I think most people raised in the US have childhood memories of eating a grilled cheese sandwich. At its simplest, it is just bread, cheese, and heat. But you can start there and move on to add anything you want.

Living in Thailand, I find that it is hard to get certain American comfort foods, and the quality you do get when you find it leaves you thinking something is really missing.

So Praew and I have been experimenting recently with various grilled sandwiches, and today I decided to try out a variant on a basic grilled cheese.

First, I started with Praew’s homemade sourdough bread made in our Hitachi bread machine. I do not like overly light and fluffy breads, and this homemade sourdough gives a nice substance and weight so that you feel like you are eating food, not fluff.

Then I added one thin slice of cheese to each sandwich. The lower sandwich in the picture is made with Swiss cheese, and the upper one uses jalapeno jack. In addition, I’ve layered on sliced jalapeno peppers, marinated artichoke hearts, fresh dill, and whole peppercorn dijon mustard. On the left, you can see some raw chopped onions that I am about to grill.

With the onions grilled and piled on, we are ready to close it up, spread some butter on the outside, and pan fry it. I normally use one square of butter split up among the outside of two sandwiches… i.e. 1/4 square per outer face.

Here it is toasting up nicely in the pan I just grilled the onions in and smelling really, really good.

And finally, I have two grilled cheese sandwiches sliced in half and ready to eat.

And don’t forget to find a drink that pairs up nicely with it.