Cheese, ham and red onion toasties

Cheese, ham and red onion toasties

Autumn

I grew up eating toasties. We had a big, old Breville toastie-maker, which lived in the kitchen cupboard (it would be vintage now). I never understood whether the green light meant your toastie was done, or it was time to start cooking. Either way, great things happened in the Breville. Crispy cheese wept from the edges of its buttery hot plates, but even after a week or so, it smelled weirdly okay. When the Breville died, we’d make our toasties in a heavy cast-iron pan on the Rayburn. They were different, but equally delicious. Here’s the recipe for my ultimate toastie. Cooking a toastie over an open fire gives them a marvellous smokiness, making them even more wolfable.

Makes 2

Ingredients

  • 4 thick slices of white or wholemeal (wholewheat) bread
  • a knob of butter, softened
  • 75g (2½oz) mature cheddar, thinly sliced
  • 2 slices of free-range or organic ham
  • ½ small red onion, thinly sliced
  • 50g (1¾oz) your favourite soft blue cheese

Method

Make sure you have a hot fire going with plenty of lovely, glowing embers. It should be kicking out a nice amount of heat, but it shouldn’t be over-aggressive. Set a heavy cast-iron frying pan or plate down over the fire and let it heat up.

Set the bread down on a board and butter the top of each slice. Lay two slices butter-side down in the pan or on the hot plate. Place a few thin slices of cheddar on top of each piece of bread. Follow this with some torn pieces of ham, then a sprinkling of sliced red onion, then a few dots of blue cheese. Repeat this layering to use up the remaining cheese, ham and onion. Set the top slices of bread down over the open toasties, butter-side up. Using a spatula, press down on the sandwiches.

Keep an eye on the sandwiches as they cook – don’t let the undersides burn. When they’re looking crisp and golden, use a spatula to flip the toasties onto the other side. Place a rectangle of baking paper over the toasties and set a weight down on top to press them as they cook on the second side. I use a large, flat stone from the beach, but another heavy pan will do nicely, or you can just press them with your spatula. Keep cooking until the second side is crisp and the cheese has melted and is bubbling out onto the hot surface.

Remove the toasties and let them cool for a few minutes before eating.

Back to Membership