle with pepper. We enjoyed it as an open sandwich.
