Today’s sandwich is the “Green Bean Casserole” grilled cheese. It combines melted Camembert, green beans, sauteed shiitake mushrooms, and french fried onions on Sourdough bread.

Notes: Slapping a thick piece of foie gras on an otherwise unremarkable hamburger. Shaving black truffle on a bowl of Kraft macaroni and cheese. Cool Whip panna cotta. There’s a certain glee inherent in this kind of high/low eating, where ingredients that are wildly out of step with one another on the quality scale pair perfectly into a new, gloriously lowbrow dish. There is just such a revelatory moment in assembling this sandwich, in shaking pre-packaged French’s french-fried onions onto sauteed shiitakes and an oozing, room-temperature, ripe Camembert. The creaminess of the soft-rind cheese combines with the blanched, still-crisp green beans and the intensely salty crunch of the battered onions to make a sandwich that is reminiscent of, and instantly more delicious than, its classic holiday side-dish inspiration.

“Green Bean Casserole” Grilled Cheese
Makes 2 sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 4 slices Sourdough bread
• 1/2 wheel Camembert cheese, sliced
• 12 green beans, cooked but still crisp
• 1/2 cup french-fried onions
• 1/2 cup shiitake mushrooms, sliced and sauteed in butter
• 4 tablespoons butter

Method:

For each sandwich, layer half the cheese on the bottom slice of bread. Top with six of the green beans, half of the cooked mushrooms, and half of the french-fried onions. Top with remaining slice of bread. Butter both sides of sandwich, and grill in a frying pan. When bread browns on one side, flip sandwich and press with spatula or weigh with cast iron skillet. Continue cooking until sandwich is golden brown and cheese has melted, about four minutes total.