The SuperFrico - a grilled cheese sandwich with a built-in cheese crisp

Every knows the best part of a grilled cheese sandwich (lasagna, gratin, mac & cheese, ...) are the bits where the cheese gets brown and crispy. So one night I says to myself, why can't there be more crispy? What happens if I just make a frico (cheese crisp) right there in the skillet and weld it to my already delicious grilled cheese? Would this not be a fine extension of an already superb late supper?

The answer was a resounding yes. My wife and I have been enjoying these SuperFricos (tm :) occasionally for months now, and I figured it was time to share. Just as I was planning to make this sandwich again and actually photograph them so I could write a post, I get this press release:

SEATTLE – March 10, 2010 – The Seattle Cheese Festival is conducting a recipe search for the best grilled cheese sandwich. The contest is open to home cooks and professional chefs. The winner will be invited to demonstrate the recipe during a cooking demo at the Seattle Cheese Festival, which takes place at Pike Place Market on May 15 and 16, 2010. The winning sandwich will be featured online at www.seattlecheesefestival.com and on the menu at the café at DeLaurenti Food & Wine.

Are you kidding me? Clearly the dairy gods have spoken. So I'll give you the recipe here, and enter it in the contest too.

SuperFrico Grilled Cheese
Vegetarian; not vegan nor gluten-free (although feel free to try substitutions and comment if they are good)
Makes one sandwich

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 2 thin slices of artisan sourdough bread (Baker Street Sourdough from Tall Grass is a personal favorite)
• 1/2 cup grated aged provolone cheese or oak-smoked cheddar
• 3 tablespoons Beecher's Flagship Cheddar mixed with 2 teaspoons grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1. Melt the butter in a cast iron skillet over a medium or slightly hotter flame.
2. Add the slices of bread. I like to lightly moisten them with the butter on one side, then flip them over.
3. Top one slice of bread with the provolone or oak-smoked cheddar and cover with the other slice of bread. Press down firmly. I use another, smaller skillet for that. Cook until golden brown on both sides, flipping a couple of times and pressing occasionally.
4. When the basic grilled cheese is done, remove it from the pan. Lower the heat to medium. If the pan seems very dry, melt a touch more butter in it. Sprinkle the mixed Flagship and Parmigiano Reggiano in the still-hot skillet, in a shape roughly the same as the sandwich but a little larger.
5. Now watch closely, as the cheese melts. You'll see the fat start to cook out and the cheese begin to brown and crisp. Before this process is complete, put the sandwich back on top and press down to weld the frico to the bread.
6. Let cook for one more minute, then using a thin spatula, lift out the sandwich, flip, cut in half, and serve. If there are more crispy bits left in the skillet, retrieve them and place on top of the sandwich.

Lapsang souchong fog

It is a popular device in modern restaurants to serve clouds of perfumed smoke as a way to enhance a dish, adding another layer of sensory experience. Smoke can be produced with a small smoking gun, or expensive paraphenalia, and served to the diner along with the rest of the food under an enclosure. Alinea fills plastic bags with the smoke, wraps them in beautiful pillowcases, punctures them with a pin, and rests the plate on top.

When I was using dry ice for a homemade anti-griddle, I got to thinking about whether the beautiful fog it produces could be a different way to produce a scented "smoke". It turns out the answer is yes, in the simplest possible way. If you simply make a strong infusion of whatever aroma you want to carry, and then at the last minute add a small chunk of dry ice, you can pour the fog into your serving vessel, cover it, and bring it to the table. When the diner removes the top, the scent greets them right away, and if in a glass, it can actually be drunk.

My first experiment was with lapsang souchong tea. This tea is profoundly smoky to begin with, so I thought it would be kind of amusing that the fake smoke actually smelled like smoke. In the picture above I served it with drinking chocolate, cherry-smoked Japanese salt (from The Meadow in Portland, Oregon - a terrific salt & chocolate shop), and lapsang souchong pudding. I would have preferred cherry blossoms, but only the plums are in bloom this week.

I also tried cinnamon and that carried just fine too. Looking forward to experimenting with other volatiles.

[By the way, not surprisingly it turns out that this idea has been used for several years by Grant Achatz and Heston Blumenthal, and no doubt others. Thanks to Alex from Ideas in Food for helping me find the reference.]

One potential advantage to this technique is that you can make a low temperature infusion, preserving the unheated natural aromas. I think I'll try lemongrass next, as that would be an example where traditional smoking might not work so well.

A couple of words about safety. First of all, dry ice is really cold. It can hurt you. Learn how to handle it safely before messing with it. Second, inhaling too much of that smoke or using it in an enclosed space can be toxic. It is CO2 after all. Here is some basic safety info (which I don't vouch for, just passing along).

Vegetarian potstickers (aka gyoza)

The first rule of potstickers is that you can never make enough potstickers. At least in my family, we fight over the last few like seagulls over a spilled bag of kettle corn.

If you haven't had them, potstickers are Chinese or Japanese pan-fried dumplings with a savory filling, dipped in a soy, vinegar and sesame oil sauce. What is not to like? Plan on making a minimum of 4 per person as an appetizer, but really you could make a whole meal of a big plate of potstickers along with a salad or two and a beer and I bet you wouldn't get any complaints.

[TIme out! Don't forget there is still time to win a very nice digital kitchen scale.]

Potstickers aren't really about the filling. The main event is the dumpling wrapper itself, which gets deeply caramelized on the bottom. The most common meat filling is a mashed mixture of pork and shrimp. Which pretty much tells you right there, you aren't going for a distinct flavor inside. The goal is to make something with an umami bass note and a firm, toothsome texture.

Where most vegetarian potstickers go wrong is by trying to use too many vegetables in the filling. I've had godawful versions stuffed with spinach, or lots of water chestnuts and so forth. This is not the place for a distracting crunch, and you certainly don't want it leaching water. My filling of choice is tempeh. I saute it first to develop the flavor, and then crumble it and mash it with the other ingredients. It gives just the right bite.

Potstickers get their name because of the unusual cooking technique. The dumplings are first fried in a lightly oiled pan until they brown and stick a bit. Then water is added and the pan covered to steam the tops and release the bottoms. Finally, the lid is removed and the remaining water cooked off.

Other names for potstickers: Jiaozi (Chinese, pretty much any dumpling), guotie (Chinese, specifically pan-fried dumplings), gyoza (Japanese, any dumpling), yaki-gyoza (again, pan-fried).

If for some reason you don't need the whole batch at once, quick freeze them without touching each other, then bag when solid. They can be cooked later without defrosting, just allow a little more time. I have a few frozen right now and it is positively killing me not to go cook them off at 11 PM after finishing this post!

Vegetarian Potstickers (Gyoza) - Recipe
Vegetarian and vegan
Makes about 48 dumplings

For the sauce:

• 1/4 cup good quality soy sauce / shoyu / tamari
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1-2 teaspoons hot-chili sesame oil (or 1-2 teaspoons plain Chinese sesame oil and 1/2 teaspoon chili paste)
• 1 green onion, whites parts only, cut into tiny thin rings

1. Combine all ingredients, taste for salt/vinegar/heat balance and set aside. I like mine pretty vinegary.

For the potstickers (gyoza):

• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
• 1 pound tempeh, cut into thin slabs
• 1 cup very thinly sliced Napa or green cabbage
• 6 green onions, white and light green parts only, minced
• 4 teaspoons Chinese rice wine (sherry is a good substitute)
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 48 potsticker wrappers (that is about one normal package; if possible choose a "thick" variety)

1. Heat a large skillet, preferably cast iron, with a tight-fitting lid, over a medium-high flame. Add 2 tablespoons of oil. Fry the tempeh in a single layer, working in batches if needed, until golden brown on both sides. Set aside to cool.
2. Fry the cabbage for a few minutes until browned and most water removed. Turn off the heat.
3. Thoroughly crumble the tempeh into a bowl. Combine it with the cabbage, green onions, rice wine or sherry and soy sauce. Taste and adjust salt as needed. You can also add more rice wine or soy, but don't make it too wet. When you are satisfied with the taste, sprinkle in the cornstarch and toss thoroughly to combine. (This will absorb any water released when the dumplings are cooked).
4. To form the potsticker dumplings, take one wrapper and moisten the entire edge with a fingertip or pastry brush dipped in water. Place a heaping teaspoon of filling in the center. Pick it up, fold in half, and seal the edge. Crimp if you like. If you want to be a pro-crimper, see this post from Jaden. Set on a plate or sheet pan, crimp side up and flat side down.
5. To cook the potstickers, heat that big skillet back up again to medium-high and add the remaining tablespoon of oil. Put the potstickers in in a single layer, flat side down, not touching but they can be close. Fry 1-2 minutes until they are dark golden brown on the bottom. Add 1/3 cup of water and cover the pan. Cook about 3 minutes. Remove the lid and keep cooking until the water is totally gone - otherwise they won't be crispy.
6. Serve hot, with the dipping sauce.