Page 364 - YC Cooking School

special for your guests. There are many ways to present your canapés: place them on long
wooden boards, tiles, mirrors or even large wall clocks. Franck also uses wheat grass to

mimic a lawn! The possibilities are endless, so just have fun with it!

A few notes on making the croque madame

Add some styling flair
The croque monsieur is essentially a toasted cheese and ham sandwich. Top it with a fried
egg and voilà – you have a croque madame (the egg is meant to look like a lady’s hat). To
add styling flair to the traditional croque madame, use this nifty little trick: Instead of
presenting a plain ol’ sandwich, cut the bread into circles with a pastry cutter and place
them inside muffin cups. Then add the fillings until they resemble beautiful little tartlets.

Prepare the bread
To make the bread malleable enough to fit into a muffin pan, cut off the crusts and flatten
what’s left with a rolling pin. Coat the underside of the bread with butter to crisp it up when
it goes into the oven. Take care not to crack or break the bread while placing it in the muffin
tray. As Franck says, ‘Just let it fall where it may.’ You don’t want the precious cheese sauce
to ooze out.

Working with quail eggs
Quail eggs can be a little tricky to work with. You can’t just crack them like you would an
ordinary egg, since they have a membrane. Select a super-sharp knife and gently cut around
half the shell before breaking the rest of it open. Break the eggs into ramekins before
adding them to the croque madame, so you can pick out any bits of shell.

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