Skint Suppers Vol. Three: Humble Cheese Toastie
Now, I'm not about to pretend that this is some amazing culinary wizardy; it is after all a cheese toastie. But from the fracas on twitter the other night, I gather Lord Jamie Oliver managed to make almost an entire TV programme on how to do his No. 1 Toasted Cheese Sandwich in his Comfort Food series, so a short post from me is definitely ok. Healthy food fans, you know I am usually the ultimate cheerleader for no-carb, dairy-swapping, cauliflower-bothering paleo virtuosity but on this occasion you may like to look away now as this is a full-fat refined carb horror show of glutton.
Again, I don't normally present my beloved with a sandwich for dinner but A) this is SKINT Suppers don't you know? and B) We'd been for a pub lunch (which, incidentally was not great so shan't subject you to that one) and a cheese toastie was what was required to fill the hole. I favour the excellent Hawksmoor version of a cheese toastie. The recipe is included in their brilliant book Hawksmoor at Home and I can't find it in its entirety online so it seems a bit cheeky to simply reproduce their work for you here. I do recommend you buy this if you like their restaurants though - it's also one of the only books Rich will (very) occasionally leaf through and be inspired to want to cook me something from.
Jamie uses just bread and two types of cheese for his but for a similarly great cheese toastie as mine, I suggest you mix good amounts of fresh green chilli with a range of alliums - Hawksmoor recommend using spring onion and normal white onion but I find any combo works - and some good quality, well melting cheese. I also popped in a squirt of English mustard and, controversially, an egg to make it all buoyant and almost souffley. For cooking, Hawksmoor eschew the Breville and butter the outside of some sourdough before sealing in a pan and lovingly ladling the oozing cheese back over and into the sandwich througout. Yes its calorific, but its a beauty. I only had half of one, making it a vaguely ok 300-400 cals dependent on how generous you're being with the naughty bits.