Saturday, May 10, 2008

Mmm MMMonte Cristo Sandwich

The first time I had one of these sandwiches was on my 29 4ever Birthday celebration at the Blue Bayou restaurant at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. It was freaking AMAZING! As my friend Kandy Johnston would say it was a Food Orga_m! Holy Moly! Simply amazing combinations of sweet and savory and cheesy and crunchy. They served this culinary masterpiece with a delicious lettuce salad with sweetened crunchy pecans, cranberries, crumbly cheese, and a sweet vinaigrette! Curly noodled pasta salad and a side of boysenberry jam to spread on the Monte Cristo.

What is the Monte Cristo exactly? Black Forest Ham, Turkey, and Swiss Cheese, battered and fried, then sprinkled with powdered sugar. Sounds a bit weird. But OMG! You gotta get one.

Locally there is one restaurant in the SCV that serves one of these sandwiches. Eggs and Things. They are open for breakfast and lunch. Their sandwich is quite good. They serve theirs with maple syrup and Marion blackberry preserves.

My dear friend Amy, says that the Black Cow in Montrose, Ca has a mean Monte Cristo. I have yet to dine there with Amy. Not for lack of trying to plan a lunch/shopping date. I'll let you know about the experience shall I ever get there.

Tonight I'm hungry. Robby came home and had already eaten dinner with one of his friends. A little bummed. I opened the 'frige and remembered I bought turkey and black forest ham! Yippee. I had bread and three kinds of sliced cheese. So below you will find the recipe for my very own Monte Cristo Sandwich at 28413!

28413 Monte Cristo Sandwich

This recipe will serve 2

4 slices wheat bread
8 slices shaved black forest ham
8 slices oven baked turkey
2 slices mozzarella cheese
2 slices tillamook cheddar cheese
2 slices pepper jack cheese

1/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/3 cup beer
toothpicks

Oil for frying (I used canola oil)

Powdered sugar
any kind of jam you like
real maple syrup

Heat oil to 365 degrees F. While oil is heated mix batter. In a medium sized bowl mix flour, cinnamon and beer. Stir. Set aside

Take two pieces of the bread. Top each with one slice of mozzarella. Then place 4 slices of Black forest ham on top of mozzarella on each sandwich. Now place a slice of cheddar on the two sandwiches. Layer the slices of turkey on each. Top that with the pepper jack cheese and other two pieces of bread. Put both sandwiches on a plate and nuke for 30-45 seconds.

Remove sandwiches from microwave. Cut the sandwiches into 4 triangle pieces. Pierce each quarter with toothpick to hold it together. Dunk sandwich piece into batter. Use a spoon and cover all sides with batter. Place in hot oil and fry. Remove toothpick and use tongs to flip sandwich. Fry until all sides are golden brown. Dust with powdered sugar and serve immediately with syrup or jam.

ENJOY! I know I did! (:

1 comment:

FishMama said...

That sounds truly freaky. And you know that I generally like freaky food. I didn't know you were such the adventurer. It must have been the sugar that pushed you to it.