Thursday, August 23, 2012

The Southern Gentleman


Just Jeremy here.  So I tried Gruyere cheese for the first time this week and was inspired.  Gruyere is a sharp Swiss cheese, tangy with a bite.  So that got me thinking about a simple ham and Swiss.  Then I thought, how can I fancy pants a simple ham and Swiss?  Then it hit me, prosciutto.  Prosciutto is a dry cured Italian ham.  So there we have it a fancy pants ham and Swiss.  But I didn't stop there.  I wanted to put a southern twist on this.  Enter, the fried green tomato.  In college I worked at a restaurant that had a fried green tomato sandwich on the menu.  It was amazing.  I think what really set it off was the aioli.  So here we have it, assembled together is the Southern Gentleman.  It is a toasted prosciutto and gruyere on sourdough with fried green tomato and aioli.


Gruyere and Prosciutto Toasted Sandwich with Fried green tomato
Thick sliced Gruyere cheese
¼ lb slice Prosciutto
Firm green tomatoes
Sourdough bread

Breading
1/3 cup Corn meal
1 cup flour
1 egg
½ cup buttermilk
Salt and pepper to taste

Prepare in one bowl the corn meal and flour with salt and pepper mixed.
In another bowl the egg and buttermilk.
In a frying pan heat a shallow bath of oil on medium.
Slice tomatoes and first in buttermilk bath then the flour/cornmeal, then fry
Flip the tomatoes in the oil about a minute on each side.

In another pan butter one side of the sourdough slice and brown.
In another pan heat 1/4 lb of prosciutto topped with grated Gruyere.
Remove bread from pan and generously spread aioli on each untoasted side.
Now top the prosciutto and Gruyere, then tomato and serve.

Aioli
2 egg yolks
½ juice of lemon (or white wine vin)
1 cup olive oil
Tbsp Dijon
2 Cloves garlic
Salt to taste
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Fresh basil
Fresh oregano
Follow the link here to prepare: http://youtu.be/MgqIlFlYLxc

Taste analysis:
Best sandwich ever!