It's Still Grilled Cheese Month - Grilled BAT

It's time for another tasty grilled cheese sandwich and I was planning to make a brie/green apple/toast sliced almond on brioche but today I want something more savoury. I am just kind of getting into this sandwich thing late in life, never being a sandwich fan in the past. In fact, you could almost say that I didn't believe in sandwiches, unless you were talking a mushy egg salad on white without crusts served at a baby shower. That is barely even a sandwich and it's food that your aunts still make but they seem to be a dying breed. If I attend a shower thrown by young people, it's all dips and flat breads and veggie trays and fancy designer cupcakes. I think I might do a post about those lovely little treats that you only eat at showers thrown by older women and funerals if the funeral has a reception in a church basement afterwards.

 One of the few sandwiches I do crave from time to time is a BLT. I didn't think that the crisp iceberg lettuce that works so well in a toasted sandwich would work in a melty, cheesy sandwich so I subbed in some peppery arugula. Crispy Bacon, arugula, some tomato slices and then a smear of tomato jam with cheese sounded perfect. I decided not to make the bread for this one so it was off to one of my favourite neighbourhood bakeries for a loaf of really seedy twelve grain bread. The nuttiness of the bread was a good foil to the richness of the tomato jam and the bacon.

BAT Sandwich
tomato jam
cheese ( I used havarti with sun dried tomato)
bacon strips, cooked til crispy and drained on paper towel
sliced tomato
butter
bread slices
kosher salt and pepper
arugula, washed and dried

Tomato Jam
adapted from Rachael Ray

8 plum tomatoes, seeded and chopped (about 1 lb)
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbls balsamic vinegar
1 tbls rosemary wine syrup (if you don't have anything like this, just use 2 tbls of balsamic)
3 sundried tomatoes, chopped finely

put all of the ingredients into a small saucepan and simmer over medium low heat for about 30 minutes until it's all thick. Remove from heat and let cool. Because I didn't peep the tomatoes, I did give them  a mash with a potato masher at the very end. How easy is that?

For each sandwich:
butter two slices of bread
put bread on a cutting board, buttered side down
put cheese on the bread
add a couple of tomato slices
pinch kosher salt, grind of pepper
two slices of crispy bacon
arugula
a nice smear of tomato jam
top with more cheese and the second piece of bread, buttered side up


cook in a frying pan over med heat until the cheese is melty and the bread is nicely browned.