Grilled Cheese And Soup

Sounds exciting! Uhhh....

Actually, this isn't your flaccid McDonald's grilled cheese, and this isn't your factory-pressed Campbell's soup brick in a can. (Actually, it is, but I put spices in it.)

The girl and I had to catch a show so we needed something snappy. Seems to be the case more often than not.

Since I was being such a snappy guy, I didn't snag the ingredient-town shot. I'M SORRY OKAY! I mean, uh, here's the list.....*shudders*.....instead...

- Bread (some flax or multigrain variety)
- Margarine (Non-hydrogenated
- Cheese (Cracker Barrel Old Cheddar)
- Cilantro
- Olive Oil (Extra Virgin)
- Red Bell Pepper
- Basil (in crushed spice form)
- Soup (Campbell's Cream of Mushroom; one can (250ml??))
- Turmeric
- Crushed Red Chilis

Slice that pepper up into strips like so. Toss them into a pan with some olive oil and grill away. For best results, get a light black char along the edge of the peppers as seen in the phot-o. Sprinkle basil on peppers toward end of the grilling process. If you put the spices in too early they might lose their potency. You can get the soup cooking during this process.

This is roughly one tsp (pronounced "tsp") of turmeric about to be added to the soup. This will make the soup a yellow-y colour. The change in colour makes it look like you made the soup from scratch even though it came from a can. Remember: the colour hides the truth; your guests never have to know.

This is what a pinch of something looks like. This is a pinch of crushed red chilis. This is a lot for a can of soup. Will bring the spice-o-meter (there is actually a spiciness scale that is derived scientifically: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale) to at least a six out of ten. Half a pinch would probably do.






While It stirs the pot and while It turns the capsicum It chops the cilantro. It chops it loosely.
















Once the peppers are done, butter that bread and flop it in the pan (margarine side down of course). Then stack the ingredients on as shown--or however you prefer.

Well, I guess it still LOOKS like grilled cheese and soup, but I assure you it tastes a lot different. The turmeric completely changes the way the soup tastes. It seems to bind really well with something in the soup, which makes it seem creamier than it would be otherwise--which sounds crazy, because turmeric on its own has a bitter taste with a hint of sweetness. Of course, it doesn't taste creamier. Rather, it tastes slightly sweet. The spiciness of the chilis totally changes the taste of the soup as well.

The grilled cheese was a win as well. I really wish I could recall the type of bread I used because it was delicious. I believe I bought it from Extra Foods, and it was most certainly a multigrain or flax variety. The peppers were tasty, though a little difficult to bite through cleanly, and could have used more basil. The cilantro got a little too warm and subsequently mushy from getting grilled. I recommend adding it after you grill the sandwich.

The lady really liked this actually. She said something like, 'If you keep cooking like this I will definitely let you make supper for me more often'. Surprising since this is one of the more basic things I make.

I would have given this three borks, but since the lady was impressed I'm going to bump it up a notch.

Four borks out of five.

Spicy Perogies

I've fallen out of a regular blogging schedule. This is to be expected for those that know me. I am not very good at setting my own deadlines or maintaining some periodic task. (Just kidding about that last one, prospective employers :D )

I don't remember exactly what kind of mood I was in here; but I do remember I made fried perogies with various spices and it turned out quite well. This time I wanted to try making them spicy. Maybe I felt a cold coming on.

Note to self: If ever I forget why I made something the way I did I should just make up a story. It would be more interesting that way.

You will come to learn that I quite like onions. In the totally unintended spice array I have ginger--to somewhat balance out the spiciness--cayenne pepper, garlic salt, crushed red pepper, and paprika.











Fried the onions up in olive oil first, then added the perogies into the pan. I left the onions in there because I am lazy, didn't want to dirty another plate, and didn't want the onions to get cold.












This gives a little bit of an idea of how spicy these things got. This is pre-mix. I had put some spices on one side, then flipped the 'rogies, then spice'd them again. That's a lot of cayenne.

In hindsight, I should have used a better method to distribute the spices. The ginger and cayenne were spread by brushing them off a spoon. This resulted in very clumpy, uneven flavour distribution. As well, mixing all of the spices together before applying them could have allowed me to get better ratios.
The finished product looks yummy, but did not turn out as well as intended. The spice distribution was not very good, even after mixing everything together. It was also EXTREMELY spicy; so much so that no other flavours really came through. I also didn't fry the perogies enough. They were not crispy on the outside like I had intended them to be. Margarine or butter works a lot better for accomplishing that. Even though this dish had its moments, I think I could have added something sweet to balance out the intensity of the spicy flavours, like honey or brown sugar, or maybe even barbecue sauce. I had thought about using BBQ sauce, but wanted to just stick to spices since I use sauces in a lot of meals.

Two borks out of five.