Black Friday Grilled Cheese with Kitchen Sink Cranberry Sauce | Food Wishes

Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with Black Friday grilled cheese with kitchen sink cranberry sauce. That's right. I'm going to show you the best day after Thanksgiving sandwich ever. Made with a very special cranberry sauce that is everything because it has almost everything except of course well you know. And that's where we'll start first by adding a lot of ingredients to a saucepan. including some finely diced dried tart cherries, some dried apricot, as well as some candied ginger. We're also going to include some orange and lemon zest, as well as, believe it or not, some diced up Fresno chili. And then we'll spice this up very simply with one star anise, followed by a couple sweeteners, which would be a touch of maple syrup, as well as a nice big pinch of white sugar. And then what we'll do is pour in our orange juice. Ideally freshly squeezed, but anything will work. Oh, and I almost forgot. We do want a tiny pinch of salt in here as well. And what we'll do is turn our heat up to medium high. And we'll give this a stir. And we'll wait for it to start to simmer. Oh, and it was right here when I realized I didn't put any cayenne in. So, I went ahead and did a few shakes so people wouldn't get mad. But anyway, what we'll do once this is simmering is reduce our heat to medium low. And we'll let this simmer gently for about 10 or 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, just to give everything a little bit of a head start before we add our cranberries. So, that's exactly what I did. And once that's simmered long enough, what we'll do is raise our heat to medium high and bring this up to a boil. And once that is bubbling enthusiastically, we will take a 12 oz bag of fresh cranberries and we will add those in after rinsing them of course. And what we'll do is stir those in. And we'll continue cooking, stirring occasionally until those berries start to collapse and break down. And while these are cooking, you want to be a little bit careful because when they get hot, cranberries will explode, right? Not really a violent explosion, but there is going to be a lot of snap, crackle, and popping, which if you've never done it before, is going to sound a little something like this. So, do not under any circumstances keep your face directly over the top, which I don't know why you would, but if you were going to, don't. And like I said, we'll cook that stirring for like five or six minutes or until roughly 90 to 95% of the berries have collapsed. And our mixture is thickened up a bit and it's looking something like this. And while a few berries are still whole, they're going to be very soft and they'll break down eventually. And once those are looking very nice, we can go ahead and turn off the heat and we'll toss in some chopped toasted walnuts and we will stir those in. And yes, of course, those are optional, but if you're making something called kitchen sink cranberry sauce, I think we want to add as many ingredients as we can. And I really do love the flavor and texture they add. But anyway, you decide. I mean, you are after all the poly of your walnuts. And that's it. We'll go ahead and pull that off the stove and transfer that into a bowl where we will let it cool down to room temp or at least something very close. at which point we'll wrap it up and pop it in the fridge until we're ready to transfer it into a serving bowl to accompany that beautiful roast turkey we're probably doing. And if you only make the sauce, this video is worth it, I think, cuz that really was incredibly delicious. But you never want to judge a cranberry sauce eaten by itself. Since this stuff is formulated to really shine with roasted meat or of course one of the world's greatest grilled sandwiches, which we will make next, and that'll start with a couple slices of really nice bread. Preferably something with a nice open crumb. Oh, and pro tip, make sure your bread slices are in the correct mirror image position so they fit perfectly together like this, right? Not like this. And certainly not like this, right? We need them like this. So pay attention. And then what we'll do is take some bree cheese that's straight out of the fridge so it's nice and firm to cut and we'll divide that in half so the slices are a little smaller and easier to work with. And then we'll go ahead and place a generous amount on both sides. And in the written recipe, it's probably going to say to put about 2 ounces on each side, but I'm telling you right now, I put on a little more than that. And if I have to overlap those slices a little bit to give full coverage, I will do that. And once that's been accomplished and our bread's been breed, it's now ready to be cranberry. And we'll pull out our leftover cranberry sauce, which you are definitely going to have plenty of. And we'll go ahead and spoon and spread over a generous amount on one side. And I don't think we want to go quite all the way to the edges. So, while it's okay to be generous in the center, we should leave a little bit of the surface unsauced around the outside. Around the outside, around the outside. And then what we'll do on the opposite side is start laying down our sliced turkey and not too too much. Okay, for me this is a grilled cheese sandwich with some turkey and not the other way around. So I think that's plenty. And then before we put this together, we have to do one of the most important steps in a Black Friday grilled cheese and that would be seasoning the inside very generously with some freshly ground black pepper. And after grinding that on both sides, we will also definitely want to season the meat with a little bit of salt. And once that's been applied, we will press this together. And I know at this point it looks like we put on too much stuff and our sandwich is too tall, but you'll see as this cooks and gets pressed down, it is going to have the perfect ratio of meat, cheese, and bread. And that's it. We can head to the stove where we've melted a couple tablespoons of butter over medium heat. And we will place our sandwich down and give it a little bit of a press. And then we'll let that first side cook for three or four minutes or until it's beautifully browned. And while that happens, I do like to cover it to keep the heat in. And even though I don't have a lid that fits this pan, just setting a larger lid over like this will do the trick, as would a piece of foil. But anyway, like I said, we'll let that cook for about 3 or 4 minutes before we flip that over. But before we do, we want to turn our sandwich this way. Since you always want to flip a grilled cheese towards the flat side so it's less likely to fall apart. And then before we flip, let's toss in another tablespoon of butter and let that melt a little bit in the open spot before we very carefully and very confidently flip our sandwich over to reveal some beautifully and perfectly brown bread. And that's it. We'll do the same thing to the other side. And by the way, the reason we want to use medium heat here and maybe even a little bit under medium heat is because we don't want our bread burning before our turkey gets warm in the center. So, you definitely want to keep an eye on that and adjust if need be. All right, that is just you cooking. Oh, and then speaking of heat, once both sides have been beautifully browned, what I like to do is take about a teaspoon of water and pour that on either side and then put the lid back on. And we will just let this steam for about 30 seconds or so, which is going to give it one last blast of heat and add a little bit of moisture. And no, don't worry, it's not going to affect the crunchiness, as you will hear in a moment. And that's it. We'll go ahead and pull that out of the pan and we'll head to our cutting board. And before I do any more talking, let's just listen to this cut. Oh yeah. Now, that is one of the greatest sounds of all time. And even though it looked too big, you can see what I think are the perfect proportions of meat, cheese, and bread. And of course, cranberry sauce, which by the way, for presentational purposes, I think should be on the top like this. Right. I could be overthinking this, but to me, that looks better. Speaking of which, once we plate this up, I'm going to make the plate look better with a nice big ramkin of hot gravy that has a little bit of freshly ground black pepper over the top. And that's it. My Black Friday grilled cheese was ready to enjoy. Which for this first bite, I'll do plain. And that, my friends, really is the perfect post Thanksgiving grilled cheese. And the only possible thing that would make it any more perfect would be dipping it into some leftover gravy. And I know brie is not the most common grilled cheese cheese, but as far as something that pairs perfectly with that roast turkey and that sweet, tangy, aromatic cranberry sauce, it is pretty much the perfect choice. But anyway, that's it. What I'm calling Black Friday grilled cheese with kitchen sink cranberry sauce. Whether you enjoy this before you head to the mall to possibly get in a brawl or you're going to enjoy it on the couch watching a game, I think at least once a year we should treat ourselves to a sandwich like this. Which is why I really do hope you give this a try soon. So, please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much more info as usual. And as always, enjoy.