Croque Monsieur (it's not complicated!)

Have you watched It's Complicated? It has Meryl Streep in it, which obviously makes it a must see; that woman could play Nelson Mandela! Anyway, it has the most amazing food in it, I drooled in numerous scenes.
My personal favourite was the Croque Monsieur she made for Steve Martin's character. It's basically a ham and cheese sandwich, but oh, it's so much more! It's sour dough bread, gypsy ham, Gruyère, and Béchamel sauce, all grilled into submission (drooling again :) And honestly, it's really not that complicated.




Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups hot milk
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
pinch nutmeg
5 cups shredded Gruyere cheese (basically one big block, get it at Woolies)
1 cup shredded parmesan
8 slices sourdough bread (use ciabatta instead, if you prefer a lighter meal)
dijon mustard
8 slices smoked ham (gypsy ham is the best!)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.

2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan, on medium heat, then add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon for 2 minutes.
Slowly pour the hot milk into the butter/flour mixture and cook, whisking constantly until the sauce thickens.
Remove from the heat and add the salt, pepper, nutmeg, 1/2 cup gruyere and the cup of parmesan. Set aside.

3. To toast the bread, place the slices on a baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes, then flip the slices over and bake for 2 minutes more.

4. Spread the toasted bread with dijon mustard, and add a slice of ham to each.

5. Now slather the tops with the cheese sauce you set aside, and sprinkle all the remaining gruyere on top of the sauce.

6. Bake for 5 minutes.

7. Turn your oven up to grill, and grill for +- 5 minutes, until the cheese starts bubbling beautiful brown bubbles.