Croque Monsieur

Sometimes I don't even understand myself.

Sometimes when I am making food I pause myself to ask some questions. Who am I making this for? Why am I doing so much effort? Why am I even alive?

The answers are no where to be found or may be I am just PMSing while being a manly man that I claim to be.

So this recipe is basically a fancy shmancy sandwich which you eat with a fork and a knife. So, by now you know that it is a bit complex to make.

Croque Monsieur is a french sandwich which is a very delicious cheesy breakfast sandwich. Filled with cheese and slices of your preferred meat, topped with white sauce and more cheese and broiled to perfection.

Sounds a lot of work but trust me it wasn't/. Just took me 20 minutes to get done with the whole thing.

Let me show you how.

Ingredients:

4-6 slices of your favorite type of bread. I bought french bread loafs from Green Valley.

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1 cup milk

2 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoon metled butter

1 tablespoon flour

K&N's Mortedella chicken slices

Pinch of salt and black pepper

First of all we will toast the slices till brown on low heat after brushing melted butter on both sides of the slices.

Now we will prepare the sauce by melting butter in a sauce pan.

Quickly stir the flour in it until it turns in to a bubbly liquid.

Add milk to it and stir till it is thickened.

Sprinkle some salt and pepper.

Add grated Parmesan cheese and your sauce is ready.

This will be later on used as a topping on the sandwich.

Now it's time to assemble the sandwich.

Let's do it in points.

1. Put a cheese slice on the bread slice.

2. Put 2-3 mortadella chicken slices over the cheese slice.

3. Place a cheese slice again.

4. Put the second bread slice.

5. Top the sandwich with a tablespoon of the white sauce.

6. Place another slice over the white sauce.

There you go, the sandwich is assembled and ready to go into the broiler.

Cover a baking tray with aluminum foil and place the sandwiches on it.

Preheat the broiler and place the tray in the lower rack.

Let it broil till the cheese gets bubbly hot and starts melting from the sides.

The sandwich is ready to be consumed.

I have never eaten a heavier breakfast than this. One of the most delicate sandwiches I have ever made. Give it up for Croque Monsieur.

Mushroom & Cheese Melt Burger

One of my favorite burgers from the many burgers of various burger joints is the Mushroom & Swiss Angus Burger from Hardee's aka as Carl's Jr.

I mentioned it before as well and also requested anyone of you to take me to Hardee's but you all are so cold and just want recipes from me like I owe you Rs. 500 or something.

Since I love this burger so much and I hate going out in this weather which is equivalent to fire raining from the skies of hell I, Chef Shamsher (which is not even my real name) decided to take it upon my own hands and tried to make my version of the Mushroom & Swiss.

I think I got somewhat successful and I will name it Mushroom & Cheese Melt Burger.

As far as the side(dish) of this burger goes. I chose to make baked potato wedges.

Just simply topped the potatoes with salt, olive oil, pepper and garlic powder. Baked it on 250 degrees for 30-40 minutes and the result is following.

Enough chitter chatter. Let's start up with the recipe.

Ingredients For Mushroom Sauce:

1 can of sliced mushrooms

2 tablespoons cream

1 cup chicken/beef broth

1 medium small onion finely chopped

1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste

2 tablespoons of butter

Ingredients For Burger Patty:

500 grams minced beef

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

salt as per taste

1 egg

First and foremost we have to make the burger patty and while we let it rest in the freezer, we'll later on make the sauce.

Add the salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder and egg in the minced beef and mix it well.

Make 2-4 patties according to your own liking.

I had 1 kg minced beef so I made BIG patties BECAUSE I'M A BIG BOY AND BIG BOYS EAT BIG.

Let the patties rest in the freezer for around 20-30 minutes.

Now let's start making the sauce by melting butter into a sauce pan and frying the finely chopped onion.

Add ginger garlic paste and cook the onions till they are properly caramelized.

Add the mushrooms now and fry them for 3-5 minutes.

Sprinkle some salt and pepper on the mushrooms.

Add the broth now and lower the heat and let it cook until the onions and broth mix into make a brown gravy.

Add the cream and cook it for another 2-3 minutes and your sauce is ready to be topped on the burger patty.

GRILLING TIME.

Heat grill pan on medium heat and brush it with some olive oil.

Place the patties on it and grill it for 8-10 minutes on each side.

If you want more flavor in your patty you can add a teaspoon of butter to the pan.

On the last minute of the patties on the grill top them with 2 slices of cheese each.

BURGER !!! ASSEMBLE !!!

Put a layer of mustard on the bottom bun and top it with lettuce.

Place the cheese covered patty on the lettuce and top it with the mushroom sauce.

Ladies and gentlemen, a home made burger does not get better than this. Revealing my very own Mushroom & Cheese Melt Burger. MAKE SOME NOISE!!!

Mac & Cheese Grilled Sandwich

I have been creating so much hype about Mac & Cheese Grilled Sandwich that I was almost afraid about the fact that "What if it does not turn out right?" This is a very common fear I have whenever I am making something new. Most of the things I make in this blog are my first timers.

Mac & Cheese is very dear to me and probably that is the reason why I have made many variations of it.

Let me tell you a little story about why it's so dear to me. My mom made it for me for the first time and she learned this from a culinary school she was attending for a short course. This was very new for her as she was a simple village girl who has done most of her schooling in Urdu medium. So, she never knew all these fancy things to make till she attended that short course.

I remember when she came home from that class she said "Umar(my real name) I have brought something for you to eat and it is called something which I have forgotten so I would just call it 'noodles with cheese'."

Obviously at the time I even didn't know what this thing was till later on and I used to recall this with her and she used to tell me that she has lost her recipe book which she prepared from that short course.

My mother was really the most simple, beautiful, graceful and the amazing woman of her time.

If I talked about her anymore I would probably start crying so let's just get on with the recipe.

Ingredients:

400 grams boiled elbow macaroni

3 tablespoons of butter (2 for the mac and cheese and 1 for grilling the sandwich)

1/2 cup of milk

250 grams of cheese of your liking

sandwich bread

4-6 sausages sliced (optional)

a can of mushrooms sliced (optional)

salt per taste

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste

Cheese slices for sandwich assembly

Boil the the macaroni according to the instruction given on the packet.

Slice up the mushrooms and sausages if you want to add them. If you want to skip them its fine I just don't like my Mac & Cheese without shrooms and sausages.

Crisp fry mushrooms and sausages separately in one tablespoon of olive oil on low heat for 5 minutes.

Now melt the 2 tablespoon of butter in a non stick pan on medium low heat.

Add ginger and garlic paste to it and stir.

Add milk right after that and cook it for a minute.

Add grated cheese right after that. I used cheddar and pepper jack cheese but you can definitely use any cheese of your liking.

Mix it well til the cheese dissolves.

Add salt and pepper alongside the mushrooms and sausages.

Mix them properly and layer the boiled macaroni on the cheese sauce.

Mix the macaroni properly in the cheese sauce and your Mac & Cheese is ready.

Set it aside the stove for 30 minutes to cool off. Because if you top it on the bread at this temperature it will just make the bread soggy. So, it needs to cool down before we start making the sandwich.

You can also take out a separate quantity and place it in the fridge to cool down quickly.

After 30 minutes Mac & Cheese should be cold enough to start the sandwich assembly.

To assemble the sandwich you need to follow the following order:

1. Place a bread slice.

2. Place a cheese slice on that slice.

3.Fill up bread with Mac & Cheese.

4. Place another cheese slice on the Mac & Cheese.

5. Finally, cover it up with a bread slice.

This is how it should look like before covering up with the second bread slice.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a frying pan over low heat.

Cook the sandwich on both sides for 90 seconds to 2 minutes and your Mac & Cheese Grilled Sandwich is ready to serve.

It is very hard to present sandwiches because I DON'T KNOW WHY but it is freaking hard to present them.

I almost have to be lucky enough to get a nice/presentable picture.

But here it is ladies and the gents. The one and only king of carbs Mac & Cheese Grilled Sandwich.

Listen to that crunch as I shamefully eat this in front of you all. HAHAHAHAHAHA (I should stop writing)