Back on My Feet Grilled Cheese

Today, a cheese tribute.

This grilled cheese goes out to a reader named Carly, who emailed me from Back on My Feet, an organization that – in very loose terms – sets up solidarity-based running clubs around homeless shelters.

A number of my friends are part of this movement. They get up before dawn, drive to a city shelter, and run with whoever is waiting on the porch. The idea is to promote self-sufficiency among homeless men, but the group also serves to generate activism around homelessness and recovery.

Since the group formed in Philly back in ‘07 – thanks to a lone runner named Anne Mahlum -- chapters have popped up in other cities. Boston, Dallas, D.C.

If you see someone running in pajamas this weekend or a group of runners who glow in the dark, it’s all part of the group’s fundraising relays. All weekend long, their 20in24 events will be underway around the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Since Stroehmann’s Bread is the event sponsor, I accepted a loaf and made this sandwich. I wanted to choose an appropriate cheese – something with a little oomph, a wedge with attitude.

I considered Pondhopper, for the name. Then, I thought about cheeses that smell like feet. But that didn’t bode well. After much mulling, I chose a cheese with chutzpah, a spicy puppy called No Woman, from Beecher’s Handmade Cheese in Seattle.

No Woman, named after the Bob Marley song, is a sharp cheddar laced with jerk spices. Add a shmear of sundried tomatoes, and this grilled cheese sandwich is sweet and spicy. Imagine a few reggae beats as you bite in, and you may feel the call to start running.

Cheers to Carly and everyone out at the Back on My Feet relays this weekend.  

Back on My Feet Grilled Cheese

4 slices No Woman, or pepperjack 

Sundried tomato spread

2 slices wheat bread, a la Stroehmann's

1 tsp. olive oil  and 1 tsp. butter, for frying

1. Make a sandwich of sundried tomatoes and sliced cheese.

2. Add olive oil and butter to a hot skillet over medium heat. (The olive oil will keep the butter from burning).

3. Fry up sandwich. You may want to cover it so the cheese melts.

4. Eat. Reflect.

Pepito and the Last of the Radishes

 

Sometimes the earth makes my head spin, like when I cut open this giant Beauty Heart Radish from our community garden and the cleaved halves looked like a pair of pink lungs.

This radish was spicy. Almost too spicy to eat, but I couldn’t stand the thought of it lobbing so much beauty into the compost bucket. So I found it a mate, a hot-headed companion: Pepito.

Pepito is made by Yellow Springs, a goat dairy in Chester County, PA. The recipe is based on a traditional Italian cheese, called Pepato (meaning “with pepper”), a Pecorino speckled with whole peppercorns. It’s not a fancy dancer, but it has some can-can. When you need a kick, Pepato – or Pepito --  can be a frisky addition to the cheese plate. It's also great with a crisp, summery beer.

This particular Pepito landed in our fridge via the goat cheese CSA I signed up for this summer. Look at that rind – it almost looks like the surface of a root vegetable. You know I like a little surface mold. It’s the sign of a healthy cheese. A living cheese.

The taste of this cheese is sublime – it’s fudgy and clean-tasting, not at all tangy. The only zest comes from the spicy peppercorns, which add a springy, almost floral note.

This is the key to cheeses with “flavorings” or spices. They shoudn’t overpower the milk. Next time you nibble a flavored or smoked cheese, see if you can still detect the milky taste of the cheese itself. If you can’t, that’s a flaw.

For an example of this balance, try Marco Polo, a sharp cheddar from Seattle, dotted with green and black peppercorns. The company, Beecher’s, just opened a cheese omniplex in New York. It's worth making a trip for a wedge.

Or, grab a hunk of original Pepato.