Himself’s favourite breakfast is Croque Madame which is
great, because it’s easy (and delicious). So I thought I’d share it with
you. I’ve been to cafes where they purport
to sell this French classic, but so often it’s just a toasted ham and cheese
sandwich (sometimes with some lettuce added – mon dieu!). A true Croque Madame is a thing of unctuous beauty. Layers of smoky ham and a gruyere cheese
mixture, baked in the oven and then served with a wobbly egg on top. The egg is meant to be fried, but I tend to
do poached as I find fried eggs a bit greasy and they make me queasy*.
So, for the perfect croque read on!
Start with some nice bread.
I tend to use sour dough (Sonoma Miche is fantastic as is the barley
bread which I get at my local fruit shop).
I also pick up the crème fraiche and gruyere while I’m there. If you can’t find gruyere a mix of tasty and
swiss or jarlsberg cheese would work well – you want a strong cheese which
melts well with a slightly nutty sweet finish. No crème fraiche? sour cream with a tiny bit of thickened cream works a treat.
So for 2 peeps:
4 slices of great bread
150g crème fraiche
150g gruyere cheese, grated
1tsp Dijon
mustard
Salt & pepper
Smoky pasture raised ham
2 fresh free range eggs (I only say fresh as they’re easier
to poach)
Turn your oven on to about 180oC before you start to preheat. Mix together the crème fraiche, grated
cheese, Dijon mustard
and salt & pepper to taste. Smear
this mixture on the top of all 4 slices of bread. Top the bottom layer of bread with the
ham. Put the top piece of bread on WITH
THE CHEESE LAYER UP. This is important –
you want that layer to go golden and melty and ooze over the top of the
bread. Pop the sandwiches on a tray with
greaseproof paper into the oven for 20 minutes.
 |
| Before the oven |
At about the 15 minute mark poach or fry your eggs making
sure the yolk is still soft.
Triumphantly remove your croques from the oven (at this stage they’re a
Croque Monsieur – the addition of the egg makes the Madame). Let them cool a wee bit and then pop the egg
on top and serve. As you cut the egg it
flows all over your croque for a moment of pure eggy, cheesy, hammy bliss.
Enjoy! Himself certainly does… Mine were quite brown this time (which made
for brown crispy deliciousness) and we enjoyed them outside in the morning
sunshine.
*see what I did there?
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