Croque Madame

Croque Madame 

A French Classic 

 When Indrani from Ripappayan announced the Event on Sandwiches, I was quite happy because I have been wanting to make one of my favourite sandwiches since quite sometime and this was the perfect opportunity. Ideally this classic sandwich should be a Winter's sandwich because of all that butter and cheese but then again a good sandwich does keep you full for a long time indeed.

It is quite obvious that a sandwich would require some good sandwich bread and while you can always pick up a loaf from a bakery nothing beats the delightful taste of freshly baked bread at home. Here is a recipe for Sour Cream Sandwich Bread.

So my choice of sandwich is the classic Croque Madame . This is a grilled ham cheese sandwich which originated in France. Actually Croque Madam has a butter poached egg on top which many say represent a woman's hat hence the name Croque Madam. The other version of this sandwich without the egg is called a classic Croque Monsieur. Typically made with a lot of Gruyere cheese or Emmental cheese this sandwich with the bechamel sauce and butter and ham is a cheese lover's delight. Its a very heavy sandwich and so 1 sandwich keeps a person full for about 5 hours to 6 ours.



Serves 4

So this is what you need :-

8 slices of bread

For the Bechamel sauce

1 tbsp flour
1 cup of whole milk
2 tbsp butter
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt as per taste

For the assembling of the sandwich

300gm of Emmental or Gruyere cheese
8 slices of ham . I have used lean ham
4 eggs
70gm of butter

Bechamel sauce 

Start with preparing the bechamel sauce. Heat you r milk along with the nutmeg and cool it. Melt the butter and add the flour and quickly create a roux which is smooth and then add the milk bit by bit whisking it constantly to create a smooth bechamel sauce.

The skillet grilled sandwich with the goodies inside 

Generously butter the slices of bread and then add enough bechamel sauce to cover the side which faces you and add 2 slices of ham and then a fat slice of Emental cheese and then heat the skillet and use a slice of bread buttered side up on low heat and after a minute place this on the sandwich to finish creating it. The heat from the bread will melt the cheese and now place the entire sandwich on the skillet on low heat. and brown it well but take care to not burn it . Once done the cheese should have melted fully and then spread a bit of bechamel on the sandwich and top it with an egg fried sunny side up. Enjoy