Deep Fried Monte Cristo

The Best Monte Cristo

If you’re a fan of a Grilled Ham and Cheese sandwich, you’re going to love the Monte Cristo. It’s, more or less, the French version, with the addition of sliced turkey, invented in the 1930’s and it’s fried and seasoned with confectioners sugar and served with Raspberry jam. There are many different versions of this sandwich, served around the globe at different diners. Some are battered and seared like French Toast, others are battered thicker and deep fried, instead. I’m going to show you how I make a Triple-Decker with these ingredients and a fresh new take on the batter for deep frying.

Tagged and bagged Mesquite Smoked Turkey and Sweet Smoked Ham.

Monte Cristo Meat and Cheese

When it comes to deli meats, I like them sliced thin. It’s just my personal preference. I use 4 slices of each per sandwich and I recommend using only 2 if you’re using thicker cuts. I purchase Mesquite Smoked Turkey and Sweet Smoked Ham for this recipe. It generally costs me around $5 dollars per lbs for each.

The Cheese used in this recipe calls for Swiss and Cheddar Cheese. Thanks to Covid-19, my kids school continued providing school lunches and they gave us a few blocks of Swiss Cheese and I purchased medium cheddar cheese, from my grocery store. You can change it up any way you like it but that’s the basic recommended recipe.

Monte Cristo Bread

I couldn’t find much on the specific type of bread used to make a Monte Cristo but, it is my understanding that this sandwich was inspired by the French Croque Monsieur. That sandwich uses Brioche, which is similar to a highly enriched pastry, which is light and slightly puffy.

In this recipe I chose to go with Sourdough bread because it makes excellent French Toast and I think it’s best for the Batter I’m making. An Artisan White is an amazing bread to use too, however, and it is great for grilling with melted butter but, I would only use this bread for this sandwich if I was using the basic egg and milk wash when pan frying.

The typical White Round Top loaf of bread is practical, cheap and commonly used as well. Usually the crusts are cut off to make it look more luxurious but it will work for a pan or deep fry. Just use what you have, though, and it will turn out great no matter what you choose!

Deep Fried Monte Cristo Sandwich, cut and stacked on top of each other.

Serving a Monte Cristo Sandwich

Many restaurants serve the Monte Cristo as more of a savory sandwich with the addition of Sweet for garnishment. This sandwich is covered inside with Mayonnaise on ever slice of bread and Mustard on only the top and bottom pieces and, once the sandwich is battered and deep fried, confectioners sugar is sprinkled over the top and served with Raspberry Jam.

A few additional ingredients grace the batter to make this recipe top notch. Like many French Toast recipes, I felt like it was appropriate to add some cinnamon, nutmeg, a pinch of cayenne and some orange zest. A good alternative, if you’re avoiding the sweeteners, use garlic and onion powder instead of the cinnamon and nutmeg.

Check out some of my other sandwich recipes: Grilled Ham and Cheese, Double Decker Grilled Cheese, Lobster Roll, Spicy Philly Cheesesteak, Reubon, Steak and Cheese Sandwich, Sloppy Joe.

Deep Fried Monte Cristo by PoorMansgourmet

Deep Fried Monte Cristo Ingredients:

Ingredients for 1 Sandwich
1 loaf Sour dough Bread, 3 slices per Sandwich
4 slices Smoked Ham, thinly sliced or 2 thick slices
4 slices Smoked Turkey, thinly sliced or 2 thick slices
1/4 cup Swiss Cheese, grated or 2 slices
1/4 cup Cheddar Cheese, grated or 2 slices
4 tbsp Mayonnaise
2 tsp Mustard

Batter for 2 Sandwich’s
1 cup Self Rising Flour
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/8 tsp Garlic Powder or Cinnamon
1/8 tsp Onion Powder or Nutmeg
pinch of Cayenne
Orange Zest
pinch of salt

1 inch Canoil Oil, for frying

Be sure to follow the instructions in the Deep Fried Monte Cristo video tutorial and fry the battered sandwich at 350° Fahrenheit for approximately 30 to 45 seconds, on each side, or until golden brown.

Pork Rinds

The Best Pork Rinds

Truthfully, making Pork Rinds isn’t all that difficult to do but it is quite a time consuming process and one that you might rather avoid if you don’t mind buying a bag of fried pig skins or cracklings, instead. I say that, mostly, because you don’t save any money, doing it yourself, and cooking these fresh doesn’t seem to improve the taste or flavor, in my opinion. I like to eat Pork Rinds as much as anyone, so don’t take my thoughts the wrong way. Just know that I’d rather just buy a premade bag instead of making them myself, next time(unless I have skin I don’t want to go to waste). So if nothing else, you can at least learn how it’s done and hopefully enjoy this post, recipe and the work I put in to making the Pork Rinds video.

Purchasing Skins for Pork Rinds

As you can see, in the photo above, I purchased my Skins, to make Pork Rinds, from my local Asian Market. Skins usually come from the Belly side of the pig, where the the bacon is removed. So there’s generally a ton of fat associated with the cuts. I paid $2 dollars a pound, for this package, so I didn’t really save any money vs. buying a premade bag of Pork Rinds. But, because the fat was already removed I didn’t get charged for all the extra weight. Though, I’m sure if it were still attached, the price would’ve been altered accordingly. Regardless, you should be able to purchase pig skin from any butcher that sells pork.

Making Pork Rinds

As I mentioned before, making Pork Rinds is time consuming and quite tedious. Even though the majority of the fat content was removed from the skins, the skin needs to be boiled and scraped to ensure that all of the fat is gone. And it’s best to boil the skins whole, before cutting and slicing them into portions. This way you can do it in large sheets instead of individual 1 inch pieces. Removing the fat, completely, helps to aerate the skin when it bakes and helps the Rinds fluff up more when they’re frying. In the video, I Boil the Pork Rinds for 30 minutes, strain and then baked them, on low, for approximately 4 hours before frying. Then once they are removed from the oven, they can be dropped in a deep fryer set at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, for 2 minutes.

Fried Pork Rinds

A few things you need to consider, when making Pork Rinds, is that there are several different ways you can screw these up. If you’ve ever bitten into a pork rind that just about broke your tooth or was just too hard to chew, then you need to pay attention to a few things. First, cut off tough and discolored edges that seem dried out and pleathery. Second, again, be sure to scrape out the fat. And third, be sure to remove all of the pieces that that didn’t puff up in the fryer. You follow those three easy steps and all of your teeth will stay intact.

As far as seasonings go, anything with onion and garlic powder in them is generally a good way to go but you can use ranch powder, adobo, pico de gallo or just plain old salt and pepper.

Pork Rinds Ingredients:

2 lbs Pig Skin
2 Quarts Water
1/4 cup Salt
Oil for Frying
You’re Favorite Seasoning

Be sure to remove all of the fat from the skin, boil the skin for 30 minutes, bake the skins on low for 2 to 4 hours and
deep fry the skins at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 2 minutes. Place the Pork Rinds on paper towels and
season with your favorite seasoning or salt.

Original Egg Rolls

The Best Egg Rolls

For some reason what people are calling the “Original Egg Roll” has slipped through the cracks with online recipes. All it is, pretty much, is just a normal egg roll that is dipped in a Chinese Batter before its fried. I’ve researched it a little bit and some claim that the egg roll wrapper is suppose to be a crepe but I’ve had it served both ways. I find using a normal wrapper is much more practical for sealing and they’re fairly cheap so I don’t bother with the extra hassle of making my own.

My experience with Egg Rolls

These Egg Rolls leave little to be desired. Except for the fact that you’ll probably want more. One bite into these crunchy vegetable and pork fried rolls sends me spinning. And because these aren’t made at most Chinese Restaurants anymore, I’m left with making my own and it took me a while to perfect. But now that I’ve got it down, I thought I’d share it with the world. I’ve included my Sweet and Sour sauce and my normal egg roll recipe in the links below, if you’re interested. Also my Chinese Batter is there if you didn’t fully understand the way I make it here.

Sweet and Sour Sauce
Egg Rolls
Chinese Fry Batter

The Original Egg Rolls Ingredients:

Egg Roll Wrappers or Crepe Pancakes
1/2 lbs Ground Pork, cooked
1/2 cup Bean Sprouts
1/2 Onion, sliced
1/2 cup Cabbage, chopped
1 tsp Soy sauce White or Black Pepper to taste

Fry Batter
1 cup Self Rising Flour
1 cup Water, maybe a little more

Follow the instructions in the video tutorial to make the Original Egg Rolls.