Croque Madame Végétarien

I remember sitting in Les Deux Magots Paris watching with envy as Julie devoured a Croque Monsieur cursing the fact it had a layer of ham in its middle.  I then discovered the Croque Madame which is a Monsieur with a fried egg on top. Even better!   All I needed to do to make is vegetarian was to omit the ham replacing it with either more cheese (my personal favourite) or with thin slices of fried tomatoes or saute mushrooms or any other random vegetable.


Ingredients
serves 2
4 slices of White bread
4 slices of Gruyère cheese
2 large free-range egg

for the bechamel
50g butter
2 tbsp plain flour
250ml milk
2 tsp Dijon mustard
large pinch of freshly ground nutmeg

for the filling
(one of the following)
another 4 slices of Gruyère
2 tomato thinly sliced
10 small chestnut or button mushrooms, thinly sliced


Method

Melt 25g of the butter in a pan on a medium temperature. Add the flour and stir vigorously until blended smoothly.  Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly as the mix loosens the paste into a sauce. Lower the heat and simmer for about 3 minutes or so until the sauce thickens nicely.

Add the mustard, nutmeg and season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

If you decide to use tomatoes or mushrooms as the filling thinly slice them and quickly saute them in a pan and season them well with salt and pepper.

Put the sliced bread under a grill set to a high heat and lightly toast the bread on both sides. 

Make a sandwich with two slices of cheese and one of the fillings (more cheese, tomato or mushrooms), then top with béchamel sauce. 

Place back under the grill until the béchamel begins to colour and the cheese inside the sandwich has melted. 

Melt the rest of the butter in a frying pan over a low heat and fry an egg each. Fry until the white is just cooked but the yolk is still runny. 

Place the cheesy toasted sandwich on a plate and carefully plonk an egg on top.