The French are extremely polite people, therefore, when ordering such a sandwich for breakfast, they turned to the waiter: "Croc, monsieur", and when he brought a snack, he also offered with the words: "Croc, monsieur." So this name stuck to the crispy sandwich.

Crock-Madame appeared thanks to an indispensable addition to this sandwich in the form of fried eggs, reminiscent of a woman's hat of those times.
Let's try these delicious sandwiches and they are worth it!

Ingredients for 2 servings: 150 g ham, 150 g cheese, 4 slices of white sandwich bread, 3 tsp. French (Dijon) mustard, 2 tbsp. olive oil, 1 egg.

For the béchamel sauce: 1 tbsp flour, 2 tbsp. butter, 1 tbsp. milk, a pinch of pepper, nutmeg and thyme, salt to taste.

Spread the slices of bread on one side with Dijon mustard. Unlike our mustard, it tastes soft with a special aroma.

Place two mustard slices on top of a greased baking sheet. I use olive as it has a very tender crust.

Sprinkle cheese on the slices.

Place very thin slices of ham on top of the cheese.

Sprinkle the ham with cheese again.

Cover the filling with the remaining mustard slices and grease the bread with olive oil on top. We send to the oven, preheated to 180 degrees, so that the sandwiches are slightly browned. However, if desired, you can fry in a roaster or on both sides in a pan.

While the sandwiches are browning, prepare the spiced bechamel sauce. First, dissolve the butter in a pan.

Pour in the flour and begin to stir quickly and quickly in a circular motion until the flour becomes creamy.

Pour in milk, without stopping stirring, add some salt, wait until the mass thickens, add pepper, nutmeg and ground thyme, bring to readiness.

Spread the browned sandwiches on top with sauce and sprinkle with cheese again, once again send them to the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese.

Now it remains to put all this on lettuce leaves, sprinkle with herbs, and add the crock-madam with fried fried egg. You can't even imagine how delicious it is! It is impossible to convey the tender crunch of toasts together with the juicy filling in words.

By the way, the popularity of this French dish is so high that in addition to the classic version with cheese and ham, many versions have appeared: with salmon slices, with tomatoes, with sausage and other ingredients. For example, I was very attracted by the sweet version, I will definitely share how I cook it.

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Croc Madame is a sandwich made of two French toasts, ham and cheese and served with a fried chicken egg on top. According to the French explanatory dictionary Petit Robert "Croque-monsieur surmonté d'un œuf sur le plat", which literally translates as "monsieur croque covered with a fried egg on a plate." First of all, I want to draw your attention to the fact that there is no mention of béchamel sauce in this wording - neither on the inside of the sandwich, nor on the outside of it. It also does not mention any meat, including chicken.

Our regular readers should probably remember that not so long ago, the French hot sandwich in a country style or "croque monsieur" was already a topic of discussion on our blog, and if you missed it, then this one. Croque monsieur was first mentioned in French fiction (in particular, by Marcel Proust) at the beginning of the last century, but he took his strong place among the famous dishes of French cuisine much earlier - in the second half of the nineteenth century. Croque Madame is not much different from Croque Monsieur, except that during serving, an egg is added to the latter, which is spread on top of the sandwich, and if Croque Monsieur is traditionally prepared with sauce (in the authentic version it is), then in Croque Madame, as a rule , there is no sauce.

Croc Madame sandwiches have gained popularity among the French quite recently by culinary standards - some fifty or sixty years ago.

Despite the fact that this French sandwich is a relatively new phenomenon in French cuisine, it is known and loved not only by the French themselves, but also by the Americans. Moreover, on the table of the latter it can be seen much more often. Unlike the French, they are happy to experiment with Croc Madame, creating more and more new versions of it.

For example, in 1974 at the United Press, American culinary writer Robert Cohen described Croc Madame as an open sandwich with cheese sauce on ham: Croc Madame: Each sandwich requires an oblong slice of French bread. It must be dried in the oven for about 3-4 minutes. Then remove the bread from the oven and place the fried ham on top of it. Top it with cheese sauce. Make croc madame sauce with Swiss cheese, one egg, a tablespoon of flour and one third of a glass of beer. And even if mothers do not worry about their kids (I’m talking about beer, if anything), French children have been eating Madame Croc for several decades without any visible negative effect. But, if, nevertheless, the presence of beer in the sauce annoys you, you can replace it with milk - this is permissible. After adding the topping, sprinkle the sandwich with freshly ground pepper. A drop of Tabasco sauce will also do. At the end, all that remains is to brown the croc Madame in the oven at a temperature of about 200 degrees for 15 minutes, and add a fried egg to it when serving. "

Both in France and in the United States (much more often here) the ham croque madame is sometimes replaced by pieces of chicken. In England, this version of this sandwich is more popular than the one made with ham.

In the USA, croc madame, like croc monsieur, is often prepared with Bechamel or Morne sauce.

Finally, here is another version of Madame Croc's recipe, which was mostly born in France, a minor part - in the USA and a very small part (fried eggs were replaced with poached eggs) - in our cramped kitchenette. 😀

(for four sandwiches)

Ingredients:

• 50 grams of butter
• 4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 8 thin slices of ham - 2 slices per sandwich (can be substituted for quality ham sausage)
• 8 thin slices of Emmental cheese - two slices per sandwich
• 2 cups Morne sauce
• 4 large chicken eggs
• 8 slices of toast bread
• Coarse sea salt
• Coarsely crushed black pepper

Preparation:

1. First . To do this, we will use the recommendations that you will find in the recipe for this sauce on our blog.
2. Spread butter on one side of each slice.
3. Spread two slices of ham on four slices of bread (dry side) * and the same number of slices of cheese.
4. We heat the oven to 200 degrees.
5. Spread the inside of the other four slices of toast with Dijon mustard and cover the ham and cheese with the same side.
6. Heat a wide dry frying pan and fry our sandwiches in it over medium heat for a couple of minutes on each side, until a golden crust forms.
7. To prepare poached eggs, put a large saucepan with 4-5 liters of water on high heat and bring to a boil.
8. We put the sandwiches on a baking sheet, pour each of them with the fourth part of the Morne sauce and send to the oven. Cook for about 5-7 minutes, until the sauce starts to bubble.
9. While the sandwiches are in the oven, let's start making poached eggs.
10. We spread the hot croc madam on serving plates. Put poached eggs on top of them and immediately serve them to the table.

* Note:

There is another way to make croc madame, in which the ham is replaced by fried chicken breast. To do this, cut two halves of a small breast into two equal parts parallel to the base and very thinly (no more than 3 mm) beat off between two sheets of cling film. Then fry very briefly over medium heat in butter.

French cuisine is famous with their original cold snacks... Many of them eventually gained popularity in other countries of the world. Take, for example, the delicious Croque Monsieur sandwich. The recipe for its preparation is interesting and at the same time quite simple. In addition, the dish itself also has a self-explanatory name. After all, "croc" in French means "crunch". This is the whole essence of the product itself. It is intended for men who like to crunch with taste.

Oven sandwich

Many French families often prepare Croque Monsieur for a quick bite. The recipe for this dish is unique in that a regular white and ham sandwich is baked with the addition of aromatic morne sauce. For cooking, you will need the following components:

white bread (you can take a loaf), ham and Gruyere cheese.

For the sauce:

50 grams of butter, 200 milliliters of cream, Parmesan cheese, salt, 40 grams of flour and a quarter teaspoon of pre-grated nutmeg.

How to make Croque Monsieur? A recipe usually starts by making a sauce:

1. First you need to grind the cheese on a grater.
2. Heat the oil in a saucepan and, adding flour to it, turn it into a homogeneous gruel with constant stirring. The French call this mixture "ru".
3. Add the cream to the saucepan and stir well so that there are no lumps. The resulting mass must be brought to a boil over low heat.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients and wait, while stirring, until all the cheese is melted. The sauce is ready.
5. Now you can do the sandwich directly. To do this, a slice of bread should be smeared with butter on one side. Gently place a slice of ham and grated cheese on top. Cover the food with the second piece of bread.
6. Coat the workpiece with oil from the outside, and then put it on a baking sheet and send it to the oven for 5-6 minutes, preheating the latter to 190 degrees.
7. Turn the product over fried side up and pour over the prepared sauce. Send it back to the oven for about 5 minutes.

It turns out fragrant and very tasty "Croc Monsieur". The recipe is good because the sandwich is prepared very quickly. This is very useful when time for a snack is limited.

Sandwich in a frying pan

In the absence of an oven, you can also cook "Croc Monsieur". The recipe with a photo of the finished sandwich already makes you want to start the cooking process as soon as possible. We will show you how to bring your plans to life using a regular frying pan. First, you need to collect the required products on your desktop. For 4 servings you will need:

100 grams of butter, 75 grams of flour, 1.7 cups of milk, salt, fresh bread, 2 teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce, 110 grams of any hard cheese, a teaspoon of thyme, 340 grams of ham, 4 tablespoons of Dijon mustard, 0.5 cups of Parmesan ( grated), a little allspice and a third teaspoon of chopped nutmeg.

Cooking method:

1. First, melt 40 grams of butter in a pan.
2. Add flour and stir well.
3. Slowly add milk and cook the resulting mass over low heat for about 3 minutes.
4. Add Worcestershire sauce, salt, nutmeg and thyme.
5. Brush 4 slices of bread on one side with Dijon mustard.
6. Sprinkle with cheese and top with a slice of ham. Cover with all the remaining pieces of bread.
7. Fry the sandwiches in oil in a pan on one side.
8. Turn the pieces over, pour fresh sauce over the fried crust and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
9. Hold the sandwiches in the pan for a few more seconds so that the top of them can brown.

Despite its simplicity, this design looks very appetizing.

The secret of the classics

You can cook "Croc Monsieur" in different ways. The classic recipe is the easiest to use, since a minimum set of ingredients is needed to work. The sauce for this option is not used at all. This makes the job much easier. You only need:

4 slices of loaf (bread) 2 leaves of lettuce, 100 grams of cheese, 50 grams of butter, herbs and 80 grams of ham.

The process itself is extremely simple. It consists of three operations, which must be done in the following order:

1. Fry all slices of bread on one side until crisp in a pan.
2. Put cheese on 2 pieces and wait until it melts. To do this, cover the pan with a lid.
3. Put ham, herbs, salad on the cheese and cover with all the remaining pieces of bread. Wait another 30 seconds. This time will be quite enough.

The finished sandwich can be immediately served with hot tea or coffee. By the way, it is not customary to eat such a dish with your hands. In this case, the French necessarily use cutlery (fork and knife).

Croque Provencal

There are several options for making Croque Monsieur sandwiches. The recipes differ in the composition of the layer located between two pieces of bread. It doesn't have to be cheese and ham. Several varieties of this famous dish are known in cooking. The most popular of them is croc:

• hawaiian (with pineapple);
• norwegian (with salmon);
• tartiflette (with potatoes);
• provence (with tomatoes).

For example, you can consider how the last option is being prepared. It most resembles the original itself. The following ingredients are used to make this sandwich:

slices of bread (loaf), ham, butter, cheese and tomatoes.

The technology for making such a sandwich:

1. Cut off the crust on all sides of the bread.
2. Put cheese, ham and a circle of tomato on one slice.
3. Cover everything with the second slice of bread.
4. Grease the outer parts of the bread with oil and then fry using the oven or frying pan.

Sometimes you can take a regular sandwich maker as a simplified option. All that remains is to put slices of bread with a layer in the mold and clamp between the plates. It takes seconds to bake. It is very convenient to use this method in the morning, when there is very little time for making breakfast.

One of the most popular variants of the Croque Monsieur sandwich is the one that consists of sausage and cheese, or rather, in the classic version, ham and Gruyere cheese. There are several versions of the origin. Someone is closer to the story of how workers accidentally left their sandwiches on a hot radiator, someone likes the appearance of Croque Monsieur as an invention of a chef, etc.

Over time, a lot of sweet and savory crocs-monsieur appeared: with tomatoes, with salmon, with bananas, with pineapples and others that are invariably tasty and crunchy. When I was compiling the book Street Food from Around the World, I took a simple quick version of milk and cheese as a sauce, and it tastes more effectively with a béchamel sauce, but you need to tinker with it ...

ps If you put fried eggs on top of the sandwich, it turns into crock-madam))

To prepare Croque Monsieur, prepare the ingredients according to the list.

If you decide to cook croque monsieur with béchamel sauce, do it first. To do this, melt 2 tbsp. tablespoons of butter and mix with 1 tbsp. a spoonful of flour.

Pour in 1 glass of milk while stirring, add a pinch of salt and ground nutmeg each. Cook until thick. Cover the surface of the béchamel sauce with cling film so that no drying crust forms on its surface.

Grate the cheese and divide into three parts. Brush each piece of toast bread with butter or vegetable oil and, if desired, Dijon or other mustard. Place half of the prepared pieces on a greased baking sheet and sprinkle with the first part of the cheese.

Cover the cheese with ham, ham, or other sausage.

Sprinkle with the second part of the cheese and cover with the rest of the bread.

Place the croque-monsieur blanks in an oven preheated to 200 degrees until browning. Then pour the béchamel sauce over the top and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Return to oven and bake until cheese is melted and slightly browned.

Croque Monsieur is ready, serve it immediately.

Enjoy your meal!

Croque-monsieur is a famous French hot sandwich: croquer means “crunch”, monsieur means “lord”. Croque-madame is the same hot sandwich served with a fried egg on top. That is, Croque Monsieur is a classic French sandwich with ham, cheese and béchamel sauce. Croque Madame - a sandwich with ham, cheese, béchamel sauce and a fried egg.

Bechamel sauce - how to cook

An important ingredient in croque madame and croque monsieur is French béchamel sauce. To prepare it, you will need the following ingredients:

• 550 ml ml milk
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• A pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper (white or black)
• A pinch of ground nutmeg

Melt the butter in a skillet and add the flour. Broil for three minutes, stirring constantly. Then add milk, reduce heat and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly (so that there are no lumps in the sauce). The longer you keep the sauce on the fire, the thicker it will become. Strain the finished sauce, add salt, pepper, nutmeg.

Croque-monsieur sandwich - how to cook

Making a Croque Monsieur sandwich, if you've already made the sauce, is pretty straightforward. To do this, you need the ingredients (sized for two sandwiches):

• 4 slices of bread
• 2 slices of ham (4 is possible - then each sandwich will have not one slice of ham, but two)
• 4 slices of hard cheese (Gruyere, Emmenthal, Maazdam or Cheddar)
• Butter
• Olive oil
• Salt, black pepper

Brush slices of bread with butter and fry in a dry frying pan until golden brown on both sides. Then reduce the heat, place a slice of cheese on each slice of bread and cover the pan with a lid to melt the cheese slightly. Add some olive oil to the skillet if needed. Then put a slice of ham on two slices of bread and cover with a second slice of bread. Pour the sauce over the finished sandwich - and you can serve it on the table.

Crock Madame sandwich - how to cook

A Croque Madame sandwich is made in the same way as Croque Monsieur, plus a fried egg. So, while the sandwich is browning in one pan, you need to fry the fried egg in the second pan. The egg is fried on one side, while it is important that the eggs are no larger than the bread and that the yolk remains intact. Put the fried eggs on a sandwich, pour over the sauce and can be served. Enjoy your meal!

Other ways to make a sandwich

Grease one slice of bread with butter, the second with mustard. Put ham and cheese on the first slice of bread, trim the ham and cheese on the sides. Then brown the sandwich in a frying pan with olive oil on both sides.

You can add grated hard cheese to the sauce - the sauce should turn out like a very thick sour cream. Fry slices of bread in a pan on one side, grease the other side (not toasted) with sauce, put ham on top and cover with another slice of bread.

The finished sandwich can be sprinkled with grated hard cheese and put in the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese.

Also, the finished sandwich can be sprinkled with herbs or served with a leaf of green lettuce.

Traditionally, French Gruyere cheese is used for Croque Madame and Croque Monsieur, but you can substitute it with maazdam cheese, cheddar cheese or other hard cheese. Enjoy your meal!