Croque Monsieur

Last week we watched It's Complicated on HBO. This was the second and a half time I had seen this movie and every time it makes me want to move to California, plant a beautiful garden in my back yard, start my own restaurant, and have my girlfriends over once a week for wine and a spectacular meal.  Instead of doing all of those things, I tried making Croque Monsieur which she serves the architect who is designing her addition after one of their meetings. It was so intriguing I had to try it.  I began by looking up what the heck Croque Monsieur is, which is a very fancy ham and cheese sandwich from France.  I found a recipe that I liked at marthastewart.com, picked up the fixins at the grocery store and voila:

Makes 4

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for baking sheet
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup Gruyere or Swiss cheese, grated, plus 8 ounces, thinly sliced
• Coarse salt
• Freshly ground white pepper
• Freshly ground nutmeg
• Cayenne pepper
• 8 slices brioche, cut 1/2 inch thick, toasted
• 6 ounces baked ham, thinly sliced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Butter a baking sheet; set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add flour, and cook until foaming, whisking constantly, for 3 minutes.
3. In another medium saucepan, heat milk over medium heat. Slowly add milk to butter-flour mixture, whisking to prevent lumps from forming. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and cook 2 minutes more. Stir in 1/2 cup grated cheese, and season with salt, white pepper, nutmeg, and cayenne. Cook until thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat; transfer to a bowl, and set aside to cool.
4. Place 4 pieces of toast on a work surface and spread each piece with a 1/4 cup of sauce. Cover sauce with a slice of cheese, a slice of ham, and another slice of cheese. Top each sandwich with remaining 4 slices of toast. Spread each sandwich with 1/4 cup sauce and sprinkle evenly with remaining 1/2 cup grated cheese. 
5. Place sandwiches on prepared baking sheet, and bake until heated through, about 5 minutes. Preheat broiler; transfer baking sheet to broiler and broil until golden brown and bubbly, 2 to 3 minutes. Serve immediately.

This recipe made a lot of the sauce which I saved and I will make more sandwiches in half the time later this week. I also struggled with the cheese because it did not come sliced and was very thin. Since I have a solid track record of slicing my fingers I improvised and got it into the thinnest slices I could.

Our assessment was that this does taste quite good.  It took a long time to make what seems like a hot ham and cheese sandwich.  There might be a trick that I am missing.  Worth a shot if you feel like your sandwiches are too boring.  It is probably not all that healthy given the massive amounts of cheese.