- 3 hours ago
Transform your Thanksgiving leftovers into the ultimate luxury sandwich with this Black Friday Grilled Cheese recipe. In this video, Chef John shows you how to simmer a spicy "kitchen sink" cranberry sauce and pairs it with roast turkey and creamy Brie for a perfect post-holiday lunch. Learn the water-steaming trick to ensure perfectly melted cheese in this step-by-step guide to the best leftover turkey sandwich.
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00:00Hello, this is Chef John from Foodwishes.com with Black Friday Grilled Cheese with Kitchen
00:08Sink Cranberry Sauce.
00:10That's right, I'm going to show you the best day after Thanksgiving sandwich ever made
00:15with a very special cranberry sauce that is everything, because it has almost everything.
00:21Except, of course, well, you know.
00:24And that's where we'll start first, by adding a lot of ingredients to a saucepan.
00:30Including some finely diced dried tart cherries, some dried apricot, as well as some candied ginger.
00:37We're also going to include some orange and lemon zest, as well as, believe it or not, some
00:42diced up Fresno chili.
00:45And then we'll spice this up very simply with one star anise, followed by a couple sweeteners,
00:51which would be a touch of maple syrup, as well as a nice big pinch of white sugar.
00:56And then what we'll do is pour in our orange juice, ideally freshly squeezed, but anything
01:03will work.
01:04Oh, and I almost forgot.
01:06We do want a tiny pinch of salt in here as well.
01:08And what we'll do is turn our heat up to medium-high.
01:12And we'll give this a stir, and we'll wait for it to start to simmer.
01:16Oh, and it was right here when I realized I didn't put any cayenne in.
01:19So I went ahead and did a few shakes, so people wouldn't get mad.
01:22But anyway, what we'll do once this is simmering, is reduce our heat to medium-low, and we'll
01:28let this simmer gently for about 10 or 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, just to give everything
01:34a little bit of a head start before we add our cranberries.
01:37So that's exactly what I did.
01:40And once that's simmered long enough, what we'll do is raise our heat to medium-high and
01:44bring this up to a boil.
01:45And once that is bubbling enthusiastically, we will take a 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries,
01:51and we will add those in, after rinsing them, of course.
01:55And what we'll do is stir those in, and we'll continue cooking and stirring occasionally,
01:59until those berries start to collapse and break down.
02:03And while these are cooking, you want to be a little bit careful, because when they get
02:07hot, cranberries will explode.
02:09Right?
02:10Not really a violent explosion, but there is going to be a lot of snap, crackle, and popping.
02:15Which, if you've never done it before, is going to sound a little something like this.
02:25So do not, under any circumstances, keep your face directly over the top, which I don't
02:31know why you would, but if you were going to, don't.
02:35And like I said, we'll cook that stirring for like 5 or 6 minutes, or until roughly 90-95%
02:41of the berries have collapsed.
02:43And our mixture has thickened up a bit, and it's looking something like this.
02:48And while a few berries are still whole, they're going to be very soft, and they'll break down
02:52eventually.
02:53And once those are looking very nice, we can go ahead and turn off the heat, and we'll
02:58toss in some chopped toasted walnuts, and we will stir those in.
03:03And yes, of course those are optional.
03:04But if you're making something called kitchen sink cranberry sauce, I think we want to add
03:09as many ingredients as we can.
03:11And I really do love the flavor and texture they add.
03:14But anyway, you decide.
03:17I mean, you are after all the poly of your walnuts.
03:19And that's it.
03:21We'll go ahead and pull that off the stove, and transfer that into a bowl, where we will
03:26let it cool down to room temp, or at least something very close.
03:30At which point, we'll wrap it up and pop it in the fridge, until we're ready to transfer
03:34it into a serving bowl, to accompany that beautiful roast turkey we're probably doing.
03:40And if you only make the sauce, this video is worth it, I think.
03:43Because that really was incredibly delicious.
03:45But you never want to judge a cranberry sauce, eaten by itself, since this stuff is formulated
03:52to really shine with roasted meat, or of course one of the world's greatest grilled sandwiches,
03:57which we will make next.
03:59And that'll start with a couple slices of really nice bread.
04:03Preferably something with a nice open crumb.
04:05Oh, and pro tip, make sure your bread slices are in the correct mirror image position, so
04:11they fit perfectly together like this.
04:13Right?
04:13Not like this.
04:14And certainly not like this.
04:17Right?
04:17We need them like this, so pay attention.
04:20And then what we'll do is take some brie cheese that's straight out of the fridge, so it's
04:25nice and firm to cut.
04:26And we'll divide that in half so the slices are a little smaller and easier to work with.
04:31And then we'll go ahead and place a generous amount on both sides.
04:35And in the written recipe, it's probably going to say to put about two ounces on each side.
04:39But I'm telling you right now, I put on a little more than that.
04:42And if I have to overlap those slices a little bit to give full coverage, I will do that.
04:47And once that's been accomplished, and our bread's been breed, it's now ready to be cranberry-ed.
04:55And we'll pull out our leftover cranberry sauce, which you are definitely going to have plenty
05:00of. And we'll go ahead and spoon and spread over a generous amount on one side.
05:05And I don't think we want to go quite all the way to the edges.
05:08So while it's okay to be generous in the center, we should leave a little bit of the surface unsauced
05:13around the outside.
05:14Around the outside.
05:15Around the outside.
05:16And then what we'll do on the opposite side is start laying down our sliced turkey, and
05:22not too, too much.
05:23Okay, for me, this is a grilled cheese sandwich with some turkey, and not the other way around.
05:29So I think that's plenty.
05:31And then before we put this together, we have to do one of the most important steps in a
05:35Black Friday grilled cheese.
05:36And that would be seasoning the inside very generously with some freshly ground black pepper.
05:42And after grinding that on both sides, we will also definitely want to season the meat
05:47with a little bit of salt.
05:48And once that's been applied, we will press this together.
05:52And I know at this point it looks like we put on too much stuff, and our sandwich is too
05:56tall.
05:57But you'll see as this cooks and gets pressed down, it is going to have the perfect ratio
06:02of meat, cheese, and bread.
06:04And that's it.
06:05We can head to the stove.
06:06Where we've melted a couple tablespoons of butter over medium heat, and we will place
06:11our sandwich down, and give it a little bit of a press.
06:14And then we'll let that first side cook for three or four minutes, or until it's beautifully
06:18browned.
06:19And while that happens, I do like to cover it to keep the heat in.
06:23And even though I don't have a lid that fits this pan, just setting a larger lid over like
06:27this will do the trick, as would a piece of foil.
06:31But anyway, like I said, we'll let that cook for about three or four minutes before we flip
06:35that over.
06:36But before we do, we want to turn our sandwich this way, since you always want to flip a grilled
06:41cheese towards the flat side, so it's less likely to fall apart.
06:45And then before we flip, let's toss in another tablespoon of butter and let that melt a little bit in
06:51the open spot, before we very carefully and very confidently flip our sandwich over to
06:58reveal some beautifully and perfectly browned bread.
07:01And that's it.
07:02We'll do the same thing to the other side.
07:03And by the way, the reason we want to use medium heat here, and maybe even a little bit under
07:09medium heat, is because we don't want our bread burning before our turkey gets warm in
07:13the center.
07:15So you definitely want to keep an eye on that and adjust if need be.
07:19Right?
07:19That is just you cooking.
07:21Oh, and then speaking of heat, once both sides have been beautifully browned, what I like to
07:26do is take about a teaspoon of water and pour that on either side, and then put the lid
07:31back on, and we will just let this steam for about 30 seconds or so, which is going to give
07:36it one last blast of heat, and add a little bit of moisture.
07:40And no, don't worry.
07:41It's not going to affect the crunchiness, as you will hear in a moment.
07:45And that's it.
07:46We'll go ahead and pull that out of the pan, and we'll head to our cutting board.
07:50And before I do any more talking, let's just listen to this cut.
07:54Oh yeah, now that is one of the greatest sounds of all time.
08:03And even though it looked too big, you can see what I think are the perfect proportions
08:07of meat, cheese, and bread.
08:09And of course, cranberry sauce.
08:11Which, by the way, for presentational purposes, I think should be on the top, like this.
08:17Alright, I could be overthinking this, but to me that looks better.
08:20Speaking of which, once we plate this up, I'm going to make the plate look better, with
08:26a nice big ramekin of hot gravy, that has a little bit of freshly ground black pepper
08:30over the top.
08:32And that's it.
08:32My Black Friday grilled cheese was ready to enjoy.
08:36Which, for this first bite, I'll do plain.
08:39And that, my friends, really is the perfect post-Thanksgiving grilled cheese.
08:43And the only possible thing that would make it any more perfect would be dipping it into
08:48some leftover gravy.
08:50And I know brie is not the most common grilled cheese cheese, but as far as something that
08:54pairs perfectly with that roast turkey, and that sweet, tangy, aromatic cranberry sauce,
09:00it is pretty much the perfect choice.
09:02But anyway, that's it.
09:04What I'm calling Black Friday grilled cheese with Kitchen St. Cranberry Sauce.
09:08Whether you enjoy this before you head to the mall, to possibly get in a brawl, or you're
09:14going to enjoy it on the couch watching a game, I think at least once a year we should treat
09:18ourselves to a sandwich like this.
09:21Which is why I really do hope you give this a try soon.
09:25So please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much
09:30for info as usual, and as always, enjoy.
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