croque madam

Bechamel sauce can be made in advance and used in other recipes such as pasta. Pour the milk into a small saucepan. Stick the cloves into the peeled onion and put it in the milk. Add bay leaf and nutmeg. Bring milk to a boil over low heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Then remove from heat, remove the onion and bay leaf. Meanwhile, put the butter in a saucepan, let it melt and add the flour. Cook everything together over low heat, stirring thoroughly and kneading with a wooden spatula, 3-4 minutes. Butter and flour should become one, but not fried or darkened. Pour half of the milk into the saucepan with flour. Continuing to knead and stir, let the milk boil. Then stir in the remaining milk and cook, without boiling, until the sauce thickens and becomes creamy. Remove sauce from heat, strain, add salt and pepper.

Brown the bread in a toaster or grill pan on both sides. Spread mustard on each slice.

Cut the tomato into circles and lightly fry in olive oil on both sides. Brown the ham on both sides. Place slices of ham on 4 slices of bread on mustard, mugs of tomatoes on the remaining slices. Top each toast with béchamel sauce and top with a slice of comte. Assemble sandwiches: bread with ham on the bottom, with tomatoes on top. Put the sandwiches in an oven preheated to 190 degrees for 10-15 minutes, at the end you can turn on the grill function so that the cheese is covered with a delicious crust.

Meanwhile, fry 4 neat fried eggs in olive oil (to make them perfectly round, you can put a chef's ring in the pan and break an egg inside it). Put fried eggs on browned toasts, next to the sandwich, if desired, put a sprig of thyme - for smell. And serve.