This recipe comes from a book titled Grilled Cheese & Beer: Recipes for the Finer Things in Life. The publisher provided us with a free copy for review purposes. All opinions are our own.
We like craft beer and we like grilled cheese, so naturally we had to take a look at a compilation of sixty five recipes for grilled cheese along with suggested beer pairings for each. The book is co-authored by Kevin Vanblarcum (a brewer at Keagan Ales, Kingston, NY) and James Edward Davis (a chef from Brooklyn, NY).
The first thing that became evident to us while going through the pages was that those two must have had a lot of fun working on the book. As would any grilled cheese fan and/or beer fan who ends up with a copy of it.
The recipes are arranged in a sequence starting from less complex ones in terms of both ingredients and steps required to prepare, to more involved. For example, in the beginning you will find simple four ingredient recipes such as The Usual Suspects, where American cheese, tomato slices and bacon are sandwiched between the bread slices. As you progress through the book, you will come across recipes like The Super Italian Stalion - a veritable antipasti platter in grilled cheese disguise and The Big Breakfast in Little Sandwich where you will start by cooking up sausage links and frying up eggs.
Overall a good variety of easily accessible ingredients are being utilized and the recommended beer pairings increase the anticipation of the final results.
We picked a recipe that actually included beer as one of the ingredients (by way of making beer cheese grilled cheese) and had as its recommended pairing Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA (which we happened to have after the post on English vs American IPAs). Enter the Nacho Liberte.
It is a fun recipe, the bread slices are dipped in egg wash and then coated with crushed tortilla chips. Once they are browned on one side, they are flipped over and the beer cheese sauce is smothered onto the finished side, then slices of jalapenos are added. Once the other side of each bread slice is finished cooking, two slices are joined together.
Even though we appreciated having the crunch of the fresh jalapenos, with all that bread, tortilla chips crust and rich cheese sauce we felt it necessary to add some salsa as a dip, just to brighten things up.
We also modified the original recipe slightly while preparing it. Instead of the white bread called for we used whole grain bread with sunflower seeds. Instead of Corona, we used Modelo Negro (an amazing flavor boost) for the cheese dip and added extra cheddar to thicken it more. Finally, we kept making beer cheese grilled cheese sandwiches, ahem Nacho Libertes, until we ran out of egg wash:) We ended up using eight slices of bread! Pretty sure our eight bread slices were smaller than their two...
Next up I think we will recreate the Out for Asparagus, which caught my eye because it includes not only fresh asparagus, but eggplant (I looove eggplant), artichoke hearts and roasted red pepper. With goat cheese, another favorite. To be paired with a wheat beer.
Recipe for Nacho Liberte (Tortilla Crusted Beer Cheese Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Jalapenos
Recipe
Tortilla Crusted Beer Cheese Grilled Cheese with Jalapenos (Nacho Liberte)
Ingredients
- Handful of tortilla chips
- 4 eggs beaten
- 2 slices white bread
- 1 sliced jalapeno
- 1 12 oz bottle Corona
- 8 oz shredded cheddar
- 8 oz cream cheese
Instructions
- Start by making the beer cheese sauce.
- In a saucepan bring to simmer the Corona.
- Add the cheddar and cream cheese and stir until combined. Remove from heat.
- In a bowl, crush the tortilla chips. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs.
- Dip the bread in the egg wash, then the chips. Grease a pan and place the bread in the pan.
- When one side of the bread starts to brown, flip to the other side.
- Spread the cheese sauce and jalapeno slices over the bread.
- When the other side of the bread starts to brown, take it out of the pan and 'slap that bad boy together'.
- NOTE: realistically, the egg wash is enough to coat up to 8 slices of bread. The cheese sauce will be enough for more than eight sandwiches. Consider using more than one jalapeno if you decide to use more than the 2 slices of bread specified. Consider using butter to grease your pan.
Christina
HOLY (swear word) MOLY!!! I'm drooling so much right now my keyboard is a mess. I'm originally from Illinois (we lived close to Wisconsin) so beer cheese soup was a basic food group for us. So, the fact you put BEER CHEESE in a grilled cheese sandwich just blew my mind. I can't wait to make this!!!
CraftBeering
Too funny:) Thank you Christina. Beer cheese is a basic good group, we are very certain of this:)
Lindsay
OMG. Yum!
Alison's Allspice
I love that you crusted the sandwich with tortilla chips crumbs! Fantastic!
CraftBeering
Thank you Alison. We picked the recipe in part due to that:)
Akaleistar
That grilled cheese looks amazing!
CraftBeering
Thank you so much!
kristin mccarthy
You took everything I love in life and put it on a plate.
#fridayfriv
CraftBeering
Thank you Kristin, very much into cheese and tortilla chips ourselves.
marcie
This is some serious grilled cheese! I've never had beer cheese before and really need to change that!
CraftBeering
Thanks Marcie for stopping by! Yes, beer cheese or really fondue with beer to help melt the cheese:) tastes pretty good:)
Cathleen @ A Taste of Madness
I love everything about this!! I wanted to buy jalapenos earlier today, but they were sold out 🙁
CraftBeering
Oh no! Sold out of jalapenos! Actually, the other day I had to ask for help because the display box in the fresh produce section was empty, but luckily they had more jalapenos in the back of the store. Popular item these days:)
Jennifer @ Seasons and Suppers
I just have to say that I want this sandwich right now! I love absolutely everything about it from the flavours, to the beer, to the bread and the crunchy outside. Beautiful!
CraftBeering
Thank you Jennifer:) Some days are all about the grilled cheese:)
karrie @ Tasty Ever After
I'm literally sitting here wondering what to make for dinner when I see the most glorious grilled cheese sandwich ever! Have all ingredients, except not a Corona but will sub another beer, and have Late July green mojo chips that I could use. Gotta go make a sandwich! BTW, that melting cheese money shot is everything too 🙂
CraftBeering
Thank you Karrie. Those chips you mention will make the crust look really pretty!
Nicoletta @sugarlovespices
Oh my goodness it is lunch time here and you're making me drool...What a gorgeous looking and tasty grilled cheese!
CraftBeering
Too funny! Thank you Nicoletta:)
Dawn - Girl Heart Food
Whoa! Now, that's a sandwich! How cool is it to have a book devoted to all things grilled cheese + beer?! And it seems like the names on them are pretty neat too. This looks amazingly good and just love the tortilla chip crust. Lots of textures going on in this one and pretty sure the sandwiches would disappear really quickly 😉 Extra jalapeno on mine! Pinned! Have a wonderful week, Milena!
CraftBeering
Thank you Dawn! I hear you about the extra jalapeno:)
annie@ciaochowbambina
I don't even know where to begin with this one, so I'll just say this... WOWZA!!! Perfect timing - even though that wasn't the intent! I just can't handle all that crunch! This is a special treat, for sure!
CraftBeering
Thanks Annie:) I think that we will definitely be using crushed tortilla chips on grilled cheese going forward...
Kelsie | the itsy-bitsy kitchen
Yes please to allll of this! I'm counting down the days until I'll have access to my kitchen equipment again so I can make this gorgeous sandwich. Holy cow, does it ever look good! Happy Sunday!
CraftBeering
You will be back in the kitchen in no time:) I know it would be hard to keep you out Kelsie:)