I first learned to poach in culinary school. It was not my favorite type of cooking. We learned first on fish, then on chicken (yuck) and finally, on pears! As far as I was concerned, my favorite thing to poach is pears… and then maybe salmon.
Poaching should only be done on delicate foods, for instance, you wouldn’t poach a rib-eye steak. But pears are perfect. Generally, if I’m poaching pears in red wine, I will serve them with as much chocolate as possible. If they are poached in white wine however, I prefer to serve them with ice cream.
On this wonderful Saturday, we at One More Bite are celebrating National Sandwich Day. There are so many different kinds of sandwiches to choose from. So, I had such a hard time choosing what specific genre of sandwich to make for you guys.
Dear readers, I made you grilled cheese. A really really good grilled cheese at that. Nothing beats bread, butter and melty cheese, except for maybe this.
Roasted Pear, Fontina and Roast Beef Grilled Cheese on Apple Cinnamon Bread
In order to make everyone happy, we made two different versions of the same sandwich. The version above requires bosc pears and apple cinnamon bread. I’ve always found bosc pears to be less sweet and a little more crunchy, and contrasted with the (very) sweet apple cinnamon bread, the flavors ended up balancing out. While this grilled cheese is still a little bit too sweet for me, if you love apples and cinnamon, this grilled cheese is definitely for you.
Now, I also did a more savory version of this grilled cheese. I used onion ciabatta bread and instead of bosc pears, I used red anjou pears, which are soft, sweet and very juicy. In the case of this grilled cheese, the sweetness of the pears served to accentuate the mild and creamy flavor of the fontina cheese. This is a great sandwich for someone who wants grilled cheese, but also something extra.
