Not really paleo, but paleo-fied Croque Madame

I believe that I have mentioned Melissa D'arabian and my love for her show "10 Dollar Dinners" before.  A few years ago, she highlighted the recipe for Croque Madame's on her show, and my family have loved them ever since.  They are one of the favorite sandwiches of mine that I missed when going Paleo-adjacent.

(Okay, technically, they are not a sandwich, since they do not have a second slice of bread. They are one of the tartine's that I have missed - happy?)  ;-)

I finally broke down about bought some bread from Julian Bakery while I was at Cooks this last trip, and one of the things that I definitely wanted to try was Croque Madame's.  Oh, merciful Heavens, they were good!  This recipe is swimming with dairy, since it has both sour cream and cheese.  So, definitely NOT paleo.  This recipe lives on the other side of town from paleo, on the wrong side of the tracks.  It is also full of flavor hacks for the cheese (which is not Gruyere), and the sauce (which is not a bechamel).

8 pieces of bread (1/2 the loaf)                                                     $4.50
1/3 a 16 oz sour cream container                                                  $  .43
1  heaping tbsp mustard with herbs                                               $  .10
1 1/2 cups shredded mozarella                                                      $1.65
1/2 cup dry white wine                                                                  $ .75
8 eggs                                                                                          $  .96
24 slices of lunchenon meat ham (about 1/2 a 1 lb pack)               $1.75
                                                                    TOTAL =              $10.14

Put cheese in a glass bowl, and dump the wine over it.  This will give some of the same flavor notes as using the actual Gruyere, and you are not paying 15 bucks a pound for the cheese. :-)  Let the cheese sit in the wine for several minutes.  You might need to occasionally peek at it and push the cheese into the wine, or mix it from bottom to top.  I do this step first, and let it soak while I am assembling everything else and preparing the other components of the recipe.

Mix sour cream with the mustard.  I had a bottle of fancy-schmancy mustard with herbs and stuff in it, and I used that.  You can use plain French's mustard too.  This will give a rich flavor to your faux bechamel.  I think that I will try this with greek yogurt next time and see if it works as well.   

8 slices of Julian Bakery Almond Paleo Bread - place under broiler for 1.5 minutes per side to toast bread

Once the bread is toasted, spread faux bechamel on the bread, then add your ham.  I used 3 hams per bread. 1st 2 pieces of ham overlapping to allow for another layer of sauce under the top layer of ham.

Second layer of sauce

Fold sides over the second layer, then place the third slice of ham on top

Evenly distribute wine-soaked cheese over your tartine, and put back under the broiler until cheese is melty (about 5 minutes) I like the fact that the ham slice curls up a bit in order to create a bowl for the egg to go into.

Top with egg - mine is over medium, so I get that wonderful burst of egg yolk that I can sop up with the bread.

Like I said, this is in no way a Paleo meal, but it is a meal that I had missed, and I have "ancestralized" it to the point that I feel comfortable eating it, and feeding it to my family.  If you decide to try it, I hope you like it as much as we do. :-)

For Croque alternatives, also try;
Croque Provencal - topped with tomato instead of egg.
Croque Gagnet - topped with Andouille Sausage.
Croque Norvegien - use smoked salmon instead of ham.
Croque Hawiian - with a slice of pineapple instead of egg.

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