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>>In Louisville, Kentucky, there's a lovely little hotel called The Brown Hotel that originated the Kentucky hot brown.

Well, today on "Tassie's table," I'm gonna show you how to make simple Kentucky hot browns with smoked turkey.

So we're gonna start with our pan on about medium heat, and to that, we're going to add a little bit of butter, two tablespoons of butter.

Let's let that melt a little bit, and then we're going to make a roux.

Now, roux are really, really easy to make.

People are very intimidated by them a lot of times because it's a matter of making a butter and flour mixture.

Don't be intimidated by something that's called a roux.

It's also sometimes called a sauce thickener.

This is two tablespoons of butter and two tablespoons of flour.

Now, you're going to use the same amount of flour as you use fat.

That will make a really lovely roux.

Now, roux come in all different colors, and if you make food that's Creole or Cajun, you'll see that a lot of times, you do a dark roux.

Well, for this particular dish, it's just a blonde roux.

That means that all we're doing is cooking that flour until it doesn't show any white, but we're not adding a lot of color to this mixture.

So let's just stir that.

And you can see, this roux is all ready for my milk because I don't see any of that white flour anymore.

Now, let's add a cup and a quarter of whole milk.

(mixture sloshing) Pour it in slowly and whisk the whole time.

That way you won't have any lumps.

(mixture sloshing) (whisk clinking) Now, it's important at this stage to just let that sit and come to a simmer.

You can stir occasionally, but you don't have to stir constantly.

What we want it to do is thicken enough to coat the tines of the whisk.

My sauce is looking perfect.

I'll just see how it clings to the loop in my whisk.

It's perfect.

Now, I'm going to add about a half cup of grated Gruyere cheese.

Now, the cheese is what makes this Mornay sauce.

And just stir it until it starts to melt.

Now, let's turn off our heat, and I'm gonna build that sandwich.

So Kentucky hot browns is a classic open-faced sandwich.

It's just wonderful.

And open-faced sandwiches have been around a long time.

They actually date back to Greece and Rome, but then they were called trenchers.

So what they would do was take old, stale bread and put all sorts of meats and things on them, and then they just hold it and eat it, almost like a hot dog bun.

Now, we're going to take some smoked turkey and just lay on our bread.

I've buttered it just ever so slightly to give it a nice little flavor touch.

Now, I'm using smoked turkey for this.

Classically, you'd use roasted chicken.

And then I want to take about a half of a tomato slice and put on each one.

And then we're gonna take one slice of bacon, cut into, just like that.

Now, we're gonna take a little bit of our Mornay, and then we're gonna top it with a little more Gruyere.

So our sauce looks beautiful, but to give it just a little extra flavor, we're going to add a little freshly grated nutmeg.

Now you can use nutmeg that's already ground that you buy in the store.

For me, I love to grind my own because the flavor is so much more intense.

It only takes a little bit, just a pinch or so.

And then, if you need it, just a pinch of salt and pepper.

Now, let's just mix that through, and then we're going to top our sandwich with a little of this Mornay.

Mm, just a ladle on each side, about a quarter cup on each one.

And then let's top it with a little more Gruyere, and we're gonna stick it under the broiler for just a couple of minutes until it bubbles and starts to get a nice golden color.

And then I'll show you how to finish it.

Doesn't this look amazing?

So I've put a little bit of extra Mornay down on the plate.

That keeps the sandwich from sliding, and it gives you that extra flavor.

So I'm gonna take half of the sandwich and just kind of rest it like this, right on that plate.

Oh, doesn't that look amazing?

And then I want to take the other half and just kind of give it a nice little corner, kind of balance it, give it a little art.

I love food as art.

There we go.

Now, let's just decorate it a little bit with some fresh minced chives.

And wow, what a great sandwich.

Doesn't that look delicious?

I love a good open face sandwich, but this one has to be my favorite.

So I hope you'll join me next time for another recipe here on "Tassie's Table."

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