Ultimate festive cheese toastie
What better way to use up the odds and ends from your cheeseboard than the ultimate festive cheese toastie? No need for a toastie maker – it’s made in a frying pan.
Ingredients
- 2–3 stalks of parsley, leaves picked, finely chopped
- 2 spring onions, finely sliced
- 100g/3½oz hard cheese, grated (such as strong cheddar, gruyère)
- 75g/2¾oz soft cheese, diced (such as camembert, soft blue)
- 4 slices firm bread (such as boule or sourdough)
- your favourite mustard, for spreading
- 2 tbsp fruity chutney (festive leftovers such as cranberry sauce or membrillo work well)
- 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú butter, softened
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- pickled walnuts, cornichons, thinly sliced apple, to serve (optional)
Method
Tip the parsley and spring onions into a bowl with the cheeses, some pepper and a little salt. Mash together well with a fork.
Spread two of the bread slices with mustard (or butter if you’re not a mustard fan), and the other two with fruity chutney. Divide the cheese mixture between the chutney-topped slices, sandwich with the others and firmly squash down. Generously butter the outsides.
Heat a large frying pan over a medium–high heat. Put the sandwich in the pan and weigh it down with another heavy pan (or a couple of fish slices/spatulas topped with heavy tins). Cook for 3 minutes on each side until the outsides are crisp and golden brown, the insides oozy.
Cut in half and serve with your favourite cheeseboard accompaniments, such as pickled walnuts or cornichons