posh cheese on toast: bacon, cheese and plum jam

bacon, toasted cheese and plum jam sandwich

There is a story about two psychologists who set up cameras around their house in order to film what their pets were doing when the owners weren't around.

The cat just ate and slept with an occasional mad half hour racing up and down the staircase. But mainly the cat just ate little and often, then curled up somewhere warm and went to sleep. The dog, however, was a different story.


As its owners left their home, the dog looked up from its basket and gave its tail a little thump, then settled back down as the front door closed. His eyes twitched and his doggy brows raised a little.

He lay quietly for a few minutes as if listening. Then he slowly but purposefully made his way to the family's living room and equally determinedly climbed onto all the furniture he was expressly forbidden from sitting on!

bacon, toasted cheese
and plum jam sandwich

The image of an old sagging Labrador lumbering onto a sofa and lying back with a contented sigh describes perfectly my relationship with cheese. I know I shouldn't but damn it makes me happy.

As far as cheese is concerned, I am the proverbial girl who just can't say no. And cheese loves me right back, especially my boobs, bum and belly, not forgetting my ample hips. I cannot be trusted not to eat the entire wedge, block or wheel. As a result I don't buy much cheese, unless I have got firm plans for cooking with it - such as the block of beautiful mature English cheddar nestling in my fridge ready to be turned into a comforting Sunday lunch accompaniment of cauliflower cheese. 

It was Saturday lunchtime, the weather was chilly, I was hungry and in need of something both filling and comforting; the cheese in my fridge looked rather beguiling. I could almost taste it already. There were also a couple of rashers of bacon in the fridge that just begged to be used. Ah how about a bacon and cheese rarebit or a croque monsieur? I could toast my sandwich but I also had some freshly baked bread and it seemed a bit of a waste to toast it when it had only been out of the oven a couple of hours. 

I do like toasted cheese though. I suppose I could toast the bacon, put it on the bread, add the cheese and quickly melt the cheese in the toaster oven. That way I have the perfect combination of pillowy bread, crunchy crisp bacon and melted cheese. I wonder if I can top that? Oh yes, I know plum jam. Plums work perfectly with pork and I have plum jam in the fridge too. 

What can I say? It was, if I say so myself, bloody marvellous. Salty smoked bacon, tangy nutty bubbling cheese and sweet, yet tart plum jam. This sandwich may well be my new guilty pleasure and next weekend's food indulgence cannot come soon enough!

Serves 1 greedy pig
Skill level: Easy

ingredients:
3 x smoked bacon rashers
2 x slices of good quality white bread
plum jam
mature English cheddar (about 30g)

directions:

1. Under a hot grill, first grill your bacon until done to your liking. I like mine quite crisp.
2. Spread the bread with a little of the plum jam (about 1 teaspoon each side).
3. Break up the bacon into pieces and spread evenly over each slice of bread.
4. Slice the cheese and spread over the slices of cheese. Grill the bread until the cheese has melted.
5. Assemble the sandwich and cut until quarters. Eat standing at the kitchen window while watching next door's optimistic young tabby cat stalking the fat autumn wood pigeons. It has a happy ending, since not only was the sandwich delicious, the wood pigeons got to fly another day!