Email to Cat      

Whole-Grain Croque Monsieur

Source of Recipe

From "The Newlywed Cookbook" by Sarah Copeland


Recipe Introduction

"Leave it to the French to find a way to eat ham and cheese for breakfast, and give it an elegant name like croque monsieur. Add a fried or poached egg, and your monsieur becomes a madame. Either way, it's pure decadence. Serve warm, with or without an egg, and don't forget your greens dressed with a bracing mustard vinaigrette, bistro style."

List of Ingredients

◦ 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
◦ 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
◦ 1 � cups low-fat milk
◦ 1 to 1 � teaspoons sea salt
◦ Pinch of nutmeg
◦ Freshly ground black pepper
◦ 12 ounces Gruy�re or Comt� cheese, grated (about 3 � cups)
◦ � cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
◦ 4 large hearty seven-grain or nutty whole-grain bread
◦ 2 teaspoons Dijon or whole-grain Dijon mustard
◦ 12 ounces ham


Recipe

Preheat the broiler to medium-high.

Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Sprinkle the flour over the butter in the pan and cook until smooth but not toasted, about 2 minutes. Gradually add the milk, whisking constantly until the milk begins to thicken, about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat, add 1 teaspoon salt and the nutmeg. Taste, and season with salt and black pepper. Stir in � cup of the Gruy�re and the Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Melt the remaining 4 tablespoons butter. Lay the bread on a baking sheet and brush with melted butter and mustard. Divide the ham among four of the bread slices and sprinkle with 1 cup Gruy�re. Top with the remaining bread. Ladle the sauce over the sandwiches and sprinkle with the remaining Gruy�re. Broil until the sauce is bubbly and lightly browned, 3 to 5 minutes.
Serve immediately.

Makes 4 sandwiches





❧ Make it meatless:
This sandwich is too good to hoard among carnivores. Lose the ham and add the egg for a Croque Les Ouef de Fromage!