Wednesday, January 1, 2020

FF Cooking - Part 2: Croque Madame

Summary: Trying what seemed like a simple recipe. but highlighted how little I know about cooking. Many failures, one success.

Welcome to Ignis's croque madame! (Feel free to scroll to the bottom if you just want the recipe that worked.)


---


I never heard of this before seeing it in-game. Apparently, it's like a French grilled cheese with ham and bechamel. This was a  learning experience.

  • I'd never heard the words "roux" or "bechamel" before in my life.
  • I've only cooked with flour once, years ago. A cookie recipe.
  • I'd never broiled anything before. Didn't even know if I had a broiler.


But whatever! Every recipe I found online said a croque madame was super easy. How hard could it be for this newbie cook?

As with the chili con carne, my goal wasn't a reproduction of what's in-game, but rather making something sort of similar, but easy as possible. The three main sources I drew upon:

Each resource I checked gave a slightly different recipe, so I just kind of mixed and matched with what looked most doable.



---

Attempt #1

If you can even call this an attempt. I stalled out on the roux. For some reason, I assumed roux were supposed to, like, coat the bottom of the pan. I couldn't figure out why I was screwing up, so I just threw this (actually reasonable) roux away.





----

Attempt #2

This is even more embarrassing. I remade the roux - equal parts butter and flour, whisked and heated for a bit - then poured in the milk. Stirred it a bit.

And nothing happened. Oh god, what am I doing wrong now? IT'S JUST LIQUID STILL, NOT SAUCE!




So... I didn't know how flour worked. I thought it would be like instant mashed potatoes, where you pour the flakes into the hot milk, stir it a few times, and it turns into fluffy mashed potatoes. I got so frustrated at this point that I poured it down the drain.

(I learned later that you actually have to let the flour cook before it thickens. Y'all: I was NOT KIDDING when I said I'm a newbie cook.)

---

Attempt #3

This was before I learned about letting the flour cook. I thought, "maybe I just need to really up the flour I add."



I was wrong.

---

Attempt #4

By this point, my friends had educated me a bit about needing to let the flour cook. A couple tablespoons of butter, equal flour, cup and a half of milk. Let it cook, then add some nutmeg, salt, and pepper to finish it off. 



I finally made a serviceable bechamel! And so it's onto the problems with the sandwich.

I toasted whole grain bread in a top-loader toaster, added some mozzarella and ham to the already-toasted bread, put the oven on broil, poured the sauce, and added the sandwich.

There's a small problem and a big problem here:

Small problem: I should have assembled the untoasted sandwich and THEN toasted it - as a whole unit - on the stovetop rather than assuming the broiler would do the toasting.

Big problem: MY MAIN OVEN COMPARTMENT DIDN'T HAVE A ACTUAL BROILER. I accidentally just baked the sandwich at like 500 degrees.



Added the fried egg on top, but it was a gross mess. I was so flustered at that point that I even overcooked the egg. Only later did I learn that my oven had a bottom slot where the broiler ACTUALLY existed.

Been in my apartment with this oven for 10 years, and never checked that bottom section.
  
---

Attempt #5 

Lots of trial, lots of error, and I'm finally ready to get my Ignis on. Rewatched the videos, assembled a combined recipe that seemed reasonable, and started.


Ingredients:
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • some sliced ham
  • 2 slices whole grain bread
  • 1 egg 
  • 1 1/3 cups milk.
  • nutmeg, salt, pepper
Steps:


1. Melt two tablespoons of butter, followed by two tablespoons of flour.

2. Whisk together, and cook for one minute.

3. Slowly stream in 1 1/3 C milk.

4. Whisk constantly for another 1-2 minutes, and remove from heat when it's creamy. I tried this, but it was still basically milk after 1-2 minutes. I let it cook for another 6-7 minutes, whisking frequently.


5. Whisk in some salt, pepper, and nutmeg.


6. Assemble the sandwich with ham and cheese inside. This should've been done before I started cooking as mise en place.

7. Melt 1T butter in a pan. Didn't need this much butter.  1-2 teaspoons next time.

8. On low-medium heat, toast the sandwich, flipping after a bit.

9. When the sandwich is golden brown on both sides, transfer it to a broiler pan and pour bechamel to cover it.

10. Add some more cheese on top of the bechamel. Babish didn't do this, but Munchies did. It was a GREAT idea. Definitely keep this.

11. Place sandwich in broiler for about 2-3 minutes, until the cheese on top gets good color and melt.

12. Melt 1T butter in a pan and then add the egg when it's hot. Again, didn't need this much butter for a single egg. 1-2 teaspoons next time.

13. After removing the sandwich from the broiler, add the egg.


Success at long, long, long last.



Results

FINALLY. A good sandwich. Really good. More work than it's worth, but I have a feeling that now that the major screw-ups are out of the way, it'll be way faster on my next cook.




Cross-section of the finished product.

What about y'all? Have you tried this sort of thing before? Any kindly-given tips and suggestions are welcome, and I'd love to hear people's experiences with cooking even aside from tips.

Oh, and one more lesson: there's someone out there who actually gives XV-accurate recipes!



Looks like a great video. Wish I'd seen it before I made this, but I'll keep an eye on their channel for recipes going forward.

Comments (2)

Loading... Logging you in...
  • Logged in as
This is a great post. I love how you experiment, and learn as you go!

I once made soup, and was trying to do the "taste the seasonings as I go". I didn't understand that the longer you cook the soup the stronger the seasonings become, so I added black pepper until it tasted spicy enough to me... then I simmered it half an hour. My mom couldn't even eat it, it was so spicy by that point. To this day I'm not confident with spicing soups, I only add what the recipe says to add. ^_^;;
1 reply · active 282 weeks ago
Thanks :D

That "taste as you go" thing seems aimed at a higher level than me. Even with a finished product I'm barely able to judge how good it is, let alone at earlier stages. That's hilarious about the pepper, and EXACTLY the kind of mistake I'd likely make. XD

Post a new comment

Comments by