This is a french dish I was introduced to by a friend. It sounded interresting so I decided to give it a try. The English translatioin is Crisy Mister which I found interresting and wonder why such a name. The sauce can either be put on the top of the bread or on the inside. I recommend the top, especially if you are a novice at the broiler like I am. The sauce prevents the bread from drying out and burning like my attempt did. I however did one with the sauce on the top just to try the difference and it faired just fine in the broiler where the others burned. I have included the chef's commments at the preface to his recipie.
A simple dish can be such an important dish -- both for diners and chefs. To me, that's the croque monsieur: bread, ham, cheese, and béchamel all toasted together to make the ultimate ham-and-cheese. I can remember my first one: It was 1996, and I was on my first trip to France to apprentice at the elegant Château Les Crayère in Reims. I bounded off the plane, ready to take on Paris. Good plan -- but I didn't speak much French and got lost. Then I realized I was missing a bag. Needless to say, I wasn't in the best mood. I wandered into a café and ordered a croque monsieur and a beer. That first bite was a wave of happiness. It hit all the right notes -- saltiness from the cheese, smokiness from the ham, the crunch of the toast offset by the creamy béchamel. You can't go wrong with the basics: a quality French- or Italian-style loaf of bread (not baguette), good Gruyère (the Franche-Comté is best), and a decent cured ham, like Black Forest. Sure, you can dress it up -- add peppered bacon or play around with different types of bread -- but I'm not so sure that any of that will make this classic any better. That's one of the secrets to being a good cook: You have to know when to leave well enough alone. --David Myers
Serves: 2
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 12 minutes
1 tbsp butter, plus softened butter for bread
1 tbsp flour
3/4 cup whole milk
Pinch of grated nutmeg
Coarse salt and ground black pepper
2 tbsp Parmigiano, grated
3 oz Gruyère cheese, grated (about 3/4 cup). If you can, get Franche-Comté.
4 slices French or Italian loaf bread
Dijon mustard
6 oz thinly sliced ham, about 6 slices. (We used a package of Applegate Farms organic uncured ham: 7 oz equals 7 slices.)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. To make béchamel sauce: In a small saucepan on low heat, melt butter until foamy. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly with a flat sauce whisk until smooth, about 2 minutes. Slowly add milk, stirring continuously, and cook until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and season with nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste. Stir in Parmigiano and 2 tbsp grated Gruyère. Reserve.
3. Lightly and evenly butter bread slices on both sides and toast both sides in sauté pan over low heat until just golden brown.
4. Spread one side of each toasted slice with mustard. Evenly place the ham slices and about ½ cup Gruyère cheese on two of the bread slices. Top each with one of remaining bread slices, mustard-side down.
5. Spread béchamel sauce to cover the top of each sandwich (crusts, too). Sprinkle evenly with the remaining Gruyère cheese. Place on oven-safe sheet pan and bake 5 minutes at 350 degrees, then place under lit broiler until cheese mixture on top is bubbling and lightly browned, about 3 minutes.
Tip: Cover the edges of the bread with the béchamel or they can get a little too crisp in contrast to the rest of the sandwich.
