Ski Liberty Grilled Cheese

The Recipe:

Ski Liberty Grilled Cheese

Two cheeses, mushrooms and spinach. Hearty is the word.

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Course Main Course

Cuisine American

Servings 2 people

Ingredients

  

• 10 Button mushrooms sliced about 1/4 inch thick
• 2-4 cloves garlic coursely chopped
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 handfulls Spinach rinsed, not completely dry
• 4 slices Sourdough Bread
• Cheddar cheese enough for a single layer for each sandwhich
• Swiss cheese (Emmental or Edam will work) enough for a single layer for each sandwhich
• Butter

Instructions

 

• Melt a good sized pat of butter over low to medium heat
• Toss in garlic and stir – about 30 seconds just to warm it up, don't cook it before adding the mushrooms.
• Add mushrooms and sauté, adding butter if needed and stirring occasionally
• As mushrooms brown and shrink in a second saute pan on medium low heat or on the other end of the griddle add spinach until wilted.
• Once spinach is wilted and mushrooms are done to your liking, remove vegetables from heat to separate bowls, or separate ends of a cutting board.
• Butter the pan/griddle, and arrange bread over the heat, add cheese to each slice of bread (you should have 2 slices with cheddar, and 2 with swiss) and keep an eye on them as they warm up and the cheese starts to melt. As they go, move them around so the bread browns evenly.
• As the cheese starts to melt, once it's sticking nicely to the bread, it's time to stack the sandwiches, I make the least toasted slice the bottom, then, I'm picky about order – so, let's say that's the edam/swiss, add the mushrooms, then the spinach, then turn the cheddar slice of bread over to top the sandwhich. Finish grilling the sandwhich as a whole, sometimes I flip it once or twice, sometimes, it's pretty much done when assembled.

Notes

• I cut the cheese to size, a little smaller than the slices of bread.
• If the sourdough has a lot of holes, I’m either strategic about the topping placement (line up the holes in the cheese with the holes in the bread?), or if the hole is big enough, cutting an extra slice and using bits of that slice of bread to fill in holes.

Keyword cheese, grilled cheese, sandwhich

The Waffle:

This is based off the grilled cheese sandwhich at McKee’s Tavern at Ski Liberty – it’s not on the menu anymore, and I can’t remember what they called it (the woodsman? but that doesn’t seem right). It was my go-to before heading home after a day on the slopes. I liked it so much I started making it at home during the rest of the year.

I make this on my big lodge logic 2 burner griddle – on the smooth side. When I’m making just 1 sandwich, I can compress the cooking time by starting the bread and cheese as the mushrooms are about half done, and and I wilt the spinach when the mushrooms are finishing up, then just move everything directly onto the cheesy bread, assemble the sandwiches, and finish grilling them. When making two, space is a little too tight for that.

If you don’t have a big ol’ griddle to work with, the nice thing is spinach wilts in a flash, you could do this all in 1 pan, mushrooms, then spinach, set both aside, then start grilling the sandwich, I’d probably assemble them asap and let the veggies re-warm as the cheese melts.

A friend once said over her shoulder to me as she added salt to her salsa “tomatoes love salt” and I think of that moment often when I’m cooking. So in that vein, mushrooms love swiss cheese, so, I am particular about the order of ingredients in this sandwich, the mushrooms have to be in direct contact with the swiss cheese. I think if spinach had to pick a cheese, it would be feta, but cheddar is tastier here, tough luck spinach.

I’ve just made this again for the first time in years, I’d been craving it, I think I missed some things out, so look for this to get edited as we tweak it.

These photos are pretty horrendous, I made these in a rush and only had a second to get a photo before we had to eat and move on to the next thing.