Elevate Your Next Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Egg

Chef Remy uses homemade sourdough bread, which works well with richness of two cheeses: Emmantal for melting and Parmigiano-Reggiano for saltiness. He layers the sandwich with thinly cut prosciutto for flavor and spreads béchamel on top. His pro trick: cutting a hole in one slice of bread for an egg yolk and broiling the sandwich after grilling.

Watch the video to make a crispy, melty, eggy grilled cheese and get the recipe below.

Recipe

Chef Remy's Grilled Cheese

Yields 8 sandwiches

Ingredients

• 1 loaf sourdough bread
• 1 pound butter
• 1 quart milk
• 5 ounces Parmesan cheese
• 1 pound emmantal cheese or comte, sliced
• 1/2 pound boiled ham or prosciutto cotto, sliced
• 8 eggs
• 75 grams all-purpose flour
• Nutmeg
• Black peppercorn
• 2 shallots

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.
2. To start building the sandwiches, take each slice of bread, cover it with a slice of cheese, a slice of ham and another slice of cheese. Make sure that there isn’t any extra cheese overlapping from the bread or it will burn while the sandwich goes in the oven.
3. Take the other slice of bread, and using a 2-inch cookie cutter, cut a hole in the center.
4. Close the sandwich and spread room temperature butter on both sides.

For the béchamel:

1. Warm up some milk in a 2-quart saucepot. Season it with salt, white peppercorn and nutmeg.
2. In the meantime, melt 75 grams of butter in another saucepot.
3. When melted, add 75 grams of flour, whisk vigorously.
4. Strain the milk through a fine mesh colander and slowly add it to the butter and milk mixture, making sure the milk is fully absorbed before adding more, whisking all the time.
5. Bring the whole mixture to a boil. Add the grated parmesan and some emmantal, whisk until the cheese melts. Reserve.

To assemble:

1. Warm up a cast iron pan on the stove, add a little oil (or clarified butter) and gently crisp each sandwich, poked side down first. When golden, flip the sandwich and put the pan in the oven long enough for the cheese inside to melt.
2. Take the pan out of the oven. Turn the oven to broil.
3. Crack an egg. Separate the yolk and the white. With an offset spatula or a spoon, spread the bechamel on the sandwich on the punched side, making sure not to cover the hole.
4. Put the yolk in the hole. Put the sandwich under the broiler until the bechamel is bubbling up.

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