- Can you write,
so this this is Test Kitchen
Talks grilled cheese,
and then can you right "Take
Two," just put a two there?
After "Take"?
Yeah bug.
All right, here, give me that.
No, no, negative, nope, no, no, no.
If you're gonna be crazy, you
won't be invited in the video.
And this is a grilled cheese video,
this is the kinda video
you wanna be a part of.
Trust me.
[tapping]
Action.
[drums playing]
- Today we're gonna be
making some grilled cheeses!
Grilled cheese is great!
- I'm very excited for this.
I was literally thinking
about this all night.
- During times like this,
I think it's like, really like
quintessential comfort food.
- You go from wanting one to eating one
in less than ten minutes.
[bread crunching]
[bread crunching]
[bread crunching]
- You have to make this, you
have no idea how amazing it is.
- Breathtaking.
- Like seriously delicious.
[drum music]
- First thing's first, for grilled cheese
I really prefer a soft sandwich bread.
I'm gonna grab two slices
and I like center-cut slices.
Now basically I make a relatively
straightforward grilled cheese
except I add some really
thinly sliced tomatoes.
And then I have two kinds of cheese.
I have cheddar, pretty normal, classic,
and then I also have Muenster,
which is a fantastic melting cheese
and completely
underutilized if you ask me.
Put two slices on one
side, cheddar on this side.
I like to cut the slices of
tomatoes as thin as possible
and then I have a lot of
surface area for seasoning.
And then I just go like
a ton of salt and pepper.
I'm actually really excited to eat this.
By the way, it's 9:30 in the morning.
And I haven't eaten anything
and I have not had coffee.
And then just this is kind of a holdover
from when I was a kid, we
used to always sprinkle
garlic powder on, on tomato.
So I just like that little savory edge.
And then just layer onto the bread.
And then close up the sandwich.
Here's the thing: rather than butter
on the outside of the sandwich,
I use mayonnaise.
Now I love butter and I
love the flavor of butter,
but in this situation I'm
using mayonnaise because
one, mayonnaise has a
little bit of egg in it and
when you fry it, it creates
and extremely crispy exterior.
Two, this is a really soft bread
and I don't have any
room-temp butter right now.
Plus it tastes delicious.
Just like love mayonnaise.
What's that cat doing?
I have my eye on that cat.
Okay, mayo, mayo, mayo.
Very important to get it all the way
to the edges of the bread.
And then I think with grilled cheese
you gotta go low and slow,
meaning put it in a cool pan
and let it heat up gently
so that you don't end
up overcooking the bread
and you're left with unmelted cheese.
I'm going to put this bread face down,
turn it on, put it on low,
and then put everything else on top.
When it's in the pan
I'll do the other side.
This is just gonna go
and start to gently fry,
and then I'll turn it over, that's it.
Cats.
The cats!
Oh my god, stop that!
There's was like hissing and clawing,
I'm gonna find tufts of
their hair over there now.
- [Dan] How long should it
take to make a grilled cheese
and why have you been
making it for 25 minutes.
- I don't know Dan,
because I haven't had my coffee [laughs].
But the cheese it melting,
everything is fine.
I can here it sizzling now.
Yeah, seriously it's been
23 minutes, almost 24.
Okay, this sandwich
might be ready to flip.
[pan sizzling]
- Oh, a beautiful color.
Look at this beautiful,
even, golden browning.
I think that's what you get both from mayo
and starting in a cool pan.
Smells great.
I'm gonna turn it down
because I don't want
the second side to go too fast because
I want it to fully melt.
And I'll press down gently.
I just don't think you
should rush this process,
is all I'm saying.
Just 'cause it's a humble grilled cheese,
doesn't mean you can't
treat it with great care.
Oh, I'm excited to eat
this, it's gonna be good.
All right, I think she's done.
Both sides of the bread
are very well-toasted.
It's probably a little too hot,
but I'm gonna cut it anyway
because we gotta move on.
[plop]
So, they want me to do this
where there's a little bit
of that oozy, cheese-pull.
But it's really hot.
Got that hot [laughs] juicy
tomato in the middle there.
Both sides of the bread are nice
and like, deep golden-brown.
It's gonna be so good.
[bread crunching]
You guys it's so good.
It's like seriously delicious.
It's cheese on bread,
what's better than that?
[drum music]
- Okay, today I'm gonna show you
how to make my version of grilled cheese.
My version of bread with
melted cheese inside of it.
That's a more accurate description.
I'm gonna dip it in a
pakora batter and fry it.
So that's traditionally
called bread pakora.
Why not do it with cheese?
But I have about a half
an inch of neutral oil.
I'm using sunflower.
And then here's some bread
I baked this morning.
You don't have to used freshly
baked bread, not at all.
But, you know, we're all just
making bread these days, so.
Why the hell not?
I'm gonna go with kind of thin slices
'cause once it's like battered and fried
I want it to be about the thickness
of a standard grilled cheese.
Okay, we're gonna do a little muenster
'cause it melts so well.
It's that need of ooey-gooey
in times of sadness.
I'm gonna do two slices, one on each side.
Some dates.
I usually go for medjool dates
'cause they're nice and sticky and soft.
And now they're the rage,
you can find them anywhere.
All right I'm gonna stick these together.
You wanna squish it down a little
so it holds together when you
dip it in the pakora batter.
And I'm going to take of the edges
to make it really nice and pretty.
You totally don't have to.
This is just purely aesthetic.
Okay, I'm gonna do
[plop]
on a diagonal
'cause everyone knows
triangles taste better.
I think that's been scientifically proven.
- [Dan] Claire did not cut on a diagonal.
- What, people I work with
didn't cut their sandwich in a triangle?
I'm so disappointed in my peers.
Okay, I'm gonna make
a quick pakora batter.
You don't have to like, get too precise.
So I'm doing equal parts rich
flour and chickpea flour.
So I've added a big pinch of salt
and now I'm gonna add a little
kashmiri red chili powder
and turmeric.
I'm gonna whisk it up.
Pakora is always a batter.
Pakora I like think of
kinda like Indian tempura.
I'm gonna add enough water until
its like a pourable batter.
Because it's gluten-free, you don't have
to really worry about over mixing it.
So it's pretty light.
You wanna be able to get a nice
even thin coating of batter.
Nothing too thick.
It can get a little dangerous
when you do the dip.
Everything can fall out on you,
so make sure you're nicely squished.
I'm gonna use a fork and we're
just gonna go down and up.
Don't wiggle it around because
then your dates will fall out.
It's not that crazy, I
mean if you think about it
it's like a Monte Cristo.
That guy is bubbling away.
Gonna be crispy.
Okay, here we go.
Plop her in, and we're
gonna let her, let her fry.
It's gonna be a couple minutes per side.
A lot of times with these
gluten-free kind of batters,
it takes longer to fry than you think.
I think this first one's
ready to flip, wow.
Really impressed by myself on this one.
And then my favorite
thing is these little,
little bits of pakora
batter that have escaped.
It's the best.
So you get a little snack while
you wait for your grilled cheese.
What, what's better?
I think I'm gonna hit it on the sides too.
360-crunch.
Oh yeah.
This is my last bit of chaat masala
and I think it's going to a good cause.
These kinds of things though,
I really miss the test kitchen
because I wish I could taste
what everyone else is doing.
Okay, I feel good about that.
It's crispy crunchy all around.
And while it's still hot, I'm
gonna sprinkle it all over,
heavy shower of chaat masala.
A mix of green mango powder, black salt,
some spices, and some other
like, tangy, earthy things.
But basically it gives you
sour, salty funk all in one.
And it's on chaats, but
you can put it on whatever.
Really worth having in your pantry.
Okay.
Oh, we got a cheese pull!
Oh my god, that's a good one too, wow.
[bread crunching]
This is so good, you have to make this.
You have no idea how amazing it is.
It's like crunchy, and then
you've got soft bread on the inside.
It has it all, guys, it has it all!
We did it, we really did it.
[drum music]
- I know there a lot of people out there
who are like, not
sardine-heads, but you know.
Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.
But to me, the absolute
most important thing
that I will not budge on,
I like to cover my bread, all
four sides, with mayonnaise.
So the first thing we're
gonna do is take our bread
and really just slather on
a nice, juicy layer of mayo.
So I'm really trying to
get to all the edges.
So here we have mayo on all
four sides of the bread.
Buckle up everybody.
Now that that's ready to go,
we're gonna get this whole
mishegoss over to the stove
and make our grilled cheese sandwich.
So we've got our cast-iron pan,
and we're just gonna get these down,
and it's starting to
sizzle pretty immediately,
which is what we're looking for.
So, we're gonna let this
go for a little bit.
Just hangin' out with my grilled cheese.
I cannot believe that Claire
starts from a cold pan.
So this first side, it's like
we wanna get some browning
but we want more browning
on the other side.
We just kinda wanna get this started.
Here--
It's hot!
See, this is starting to
look good on this first side.
You give it a good flip.
So I'm gonna distributed this,
grating it rather than slicing it,
means that it's gonna melt quicker.
And also one thing that I
like about this arrangement
is that when you sprinkle the cheese,
invariably some of it falls into the pan
and then makes like a
nice little kind of like,
frico-y kind of cheese edge.
Bela sardines.
So I'm just gonna kind of break the up
so I can cover all my territory.
And then I'm gonna put on a
good amount of these peppers.
Just so you kinda of get
a little bit in each bite.
Gonna leave that be.
And I'm just gonna put this lid over it.
It's pretty much all melted but
just to make sure the
sardines warm up a little bit.
[whistles]
So, we're gonna take our bread,
close it up, give it a good
kind of nice little smush there.
Put it onto our sizzle platter.
And that is ready to go, look at that.
Gonna cut it in half
[plop]
And if you're hoping for a cheese pull,
that's not my grilled cheese,
it just goes like that.
It's all about the bread
and the stuff inside.
And you know, it's light on the cheese.
I don't know, maybe other
people wouldn't think
that this is a grilled
cheese sandwich at all.
Looks good though, right?
Fishy grilled cheese sandwich all for me.
[bread crunching]
The bread is so good,
the sardines are so good.
That kind of like
sharpness from the cheddar.
Every once in a while you just get
a pop of those pickled peppers.
It's like a little bit
spicy, a little bit briny.
[bread crunching]
It may not be a grilled
sandwich, but to me, to me it is.
Whatever it is, it's really [bleep] good.
[bread crunching]
[drum music]
- Today, we're gonna be
putting a little bit of ham,
a little tomato, okay,
a little bit of jelly,
a little bit of cayenne pepper,
so you get a little sweet, a
little heat, a little meat.
Oh!
- [Dan] Do you have a name
for this grilled cheese
that you're gonna be making for us today?
- You guys with the
names and the sandwiches.
Oh, he's trying to name everything.
I feel like nicknames and proper names,
like naming a child or a
nickname to your friend,
it's gotta be organic.
See what it's personality is like.
"Oh, it's got a little speckle
"on the edge of the toast there.
"Oh, we're gonna name this one
The Grilled Spot," you know?
Crisp.
All right, great, so let's
make a little grilled cheese.
I'm gonna use a little bit
of Dave, Dave's Killer Bread,
and then I'm just gonna
put a little bit of butter.
Some folks use mayonnaise,
some folks use butter,
some folks maybe use both.
So here you go, a got a little cast iron.
And then I got my bread with the butter,
I got a little bit of tomatoes.
I'm just gonna halve a couple of them,
just a little halvsies.
First, I'm just gonna, I'm
just gonna kiss the ham.
Just to get the chill off it,
let it heat up just a little bit, okay.
All right, I'm gonna
drop my buttered bread
right into the cast iron, all right.
The ham's just hanging out, it's fine.
I'm gonna put a little bit of jelly
on the one piece of bread, all right?
Stay right there.
Look, just a little smear, 'kay?
So our bread's got nice and toasty.
A little cayenne, fermented cayenne.
A little kiss of heat.
Then we put the cheese.
Oh wait, I took the cheese
off of the jelly side.
And I'm gonna put my ham against the jam.
And them I'm gonna put my
tomatoes on top of the ham.
Oh that looks good.
A little bit of pepper.
And then I put a little bit of cheese
on top of the tomatoes, 'kay?
Push it down a little bit.
Then flip that nice, okay.
We're gonna mush that together, hot!
Let that hang out, let
that get a little melty.
Now we wait, now we wait!
- [Dan] You feel like
you've gotten to know
this sandwich a little bit?
- No.
No not yet.
Hot!
We're moving along.
How long does this usually take people?
- [Dan] Claire's took 30 minutes.
- Oh [bleep].
That makes sense.
She's a clever one, that half-sour.
Oh yeah bud, now we're getting there.
All right, we're almost done.
One minute chef!
30 seconds chef!
All right, I'm just gonna cut it now.
All right, we're gonna
give it a little cut.
[bread crunching]
Look at that crunch.
[plop]
Oh my god, it looks good.
Don't get up!
I'll bring it right to you.
Look at that beauty.
Oh, mamma mia, right?
Nice and melty.
Nice little crunchy.
Looks pretty good.
So that's it, grilled cheese, ham, tomato,
little bit of hot jelly
preserve, grilled cheese at home.
Good clean fun.
[bread crunching]
Pretty good!
I'll save half you know, I'll share.
Share with the family,
'cause that's what we do
here at the Leone household.
Let's call her Melty Mary.
Yeah, Melty Mary, that's it.
So, hope you guys make Melty Mary at home.
She's a real treat, bon appetit.
[drum music]
- This comes specifically
from, okay, so bear with me,
outside Borough Market in London.
There used to be this guy, or maybe,
I mean maybe he's not
there like right now,
but maybe he had.
[timer beeps]
Cookies are done.
[timer beeps]
One more minute.
Anyway, there was this guy.
He made two things: he made
a grilled cheese sandwich,
which was to die for,
and he made Raclette.
He had this special rig, you know,
for kind of toasting the open
cut face of the Raclette,
and then he would just kind of shear off
these just like molten waves of Ra--
[timer beeps]
Cookies are done.
Great!
But the grilled cheese is what
I'm talking to you about today.
This grilled cheese was so special,
he would use English cheddar,
thinly sliced shallot,
and then he had just great sourdough
slathered in butter, simply griddled,
and this thing was freaking epic.
And that's what I wanna make today,
sometimes simple is best.
Should we make it?
Quick word about the bread,
I'm giving you guys
Bread Alone's sourdough.
It's great, it's like, it's
a good, kind of appropriate,
you know, sort of thickness of bread.
I love you guys, but I'm keeping
my homemade sourdough for myself.
I think it's very important
to shred your cheese,
unless your gonna use like an American
that is already in sliced form.
Shredded cheese melts really nicely
and its very even to distribute.
Very modest amount of shallot.
Maybe you can leave it out for the kids.
This is already like, probably
double the shallot that I need.
It's just not a lot, but it
gives you a little something.
I think, frankly, the secret to
a really good grilled cheese
is just a lot of cheese.
I think most of the time we're
just not using enough cheese.
So I'm just gonna kinda scatter,
like really kind of break apart
these slices of shallot here.
Boom, that's it.
And then a few swipes of butter.
[beep]
We have a very big guest
star here with us today.
Moderate heat, right?
Do I ever have the flame cranked up
when I make you grilled cheese?
No, right?
Do you think you'd take
a bite of this later?
- Yeah.
- Yeah, okay!
- Ixnay on the shallot...scray.
So let's get this in the pan, okay.
You hear that gentle sizzle?
Just gentle.
I'm like starting to question like,
do I even have enough cheese in there?
- Oh my, no!
- I'm putting more cheese in there.
- Yeah.
- Like where does it go?
Am I right or am I right?
- You're right.
- Thanks bud.
All right, we're gonna take a peek.
Yes.
Okay, we're just about
ready to flip here, buddy.
- Okay.
- So let's butter that
second side, here we go.
This is you, Bo.
Come right in under the edge,
flip it right over in one big motion.
- Okay.
- Yeah.
Epic.
I want you do experience something.
Try that.
It's cheese that melted
and solidified into a chip.
- More!
- [laughs] More?
All right, I'd say we're
just about there, guys.
Okay, look at how good this looks.
All right, you guys listening to this?
[bread crunching]
[plop]
Boom.
It's like it's oozy, and it's melting.
And it's delicious, and
it's everything to everyone.
All you could ever want.
[bread crunching]
The Platonic Ideal grilled cheese.
And the sharpness and the
pungency just blends kind of
perfectly with that tiny bit of
pop of sharpness from the shallot.
And it is breathtaking.
I'm speechless and I'm also
so hungry and I'm so happy.
[bread crunching]
C'mon Martin.
[bread crunching]
What do you think?
No?
Okay, here, spit it out.
The fact that he didn't like
it shows how good it is, okay?
'Cause it's the antithesis of just like
boring-ass cheese on boring-ass bread,
made in a boring-ass way.
This actually has something going on,
so I think he actually
proved my point precisely.
[drum music]
- So the grilled cheese
that I'm gonna make today
is going to have Monterrey Jack cheese,
a delicious Pullman bread and kimchi.
I love something spicy with
something cheesy and melty.
Also kimchi is one of my favorite food.
Grilled Kim-Cheese?
[laughs]
Just off the top of my head, no big deal.
Okay so, I had some delicious bread
from the farmer's market from She-wolf.
This stove which I love,
this 21-year-old stove
has a griddle in the middle,
and is just kind of perfect
for making grilled cheese.
Then for the filling,
I've got Monterey Jack
that I've grated myself.
Any melty cheese will be good.
And this is just a really
yummy Napa cabbage kimchi.
The other thing I'm gonna do
is I'm going to put mayonnaise
on the outside of the sandwich.
If you have never tried this,
there's a lot of lore about it,
it absolutely works and I do it
whenever given the opportunity.
So I'm gonna put the mayo on the outside.
I already did it wrong.
This is what I should've done.
Now I'm gonna get mayonnaise
on my cutting board.
Oh god, see how complicated it is?
So I'm gonna add the grated
cheese to both sides.
The top and the bottom slice.
So now I've got cheese, kimchi, cheese.
This is the one I
mayonnaised ahead of time.
That was really dumb.
Now I'm gonna mayonnaise the side
that I put down on the griddle first.
Oh a child is entering.
[laughs]
And guys, very important,
in any sandwich-makery,
wall-to-wall.
There should be no part of the bread
that has not seen mayonnaise.
I hate that.
Alrighty, I have a hot griddle.
So I'm going in mayonnaise-side down.
This is the one where I
already mayonnaised the top,
let's just not talk about it.
All right, I have one
more trick up my self.
And it's a meat mallet.
I'm gonna use this as
a little grill press.
You could also use a
little skillet thusly.
So we're just gonna let those hang out.
Now I have nothing to do.
- Oh, grilled cheese...
- Oh, yeah.
Did you just say, "Oh, grilled cheese"?
It has kimchi in it, are
you still interested?
- Yeah.
- Really?
- Yeah.
- Nice.
- All right, turn that guy over.
This is my tricky technique
now, I'm mayonaissing.
- Tricky situation!
[laughs]
- Tricky situation!
- [laughs] Oh my god.
Do you go to school, is that a thing?
Is that a thing anymore?
- School's overrated.
[laughs]
Tricky situation!
[laughs]
- Somebody get me out of here.
All right.
What we've got now is
visible meltage, see?
Very happy about that.
That one looks pretty
good, I'm pretty pleased.
It has been scientifically proven
again and again and again that sandwiches
cut on a diagonal are more delicious.
[plop]
[bread crunching]
We have delicious molten cheese
encasing a
river-runs-through-it of kimchi.
[bread crunching]
It's just so good, and maybe
in your mind you're thinking,
"I'm not sure about hot kimchi."
But, yeah you are, you're
totally sure about hot kimchi.
[bread crunching]
Best thing I've made in a while.
10 out of 10, I win.
[drum music]
- The grilled cheese I'm making
today is an Indian cuisine.
There are tons of vegetable-based subzis,
subzi being vegetables sauteed in spices.
My parents, who both grew up in India,
sort of had fond memories
of pressing the subzi
in a panini press and sort
of eating it like a sandwich.
We also figured out that
you can make subzi sandwich
into a grilled cheese by adding cheese,
and it like caused
everything to sort of bind
and melt together really beautifully.
And then you eat that,
obviously, with ketchup.
And it's spicy and salty and tangy
and everything I want in a sandwich.
Mom and dad, what would
you call this sandwich?
- [Mom] We just call it sandwich toast.
- Okay we call it sandwich toast
but you guys can call it
Aloo Gobi grilled cheese
because that seems more descriptive.
All right, dad you ready
to be camera-person again?
- [Dad] Yeah.
- [Priya] All right, is it rolling.
- [Dad] It's rolling.
- So we've got just plain old bread.
We made aloo gobi for dinner last night.
Potatoes and cauliflower sauteed
in a little ginger, cumin,
turmeric, tossed in cilantro.
So I'm just gonna put a little bit
of this on a plate and just mash it.
All right.
And now I'm just gonna
spoon it onto the bread.
Are you excited, dad?
We haven't had this in a lot time.
I like really sharp cheddar cheese,
I like that intense tanginess.
I'm jut gonna use some avocado oil
and just give this a quick wipe.
All right.
So let's do this.
Also, if little cheese
bits fall on the edge,
no worries, you've got nice
little frico cheese crisps
to snack on afterwards.
How long do you think
this'll take to cook,
like three minutes?
It's really smelling nice in here,
it smells like buttery and
cheesy and golden and toasty.
[timer beeps]
All right.
Oh, oh my god they're perfect.
Just look at how
beautiful this turned out.
So, we're gonna eat ours with ketchup.
You can totally not put
ketchup on if you're a purist.
But I don't know, I
would say give it a shot.
You may not go back.
I feel like most of my
family cuts it horizontally,
but I am a diagonal gal.
[plop]
It just feels like
there's more sandwich that way, somehow.
[bread crunching]
Oh my god, this is really good.
That's my take on a
grilled cheese sandwich.
Dad you wanna get in here?
Pretty good though dad?
He can't even talk, he's
just loving it so much.
- Oh, very good.
[laughs]
[drum music]
- This grilled cheese is going to be made
with extra sharp cheddar,
spicy soppressata,
pickles, and a little
bit of Dijon mustard.
So any porky product, any kind
of pickle, and some cheese.
Pickles and pork, Pickles
n' Pork grilled cheese.
Alrighty, this is my fourth
mayonnaise of quarantine.
'Kay, so, I'm doing about tablespoon-ish
on each slice of bread.
And then I'm actually going to build
the grilled cheese in the skillet.
So, do you want me to get my husband
to come like, pick it up and but it back?
Husband?
Here he comes.
Wiener dog?
What happens when you call the wiener dog?
Wiener dog!
The weeny's waking up from a nap.
Oh, she's about to start barking
because the FedEx man is here.
Wieners.
[dog barking]
There we go.
Okay, so here we go for the
assembly in the skillet.
First piece of bread is in the pan.
Now I'm adding the cheese.
So there's a nice smattering of cheese.
And now I'm going to add
my salami, my soppressata.
And here we go with the pickle layer.
Just lining them all up.
And then a thin layer of Dijon mustard
on the inside of this top piece of bread.
And then mustard-side
down, mayonnaise-side out.
So now we have our assembly.
And I'm setting this over medium heat.
Thank you!
Okay, bye.
I'm gonna share it, I will.
He keeps coming in every like 30 minutes,
being like, "Any grilled cheese yet?"
So for now we're over-medium,
and we're just gonna be patient.
Can you tell I'm hungry?
I can't stop eating.
I've not looked forward to a sandwich
more in my life ever
than this one right now.
Okay, it's been a couple of minutes.
Let's take a peek under here.
[pan sizzling]
It looks nice and griddly, roasty toasty.
Gonna give it a flip, carefully.
And I'm just gonna press down a bit
to encourage this all to coalesce.
And we're gonna give it now
another couple of minutes
on this side, and I'm
gonna turn it down to low.
I'm just gonna add a couple
slices of cheese in here
so that they melt and ooze out.
So that's this food styling
thing that we're doing here.
You can always put a lid on the pan
and let it kind of steam
all the way through,
and then uncover the pan and
let some off that moisture
cook off so that your
bread is still crispy.
We are very close.
Oh my god, do you know what else I have?
Potato chips.
[bag crinkling]
That's exciting.
Okay.
'Kay, you can see.
Okay.
Cut this up.
[plop]
[bread crunching]
Smells ridiculous.
[bread crunching]
Very crispy on the outside,
very ooey-gooey on the inside.
But it's also juicy because the pickle
kind of like explodes in there.
It's like, kind of perfect.
[bread crunching]
Ben?
Ben doesn't wanna be on camera
but maybe I can lure him.
Say hello.
How good is that?
[bread crunching]
[drum music]
- I never had mayonnaise when I was a kid.
Like we just didn't have it in our house.
I discovered mayonnaise
as like a 24-year-old.
