My Version of "Monte Cristo" sandwich from Benningan's (closed) Restaurant by White Lakes Shopping Center (south Topeka Blvd)

After making the batter for the sweet banana peppers I thought of dear old Benningan's rest. and their Monte Cristo sandwiches that I ALWAYS ate there. I'm sure they had other good food but the 1st time I ate there it was their specialty and I tryed it and never ate anything else whenever we ate there. Well, I found some very cheap little (2.5) oz. bags of Kroger thin sliced meats Ham, turkey, chicken, pastrami, etc. Those were the ones I chose to see if I could try to make something like their sandwich.





Two slices of bread - I used Dillon's Cracked Wheat Bread large 20 oz loaf because they had a whole grocery cart full of them by the front door last week when I stopped in and they were "best used by 9/8" and 39 cents each. Wow! That was what we paid for good old white bread 60 years ago. anyway


Here it is:


Using up the rest of the batter from the pepper or make new.


Get that peanut oil out that you strained through cheesecloth after frying your peppers and threw away all the crumbs etc. in it & poured you nice peanut oil in something & put in refrigerator. Take it out and put in that pan you used and heat it up again. Two inches deep is still enough. Medium or Med. High heat is best.


(Or Deep Fryer if you have one) When you can drop a drop of water in the oil and it sizzles you know it is hot enough. Dip your sandwich that you have already put 2 thin slices of Ham or Smoked Turkery, 1 thin slice of cheese, 2 slices of chicken, 1 thin slice cheese, 2 slices of pastrami and put the other slice of bread on top. Now hold the sandwich together tightly and dip each side and all the edges an gently lay in your hot peanut oil and fry till lightly browned turn over and fry on other side. Serve with LOTS of good old Red Raspberry Preserves spread on top or dip in as you eat. AWESOME!!!! If you want to make it for breakfast make the batter the night before, I like the batter better after it's been in the refrigerator a day or night. Sprinke lightly with powdered sugar. And ENJOY!!!!!