Croque Madame
Over-the-top grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with a decidedly french twist.
If you’ve never had a croque monsieur or croque madame, there is something very satisfying about a sandwich you HAVE to eat with a knife and fork. A croque monsieur is the classic, french ham and cheese sandwich with a bit of white sauce. A croque madame takes the croque monsieur a notch up by crowning it with a beautiful fried egg. This bad boy isn’t for picking up with your hands but hits all of the high notes of a really delectable, hot sandwich…toasty bread, gooey cheese, umami, smokey-salty ham, and the bonus of a bit of unctuous ,runny egg yolk.
These are great for a cold weather lunch or dinner for the family accompanied by either a salad or a cup of soup. I say cold weather because you can warm up the oven and house, conveniently making several sandwiches at once on a baking sheet. All you need is a few spoonfuls from a batch of bechamel sauce at the ready, some pre-sliced gluten-free bread, your favorite ham…some eggs, cheese and mustard. It’s one of those flavors whose taste is greater than the sum of its parts.
The fun twist with these for me is the fried egg, which is what makes it a croque madame. Because gluten-free sandwich bread tends to be smaller in dimensions than normal sandwich bread, a normal egg would be too big for these sandwiches. Quail eggs, with their beautiful blue-lined shells work great here! If you don’t have quail eggs handy, smaller medium eggs from the grocery store will give you more runny yolk than the quail eggs but not be so big as to take over the sandwich.
Ingredients:
(These are given per sandwich - multiply ingredients according to how many you would like to make at a time)
2 slices gluten-free sandwich bread (I used Udi’s)
2-3 slices thinly sliced ham (French Madrange ham is traditional but harder to find. Applegate black forest ham - preferably freshly sliced is a great alternative)
2 slices gruyere or similar nutty, cowsmilk cheese, plus a small amount of grated cheese for garnish
1-2 good schmears of Dijon mustard
1 medium egg or 1 quail egg
fat of choice for frying the egg
Method:
Preheat oven to 350°F, and line baking sheet with either parchment or lightly greased foil.
Place your desired number of bread slices on the prepared baking sheet and dry toast for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, gently reheat your bechamel or mornay sauce in the microwave or in a small sauce pan over medium low heat.
Remove your baking pan from the oven and begin to dress the slices:
First, spread mustard on one side of each slice;
then, spread a tablespoon of warmed bechamel or mornay sauce on top of the mustard.
Place a slice of cheese on each slice of prepared bread.
Layer ham on one slice of bread per sandwich, and cover with a ham-less slice of bread.
Finally add one more spoon of bechamel or mornay sauce atop each assembled sandwich and the reserved, grated cheese.
Place baking sheet of assembled sandwiches in oven and heat through for 8 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat butter or oil in a small frying pan over medium heat. Crack egg(s) into pan and fry briefly until tops are barely set. Set aside.
Change the oven setting to broil. Heat the sandwiches 1-2 minutes under broil, watching carefully, to achieve nice browning of the top of each sandwich. Remove from oven immediately and top each with a warm egg.
Serve immediately with a leafy green salad, dressed with a simple vinaigrette and/or a cup of vegatable soup.
