Grilled Ham, Cheese, and Apples

Friday, December 28, 2007

In the lovely holiday lull between Christmas and New Year’s, we’ve been looking to use our time off to tackle a few cooking-related items.  First, either eat or dispose of the leftovers from the multitude of family meals.  Second, prepare some lunches for our inevitable return to work next week.  Third, convert some of the fresh produce in our bursting refrigerator into something more immediately useful during the workweek (e.g., carmelized onions).  Finally, have some experimenting with any and all of the above.

Today’s lunch was no different - bread, apples, butter, cheese and left-over ham served with with a side of lightly dressed baby greens.  It isn’t necessary to use smoked cheddar, but the interplay of it’s smokiness, the salinity of the ham, and sweetness of the apples is really enjoyable.  Also, there is a nice blending of contrasting textures in the crunch of the toasted bread, the creaminess of the melted cheese, the chewiness of the ham, and the crunch of the apples.  It’s a simple addition or two to a classic recipe for something different.

With the exception of the ham, which was leftover from my mother’s Christmas dinner, all items were purchased from Farm to City’s Philadelphia Winter Harvest. 

Grilled Ham, Cheese, and Apples

4 slices, Metropolitan Bakery multigrain loaf, thinly sliced
3 oz., Misty Creek Dairy smoked goat cheddar, thinly sliced
1/2 apple, Kauffman’s Fruit Farm Gold Rush apples, thinly sliced
2 oz., ham, cooked (in the future, I would probably use Meadow Run Farm bacon instead, but I had the ham and needed space in the fridge)
butter, Maplehofe Dairy

Note:  The thinly slices are important for allowing a quick cooking time without burning the bread

Heat a cast-iron pan and cast-iron press (we use Lodge, but any combination of a pan and heated weight is fine - even if it is just a brick wrapped in aluminum foil).  As the pan is heating, assemble the sandwiches.  Butter the outside of each slice of bread (i.e., the surface that will come in contact with the pan or press).  Layer in the bacon, trim to fit if necessary.  Next, add the apples and then the cheese.  Finally, add the the second slice of bread.  By this point, your pan should be sufficiently heated to make the first sandwich.  Lay the sandwich in the pan, cover the press and cook for a few minutes.  Flip and cook for an additional few minutes.  Repeat for the second sandwich.