Mini Smoked Salmon Sandwiches (Croque-Monsieur)

Submitted by KathyP53

"This recipe from Food and Wine Magazine looked very intriguing to me. Although it takes some time, it's fairly easy and pretty spectacular to serve."

 

• Ready In: 1hr
• Ingredients: 11
• Serves: 20

ingredients

• 1⁄2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups milk
• 10 ounces thinly sliced smoked salmon, coarsely chopped
• 1 1⁄2 cups gruyere cheese (6 oz.)
• 1 cup minced fresh chives
• 1⁄2 teaspoon grated fresh nutmeg
• salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 40 slices rye cocktail bread
• 40 slices pumpernickel rounds
• 6 large eggs

directions

1. In a medium saucepan, melt 3 tablespoons of butter. Stir in flour until completely blended, then cook over moderately hight heat, stirring constantly, until roux is golden brown, about 3 minutes. Gradually whisk in milk until smooth. Bring sauce to boil, whisking constantly. Reduce heat to moderately low and simmer, whisking often, until no floury taste remains, about 5 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat and let sauce cool, stirring, until very warm. Stir in chopped salmon, Gruyeres, chives, and nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper and let sauce cool completely.
2. Spread half of the rye slices with a rounded tablespoon of the salmon mixture and close the sandwiches. Repeat with the pumpernickel slices and remaining salmon mixture. Can cover sandwiches with plastic wrap and store in refrigerator overnight, if desired.
3. Preheat oven to 400°F In a large shallow bowl, beat eggs thoroughly. Stack 2 or 3 large rimmed baking sheets on one side of the stove.
4. In a large skillet, melt 1 tablespoons of butter over moderate heat. Dip 8 of the sandwiches in the beaten egg to coat completely, cook the egg-dipped sandwiches over moderately-high heat, turning once, until browned, about 1 minutes per side. Transfer sandwiches to one of the baking sheet, leaving a little space between each one. Repeat with the remaining sandwiches and beaten eggs, using 1 tbsp of butter per batch.
5. Reheat sandwiches in the oven for about 8 minutes, until piping hot. Cut sandwiches in half on the diagonal, skewer with small wooden forks and serve hot.
6. Sandwiches can be made earlier in the day and reheated.

Reviews

[Manami]

Hi Kathy, this recipe is wonderful! We served it for a small cocktail party during the Thanksgiving weekend and they were scrumptious! There were ohss and ahss heard all around! It was delightful, that were such a hit! We prepared them the night before and were able to reheat them and we served them with some cute plastic forks that I found on the internet. I prefer serving appetizers and drinks - that way when we are warming the hot appetizers, we serve the cold or room temperature ones. Thank you Kathy, for having a hand in our cocktail party. Manami a/k/a discharf ;)