What is Croque Monsieur? It's basically a grilled ham club-style sandwich, with a lovely cheesy béchamel sauce poured over and popped under the grill to melt and brown.
Check out my recipe for bubbling cheesy goodness!
Croque Monsieur Recipe
Delicious as a snack with a few thick-cut chips and salad.
Béchamel sauce is usually made with hot milk but sometimes I can't be bothered so just use cold milk and it works for me and where are no lumps to be found.
Ideally, you need a pan that can go into the oven - if not you will have to transfer the sandwiches to a baking sheet.
Using a pan (that can go into the oven) toast the bread on the buttered side only.
On the un-toasted side add two slices of ham to two of the slices. Sprinkle over the rest of the grated Gruyere cheese and top each with the other two slices of bread - toasted side up.
Pop the pan with the sandwiches into your preheated oven and bake for about 5 minutes.
Now transfer the sandwiches to a foil-lined tray (only because a foil tray is easier to clean up than a grill pan with melted sauce) and pour over the thick cheese sauce - if it's gone too cold to pour just heat it back up a bit first.
Put the sandwiches under a grill for about 3 to 5 minutes until the sauce is bubbling and has some colour.
Serve straight away.
Croque Monsieur
Ingredients
- 4 slices of nice proper bread - a bloomer loaf is good
- 60g melted butter
- 1 tablespoon of plain flour
- 100ml whole milk
- salt and black pepper for seasoning
- a pinch of grated nutmeg
- 170g Gruyere cheese - grated
- 1 to 2 tablespoon of Dijon mustard
- 4 slices of baked ham - use ham sliced from the bone not that prepacked, preformed stuff - proper ham is needed here.
Instructions
- Melt the butter over low heat in a small saucepan. Leaving the butter in the pan, brush all four pieces of bread with the butter on one side only and put the bread to one side.
- Back to the melted butter; add the flour all at once, stirring with a wooden spoon for a couple of minutes to cook the flour over a low to medium heat. Why? Because if you don't cook the flour in this way your sauce will not only be lumpy but it will taste floury too.
- Slowly pour the milk into the butter and flour mixture and cook, whisking constantly, until the sauce is thickened.
- Turn the heat to low and add a pinch of black pepper and a pinch of nutmeg to the sauce along with most of the grated Gruyere cheese - keep a little to one side.
- Add 1 tablespoon of the Dijon mustard and stir well until the sauce is nice and smooth.
- Have a taste and add more Dijon mustard if you need to - I used 2 tablespoons.
- Remove from the heat, check the seasoning adding a tiny pinch of salt if you think it needs it, then set aside and get on with the bread.
- Ideally, you need a pan that can go into the oven - if not you will have to transfer the sandwiches to a baking sheet.
- Using a pan (that can go into the oven) toast the bread on the buttered side only.
- On the un-toasted side add two slices of ham to two of the slices. Sprinkle over the rest of the grated Gruyere cheese and top each with the other two slices of bread - toasted side up.
- Pop the pan with the sandwiches into your preheated oven and bake for about 5 minutes.
- Now transfer the sandwiches to a foil-lined tray (only because a foil tray is easier to clean up than a grill pan with melted sauce) and pour over the thick cheese sauce - if it's gone too cold to pour just heat it back up a bit first.
- Put the sandwiches under a grill for about 3 to 5 minutes until the cheese sauce is bubbling and has some colour.
- Serve straight away.
So marvelous…and my hubby would be thrilled with these.
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