Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with a Side of Asparagus and Mushrooms
Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Asparagus and Mushrooms
Start with crusty good bread, or sprouted Ezekiel. Just make sure it’s good bread with some character. Forget white boring bread, don’t buy it, don’t use it. It’s a waste of your dollar and your taste buds.
Put some UNUSUAL cheese on the sandwich. And you can combine cheeses. It’s OK! It’s not only OK, but delicious. Experiment and see what you like.
Try Feta (salty and bold) with soft goat cheese (mild and creamy). Or cheddar with Smoky gouda or Monterrey jack. Or try Fontina or Havarti (mild and meltable) with grated Asiago or fresh grated Parmesan — salty and not so meltable.
If you have a strongly flavored cheese — even some cheddars — or one with a lot of basil, tomato and garlic — it can stand alone and may taste better on its own.
So experiment to your heart’s content — or heck, keep it simple. Pick one kind, let’s say Swiss is your favorite, and go with that.
Put the cheese on the inside of the sandwich and butter the outside. Cook over low heat until the sandwich is golden brown on both sides and melted all yummy.
While the sandwich is browning, in another pan start sauteing the sliced mushrooms — however many you want — with half olive oil and half butter.
Stop what you’re doing and check the browning process for the cheese sandwiches here to make sure the fire isn’t too high. This can go wrong quickly (you can burn the sandwich) if you aren’t careful. Butter browns easily. If your candwiches are done before the veggies, let them sit in the warm pan. You might turn them a couple of times just while they are sitting there.
For an 8 oz. container of mushrooms, 1 T. butter and 1 T. olive oil is great (or less, depending on if you’re trying desperately to save calories — no problem, just reduce it. Say a tsp of each. When the mushrooms are done, take them out of the pan, add the asparagus and a few tablespoons of water and cover so the asparagus will steam. Watch it carefully. Overdone asparagus is, well, yucky in my opinion. When it’s done, but the mushrooms back into the pan just to reheat for a few seconds, toss everything together and VWAAAA-LA! You’ve got a delicious plate of food to eat.
The crisp Grilled Cheese Sandwiches are the perfect accompaniment for the milder and softer Asparagus and Mushrooms.