Croque Madame Breakfast Hash

Gooey, cheesy béchamel, crispy potatoes and sourdough, baked eggs, and fried ham bits – this croque madame breakfast bake is delicious.

30 minutes cook

Serves 4

Spencer Lengsfield

Twisted: Unserious food tastes seriously good.

Ingredients

for the béchamel

50gunsalted butter

50gplain flour

500mlmilk

Salt and pepper

for the hash

500gbaby potatoes

4 slicesham, diced

2shallots, thinly sliced

2 tbspolive oil

2 slicessourdough, torn

50ggruyere, grated

3eggs

Salt and pepper

Chives, finely chopped

This is basically a croque madame, the famous French sandwich, but with potatoes. Crispy potatoes and sourdough, rich béchamel, baked eggs, caramelised shallots, and crispy fried ham bits.

Method

Add a good splash of olive oil to a skillet, along with your diced ham, and allow the ham to cook until it's nice and crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon, leaving behind the ham-flavoured oil.

Add your potatoes to the skillet. Once they start to brown add your shallots, and continue to cook for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender.

Meanwhile, make the béchamel. Melt your butter in a pan over medium/high. Once it starts to foam add the flour, whisk, and let cook for a couple of minutes. Slowly drizzle in the milk, whisking constantly, then season with salt and pepper. Set aside

Preheat the oven to 220 C. Add your torn sourdough to the potatoes, and allow to crisp up in the pan.

Make three wells or gaps in the potato sourdough mixture, and crack in 3 eggs. Pour over as much béchamel as you like, avoiding the eggs if possible. Finish with cheese, then pop into the oven for 5-10 minutes or until the eggs are just set and the cheese is bubbling.

Finish with the crispy ham and chives, and dig in!