Foodies Invitados

Guest Foodie: Iveth Bodensteiner de Villanueva’s Croque Monsieur

Helga Glaesel de Blandingfebrero 8, 2012

This post is also available in ENGLISH (INGLÉS)

Our friends Iveth and Mario (her husband) just moved to Colombia, so we have been keeping in touch through Facebook. While checking my news feed one night, I saw Iveth had posted a photo of what she had made for dinner. It was this Croque Monsieur, and I had to have it.

I asked her for the recipe so she could be our next Guest Foodie. We really enjoy our friends collaborating on our blog by sharing their recipes and experiences in the kitchen!

She told me she got the idea to make this dish from the movie It’s Complicated with Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin (which she recommends, by the way). On a scene from the movie Meryl prepares a Croque Monsieur, so Iveth searched for a recipe and now we have it for you!

I can’t wait to try it myself… with a little white wine. (I’ll try to get my hands on that movie as well.)

Helga

Croque Monsieur

Recipe by Iveth Bodensteiner de Villanueva
Serves 2

Ingredients:
4 sliced of bread (they have to be thick slices)
4 slices of Turkey Pastrami
enough gruyere cheese to cover the bread area
1 cup of Bechamel Sauce*
Butter, for spreading

*Note: you can find the recipe for Bechamel Sauce in our Roasted Vegetable Lasagna post, here. Divide the ingredients by half to use in this recipe

Procedure:

Preheat oven at 200F
Prepare your béchamel sauce, you will only need about 1 cup.
Spread your bread slices with a little butter, on both sides. On one slice, place turkey pastrami and gruyere cheese and cover with a bit of béchamel sauce. Place the second bread slice on top.
Spread more béchamel sauce on top of the sandwich you have made (on that second bread slice) and top with enough gruyere cheese to cover the whole thing. Repeat this process to make a second croquet monsieur.
Place them on a cookie sheet or pyrex, and bake for about 10 min. At 10 minutes, turn your oven to BROIL. This is the part where you have to keep an eye on them. Broil until the cheese develops a nice brown crust.
Remove from the oven and enjoy!