mr. & mrs. croque

when one of my favourite hotels closed down, some of the things i considered buying in the liquidation sales were the pain de mie/pullman loaf pans from the kitchen. i just think they're cool looking. i ended up not buying any, and i've regretted it ever since, but i balk at paying the price for new ones. the other day, i went to the local restaurant supply shop, and found these cheapy cheap deep loaf pans that mimicked the pain de mie pans perfectly--all i would need to do is cover them with a cookie sheet during baking so i'd get the hallmark square shape of a pullman loaf. so that is what i did.



i found a recipe for pain de mie in the richard bertinet book, which included another recipe for what you can do with the bread: croque monsieur, which bertinet describes as a childhood staple in france, and is basically (but gloriously) a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. bertinet's version has thick slices of the pain de mie sandwiching a layer of béchamel, and slices of country ham; the top of the sandwich is then slathered with a thick layer of the béchamel, and a mountain of shredded gruyère cheese is layered on that. the whole sandwich is placed in a preheated 200˚C/392˚F (or thereabouts) oven until the cheese is melty golden brown.



i also tried out a recipe for croque madame i found in nancy silveron's sandwich book that i've wanted to try since i saw meg's version a zillion blogyears ago. this version is decidedly more refined, with thinner slices of bread, smoked ham, and slices of cheese instead of the lactose mountain; also, it is grilled rather than baked/broiled. why is it madame to the hearty, brutish monsieur? the egg, of course. sheeeeeeeeeeeesh.

a bit french, in that they were a little difficult to eat--runny sauce versus runny egg yolk, chunks of oversized squishy bread or grilled planks that exploded into a shower of crumbs with every bite. but both were a delightfully sensual experience-- warm, creamy, salty, buttery, cheesy...hammy. like brangelina, only with 30% less cheese. a happy pair together. that is, until i ate them.