Thomas Keller's Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Apologies for being away for this long. Over the last few months, I've been back in Singapore and got really busy with work and life. I did have a couple of memorable food experiences though which I HOPE I will get to penning down as soon as time permits. For now, I just wanted to share my new found love for grilled cheese sandwiches. Who doesn't like melting cheese on sandwich right?! Well I definitely love it but when you add butter and fry the bread in a pan, the flavours are way different! Have a go at this recipe because it tastes oh-so-good.

Caution: You might feel your arteries clog as you're preparing the meal. Eat at your own discretion.

Ingredients
ciabatta, cut into thick slices
Swiss Gruyere cheese, thinly sliced
unsalted butter, at room temperature

• Preheat oven to 170〫celcius
• Lay the ciabatta bread on your work surface and stack the thinly sliced cheese over it. Top with the remaining slices of bread.
• Over medium heat on a pan, add the butter and cook to brown. Be careful not to burn the butter.
• Add the sandwiches and cook until brown on one side for approximately 1½ minutes.
• When brown, flip the sandwiches on to the other side and cook for approximately 40 seconds before removing from pan.
• Transfer the sandwiches to a baking tray and spread about 1 tsp of butter on each sandwich before placing them in the oven for about 4 minutes to ensure that all the cheese is melted.
• Remove from oven, serve and ENJOY!

Things to note:

• The original recipe called for brioche which would have given a sweeter taste to the sandwich given the nature of the bread. I used a rustic ciabatta which worked well too.
• Ensure that you get enough cheese on the sandwich so that you're not just eating bread. Not too much though since gruyere can be pretty strong tasting but it's really your preference at the end of the day.
• Ensure you get enough butter in the pan otherwise your pan will start smoking when the bread absorbs all that butter quickly and you won't get that beautiful brown you want on your sandwich. You can always diet another day.
• Eat it when it's fresh out of the oven cos the cheese will be nice and gooey.
• I made this to accompany pumpkin soup but it probably works better with tomato soup cos of the acidity. Les Bouchons serves it that way anyway.