so this this is Test Kitchen Talks grilled cheese,

and then can you right "Take Two," just put a two there?

After "Take"?

Yeah bug.

All right, here, give me that.

No, no, negative, nope, no, no, no.

If you're gonna be crazy, you won't be invited in the video.

And this is a grilled cheese video,

this is the kinda video you wanna be a part of.

Trust me.

[tapping] Action.

[drums playing]

- Today we're gonna be making some grilled cheeses!

Grilled cheese is great!

- I'm very excited for this.

I was literally thinking about this all night.

- During times like this,

I think it's like, really like quintessential comfort food.

- You go from wanting one to eating one

in less than ten minutes.

[bread crunching]

[bread crunching]

[bread crunching]

- You have to make this, you have no idea how amazing it is.

- Breathtaking.

- Like seriously delicious.

[drum music]

- First thing's first, for grilled cheese

I really prefer a soft sandwich bread.

I'm gonna grab two slices and I like center-cut slices.

Now basically I make a relatively

straightforward grilled cheese

except I add some really thinly sliced tomatoes.

And then I have two kinds of cheese.

I have cheddar, pretty normal, classic,

and then I also have Muenster,

which is a fantastic melting cheese

and completely underutilized if you ask me.

Put two slices on one side, cheddar on this side.

I like to cut the slices of tomatoes as thin as possible

and then I have a lot of surface area for seasoning.

And then I just go like a ton of salt and pepper.

I'm actually really excited to eat this.

By the way, it's 9:30 in the morning.

And I haven't eaten anything and I have not had coffee.

And then just this is kind of a holdover

from when I was a kid, we used to always sprinkle

garlic powder on, on tomato.

So I just like that little savory edge.

And then just layer onto the bread.

And then close up the sandwich.

Here's the thing: rather than butter

on the outside of the sandwich,

I use mayonnaise.

Now I love butter and I love the flavor of butter,

but in this situation I'm using mayonnaise because

one, mayonnaise has a little bit of egg in it and

when you fry it, it creates and extremely crispy exterior.

Two, this is a really soft bread

and I don't have any room-temp butter right now.

Plus it tastes delicious.

Just like love mayonnaise.

What's that cat doing?

I have my eye on that cat.

Okay, mayo, mayo, mayo.

Very important to get it all the way

to the edges of the bread.

And then I think with grilled cheese

you gotta go low and slow,

meaning put it in a cool pan and let it heat up gently

so that you don't end up overcooking the bread

and you're left with unmelted cheese.

I'm going to put this bread face down,

turn it on, put it on low,

and then put everything else on top.

When it's in the pan I'll do the other side.

This is just gonna go and start to gently fry,

and then I'll turn it over, that's it.

Cats.

The cats!

Oh my god, stop that!

There's was like hissing and clawing,

I'm gonna find tufts of their hair over there now.

- [Dan] How long should it take to make a grilled cheese

and why have you been making it for 25 minutes.

- I don't know Dan,

because I haven't had my coffee [laughs].

But the cheese it melting, everything is fine.

I can here it sizzling now.

Yeah, seriously it's been 23 minutes, almost 24.

Okay, this sandwich might be ready to flip.

[pan sizzling]

- Oh, a beautiful color.

Look at this beautiful, even, golden browning.

I think that's what you get both from mayo

and starting in a cool pan.

Smells great.

I'm gonna turn it down because I don't want

the second side to go too fast because

I want it to fully melt.

And I'll press down gently.

I just don't think you should rush this process,

is all I'm saying.

Just 'cause it's a humble grilled cheese,

doesn't mean you can't treat it with great care.

Oh, I'm excited to eat this, it's gonna be good.

All right, I think she's done.

Both sides of the bread are very well-toasted.

It's probably a little too hot, but I'm gonna cut it anyway

because we gotta move on.

[plop]

So, they want me to do this

where there's a little bit of that oozy, cheese-pull.

But it's really hot.

Got that hot [laughs] juicy tomato in the middle there.

Both sides of the bread are nice

and like, deep golden-brown.

It's gonna be so good.

[bread crunching]

You guys it's so good.

It's like seriously delicious.

It's cheese on bread, what's better than that?

[drum music]

- Okay, today I'm gonna show you

how to make my version of grilled cheese.

My version of bread with melted cheese inside of it.

That's a more accurate description.

I'm gonna dip it in a pakora batter and fry it.

So that's traditionally called bread pakora.

Why not do it with cheese?

But I have about a half an inch of neutral oil.

I'm using sunflower.

And then here's some bread I baked this morning.

You don't have to used freshly baked bread, not at all.

But, you know, we're all just making bread these days, so.

Why the hell not?

I'm gonna go with kind of thin slices

'cause once it's like battered and fried

I want it to be about the thickness

of a standard grilled cheese.

Okay, we're gonna do a little muenster

'cause it melts so well.

It's that need of ooey-gooey in times of sadness.

I'm gonna do two slices, one on each side.

Some dates.

I usually go for medjool dates

'cause they're nice and sticky and soft.

And now they're the rage, you can find them anywhere.

All right I'm gonna stick these together.

You wanna squish it down a little

so it holds together when you dip it in the pakora batter.

And I'm going to take of the edges

to make it really nice and pretty.

You totally don't have to.

This is just purely aesthetic.

Okay, I'm gonna do

[plop]

on a diagonal

'cause everyone knows triangles taste better.

I think that's been scientifically proven.

- [Dan] Claire did not cut on a diagonal.

- What, people I work with

didn't cut their sandwich in a triangle?

I'm so disappointed in my peers.

Okay, I'm gonna make a quick pakora batter.

You don't have to like, get too precise.

So I'm doing equal parts rich flour and chickpea flour.

So I've added a big pinch of salt

and now I'm gonna add a little kashmiri red chili powder

and turmeric.

I'm gonna whisk it up.

Pakora is always a batter.

Pakora I like think of kinda like Indian tempura.

I'm gonna add enough water until its like a pourable batter.

Because it's gluten-free, you don't have

to really worry about over mixing it.

So it's pretty light.

You wanna be able to get a nice even thin coating of batter.

Nothing too thick.

It can get a little dangerous when you do the dip.

Everything can fall out on you,

so make sure you're nicely squished.

I'm gonna use a fork and we're just gonna go down and up.

Don't wiggle it around because

then your dates will fall out.

It's not that crazy, I mean if you think about it

it's like a Monte Cristo.

That guy is bubbling away.

Gonna be crispy.

Okay, here we go.

Plop her in, and we're gonna let her, let her fry.

It's gonna be a couple minutes per side.

A lot of times with these gluten-free kind of batters,

it takes longer to fry than you think.

I think this first one's ready to flip, wow.

Really impressed by myself on this one.

And then my favorite thing is these little,

little bits of pakora batter that have escaped.

It's the best.

So you get a little snack while

you wait for your grilled cheese.

What, what's better?

I think I'm gonna hit it on the sides too.

360-crunch.

Oh yeah.

This is my last bit of chaat masala

and I think it's going to a good cause.

These kinds of things though, I really miss the test kitchen

because I wish I could taste what everyone else is doing.

Okay, I feel good about that.

It's crispy crunchy all around.

And while it's still hot, I'm gonna sprinkle it all over,

heavy shower of chaat masala.

A mix of green mango powder, black salt,

some spices, and some other like, tangy, earthy things.

But basically it gives you sour, salty funk all in one.

And it's on chaats, but you can put it on whatever.

Really worth having in your pantry.

Okay.

Oh, we got a cheese pull!

Oh my god, that's a good one too, wow.

[bread crunching]

This is so good, you have to make this.

You have no idea how amazing it is.

It's like crunchy, and then

you've got soft bread on the inside.

It has it all, guys, it has it all!

We did it, we really did it.

[drum music]

- I know there a lot of people out there

who are like, not sardine-heads, but you know.

Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.

But to me, the absolute most important thing

that I will not budge on,

I like to cover my bread, all four sides, with mayonnaise.

So the first thing we're gonna do is take our bread

and really just slather on a nice, juicy layer of mayo.

So I'm really trying to get to all the edges.

So here we have mayo on all four sides of the bread.

Buckle up everybody.

Now that that's ready to go,

we're gonna get this whole mishegoss over to the stove

and make our grilled cheese sandwich.

So we've got our cast-iron pan,

and we're just gonna get these down,

and it's starting to sizzle pretty immediately,

which is what we're looking for.

So, we're gonna let this go for a little bit.

Just hangin' out with my grilled cheese.

I cannot believe that Claire starts from a cold pan.

So this first side, it's like we wanna get some browning

but we want more browning on the other side.

We just kinda wanna get this started.

Here--

It's hot!