The Croque-Monsieur recipe of Juan Arbelaez, chef of Vida

Multi-hatted chef Juan Arbelaez has long fought against waste in the kitchen and for smart dishes that respect the seasons, including fish.

Today, he offers you a recipe from his book 'Cook, Share', to try at home: the best croque-monsieur in the world, which gives a second life to old stale bread and leftover cheese.

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Croque-Monsieur recipe by Juan Arbelaez

For 2 persons
Preparation time : 35 minutes
Time of cooking: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
5 slices of sandwich bread

For the Mornay sauce:
50 g of flour
50 g of butter
500 g of milk
150 g grated Gruyère cheese
4 turns of ground pepper
1 pinch of salt
5 slices of white ham

For the gratin :
1 handful of grated Gruyere

Preparation:

Preheat your oven to 220°C.

Toast the slices of bread.

For the Mornay sauce, melt the butter. Once it is foamy, add the flour off the heat. Whisk vigorously.

Once the mixture is homogeneous, cook for 2 to 3 minutes on medium heat.

Add the milk and cook over low heat while whisking, remove the mixture from the heat and add the cheese and whisk again until the mixture is smooth.

Remove, season and let cool.

Assembly:

On the slices of toasted bread, add the Mornay sauce, then a slice of ham. Repeat the process 5 times.

For the last slice, finish with a little Mornay, grated cheese and place in the oven for 5 minutes.

Take it out of the oven when the top layer is well browned.

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