TASTE
A luxurious French-style sandwich that's better for you
| • | Shanghai tradition surviving for now |
By Elaine Magee
I tasted a savory French pastry recently that contained creme fraiche, bits of ham, Gruyere cheese and caramelized onions, all sitting on top of a buttery French pastry dough. Needless to say, it was as rich as it was wonderful. It took my stomach a few hours to recover. Days later, that decadent appetizer inspired me to create a sandwich in its likeness, but lighter.
Instead of creme fraiche, I used a whipped light cream cheese and I caramelized the onions in only a little bit of olive oil. I used an extra-lean ham, sliced thin. And I enjoyed this sandwich using slices of whole-wheat bread; you could use French bread, if you prefer. The only thing I didn't change was the Gruyere cheese. There's not much we can do there except use less.
FRENCH-STYLE HAM & CHEESE SANDWICH
Add olive oil to medium nonstick frying pan and begin to heat over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute, stirring often, until onion is nicely browned and caramelized (about 4 minutes). Drizzle pancake syrup (if desired) over the top and stir into the onions. Set aside to cool.
Toast bread slices if desired. Top two of the slices with the ham slices and spread the caramelized onions over the ham. Then spread a tablespoon of the cream cheese over the remaining two slices. Sprinkle shredded Gruyere cheese evenly over the top of the cream cheese.
Place all four slices into the toaster oven broiler (or regular broiler) and broil, watching carefully, until the Gruyere cheese is starting to bubble (about 3-4 minutes). Place the slices with the cheese over the slices with the ham and onions.
Cut each sandwich on the diagonal and serve!
Makes 2 sandwiches.
Elaine Magee is author of "The Recipe Doctor Cookbook" and "The Flax Cookbook." Reach her through www.recipedoctor.com.
