Croque-Madame (one of the best things, ever)
Serves 2 – adapted from Epicurious

There are lots of weak versions of this recipe out there. This one beats any I’ve tasted in any restaurant. You’re opinions may vary.

This has enough calories to get you through a 600K.

For sauce
• 2 tbps unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 tbps flour
• 1 cups whole milk
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

For sandwiches
• 2 tbps unsalted butter
• 1 3/4 ounces coarsely grated Gruyère cheese (3/4 cup)
• 4 slices white sandwich bread
• Dijon mustard (to taste)
• 1/4 lb thinly sliced cooked ham
• 2 large eggs

Making the sauce:

Melt 2 tbsp of the butter over medium-low heat and whisk in the flour a bit at a time. Let the mixture (a roux) cook for about 3 minutes. It is important to keep whisking it so nothing burns. Consider it exercise for the calorie fest to come.

Slowly at the milk and whisk to incorporate. Bring it to a boil and then drop the heat to a light simmer. Let it cook for about 5 minutes but keep an eye on it. It will threaten to boil over if you aren’t careful. Whisk it occasionally.

Mix in the salt, pepper, nutmeg and 1/4 cup of the cheese until melted. Remove the sauce from the heat. Cover the mixture with a cloth or wax paper (not a lid) while you prepare the sandwiches.

Making the sandwiches:

Lay out the 4 slices of bread. Top two of the slices with a few tablespoons of the sauce each. Split the remainder of the cheese over the slices with the sauce. Spread mustard on the empty slices and top with ham.

Preheat broiler with rack 5 inches or so from heat source.

Melt 1 tbsp butter in large skillet and cook sandwiches over medium-low heat until golden brown, 2 minutes per side Alternatively, you could butter the bread directly, but I find that you need a bit more butter to cover that way.

Transfer sandwiches to a shallow baking pan and wipe out skillet.

Top sandwiches with the remainder of the sauce and broil until the top is golden and bubbly. Note that I cooked mine a touch too long. Keep a close eye on it. There is a very fine line between perfect and burned.

While that is cooking, start 1 tbsp of butter in the skillet you wiped out earlier. Fry up the 2 large eggs over medium heat with a touch of salt and pepper.

Top the sandwiches with the eggs. Eat it right away. Perfect.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 10:08 am and is filed under cooking, diet, food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.