In addition to my good friend Julia Child (okay, we've never met and she's not alive but if we'd ever met I'm sure we'd have been good friends and, besides, she's taught me a lot about cooking) I have made other cooking "friends" and "acquaintances" through the use of modern technology - the internet. One of them is Francoise Contis Wirtz, a fellow blogger but very accomplished and capable chef. I follow her blog at www.francoisekitchen.com and came across this yummy looking recipe for a fancy toasted cheese sandwich -- Croque Monsieur (Toasted Pesto, Ham, and Mozzarella Sandwich) and couldn't wait to try it. It was simple, it was French, and it looked yummy. At least the photo Francoise posted on her blog looked yummy (see the end of this blog for her version). Spoiler alert -- mine was a bit crispier on the outside than intended. Let's just say that I added the green onion for the photo to make it look a little "fancier" -- did it work?
The ingredients for this were very simple. Bread - Francoise used a fancy bread but I just used what we had on hand. Definitely not very French or fancy but slices of "soft sprouted whole grain bread" seemed fancy enough. I lightly brushed the outside of the slices with olive oil so they'd take on a bit of a golden color when toasted. Hmmmmmm, maybe that's why they ended up turning black -- too much oil? I don't think so.
The inside of the slices of bread were coated with a layer of pesto. I was being lazy (remember, I said I was going for simple on this one) and just used a jar of pesto we had in the pantry. On to of the bread I layered slices of Swiss cheese and mozzarella (sorry Francoise, I couldn't resist adding the Swiss -- we love cheese). and then two thin slices of ham. That was it, assembly complete and ready for toasting.
The toasting part should have been the easiest part of the process but this is where I got in trouble. Let's just say I got a litttttle overzealous with heating my pans. I started them heating while I was assembling the sandwiches and kind of forgot about leaving them on high for longer than intended. I used the largest non-stick skillet I had as the bottom pan. Then I was realllllllly excited to use the trick Francoise wrote about - using a heated cast iron pan on top to act as a press and to toast the top at the same time as the bottom.
It seemed simple enough. The sandwiches went into the bottom pan and I suppose I should have noticed that the instant the oiled bread touched the pan there was a flash of smoke. Good sign that the pan was reallllllly hot. Then I put the heated cast iron pan on top. Francoise added another cast iron pan or lid on top to give it some added weight to press the sandwiches. I decided to just press by hand using a pot holder.
Warning sign number two -- when the pot holder started smoking it was probably a good sign that the cast iron pan was really hot too. Then more light smoke started coming from between the pans and I decided it was time to take a look. Uh oh, the top bread was sticking to the bottom of the cast iron pan, the cheese was gooey and sticking to the rest of the sandwich. It was literally a hot mess.
Thanks to my sous chef, Elizabeth, and her skillful use of a metal spatula while I held the realllllllly hot pan a couple of inches off the bottom, we were able to pry the bread loose and salvage the sandwiches. Of course, the entire time the sandwiches were stuck to the botom of the pan they were still cooking. I think I could have had a much lighter black color on the bread, even a dark brown (?), if we weren't dealing with the stuck bread for a couple of minutes.
Did I mention that the cast iron pan was realllllly hot? Since I've left a permanent brand on Elizabeths pot holder I'm going to be hearing about this one for awhile. At least I know what I can get her for Mother's Day, and her birthday, and Christmas...
I'll definitely be making this again but with much lower heat. It was tasty and would have been really tasty and perfect had it not been for the little bit of bitterness from the blackened bread. Hey, that's the term -- blackened. This must be the Cajun version of the sandwich, kind of like blackened swordfish? Here at the bottom is a picture of what it was supposed to look like and if you'd like to ready Francoise's version the link is https://francoisekitchen.com/croque-monsieur-pesto-ham-tomato-and-mozzarella-%f0%9f%a5%aa/
I was soooooo close. I demand a rematch!
Bon Appetit!
Comments