The inspiration for this came from work last night. I work graveyard shift at a resort in Las Vegas and the Employee Dining Room is very underwhelming from 10pm - 5am (here forth shall be called the Dreaded Hours) when they start to serve breakfast. During the Dreaded hours the food provided is straight from the buffet after they close. So, we get fed leftover, rejected food from a buffet that isn't known for being good. It isn't even known that we have a buffet, it is that good....
Anyway, for an hour or so we are lucky enough to have a chef making personal orders just shy of the Dreaded Hours. It's all free and they can make eggs to order, burgers, chicken breast, quesadillas, sandwiches or wraps and they are not too bad. Last night I was lucky to catch my favorite chef just before he closed down the grill and left us to
There was definitely nothing special about this grilled cheese. It was typical American on wheat and he even threw on a few fries (that went unconsumed), but he takes pride in his work so I smiled, thanked him and sat down for my quick bite. The first bite happened and I noticed that the cheese wasn't even melted. He had managed to toast the outside of the bread on the griddle, but the cheese was still as cold as it was when he took it from the prep line. I took a few more bites and then decided that this was probably for the best as I wasn't all that hungry to begin with.
That brings me to today... With the heat being in the low 100's I often don't have an appetite, but I know I must consume something. I wanted to make something quick while I was working on another recipe and decided a grilled cheese would be great because I have everything for it and need to use the ingredients. Also, I have a basil plant that is struggling to survive in this desert heat so I knew I wanted to use that. Heading over to Google I typed in "grilled cheese basil" into the search bar and after a few web pages ironically enough ended up at ohsweetbasil.com. What caught my attention was a recipe for Oprah's Favorite Grilled Cheese. Now I'm not one to typically follow what Oprah likes, but it was so simple that I had to try it - and you should too.
The Recipe
Oprah's Favorite Grilled Cheese
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| Five simple ingredients to Oprah's Favorite Grilled Cheese (honey not pictured) |
Ingredients
- 2 slices of good quality wheat bread
- 2 slices of Havarti cheese
- 2-4 slices vine ripe tomato
- honey
- fresh basil, 2-3 leaves chiffonade
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| One side of the sandwich prepped and ready to cook |
Instructions
- Spread a thin layer of honey on each slide of bread. Top with cheese, tomato, basil and another slice of cheese.
- You can butter the bread or use a little olive oil in the pan.
- Grill on a skillet or pan over low-medium heat, or very low flame for gas stove users, until golden brown on both sides.
- Remove from heat and enjoy. You can thank me later.
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| Oprah's Favorite Grilled Cheese (and soon to be yours too) |
For this recipe I made sure to buy some decent Havarti and slice it myself at home. Also, I prefer to cook the sandwich open faced where both buttered sides of the sandwich cook at the same time. Each one has cheese on it, a slice of tomato and fresh basil. I chose to add the honey just before I put the two cook sides together, but this doesn't affect the taste. For me it is just to make less mess in my pans during cooking.
Either way, this is an amazing and simple grilled cheese that must be tried by all. If you can get ingredients from your local farmers market you will enjoy this even more! Oprah made a good choice with this and I hope you do yourself a favor and take full advantage of this combination. You will forget all about your nasty American "Cheese" sandwich you grew up with and hopefully never turn back.
Until next time,
Happy Snacking!
Luke
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