Cheese, leek & sucuk toastie
Five years ago I fell in love.
There we were wandering about the Borough Market in London when I spotted a cabinet stacked with ready-to-cook cheese sandwiches. Poilâne sourdough, Montgomery Cheddar, Ogleshield, leek, onion and garlic. Such a delightful collection of ingredients.
Snaking away from the small vendor was a constant line of hungry punters, waiting their turn to bite into cheesy nirvana. I had to join them. Wise move as the line of people grew to about 15, and every time the aroma of the toasting sandwiches hit me I knew I was in for something special.
The first bite wasn’t the most pleasant. That bubbling cheese burned my lips, but I couldn’t stop. This thing was freaking amazing! The combination of cheeses was so sharp and delicious, slightly mellowed by the leek and onion mixture.
It’s taken several years, but I’ve made my own version of this toastie. I stuck by the sharp aged cheddar idea as it’s this that really makes the sandwich shine. To ramp the flavours even more I’ve thrown in some beautiful Turkish sucuk.
I adore it every time I have it in restaurants. It’s heavily spiced and intensely aromatic, but the problem is that it’s only available at specialty suppliers; most of which are too far from home.
Then I remembered the MFC Supermarket in Rosebery. Close enough to home and they stock it constantly.
I’ve gone the old fashioned route and toasted the sandwiches in a pan. No sandwich press in this household, you see, so a griddle pan did the trick perfectly. Lots of sizzle, lots of cheesy smoke, a gentle flip and a little more sizzle.
I cooked the slices of sucuk on the pan first. Not only does it grease it up when the oil releases from the sausage, but the delicious oil soaks into the bread when it’s time to do the sandwiches.
Hello flavour!
*Duck egg blue Sun Grill supplied by Chasseur
| Servings |
servings
|
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 leek finely sliced (white part only)
- 1 clove garlic finely sliced
- 200 g aged cheddar cheese grated
- 150 g sucuk skinned & sliced 5mm thick on the diagonal
- Salt & black pepper to taste
- 4 slices Sourdough bread
- butter
- Caperberries or pickles to serve
Ingredients
|
|
- Heat a skillet over medium flame and sauté the leek in the olive oil for 3 minutes. Add the garlic, a pinch of salt, and continue cooking until soft and opaque. Set aside.
- Lay two slices of the bread on a board and divide the cooked leek evenly over each slice. Season with lots of cracked black pepper. Top the leek with half of the grated cheese.
- Heat a griddle pan over medium-high and cook the sucuk on both sides. Lay the sucuk over the grated cheese on each half of the sandwich, top with the remaining cheese, then lay the other slice of bread on top.
- Lightly butter the top of the sandwich, carefully flip over and butter the other slice.
- Gently lay the filled sandwiches onto the hot griddle, pressing down gently with a spatula. After a couple of minutes, or when golden on the underside, use the spatula to turn the sandwich over to cook the other side.
- If you want, you can scatter more grated cheese over the cooked sandwiches and put them beneath a grill until bubbling and golden.
- Serve immediately with caperberries or pickles.
