5 Ingredients: Greg Jurksztowicz's Grilled Cheese

By Natalie Foxwell

5 Ingredients, an Urban Family series where we sit down with a Shanghai-based chef and ask for a family-friendly meal using 5 Ingredients easily found in Shanghai; let us help you start the week with a simple five-step recipe!

This week we talked to Greg Jurksztowicz from specialty grilled cheese ‘Melt Bar’ restaurant Co. Cheese. Three years ago, Greg opened Co. Cheese in Jing’an to share his love of warm, cheesy sandwiches with an expat community that appreciates its comfort food, and a local Chinese community eager to discover a different style of western food. Greg’s love for grilled cheese dates back to his childhood, where he would swap his allowance money for greasy grilled cheeses on wonder bread with processed Kraft singles, ketchup and pickles.

While this classic is available at Co. Cheese, they also offer more mature melt concoctions such as duck breast with marmalade and brie, aged cheddar with tomato chutney and Canadian bacon, and Hunanese pork with peppers and mozzarella.  

What dish are you helping us prepare this week?
I’m going to explain the basics for the reliable grilled cheese sandwich. I chose this sandwich because it is my top brunch recommendation for hungover adults, plus its flavor suits a child’s discerning palate. One big happy ‘Urban Family!’ 

What five ingredients do we need?

Cheese: Simple mild to medium cheeses work best, either shredded or thinly sliced, just make sure it's evenly distrbuted; think cheddar, American, Gouda, or Monterey jack and stay away from soft and blue cheeses. Use a cheese to bread ratio that is heavy on the cheese, then add more cheese!

Bread: White bread is fine, but in China it can be too sweet, so find a loaf that has a good balance of salt and sugar. Bread Talk’s white bread is not bad, however if you want to get more refined, try European rye, dark German or the Co. Cheese choice Bastiaan Bakery’s San Francisco sourdough. The country loaf at Sunflower Bakery rocks too!

Meat: Use side bacon and/or country ham, chopped into small pieces and fried (with chopped white onion, if desired) until crispy.

Sauces: At Co. Cheese this sandwich comes with brown sauce, however a good mustard and ketchup also work well.

2 eggs: I believe using good quality, orange-yoked organic farm eggs make a big difference to the taste. 

What is the five-step recipe?

1. Butter and grill the inside of the bread before assembling the sandwich. This takes more time but will double the buttery flavor and the crunchy texture.

2. Then, spread butter on the outside and assemble the sandwich by adding thinly sliced or shredded cheese from the center outwards. The bread nestles the cheese and the cheese nestles the other ingredients. For example: bread – cheese – bacon – sauce/mustard – cheese – bread.

3. Heat a flat iron skillet on low to medium heat; you want a nice steady cooking temperature; too low and the bread won’t crisp, and too high it will burn before the cheesy center has melted. Place the sandwich inside the skillet and push down with a spatula so it cooks evenly. Your goal is to melt all ingredients into one so they are inseparable and have a perfect, crispy-browned exterior. Cook each side for 3 - 5 minutes.

4. Finally, add the eggs. There are many ways to add an egg to a sandwich: scrambled, omelet, hard-boiled or fried. We are going to add two unbroken, over easy, organic eggs that will explode as you eat them. Cook the eggs and then open the sandwich (the cheese should be melted and stringy) and delicately place the eggs on top of the fillings. Then, ever so delicately, place the top slice back on, taking care not to damage the eggs.

5. Cut the sandwich in half, between the two eggs to expose the beautifully layered and grilled fillings, and serve with your favorite sauces.

What's your advice on your dish of the week? 

The problem you get with a lot of bacon sandwiches is when you bite into the bacon it slides right out, so make sure you chop the bacon or ham into small pieces and fry them first. At Co. Cheese, this sandwich comes with brown sauce, a smashed hash brown cooked in bacon fat and a few tablespoons of Heinz baked beans inside. Chopped tomatoes and jalapenos work wonders too. So really, once you master this basic version, you can start experimenting with cheeses and throwing in last night’s leftovers or whatever is in the fridge!  

Tell us something that’s happening in your restaurant at the moment, that our Urban Family community can enjoy.

At Co. Cheese, we serve about 30 incarnations of the humble grilled cheese, plus an extensive DIY menu for our customers to have their sandwiches made the way mama used to. If you haven’t been in a few months, then you’ve not tasted our expanded menu which includes more sandwich options, delicious homemade soups, breakfast cereal cocktails (Captain crunch with Baileys and milk anyone?) and Shanghai’s most legit Philly Cheesesteak!

32 Yuyan Dong Lu, by Changde Lu 与远东路32号, 近常德路

This article was originally published by our sister magazine Urban Family (WeChat ID: urbanfamilyshanghai). Follow the Urban Family WeChat account by scanning the QR code below. Click "Read more" (阅读原文) below for more Shanghai news and guides from Urban Family.