Who has heard the common saying that it takes twenty-one days to make a habit and three days to break it? I have! And guess what guys, I am on day twenty-two of my blog, meaning that I've made my musings to the utterly endless world of the internet a habit, yippee! And now, if I ever wanted to stop, it'd take three days a way from writing to you to break the habit, doesn't that seem somewhat unbalanced? It takes a seventh of the time to break a habit than it does to make one...hmmmm...
So I had promised a good friend, I would do a good tomato soup and grilled cheese recipe today, but I think I am going to save that recipe, quintessential comfort food as something to look forward to after my Monday at the office. As I am sure you all agree Mondays are no fun, the jolt of the beginning of the week, depressing all together -- you definitely need something to look forward to at the end of a Monday! Seeing as I've really only had one day away from the office, it feels like very little time to decompress...therefore I knew I'd want to share a fun recipe and comfort food experiment with you all after Monday ( a comforting recipe) instead of after a day like today which certainly was not a taxing and draining Monday. Today consisted of some photo work, a great run at race pace and then a trip to Cobble Hill to see Jeff Bridges in his Academy Award nominated role in Crazy Heart with a few girlfriends and then some wine and small plates along Smith Street. So I thought, hmmm, if I'm saving the fun Tomato soup and Grilled cheese recipe for tomorrow, what shall I do today, shall I play off of the movie, and do the Alcoholic's on the go, grilled cheese recipe or a play on the blue cheese, endive, hazelnut salad I had tonight..so I thought why not do a bit of both...
In Crazy Heart, the only food we see Jeff Bridges' character, Bad Blake ingest is variations on steak (manly man food, hehe), of course what you imagine that sort of country singer to eat -- hunks of meat! Apart from the meat, Bad drinks a ton of McClures Whiskey, smokes an enormous amount of cigarettes, and has his favorite biscuits recipe that he makes for the woman he falls in love with and her son....needless to say, I thought hmmm, lets play off of the Whiskey and go for a grown up grilled cheese that might go with his drink of choice, simple:
1. Take a homemade or store bought buttermilk scone, I like to make my own, but if you don't, I recommend you go to your favorite bakery and grab a nice buttermilk scone, the bakery stand at the greenmarket at Lincoln Square on Saturdays has great scones as does Whole Foods, Amy's and well pretty much any really good bakery! The important thing is to get a buttermilk non-flavored scone, you want that mouth coating of a dense scone for this sandwich -- it should be reminiscent of what you would imagine Bad Blake's biscuits to taste like.
2. Now, grab some Moody Blue cheese -- made by the Roth Kase creamery in Wisconson, this baby is a four month aged smoked cow's milk blue cheese - creamy, smooth, stinky, smoky, and outstanding!!! I chose this cheese for a few reasons: one because of it played off the blue cheese in my endive salad, two because it was smoked, just like some of Bad's meats I am sure and since I do not eat meat, I wasn't about to put meat into this sandwich and then lastly because I think this cheese is so multidimensional, it would work so wonderfully with your buttermilk biscuit!
3. Now you need some aged balsamic vinegar, like an aged Balsamic from Modena, ideally aged for twelve years so it is thick, syrupy, and really distinctly developed. This will bring out and simultaneously highlight the nuanced flavors of the moody blue, reminiscent of the misplaced dressing on my endive salad and what you might imagine Bad's steaks glazed with in the flick.
4. Now ladies and gents, you need some fruit or veggie to cut the heavy mouth feel of the other three ingredients and again playing off the nice balance between my meal and what you imagined Bad Blake to eat, you need a few simply sauted shittakes, with their stems and all. No herbs, nothing, besides a little chopped pearl onion and olive oil, just lightly saute so as to get them minimally tender but while still maintaining the majority of the integrity of the raw mushroom's "crunch." They will really successfully complement the balsamic vinegar/reduction and in turn the smokeyness of the blue..
5. Lastly, I'd suggest a few nice leaves of spinach instead of the endive I ate earlier and totally raw, unlike the preparations for the sides you might get at a steakhouse -- sauteed or creamed.
Now take your buttermilk biscuit, coat both sides with a small drop of butter, I know, I don't like butter but for this particular recipe, you need some, then top with the balsamic reduction, cheese, mushrooms, and lastly the spinach. I'd definitely leave this as an open faced sandwich, too messy to combine both sides into one sandwich. Also, important, do NOT toast this, leave everything at room temperature, toasting melds the flavors too much here and you want the tastes to differentiate themselves from one another. Of course according to Bad Blake, you'd drink this with a McClure's, probably on the rocks. And well, according to me tonight, you'd drink a Cote du Rhone, like I did with my endive salad, yes I admit it did not pair particularly well, but it was just what I needed at that moment. I might recommend sticking with the "harder stuff" for this sandwich, in honor of Bad -- why not a scotch and soda? Or something? However a tea might be nice as well to play the sober card, just as Bridges' does.
Anyhow ladies and gents, enjoy my stretching of my imagination and my daily experiences...
Who is ready for tomato soup and Grilled cheese yummyness tomorrow?!!? MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
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