Croque Madame

I’ve heard it been said that one should never go food shopping when one is hungry. I think the same should be said about flipping through cookbooks. AND, if you’re hungry & pregnant like me, well then, look out, because you’re going to tear the house down just to satisfy a silly craving!

I was sitting at the table yesterday morning drinking a cup of coffee ( Doctors orders... decaf) and flipping through Nancy Silverton’s Sandwich Book by Nancy Silverton with Teri Gelber, when I came across a photograph of two sandwiches, a Croque Monsieur and a Croque Madame. I stopped in my tracks. What were these! I had never seen such sandwiches before. One of them had a fried egg on top and the other had some sort of white sauce on it that looked sort of like an egg white omelet. I quickly read the recipe and learned that the difference between the two is Mornay Sauce. The Croque Madame with the fried egg, looked so good to me I decided I HAD to have that for lunch, what was even better was that I had everything needed already on hand!

To make the sandwich I needed 2 slices of sourdough bread, Country ham, gruyere cheese and an egg. I had the ciabatta, technically not really a sourdough, but good enough for me. I had smoked country ham and gruyere on hand because that was going to be dinner Sunday evening before it was decided we would have stew instead, and I always have butter and eggs in the house. What I didn’t have was a Panini press, but I didn’t need one because I eventually sandwiched everything between two cast iron pans and weighted that down with 2 five lb. barbells. Rather than butter the outside of the bread I lightly coated the cast iron skillet with a thin layer of butter and then lay the sandwich on top and pressed it down, letting it cook until it was browned, then flipped it and did the same on the other side. Once the sandwich was ready I topped it with the fried egg, a little Fleur de Sel (kosher salt is perfect if you don’t have sea salt) and some fresh ground pepper.

To eat it, I actually tucked the fried egg into the sandwich after I took the picture. I wanted the creamy yolk to break over the warm ham and melted cheese as I bit into the sandwich and it did, melding with the flavors and textures and tasting so very good. Then I freaked because I remembered that I’m not supposed to be eating soft cooked eggs right now. I quickly microwaved the sandwich to better cook the yolk then ate it. It was still very good, but not as good as that first decadent bite.

I actually liked the bottom picture better, and would have used it but Tom said it looked a little obscene, in a sort of unappetizing way, so I went with the top pic instead. heh

Written by Deb on October 22, 2003 12:01 AM