Friday, August 6, 2010

Day One Seventy Eight - A French Send-off GCF

On Sunday, I'm leaving on a two week vacation to the South of France and Corsica, boy am I unbelievably excited! And I thought today for our French GCF, I'd take on the classic French sandwich, the Croque Monsieur. A Croque Monsieur is a warm ham and cheese sandwich typically grilled originating as a French on-the-go snack or fast food. Some versions include a Bechamel sauce or a Mornay style sauce. It also has a close cousin in the Croque Madame that is pretty much the same sandwich just with a poached egg on top.

In France you see a variety of Croque Monsieurs with a little bit changed here and a little bit altered there, but for our purposes here, I am going to suggest a vegetarian Provencal Vegetarian Croque Monsieur, simple clean crisp flavors yet delish.

Keep the same crusty french bread and emmental utilized in a Croque monsieur and instead of ham, for our purposes you will utilize thin slices of roasted eggplant, zucchini, squash, sundried tomatoes and a few sprigs of basil. To roast your eggplant, zucchini and squash, slice each thinly, toss in an oven baking dish with olive oil, rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, marjoram, oregano, salt, pepper, and some diced garlic. Roast till these are crisp and browned over low heat. Place the veggies, sundried tomatoes and basil between the two slices of bread with some bechamel or alone or even some nice sauteed salmon and then top with the traditional cheese. I personally like the vegetables alone, it makes for a fantastic vegetarian sandwich -- decadent, fresh, and uber delish! I'd enjoy this with a nice Sancerre.

Have a nice weekend folks!

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