Croque Monsieurs

January 25, 2013 at 11:44 pm | Posted in Sandwich | Leave a comment

Delicious!

This recipe is courtesy of SaVUry and Sweet.  It was delicious and so cheesy!

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. butter

3 tbsp. flour

2 cups hot milk

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/8 tsp. nutmeg

12 ounces Gruyere, grated (divided)

1/2 cup Parmesan, grated

5 croissants (the original recipe called for 8)

Dijon mustard

honey ham

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Slice the croissants in half and toast for four minutes; flip them and toast for another two minutes.  Set aside.

I have to tell you about this cheese:  Gruyere.  I have never purchased it before, I have never tasted it before.

Oh, wow.  It was expensive…imported from Switzerland.  The taste?  Incredible.  Indescribable.  It was so easy to grate, it just slid through the grater like butter almost.

The small container was reserved for the sauce and the plateful was for the sandwiches themselves.  But I’m getting ahead of myself….back to the recipe:

Melt butter over low heat in small saucepan.

Add flour and blend quickly.

Warm milk.  I poured mine into a microwave safe measuring cup and warmed it for about a minute and a half, then sat it on a burner.  Since the oven was on, it kept the milk warm.

Pour the hot milk into this mixture and stir constantly, raising the heat enough so it slowly bubbles and thickens.  You might want to use a whisk; I used a spatula at first and grabbed my whisk for a few strokes, just to be certain that there were no lumps.

Remove pan from heat and add Parmesan cheese, 1/2 cup of the Gruyere, the salt, pepper and nutmeg.  I mixed my spices in with the cheese before adding them to the pot.

Mix up the milk and cheeses with spatula or whisk.

Again, I used my spatula for a bit, then grabbed my whisk to make sure I had no lumps.  Now, you can prepare the croissants.  Spread a bit of Dijon mustard on each slice.

I purchased thinly sliced ham, so I used two slices per sandwich.  Sprinkle with a handful of gruyere.

Oh my!  Pop the top on each of the sandwiches and now the fun REALLY begins!

Get the warm cheese sauce and a nice big spoon and pour dollops of cheese sauce on top of each sandwich.  Be very generous.  Use all of the cheese sauce so that these babies get a cheese bath!

Pop into the hot oven for five minutes.  The original recipe said to use a broiler after the first five minutes but my broiler is only a single-burning broiler, so they wouldn’t have all gotten browned.  I let them bake for another couple of minutes until the cheese was all bubbly.

Whaddya think?  I ended up serving them with a nice green salad and Italian dressing.  And all the extra cheese?  I spooned it into a small bowl and brought it to the table and of course, drenched my sandwich in it.