Cider, Banana and Cheddar Grilled Cheese
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I've always liked the idea that adding an alcoholic beverage to something can transform it from a simple meal to something more fanciful. Having a steak? Why not add a red wine reduction. Fish and chips? Well our fish is beer battered! Seafood, of course, well that's always got a white wine sauce attached to it. So with this in mind, I though to myself: 'Why not grilled cheese?'?
It turns out there's a pretty good reason my alcohol and grilled cheese haven't been mixed frequently before (excepting of course, when a grilled cheese is accompanied by a tasty beverage); bread and liquids don't really mix very well. Still, I was determined that one way or another I'd somehow try to make it work, and in the end settled on making a thick batter that wouldn't take too much out of the bread, combined with a little pre-toasting to add a bit more strength.
With the choice being to use a cider, I needed some flavours that would play off this. Aged cheddar has a similarly strong, almost fermented nature to it, and the banana was an attempt to play of the more fruitful side of the cider. Plus, who doesn't like slightly molten banana?
The result? Three distinct strong flavours that somehow sit beside eachother without any one particularly dominating. With each bite you get a slightly different journey through the three, with the whole thing being something of an adventure from start to finish.
Cider, Banana and Cheddar Grilled Cheese
Serves: 2 People
Cajun 'cider soaked' white loaf, stuffed with banana and a three years aged cheddar.
Ingredients
- 4 Slices of White Bread
- 250ml Cider
- 50g All Purpose Flour
- 1/2 Teaspoon of Cajun Seasoning
- 100g Aged Cheddar
- 1 Medium Banana
- A Knob of Butter
Instructions
- Grate the cheese and slice the banana.
- Lightly toast all four slices of bread and allow them to cool. The key here is to toast them just enough to add a bit of rigidity, not to actually make toast
- Add the cider and cajun seasoning to a mixing bowl, then slowly add and whick in the flour. This will form our 'cajun cider batter'.
- Bring a skillet up to a low/medium temperature, and add the knob of butter.
- Quickly dunk a slice of the bread into the batter, drain off any excess batter, then transfer to the skillet; repeat for all four slices.
- After a few minutes, flip each slice of bread.
- Add the banana and grated cheese to half of the bread slices.
- After another minute or two, flip the remaining slices on top of the cheese/banana combination to complete the sandwich.
- Continue cooking/flipping as a whole sandwich as needed until the cheese has fully melted and the sandwich tlooks ready.
Notes & Tips
Bananas get sweeter as tey age; make sure you use nicely ripe ones. If you have a smaller skillet, just make one sandwich at a time. Before flipping the remaining slices on top to complete the sandwich, make sure the the side that will be on the inside of the sandwich is nicely cooked. The same is true for the upturned (inside) face of the bread onto which the cheese/banana will be placed.
