SHORT-CUT CROQUE MONSIEUR (MR. CRUNCHY BITE) - @KORINAMOSSAUTHOR

 

Bonjour, Mr. Crunchy Bite!

KORINA MOSS: Hello, everybody! This is my first recipe post as a member of Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen. I thought it was only fitting that my inaugural post come from my debut culinary cozy, Cheddar Off Dead. Since I write the Cheese Shop Mystery series, you can expect to see cheesy recipes regularly, but not always. I don’t eat cheese as often as my cheesemonger protagonist Willa, although our love of cheese is one thing we have in common. Another thing we have in common is that we’re both single, so I’ve tailored this recipe for one person. (Of course, you can double, triple, or quadruple it, as desired.)

This short-cut version of croque monsieur is easier to make than to pronounce. I think this French sandwich would be more popular in America if we’d just call it by its English translation: Mr. Crunchy Bite.  The authentic croque monsieur requires a bechamel sauce, but with this short-cut, it's no more difficult to put together than your average American grilled cheese. And the best part is that the cheese is on the inside and the outside.

Croque Monsieur (Mr. Crunchy Bite)

Ingredients:

Butter for greasing baking dish

¼ cup Gruyére cheese, freshly shredded

2 slices of sturdy bread

3 TBL heavy cream

2-4 slices ham

Dijon mustard to taste

I rarely make things that have to be made exactly as the recipe calls for, so my motto is you do you. Gruyére is a mild Swiss cheese and melts well. If you’d like to use a different kind of Swiss or a different kind of cheese altogether, go for it. My advice would be to make sure to use one that melts well and is not pre-shredded. I’m not a cheese snob, but packaged pre-shredded cheese doesn’t melt as well and it usually doesn’t have as much flavor, either. You can also mix cheeses. As written, this makes a very mild sandwich, so if you like a little more punch, add a sharper cheese. I used spicy brown mustard, because that's what I had at home, but a really nice Dijon or sharp mustard would be even better. I used low sodium ham, but you can choose whichever kind you prefer. A black forest ham goes nicely. 

Directions: 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. 

Butter the bottom of a baking dish.

Measure out the heavy cream into a cup or pitcher. 

Shred the cheese. 

Add it to the heavy cream. 

Mix. It’ll quickly turn into a spreadable paste. 

Put both pieces of bread in the pan. 

Spread half of the cheese/cream mixture on one piece and half on the other until you’ve used it all. It should cover both slices of bread. 

(The only reason the slices look different is because I added the leftover cheese I'd shredded to one of them.)

On top of one of the slices, add your ham and Dijon mustard. Then take the other slice and place it CHEESE SIDE UP on the ham. So now you have the cheese sauce on the inside of the sandwich and on the outside. 

Place baking dish in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. 

Turn the oven to broil, put the dish on the top rack and broil for several minutes, just until the top of the sandwich turns a golden brown. (Keep an eye on it!) It's meant to be crunchy on the outside (hence, its name) and softer on the inside. 

Carefully take out the sandwich, cut in half, and enjoy! Be sure to speak French for the rest of the day. Oui Oui! 

Merci Beaucoup, Mr. Crunchy Bite! 

Readers: What’s the fanciest way you've ever dressed up a grilled cheese sandwich? 

You can find this recipe in my Agatha Award-winning Cheese Shop Mystery, Cheddar Off Dead. Recipes are included at the end of each book.

KORINA MOSS is the author of the Cheese Shop Mystery series (St. Martin’s Press) set in the Sonoma Valley, including the Agatha Award winner for Best First Novel, CHEDDAR OFF DEAD and the most recently Agatha-nominated Best Contemporary Novel, CASE OF THE BLEUS. Cheese Shop Mystery #5, FONDUE OR DIE, releases on Oct 22nd. Her books have been featured in PARADE Magazine, Woman’s World, AARP, and Fresh Fiction. For the past several years, Korina has been on her own Eat, Pray, Love journey, but seems to have stalled at the Eat phase. To learn more and subscribe to her monthly #teamcheese newsletter, visit her website at korinamossauthor.com.  You can also find her on Instagram and Facebook.