Croque Monsieur!

May is “National Grilled Cheese” month. We wonder who decides these kinds of things. Not that we are questioning the wisdom of a month devoted to grilled cheese! As confirmed cheese heads we are ready, willing and able to support it.

This seemed like the perfect occasion to make Croque Monsieur. The picture that accompanied the magazine recipe had us salivating. Bubbly, gooey, ham and cheese, throw on a bit of béchamel and seriously, what’s not to like?

We did wonder what “Paris ham” was.  Google to the rescue, we found out it is a French charcuterie recipe for ham that is cooked slowly in its own juice, and wrapped in its skin. We opted for deli Black Forest ham since a trip to Paris was not possible.

Béchamel, ham and cheese!
 

Ready for the oven.

Croque-Monsieur
Source: “Bon Appetit”, May 2014
Makes: 4

Béchamel 
¼ c ( ½ stick ) unsalted butter
¼ c all purpose flour
1 1/3 c whole milk
2 T whole grain mustard
½ t freshly grated nutmeg or ¼ t ground nutmeg

Assembly
1 ½ inch thick slices country-style bread (8)
6 oz ham, preferably Paris ham (about 8 slices)
3 oz Gruyere, grated (about 1 ½ c)
1 t herbes de Provence

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat until foamy.  Add flour and cook, stirring, until mixture is pale and foamy, about 3 minutes.  Gradually add milk, stirring until mixture is smooth.  Cook, stirring, until sauce is thick and somewhat elastic, about 4 minutes.  Remove from heat and whisk in mustard and nutmeg, season with salt.

DO AHEAD - Béchamel can be made 1 day ahead.  Let cool; press plastic wrap directly onto surface and chill.

Preheat oven to 425’.  Spread bread slices with béchamel, dividing evenly and extending all the way to the edges.  Place 4 slices of bread, béchamel side up, on a parchment-lined baking sheet; top with ham and half of cheese.  Top with remaining slices of bread, béchamel side up, then top with remaining cheese and sprinkle with herbes de Provence.  Bake until cheese is brown and bubbling, 10 -15 minutes.

DO AHEAD – Sandwiches can be made (but not baked) 1 day ahead.  Cover ; chill.

Croque Monsieur in all its glory!

For something green and in an attempt to present a healthier appearance to this meal, we selected baby arugula for our salad. We used our basic vinaigrette recipe which has good olive oil, white wine vinegar (in this case), garlic, Dijon, salt & plenty of coarsely ground black pepper. You can find several iterations of our vinaigrette in previous postings if you need exact amounts.

After careful perusal and consideration of Sue’s chilled wine we chose this Courtney Benham 2010 Edna Valley Reserve Chardonnay.  As chardonnays go it was soft and not oaky. We liked it with the Croc Monsieur.

And in another attempt at being health conscious, there are berries for dessert. Granted they are marinated in Limoncello and are topped with   ricotta-whipped cream, but they are berries.

Originally, the berries were going to be topped with some yogurt, and then Meg found this recipe in Bon Appetit, and the yogurt was down the drain, so to speak. Meg wants it noted here that she did not have to twist Sue’s arm.

We have been talking about making ricotta for some time, and this recipe presented the opportunity. Hmm, does this sound like we are trying to justify the topping?

Ricotta Cheese
Source: “Bon Appetit”, April 2014
Makes: about 1 cup

2 c whole milk
1 c heavy cream
½ t Kosher salt
2 T fresh lemon juice or distilled white vinegar

Bring milk, cream, and salt just to boil.

Remove from heat, add acid (lemon juice or white vinegar) and stir until mixture curdles.

Line a fine-mesh sieve with a double layer of cheesecloth, set over bowl.  Pour milk mixture into sieve and chill until ricotta is thick.  It’ll keep for three days.

Ricotta Mousse with Limoncello Berries
Source: raleys.com
Prep: 10 minutes
Serves: 6

½ c heavy whipping cream
¼ c powdered sugar, divided
½ c ricotta cheese
6 T limoncello, divided
½ t vanilla extract
6 c mixed berries (halved or quartered if large)
Finely grated lemon zest (optional)

Beat cream and 2 T powdered sugar in a medium bowl until stiff peaks form

Beat ricotta with remaining sugar, 1 T limoncello and vanilla in another bowl until light and fluffy; carefully fold in whipped cream.  Cover tightly and refrigerate until ready to serve.  (May be prepared several hours ahead.)

Marinate berries in remaining limoncello while mouse is chilling.  Place berries in t dessert cups or small bowls and top each with a large dollop of mousse.  Top with lemon zest, if you like.

Berries, oh my!

We are posting early today, because we are attending a reception for a fellow fused glass artist at a local gallery. This meal was easy and quick. The sandwiches can be assembled, wrapped, and baked when ready to serve. The béchamel, ricotta and whipped cream topping can also be made ahead. It’s a pretty impressive dinner when you are short on time. Not to mention yummy.

Our unsolicited and biased opinions:

The Croque Monsieur is fabulous! It’s rich, cheesy and totally satisfying. We made the full recipe, so we each get leftovers. There was even extra béchamel – good for something yummy later. The whole grain mustard in the béchamel added so much flavor to the sandwich. We cut our sourdough bread in about 5/8 inch slices instead of the prescribed 1 ½ inches. More stuff, less bread. We lightly toasted the bread when the oven was preheating. The béchamel didn’t need salt, but a good grind of coarse black pepper was added to the top of the sandwich before baking!

The process for making ricotta is very straightforward, and the results are worth the small effort.  
There are a couple of things worth mentioning that caused a bit of consternation.  First of all, things boil at lower temperature here at 4,500 feet, so the first heating of the milk was probably not quite hot enough.  Then there is the lemon juice versus white vinegar…ever notice that all lemons don’t have the same pucker power?  There are requirements for vinegar, which make it a more reliable source of acidity.

Meg noticed that there wasn’t much curdling going on using the lemon juice and probably “not hot enough” milk.  Allowing what she thought was a reasonable amount of time, she opted to bring the mixture to a boil again.  After removing it from the heat and still not seeing the curdling thing happening, she added 1 tablespoon of distilled white vinegar.  Wahoo!

Instead of using cheese cloth, Meg used nifty sieve gizmos lined with a fine plastic mesh that she uses to make yogurt cheese.  They worked like a champ!

The texture of this homemade ricotta is so creamy and tangy and is nothing like the store bought version.  We loved it!

For cakes and other cooked dishes, buy packaged ricotta, but for recipes like the berries we prepared this week, by all means make your own.  You will be very pleased with the results and with yourself for making your own cheese.

In our opinion the lemon zest is not optional. Believe it or not, the berries were the stars in the dessert. We are so lucky to have access to exceptional produce.

We are so happy someone decided to make May National Grilled Cheese Month!