This giveaway is now closed. Thanks for entering! -C
For my last post in the epic Middle Eastern Flavor Journey of 2013, I’m coming back to where I started: grilled cheese. My first entry in the series was this Muhammara Grilled Cheese, in which I simultaneously introduced myself to za’atar and pomegranate molasses, made a dip called muhammara, and brought a Middle Eastern twist into my favorite food in the world: grilled cheese.
To bookend that post, today we’ve got homemade harissa, a condiment I can’t believe I haven’t talked about yet, and a technique for making open-faced grilled cheeses for people who live in kitchens too small to fit toaster ovens. Best of all, together with Sargento, I’ve put together the ultimate toolkit for making grilled cheese at home, and you’ll have a chance to enter to win the perfect nonstick frying pan, a grilled cheese press, ingredients for building your Middle Eastern pantry, and coupons for free cheese to melt between two slices of bread-or on top of one slice, which is what we’re up to today.
There are times when I just want an open-faced grilled cheese. It’s like a French bread pizza/toast/tartine craving, as opposed to the need for a sandwich. Right? That makes sense. But when you don’t have a toaster oven, you don’t have the ability to not sandwich your bread together, because otherwise when you go to flip the open-faced sandwich, the cheese will smush all over the pan. That’s why, taking inspiration from this open-faced egg sandwich recipe, I cover the frying pan, turning it into a little stovetop oven, and let the heat build inside until the cheese melts.
To complete this meal, I just mashed avocado with lemon and salt and spread it on top, then dabbled the top with homemade harissa, a garlicky spice paste used throughout the Middle East both as an ingredient and a condiment. I’ve had some really great harissa at falafel joints around town, but I had never confronted the hot peppers needed to make it myself. It’s kind of an experience to make, if you have a few extra hours to kill, and it’s absolutely awesome to eat-fiery, smokey, garlicky, and fragrant with cumin and caraway.
I hope you try the recipe, and here are the details for the giveaway, which includes: the perfect nonstick frying pan, a grilled cheese press, ingredients for building your Middle Eastern pantry, and coupons for free cheese to melt between two slices of bread.
You’ve got three chances to enter the Sargento Ultimate Grilled Cheese Set Giveaway, a $100 value:
- {one} Leave a comment below and tell what cuisine you’d most like to see explored on Big Girls, Small Kitchen in 2014.
- {two} Be a subscriber to the Big Girls, Small Kitchen newsletter and leave a second comment letting me know you’ve subscribed.
- {three} Tell your facebook friends and/or twitter fans about the contest – post the link and tag @Big Girls Small Kitchen (facebook) or @BGSK (twitter). Leave a third comment letting me know you’ve done so.
The contest will run for 10 days, and I’ll announce the winner in my January 3rd newsletter. Good luck!
This sponsored post is part of an ongoing collaboration with Sargento, called Flavor Journey. Throughout this year, with the support of Sargento, I explored Middle Eastern cuisine–at home, in Brooklyn, at cooking classes, and wherever the flavors may take me. You can see the whole series here. Sponsored posts let me do some of my best work on this blog, and I only ever work with brands whose values and products mesh with the content I love to produce for you. Here’s my affiliate disclosure.
**Recipe**
Open-Faced Grilled Cheese with Mashed Avocado & Harissa
Serves 1
Ingredients
1/2 teaspoon butter, softened (optional)
2 slices bread
3 slices Sargento Swiss
1/2 avocado
juice of 1/2 a lemon
Salt
Harissa (recipe follows)
Heat a small skillet over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, until pretty hot. While the pan is heating, spread the butter on the bread, if using. Pile on the cheese. Turn the heat to low, then add the toasts, cheese side up. Cover with any pot lid that more or less fits. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the bottom of the toast is melted.
Mash the avocado with a little bit of lemon juice and salt. When the cheese is melted, spread the avocado on top of each toast. Dollop with harissa and serve a little more on the side.
Harissa
Makes about a 1/2 cup
Adapted from Claudia Roden
I don’t know a whole lot about chiles, so I just used the 4-ounce box that came with my Good Eggs order. The harissa turned out pretty damn spicy. So you may want to seek out something more mild, if that’s what you prefer to eat. Also, seeding and stemming hot peppers is serious work, so please do be careful.
Ingredients
4 ounces dried chiles of whatever type you like or happen to buy
5 cloves garlic, peeled
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon caraway seeds, toasted then freshly ground in a clean coffee grinder or mortar and pestle
1 1/2 teaspoons coriander seeds, toasted then freshly ground in a clean coffee grinder or mortar and pestle
2 tablespoons best-quality olive oil, plus extra for storing the harissa
Remove the seeds and stems of the chiles. You might want to wear gloves, since the spiciness will stick to your hands for hours. Dispose of the seeds in the garbage. Place the chiles in a large bowl and pour boiling water on top of them to cover. I found that the water touching the chiles made my eyes sting, so you may want to cover the bowl right away and then maybe leave the room. Leave the chiles for 30 minutes, until softened.
Place the seeded and stemmed chiles into the bowl of a food processor with the garlic and pulse a couple of times. Add the salt, caraway and coriander. Process until smooth, pouring in the olive oil as you go. You can add a little water, too, to get to the right consistency-a thick paste. To store, pour a layer of olive oil on top and refrigerate.
