Is there any better way to make a grilled cheese sandwich gourmet than by filling it with smoked salmon, gruyere cheese, fresh dill and lemon?
Perfect for a simple but elegant dinner at home with the family, but wonderful enough to feed to guests – if you like smoked salmon I highly recommend trying this.
My only gripe is that at my local Sobey’s gruyere cheese is $61.90 a kg! I purchased about $11 worth and it would have been enough for 3 sandwiches I think. I only made 2 so I had some leftover to use at breakfast the next morning. It’s a really expensive cheese, so according to the internet you could substitute it with Comte, Beaufort, Emmental or Jarlsburg. I’m pretty sure Costco sells Jarlsburg, so if you were making a lot of these sandwiches, I’d look at the cheese selection at Costco to save some money. I had also purchased the smoked salmon at Costco. What I used for the sandwiches had been frozen for a while (I used my vacuum sealer at the time so it was just as tasty as when I had bought it).
Ingredients:
- thinly sliced smoked salmon (lox)
- gruyere (or other) cheese
- lemon zest
- fresh dill weed
- fresh bread (I used Winnipeg rye)
Prep:
- Shred the cheese
- Grate the lemon zest (you only want a sprinkling on the sandwiches, so use your judgement)
- Chop the dill weed (again, enough to do a fair sprinkle on the sandwiches)
- If your bread is wider in the middle, select the middle slices so you have larger sandwiches
Prep the sandwiches by layering grated cheese, smoked salmon, more grated cheese, dill weed and lemon zest. Place the other piece of bread and you’re ready to cook them.
Melt butter in a non-stick frying pan that’s large enough for 2 sandwiches leaves room for flipping. Use a med to med-high heat, or start on med-high and turn it down to med. You don’t want your bread darkened before your cheese is melted! I have a hot gas stove so I used med heat and covered the frying pan with a lid to keep the heat in and help to melt the cheese. This worked fairly well. Once the cheese is a bit melty (so it stays together a bit) and the bottom is browned, carefully flip the sandwiches. Cook them how you like them, but the goal is a dark brown toast with melty cheese. I actually ended up flipping them a couple times and continued to use the lid, just to get all the cheese melted.
Cut the sandwich in half so you can see the beautiful interior. Serve with a homemade soup and/or salad.
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