A few weeks ago my husband and I went to Whole Foods. While there, we picked up the cheese of the day, a truffle gouda. I've always liked the flavor that accompanies black truffles, but I've never been in love with it...until we picked up this cheese. Now, I'm determined to make it a staple in our refrigerator. In addition to venture, my husband and I drove by one of our favorite restaurants, La Madeleine. Due to time, we didn't stop, but I could tell that he was craving his menu favorite: a croque monsieur. During this same, very busy weekend, I also found myself making dinner for a regular customer. She had asked for Chicken Cordon Bleu and so I had bought thinly sliced ham, thinly sliced cheese, dijon mustard, shredded parmesan, etc. After delivering this meal to her, I still had some of these ingredients in the pantry, along with the truffle gouda. All of the sudden, it dawned on me: I had all of the ingredients to make the perfect croque monsieur at home, with a twist.
Full disclaimer: I have a thorough respect for the French classics, but I wanted to work with what I had and also wanted to see if I could take this classic up a notch. To begin, I pulled out the creamy dijon sauce (which strangely tastes very similar to the truffle gouda) I had made to accompany the chicken cordon bleu. Yes, I know that croque monsieurs typically require bechamel sauce, but I thought I'd improvise with the dijon sauce which has nearly the same base as bechamel, but is a slight, sharp step up. I began assembling the croque monsieur by spreading a layer of the dijon sauce over two slices of whole wheat seeded bread, which I find gives this sandwich more bite and substance than the recommended white bread. I layered on a generous amount of ham, two slices of swiss cheese (instead of shredded gruyere or shredded swiss), shredded parmesan and...you guessed it, shredded truffle gouda. I then put the sandwich together and spread dijon sauce on top of the sandwich, then topped it with shredded parmesan and shredded truffle gouda. I placed the sandwich in the preheated oven (425 F) and let it go until it was GBD (golden brown and delicious) on the top and the cheese was melted inside of the sandwich.
And let me tell you, due to the change/addition in ingredients this was hands down the best croque monsieur I've ever had. I've always loved croque monsieurs, but I find that the flavor can get lost in a sea of bechamel sauce, swiss, and parmesan, which are all wonderful ingredients, but can sometimes fall a little flat and blend into each other. Swapping out the bechamel with dijon sauce and adding the shredded truffle gouda really stepped this classic up a notch.
Don't you love it when culinary experiments are a home run? Feel free to comment below with your own culinary success story!
And to give credit where credit is due, here are the sources that I used for some loose reference:
https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/croque-monsieur/
https://tasty.co/recipe/crispy-creamy-chicken-cordon-bleu (the creamy dijon sauce can be found at this link)
