Saturday 9 February 2008

Nigella's Croque Monsieur Bake

I know...I disappeared again and like the previous post, the following is a recipe my sis-in-law and I tried over the holidays (yes, the christmas holidays!). I really do want to post much quicker but what can I say, life has overwhelmed me a bit off late.... and I wont bore you with the details.
Anyway, to the recipe...don't worry, I did not put a vegetarian twist on Croque Monsieur..can one even do that? We just decided to create breakfast the night before we left for our day trip to Windsor Castle (knowing that the morning would be rushed and if everyone did not eat before leaving, we would be starving for hours)!
Nigella truly is amazing...the bake turned out great (so am told coz I obviously did not have any) and it was so simple to make.

Ingredients
6 slices of multi-grain brown bread
75g Dijon Mustard (or use your own judgement on the amount)
125g or 6 slices of Gruyere slices
70g 0r 3 slices of ham
6 eggs
1 teaspoonMaldon salt or 1/2 teaspoon table salt
80ml full-fat milk (we used semi-fat)
4 tablespoons grated Gruyere, Emmental or Cheddar (we had Emmental at home)
Worcestershire sauce (good sprinkling)
Method
Spread each slice of bread with mustard. Make sandwiches by putting each slice of cheese against the grainy mustardy bread, and a slice of ham between them. Cut each sandwich in half to make triangles. Squish the sandwich triangles into an ovenproof dish apprx. 27x21x6cm.
Beat together the eggs, salt and milk and then pour this over the sandwiches tightly packed dish. Cover the dish with clingwrap and leave in the fridge overnight.
Next morning, preheat the oven to 200C. Take the dish out of the fridge and remove the clingwrap. Sprinkle with grated cheese and Worcestershire sauce and bake in the oven for 25 minutes.