Three Owls Grilled Cheese with Shallot Jam & Sea Salt 

Suzanne Dumaine, founder and owner of Three Owls Market, shared her recipe for the best grilled cheese earlier this week on Meatpacking’s Instagram. While we miss going to Three Owls Market IRL right now, Suzanne shares a little piece of the cafe you can make at home.

RECIPE

While you can never go wrong with melted cheese in general, I would say this mashup of melted cheese and caramelized shallot jam is peak grilled cheese perfection. I throw a little Vermouth in mine (my second favorite ingredient after shallots) and then use it on everything from roast chicken to scrambled eggs. 

Yield: 1 Grilled Cheese

• 2 slices bread of your choosing — marbled rye, wheat, white, challah….
• About ⅓ cup grated cheese (at Three Owls we mix Gruyere and Cheddar, but you can truly pick whatever meltable cheese you want, and depending on your bread size you may want closer to ½ cup)
• 1-2 Tablespoons mayonnaise
• Sea salt, for garnish

Swipe 1 side of each bread slice with mayonnaise so that the whole surface area is covered but not thickly so. Flip bread slices mayo-side down. Pile the cheese onto one slice of bread, and slather the second side with shallot jam. For normal-size sandwich bread, I recommend about 1 Tablespoon. Close your sandwich.

Place the grilled cheese in a nonstick pan over medium heat — you do not need to add anything to the pan, the mayo will do its thing. Let sizzle and slowly brown on the bottom side, 4-5 minutes, pressing down if you wish with a spatula. Flip and continue cooking until the second side is golden and cheese is melted, 3-4 minutes more. 

Slice on a diagonal, sprinkle with sea salt, and eat promptly. 

Shallot Jam

Note: If you don’t have shallots on hand, substitute with diced red or white onion, and add about a spoonful of sugar in the beginning.

• 3 shallots
• 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter
• ½ Tablespoon thyme leaves, optional
• 2 teaspoons white wine or Champagne vinegar (red wine vinegar OK, too)
• Splash dry white vermouth, optional 

Peel the shallots and slice crosswise into thin rings. Toss in a small saucepot with the butter and place over medium-low heat. Season lightly with salt. Add the thyme if you’re using it. Let the shallots and butter simmer until the shallots begin to soften and the bottom of the pot is almost dry. Add a splash of water. Continue stirring the shallots occasionally, adding a splash of water every time the bottom of the pot gets dry and looks like it has burnt bits, stirring to incorporate those brown caramelized bits on the bottom. Continue this until the shallots are spreadable soft and caramelized, 20-30 minutes. When shallots are very soft and pan is becoming dry again, add the vinegar and vermouth, stir to pick up the brown bits on the bottom of the pan, and simmer until liquid is fully absorbed. Let cool and store in an airtight container in the fridge up to 1 week.