bouchon croque-madame

Early on during the school semester, I have more free time to play with especially on the weekends. So this weekend, I took a couple of pages out of the Bouchon cookbook and made the croque-madame and mornay sauce that goes with it.

The mornay sauce is a labor of acute attention and TLC to make sure that the roux doesn't color and that it doesn't scorch on the bottom but the end result is well worth it.

I'm going reverse order and posting the actual sandwich how-to first then the mornay sauce because that's how I'm gonna roll (and because I'm in class - like right now typing this).

This isn't much of a recipe because a croque-madame is pretty simple to put together, even in the Thomas Keller world.

Croque-Madame How-To

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. On each slice of bread (brioche, pan de mie, etc.) place sliced ham and then Swiss cheese on top. Add a tablespoon of butter into a pan over medium heat and melt the butter. Then, place 2 slices, or halves of the sandwich, to the pan and cook until browned on the bottom. Transfer both halves of the sandwich to the oven until the cheese is melted. Now, back to the pan.

Melt another tablespoon of butter into the same pan used and crack open an egg. Cook sunny side up and reserve. Take the bread out of the oven too once the cheese has melted!

Put together both halves of the sandwich so that the Swiss cheeses meet together and place the fried egg on top. Drizzle the egg whites with mornay sauce and sprinkle chopped parsley over.

This is pretty good even without the mornay sauce too though. Egg yolk, melted cheese and ham? COME ON! (Gob reference)

The actual mornay recipe to come soon...