I’m planning a trip to go to Dorset next weekend with my friend Sarah. Dorset his her hometown and I’m really excited to get out of London, see a new area, and learn about where she grew up. But, thinking about her hometown made me a nostalgic for my hometown. I grew up in Maryland, just outside of Baltimore. I haven’t lived in Maryland since 2008, but I still feel a strong pull to my home state.

Maryland might be a small state, but it’s got a lot going on. Maryland has lots of waterside vacation spots from the Chesapeake Bay, Deep Creek Lake, and Ocean City. Sure, Ocean City isn’t the fanciest or classiest beach, but it’s a beach and that’s awesome. Maryland is the home of the Star Spangled Banner, major sports teams, the Wire, and Hairspray. Yeah, the Wire makes Baltimore seem a  little scary, but that show was amazing.  If you haven’t seen it go out and watch it immediately. Maryland has busy cities like Baltimore and picturesque ones like Annapolis. And finally, Maryland has a sweet flag, an awesome accent, one-eyed Natty Boh, and most importantly for me delicious food. See, I told you Maryland has a lot going on.

But most famously, Maryland is known for crabs. Steamed crabs, crab cakes, crab bisque, and crab dip…yum. All of it delicious. And then I got the idea for crab grilled cheese – which might possibly my perfect dream food. This sandwich has lots of cheese, Old Bay, crabs, and buttery bread. I’ve never put anything in grilled cheese besides cheese before – and now I’m not sure I can go back to plain grilled cheese.

This item is the kind of thing that I’d find on a menu of a fancy-ish, trendy-ish, dinner. It would cost like $12, and I’d think, “that’s a lot for a sandwich at a dinner,” but then I’d do it because I had to know. Then I’d order it, and maybe it wouldn’t be as cheesy, gooey, or as full of crab as I wanted. I’d scarf it down anyway, still enjoying it, and then wish I had more and feel sad.

Don’t worry, I’ve solved that hypothetical problem. Now I can make this perfect sandwich at home. When Ryan and I scarf down the first round too quickly, I can just make a second round and stack the ingredients higher. Ryan and I ate two sandwiches and afterwards he asked if there was more crab in the fridge. Yes, yes there was. So there will be more sandwiches this week. Are you jealous yet? If you’re still not sold, Ryan said this was the best thing I’ve ever made. Yes, he’s my husband and has to say nice things, but c’mon. That’s high praise.

A few notes on method. I used sour dough bread which I loved. The bread absorbs the butter and get perfectly golden and really crispy – which is delicious and good for the structural integrity of the sandwich. (Or more specifically, it won’t flop about as you hold it or bite it) However, if you have regular old sandwich bread in the house, use that – it’s what I’d use for an ordinary grilled cheese.

Second, how do you butter your grilled cheese? My friend might not remember this, and I don’t know why I do, but years ago when we lived together, I was talking with my friend Shadur about grilled cheese and she said she buttered the bread, and I said I buttered the pan. We both looked at each other shocked, both of us thinking “why on earth do you do that?” I don’t think it ever occurred to us that there was another way to butter the bread for grilled cheese. I think buttering the bread is most efficient and makes the pan less dirty. However, I still butter the pan because then I can go crazy with the butter, reapply butter easily if I need to, and because sometimes buttering bread rips it up. Do what feels right to you, it’s no biggie.

Messy level: Because of all the stuff you’re adding, this is messier than a regular grilled cheese. You’ll need a bowl to prep your sandwich insides and a skillet. There’s lot of opportunity for the sandwich to ooze out – which leads to a bigger mess – but in this case I also think it makes the food more delicious.

Crab Grilled Cheese

 

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Author: Cooking is Messy

Serves: 2

Ingredients

• ½ cup crab meat
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
• 1½ teaspoons Old Bay
• pepper, pepper to taste
• 1 heaping teaspoon mince green onions
• ¼ cup shredded Gruyere, plus more for sprinkling
• ¼ cup shredded Cheddar, plus more for sprinkling
• 2-3 tablespoons butter
• 4 slices sourdough bread

Instructions

1. In a small bowl (the one you use for cereal is fine), mix together the crab meat, mayonnaise, mustard, Old Bay, a bit of pepper, and the green onions. Mix it well, then taste, and adjust as you see fit. (Most prepared crab meat is cooked so you can taste it)
2. Mix the Gruyere and Cheddar to the crab mixture. Mix until everything is coated.
3. Now take your bread. On two slices, sprinkle a little extra Gruyere. (The cheese is your glue to hold it all together)
4. Top each of those two slices with half of the crab mixture.
5. Top the crab mixture with a little extra Cheddar.
6. Place the second piece of bread on top. Press gently to squish it all together.
7. In a large skillet on medium to medium-high heat, melt 1-1½ tablespoons of butter.
8. Once the skillet is nice and hot, add the sandwich. Cook until the bread is golden brown. This will take a few minutes, and it's ok to lift it up and check it.
9. Lift the sandwich out of the skillet and melt the rest of the butter. Flip the sandwich and put it back into the skillet with the untoasted side down (golden brown, cooked side up).
10. Cook until the cheese is melted and the second side is golden brown. Adjust the heat as you go if you feel the bread is getting dark too quickly.
11. Remove from heat, cut in half, and serve.

3.2.2925

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This year Ryan and I decided not participate in a CSA (community supported agriculture). Partially it was because we remembered too late to sign up. But we also had a lot of waste last year. We’d get a huge bag full of beautiful vegetables and we just couldn’t eat everything before the next bag and before things went bad. The thing I miss about a CSA is getting veggies I’ve never seen before. Without a CSA I never would have tried kohlrabi, garlic scapes, or rainbow chard. So I promised myself that instead of a CSA, when I go to the farmer’s market I’d try to push myself out of my comfort zone. Enter, purple cauliflower. It’s just so darn pretty!

And not only is it pretty, but cauliflower isn’t a vegetable I’ve eaten much. I looked to some of my favorite cookbooks and blogs, and what I found is that pretty much everyone covers cauliflower in cheese. I love cheese. I think cheese makes everything delicious. So, when I decided to get cooking, I went with Smitten Kitchen’s recipe (she even used purple cauliflower!). This recipe is basically the creamiest, most luscious mac and cheese – only instead of pasta it’s cauliflower.

I made it before going out to dinner with Ryan and his friend Shane, and both boys liked it. So here’s a boy approved veggie recipe. It did look weird, but it was so yummy. It was also something we’d take out of the fridge, and with each bite we’d be like “oh yeah!” Each bite was always better than we remembered. And of course, the purple-ness makes it fun.

Ingredients:

2-3 pounds of cauliflower florets (I used a mix of purple and white cauliflower)

4 tbsp butter, divided in half

3 tbsp flour

2 cups hot milk

1/2 tsp ground pepper

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

3/4 cup grated Gruyere cheese (divide this into 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup)

1/2 cup grated Parmesan

1/3 cup bread crumbs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°

2. Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Cook cauliflower in boiling water for 5-6 minutes. You want the cauliflower to be a little bit tender with still a bit of crunch. When done cooking, drain cauliflower and set aside.

3. Melt 2 tbsp butter in a saucepan over low heat.

4. Add the flour to the melted butter. Stir constantly for 2 minutes. It should be a thick-ish paste.

5. Pour the milk into the flour-butter mixture. (I heated the milk in the microwave until it was steaming, but not bubbling. It was probably about a minute at high heat.) Stir occasionally until it comes to a boil.

6. Once it’s to a boil, use a whisk to stir the milk for about 1-3 minutes, until it thickens. I have a really hard time with the phrase “thicken” because it seems so vague. When has it gone far enough? What this means to me is that I put a spoon in the mixture, the liquid sticks to it, and then when I touch the spoon it feels thicker than regular liquid.

7. Turn off the heat. Add salt, pepper, nutmeg, 1/2 cup of Gruyere, and Parmesan.

8. I used a 9×9″ pan. You can use something a bit larger too. Pour about 1/3 cup of the sauce into the bottom of the pan. Pour the drained cauliflower on top of the sauce.

9. Now pour the rest of the cheese sauce over the cauliflower. Mix it a bit so that everything is coated. I used a spoon to mix, and a silicone brush, to make sure the cheese was evenly spread.

10. In a small bowl mix the bread crumbs and last 1/4 cup of Gruyere. Sprinkle on top of the cauliflower.

11. Melt the last 2 tbsp of butter. Drizzle over the top of the gratin.

12. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

13. Bake for 25 minutes until the top is browned.

14. EAT IT!

Messy Level: I’m giving this three spoons. You have to use a number of dishes to make this meal (two pots and a baking pan). Also when cutting the cauliflower I had little shards of leaves and florets all over the counter and floor. Additionally, making and pouring cheese sauce is a bit messy. There are a bunch of steps and some messy conditions, but this recipe is also pretty easy and straightforward. Definitely worth making!

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But this is a great recipe to talk about on a sick day because it’s the ultimate comfort food. Ryan and I first made it during a cooking class at Sur La Table which focused on Jacques Pepin. I had never been to a cooking class before and I thought everything we made would be too complicated and I’d never be able to make it again at home. Not so! This recipe blew us away in class and we made it many times throughout the winter. It’s rich, thick, and delicious which makes it perfect for sick days, freezing winter evenings, and according Jacques Pepin, it’s good after a night of heavy drinking. This recipe comes from “Essential Pepin” by Jacques Pepin. It takes about an hour to finish, but it’s pretty straightforward. It’s not the prettiest recipe because it look rather lumpy. It also comes out thicker than a regular soup, but it’s hearty and amazing.

Another thing that I’d like to pass on is  a way to cut onions. Our instructor taught us this in class and I’ve found it really handy. For this recipe you’ll need long strips on onions. First, cut the onion from end to end, NOT across the equator. Peel off the onion skins. For strips, cut both tips off the ends. Then cut the onion along the lines you see on the onion. This means you are NOT cutting straight up and down, but on a diagonal following the grain of the onion. Hope these pictures help make sense of what I wrote.

If you’re dicing the onion, again cut the onion from end to end. Next cut off the non-hairy end of the onion. Then, like above, cut along the onion along the long lines on the onion. The “hairy end” of the onion will hold the strips all together. Now, cut horizontally up the onion until you get to the “hairy end.” Now you’ll have nice small squares of onion.

On to the recipe.

Ingredients: 

15-20 slices of baguette, cut about 1/4 inch thick

3 tbsp butter

4 cups of onion cut in thin strips (about 4 medium onions)

6-8 cups chicken broth (you can use more or less broth depending on the size of your casserole dish)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground pepper

2 cups grated Gruyere cheese (feel free to use more! I love cheese and sometimes use up to 3 cups)

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup of port

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°

2. Arrange the slices of bread on a cookie sheet. Toast in the oven for 8-10 minutes, or until they are light golden brown on the edges. Remove from oven and set aside

3. Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Cook the onions in the butter for about 20 minutes, or until the onions start to turn a bit brown in places.

4. Add the stock, salt, and pepper. Bring to boil and cook for 20 minutes.

5.  Arrange 1/2 the toast on the bottom of a casserole dish. I use a 2.5 quart dish, but have also used my Dutch Oven with success. The bigger the dish the more stock you can use. Smaller dish means some stock doesn’t make it into the final product.

6. Layer 1/2 onions on top of the toast

7. Layer 1/3 cheese on top of the onions.

8. Repeat the layers so in total you have two layers of bread, onion, and cheese.

9. Pour the stock into the casserole. Leave about an inch on the top because the soup will rise in the oven.

10. Sprinkle the last 1/3 of cheese on top of the soup mixture.

11. Bake for 35 minutes, or until a nice cheesey crust forms on top.

12. While the soup is baking, whisk the egg yolks and port in a bowl.

13. Remove the soup from the oven. Make a hole in the middle of the soup mixture and pour in the egg and port mix. Stir everything so the port mixture is well incorporated. The heat of the soup will cook the egg.

14. Turn off the oven and serve!

Messy Level: High. Prior to documenting this for the blog I would have thought this was a fairly mess-free recipe, and if you’re more meticulous than me you might keep your kitchen clean. But for me, after chopping four onions I had onion skins all over the kitchen. I shredded the cheese in the food processor and some fell out so I had cheese on the floor. But my worst mistake was that in my excitement for this dish, I over filled the casserole. It cooked over a lot which led to burned stock remnants at the bottom of my oven. Needless to say, that’s no fun. So, be more careful than me!

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