Did you know croque madame means Mrs Bite? I feel a new nickname coming on. This is a shove-in-ya-face kinda dish, featuring a cheat’s way to honey-glaze bought ham. As much as roasting your own ham saves money, sometimes you just cba for a snack. The fried egg, though, is a MUST.
You will only use 1/2 of the bechamel sauce, you can freeze or use it for another dish - a lasagne or mac 'n' cheese.
Adapted from 'Poppy Cooks: The Food You Need', published by Bloomsbury.
Prep
5 min
Cook
30 min
Serves
4
Difficulty
Medium
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Ingredients
whole milk 500 ml
butter 100 g
plain flour 70 g
white pepper pinch
ground nutmeg ½ tsp
orange 1 ¾ (juice)
honey 2 tbsp
Dijon mustard 2 tbsp
sourdough 8 slice
mature cheddar 400 g (grated)
sliced ham 8 slice
egg 4
Method
Make the béchamel sauce
Heat a medium saucepan over a medium heat and add the milk, heat the milk for 7 minutes.
Place another saucepan over a low-medium heat. Add ½ of the butter and allow it to melt. Gradually beat in the flour using a spatula or a wooden spoon, until you have a thick paste.
Continue stirring and cooking until the mixture has a dough-like consistency and comes away from the sides of the pan.
Start adding the milk bit by bit, incorporating each bit and whisking away the lumps.
Once you have a smooth sauce, season with salt, add the white pepper and nutmeg. Set aside.
Set the oven to grill
Set the oven to ‘oven grill’ and preheat to 200°C/180°C fan.
Make the cheat’s honey glaze
Meanwhile, juice the orange.
To make the cheat's honey glaze: Stir the orange juice, honey and Dijon mustard in a heatproof bowl and microwave on full power for about 30–60 seconds, until syrupy. (Use a small pan over a low–medium heat if you don’t have a microwave.) Set aside.
Prep the ingredients & fry the bread
Butter each slice of bread on both sides with the remaining butter. Grate the cheddar cheese.
Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the bread slices and fry on one side for 2 minutes, you may need to do this in batches depending on your pan size.
Remove the bread from the pan and place golden sides up on your work surface.
Assemble the croque
Spread a spoonful of béchamel over each slice of bread (you’ll need two slices of bread per serving- 1 slice as a bottom, 1 slice as a top, each croque should have an uncooked top and bottom. ).
Sprinkle ⅓ of the cheese on each bottom slice of bread. Top each bread slice with 2 pieces of ham. Drizzle some of the cheat’s honey glaze. Sprinkle another *⅓ of the cheese over the bread slices.
Top each croque with the top slice of bread (it should also be spread with the béchamel).
Cook the croque
Heat a frying pan over a medium heat and place the croques into the pan.
Fry for 2 minutes until the bottom is golden, turn over carefully and flip over, fry for another 2 minutes. You may need to do this in batches.
Take the croques off the heat, spread another spoonful of béchamel on each one and top with the remaining cheddar.
Finish the croque & fry the eggs
Place each croque onto an oven tray and grill for 5 mins.
Heat a dash of oil in a large frying pan, crack the eggs and fry to your liking. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Plate up
Plate up - serve each Mrs. Croque with a fried egg on top. Enjoy!
