How to make the perfect "Prince of Sandwiches" - the grilled cheese

 

 Forty years ago, as a 17 year-old boy I found myself conscripted to the South African Army. It was a rude awakening. Very different from the comfortable, sheltered life I led at home.

 What does this have to do with food?

 It was during this time I first tasted a proper grilled cheese sandwich and it was grilled, in the barracks, on a clothes-iron. Sure I'd eaten toasted cheese sandwiches before but they were always made in a sandwich press and presented as thin, cheese-lined, card-like, structures that mostly tasted the way they looked.

 The grilled cheese sandwiches we prepared in the barrack room, after a day of abuse by instructors trying to whip us into shape, were some of the best-tasting food I ever had. Those sandwiches provided warmth and comfort to a bunch of mostly scared and confused boys.

 And even now, a hot, perfectly-grilled, crispy-on-the-outside, gooey-on-the-inside, grilled, cheese, sarmie instantly makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Army grilled cheese

So how do you make the Prince of Sandwiches? 

Not so simple

 On the face of it, making a grilled cheese sandwich appears simple. Everyone knows how to do it. Hardly worth an entire blog post but it is not so.

 How do you stop it burning on the outside? Butter, margarine or olive oil as a spread? What sort of bread? Oven, sandwich-maker or pan?

 Not as simple as first believed, 'eh?

  

This is how to make the perfect grilled cheese sandwich.

Plain, ordinary supermarket bread, works best in my opinion. It's firm and stops the cheese from seeping through. Bread a day or two old is even better. Slices should be between 1 and 1,5 cm (around 1/2 an inch) thick.

Choose a soft, buttery cheese that melts well. I use sweet-milk and/or Gouda, as it is easily available in my neck of the woods.

Smear the bottom slice thinly with mayonnaise. This is the secret. Do not use butter, margarine, olive oil or anything else. Mayonnaise is the secret ingredient.

Cover the bottom bread slice in 5mm-thick cheese. It is good if the cheese extends beyond the bounds of the bread, as these pieces turn into wonderful, crispy bits.

Close the sandwich and smear the outer surfaces with, yep, you guessed it, mayonnaise.

Place the sandwich in a pan (this is not the place for sandwich-makers) on a LOW heat. If the pan is too hot the outsides of the sandwich will char. Lining the pan with baking paper makes the whole process easy to clean.

Cook, turning the sandwich over regularly with an egg-lifter, until the outside is crispy and golden brown and the cheese is melted, gooey and has the consistency of cold syrup.

Sprinkle with some rosemary or mixed herbs, cut and eat with your hands - unless you are posh or British Prime Minister, David Cameron, in that case, use a knife and fork.

Hey, I know this is the only way to make the perfect Prince of Sandwiches, but I'm willing to entertain your methods. :) How do you make a perfect, grilled cheese sarmie?

The manly Humble Pie Sandwich

 Sandwiches are man's food! I'm not speaking of those dainty, namby-pamby, triangles removed crusts served at cocktail functions and consumed in a single bite.

 Nope, I'm talking about a sandwich that is a meal in itself that goes with a beer and a good sports game on television. A sandwich that fills your belly and leaves you satisfied and content.

 The Humble Pie ham, cheese, bacon and corn chips with caramelized onions hot sandwich does all of that - in spades. In fact, I could eat them every day of my life and die happy, even if somewhat sooner than my allotted time.

 I bet you're wondering why such a monument to the art of the manly sandwich has the name, "Humble Pie". The story is funny, at least to me - there are some who don't find it so.

 When I told my wife, I Joy planned to make a sandwich for dinner and kick this blog off with it. It would be a sandwich of such magnificence that it blew her socks off, she rolled her eyes in disbelief. I guess you can figure out the rest of the story and the reason the name was chosen.

 But let me give credit where credit is due. I got the idea for this sandwich from the Pinch of Yum website, although I added a tweak or two of my own and made some adjustments to accommodate the ingredients available to me in my one-horse, meat 'n potatoes town in South Africa.

 A note before we get to the nitty gritty. I made two sandwiches for each of us. I ate both for dinner but Joy and my son, Kevin, took their leftovers to work where they reheated them for 20 seconds in the microwave and pronounced them "delicious".

 I don't know what they'd be like served cold.

Recipe for "Humble Pie" ham, cheese, bacon and corn chips with caramelized onions hot sandwich.

Ingredients:
Makes six

6 soft buns (See notes and conclusion)
250g (9 ounces) sliced ham, 12 slices
6 pieces of streaky bacon
12 bun-sized slices of cheese. Your choice. I used Gouda
5 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons Dijon or German mustard
1 large packet corn chips eg. Doritos
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
3 large onions
Butter to spread on the buns

Method:

1.  Fry the bacon until crispy then remove from pan and set on a paper towel.

2.  Peel onions and slice into rings. Use more onions if you want as they cook down.

3.  Fry the onions in the same pan you cooked the bacon. Add oil if needed. Fry until the onions are brown, limp and fragrant. Some rings will turn black but don't worry as they still taste good. When cooked remove the pan from the heat.

4.  Mix mustard and Worcestershire sauce with a tablespoon of olive oil until it is a goopy mixture.

5.  Slice the buns horizontally in half and butter them.

6.  Layer two slices of ham onto the bottom half of the bun and smear with the mustard/Worcestershire sauce mix.

7.  Then layer on top of that in the following order: corn chips, a slice of cheese, a strip of bacon, onions and another slice of cheese. (The layering order is designed to have the melted cheese hold the other components in place.)

8.  Close the bun and brush the top and bottom with olive oil or melted butter.

9.  Preheat oven to 200C (400F).

10.  Place the buns on a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray and cover the top with a sheet of aluminium foil to prevent burning. If you prefer you can wrap the buns individually in aluminium foil.

Place in oven and back until the cheese has melted and become become wonderfully goopy (15 - 20 minutes)

Serve hot with salad, chips or crisps and a cold beer.

Notes and conclusion

 This is a phenomenally delicious sandwich but the next time I make it, I'll make a few adjustments. I'll use bread rather than the soft buns. The buns are too crumbly for my taste, although Joy and Kevin liked the texture - different tastes I guess.

 When I use bread slices, rather than a bun, I'll use a pan rather than the oven, controlling the final cook by flipping the sandwiches over. I'll also try brushing the exterior with mayonnaise rather than olive oil or butter, as that will provide a wonderful, tangy crust.

Please be cool and share!