Italian grilled cheese sandwich

Tags

grilled cheese sandwich, kids, mozzarella in carrozza, Vegetarian

Note how I said sandwich and not sanguich… but that’s a whole other post in itself.

It was a lazy evening and all I really wanted was a grilled cheese sandwich. Maybe a nice green salad on the side. The girls didn’t need convincing. Emma could live on grilled cheese sandwiches. And mac & cheese. Peter was the one I could not convince. It seems that grilled cheeses are for lunch, not dinner. So he was having a pork chop with a baked potato, while we were having lunch fare.

The actual name for this Neapolitan food is “Mozzarella in Carozza”. Literally translated, it means mozzarella in a carriage. I know, it doesn’t make sense to me either. But here’s what it really is. A golden, battered and deep-fried cheese sandwich, oozing with yumminess. And it has to be the fresh mozzarella, never the dry one. I believe the dry one should really only be used for lasagne, pizza and pasta al forgo (baked pasta in the oven). It’s too bland of a cheese to use any other way, I think. And use buffalo milk mozzarella if you can wing it. Oh, what a difference that will make! Apparently, this food gave rise to the fried mozzarella stick found here in North America.

There are many variations to this sandwich. I am showing you mine. Giada De Laurentis uses smoked mozzarella – actually, that would be AMAZING! – pesto, fresh basil leaves and whole wheat bread to make hers. Naples is pretty big on anchovies and adding them in is another way of doing it. Another way is to add tomato sauce. The type of bread  can also vary from one person to another. Some use whole wheat, while others swear by white bread only. From white toast bread to ciabatta to day-old bread. It’s up to you. Try a different way each time and you decide what you like best. Hopefully you’ll try my version and enjoy it!

Buffalo Mozzarella, 2 balls (1 ball will make 3 sandwiches)
White toast bread  (2 slices for each sandwich you’re making)
Eggs, lightly beaten with salt and pepper (2 eggs if making 3 sandwiches)
Flour, enough to dredge sandwiches in
Milk, about 1/2 cup
Olive Oil, for frying, about 1/4 cup

Pour the milk in a small dish or bowl, the flour in a separate bowl and the eggs in another. Again, this step varies from one person to another. Some will combine the milk and the beaten eggs together. I keep them separate. Cut all crusts off the bread slices. Slice the Buffalo mozzarella. Make sandwiches by placing the cheese on top of 1 slice of bread, leaving a little edge and topping with a second slice of bread. Once sandwiches are made, press the edges together with you fingers. The fresher the bread, the easier it will stick together. This will prevent the cheese from oozing out once it hits the fry pan, although some people leave it open. It’s up to you.

Heat the olive oil in a fry pan on medium-low heat. Dip one sandwich in the milk first, then the flour and lastly the egg. Fry on both sides until golden and crispy. Place on paper towels while you proceed to cook the rest.

Slice in half and proceed to stuff your mouth with ooey, gooey, yumminess! Doesn’t that look fabulous? Peter did seem a little envious in the end of our lunch-fare dinner!

Apple of my eye

Tags

candy, caramel apples, Halloween, kids

We were invited to dinner last night and I offered to make dessert.  Seeing as Halloween is just around the corner and we love, love, love Halloween, I thought I’d make a special treat for the kiddies.  Caramel apples! Who wouldn’t love that?

I started by inserting sticks into 8 apples and placing them in the fridge.  The Granny Smith apple is for Charlotte.  They’re her fave.

Next came the caramel.  In a saucepan, I added 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, 3/4 cups (175 ml) unsalted butter, 300 ml sweetened condensed milk, 2/3 cup corn syrup and 1/4 tsp salt.  Over medium-high heat, bring to a boil. Stir often or the caramel will scorch on the bottom of the pan.  Once it reaches a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and continue to cook for 18-20 minutes, stirring often.

Don’t be daunted by making caramel. Just keep an eye on it and stir often. It will turn out perfect. This is a “soft-ball” caramel. Soft-ball is a term used when making candy. You need to cook the sugar syrup to a temperature of 235-240 degrees. To test if it’s ready, drop a spoonful of the caramel into a bowl of very cold water. With your fingers, gather the cooled caramel and if you can form a ball in the water, it’s done. Or do what I did and use a candy thermometer.  Soft-ball is even written right on it, next to the temperatures. Basically, it becomes a chewy caramel.

After 18 minutes, this is the colour of the caramel. Gorgeous, no?

I had this bottle of black & orange sugar crystals and thought it looked very Halloween’ish.

After dipping an apple in the caramel, I rolled the bottom half of the apples in the sugar and placed them on a sheet of tin foil which was slathered in butter. In the fridge they went for 15 minutes.

I melted some white chocolate and proceeded to make the spider webs with a piping bag.   I took a short-cut and used the micro.  You need to do it very carefully or you will burn your chocolate.  I placed my chopped chocolate, about 1 cup , in a glass bowl.  Working on medium power and for only 1 minute at a time, I melted the chocolate, stirring after every minute, for a total of about 5 minutes.  You really need to allow the chocolate to cool somewhat or it can become rather messy. And then, the final touch… spiders!

Note: The recipe calls for placing the finished apples back in the fridge, which I did. I took them over to our friend’s place and they were again placed in the fridge. When the time came for the kiddies to delve into those creepy-crawler-apples, they were hard. Rock hard! We suggested they wait a half hour to see if it would help, but how could they once they’d sunk their teeth into them? They continued their struggle until they’d had enough and that was the end of that. I had saved a couple of apples for the next day and this time I removed them from the fridge 1 hour before dinner. When the time came, I just had to have a bite.  Oh, gooey goodness!!! They were perfect! Except for that black sugar which tainted all our hands and mouths black!  Oh well.   Keeping in the spirit of Halloween, I guess!

You can see full recipe details, courtesy of CBC’s Best Recipes Ever, here.

Pretty Cool

Tags

desserts, kids, Sweets

I came across these refreshing treats for kids on Martha Stewart.  With the gloriously sunny days we’ve been having, why not surprise the little kiddies with them.  They’re pretty and they’re cool!