Grilled Cheese, Pear & Smoked Turkey Sandwich: Recipe

Recently I've been having some fun in the kitchen creating recipes using products from Dulcet Cuisine including my favorite, the Madras Curry Mustard. I'm not the only one to have fallen in love with it, it was chosen the grand champion at the 2006 Napa Valley Mustard Festival Worldwide Mustard Competition. It's a mildly spicy mustard that really perks up all kinds of dishes.

Whenever I'm in Hayes Valley around lunchtime, I'm always tempted to stop by Arlequin for a toasted cheddar, pear and bacon sandwich. The bread is crispy and crunchy, the cheese oozes and the sweetness of the pear is offset by the smoky saltiness of the bacon. Taking that sandwich as inspiration I decided to add mustard to my version. I was sure the warm spices including cinnamon, clove and cayenne in the mustard would really be delicious with the pear but I didn't want the intensity of bacon for this sandwich. After experimenting a bit, the combination I settled on was smoked turkey, white cheddar and pear. Smoked turkey is a good sandwich choice, it adds some heft and lean protein, and is healthier than ham or bacon.

One trick to getting this sandwich is right is to layer the ingredients just so. Start with a mustard slathered slice of bread and top it with cheese. The cheese and the mustard will kind of melt together. Put the smoked turkey in the middle and on the top put the pear. By grilling or toasting the sandwich on both sides in a pan you get a warmed through pear and gooey cheese that holds the turkey firmly in the middle. Make sure the cheese has melted before taking it off the heat. The last key is to let the sandwich sit for a few minutes before slicing, if you can!

Grilled Cheese, Pear and Smoked Turkey Sandwich
serves 1

2 slices of sandwich bread, white or wheat
Madras Curry mustard
One half a ripe pear, thinly sliced (enough to cover the bread)
2-3 thin slices white cheddar cheese
2 very thin slices smoked turkey

Butter the bread on one side of each slice, and spread mustard on one slice. Layer cheese, turkey and one layer of pear on top of the mustard spread side of bread and top with another slice. Buttered sides of the bread should be facing out. Toast in a frying pan, sandwich press or non-stick grill. If toasting in a pan, place something on top of the sandwich to weigh it down such as baking sheet or a heavy frying pan. Cook until golden brown and cheese melts. Let cool slightly before cutting in half and serving.

Enjoy!

Cobb Sandwich: Recipe

I don't know if Mae West ever ate a Cobb Salad, but I bet she would have loved it. After all, she was the one who said "too much of a good thing is wonderful". A Cobb Salad begins with a bed of Romaine lettuce, think of it as your basic crunchy blank canvas. Resting on the greens are strips of toppings--luscious chunks of avocado, juicy fresh tomato, crumbles of rich blue cheese, hard boiled eggs and chunks of chicken breast. Frankly I've always found the chicken to be superfluous, but maybe that's just me.

Forget about the hot dog or the hamburger, for my money, the Cobb Salad is one of the best examples of "American cuisine". It was invented in America, it combines American ingredients with American excessiveness and good old American seat-of-the-pants ingenuity. It also has a little bit of Hollywood flair. The story goes that after the chef had gone home, Bob Cobb, the owner of The Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles created a late night snack for Chinese Theater owner Sid Grauman by pulling out a bit of this and that from the refrigerator and the popular salad was born. Or so the legend goes.

Faced with many of the ingredients I love in the Cobb, I decided to make myself a sandwich. It's really just a version of a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich, but since I've swapped out peppery arugula for the Romaine and added smears of avocado and gorgonzola on the bread, I'm calling it the Cobb Sandwich. Don't make this sandwich with anything less than fabulously ripe and flavorful tomatoes.

Cobb Sandwich
serves 1

2 slices sourdough bread
1 Tablespoon gorgonzola dolce
1 Tablespoon avocado
2 strips of bacon cooked to your liking
2 slices tomato (the best tastiest one you can get your hands on)
1 handful arugula

Spread one slice of bread with gorgonzola. Top the bread with bacon, tomato and arugula. Top the sandwich with a second slice of bread spread with avocado. Press together gently and slice in half.

Enjoy!

FOOD