Is My Blog Burning? (The Tartine Edition): Tartine San Francisco
No blogs on fire here, but I think that's largely because I only had to use the broiler for 3 minutes at a time in this recipe. I'm still making friends with my broiler, and it's a bit of a tempestuous relationship at times. Which is why self-cleaning ovens are lovely.
But I digress.
First of all, bravo to Clotilde (as usual) for a creative and inspiring idea. I had so many permutations of tartines running through my head that I had to very sternly limit myself, and thus decided to compose a tartine in true California fashion using only fresh locally grown/made/caught ingredients. This might make my recipe hard to duplicate, and I do apologize, however, I'm sure the idea could be easily transferred to any region.
We're at the tail end of crab season in San Francisco which starts around Thanksgiving every year. In fact, for Thanksgiving this year, I made a crab salad hors d'oeuvre that was met with more enthusiasm than the recipe would have initially suggested. I decided to take that crab salad recipe as the base for my tartine, and play with various other toppings and ingredients in various forms. I'll blog about the various forms, but will offer one recipe which really represents the best permutation.
I started with the following ingredients:
(Clockwise from 10 o'clock): cayenne butter, frisee and sunflower sprout salad, crab salad, tomato slices, Acme Bakery's wonderful Pain au Levain (our answer to pain Poilâne), Appenzeller swiss cheese ('cause it was in our fridge), and a sliced avocado.
I brushed each slice of bread with the cayenne butter, and toasted it under the broiler for a bit, then layered on ingredients in various orders:
(From left to right): 1. crab, salad, avocado and tomato, cheese; 2. salad, crab, avocado; and 3. crab, avocado and tomato, cheese, salad.
I stuck the two with cheese under the broiler to melt the cheese a bit, and then was left with the following three results:
All of which were delicious, but led me to a definitive order of ingredients, a few caveats, and one final recipe...(read on)
(continued)
First the raw ingredients:
Crab Salad with Dill:
6 oz jumbo lump crab meat
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sour cream
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Pick over crab to remove shell, being careful not to break up any lumps. Stir ingredients together with pepper to taste (will not need salt). Can be prepared up to 6 hours ahead and chilled.
Cayenne Butter:
3 tablespoons butter
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
salt if needed, depending on your butter preference
Melt butter and stir in pepper (and salt if you're using it).
Salad:
1 head frisée lettuce
1 package (a handful?) of sprouts - I had originally wanted pea shoots but settled for sunflower sprouts instead. Radish sprouts would be good here too.
Dress salad with a small amount of lemon juice, olive oil, and pepper. I would highly suggest not using salt here (the crab is very salty and the salad doesn't need it) and (using more lemon juice than oil) keeping the salad somewhat dry. Don't drench it with dressing.
Slice bread to desired thickness (I did use a good thick country bread here) and stick it under the broiler for a minute to toast one side. Turn bread over, then brush the cayenne butter on the other side of each piece. Stick it back under the broiler for another minute or two. The bread should be toasted, not mushy, or it won't stand up to the wet crab.
Layer the ingredients as such: salad, crab salad, avocado and tomato slices, cheese. Stick it back under the broiler to melt the cheese.
I found that keeping the salad on the bottom helped hold everything together and make it easier to eat. The tomato's acidity, combined with the lemon dressing on the greens help cut the sweetness of the crab. I definitely liked the warmer tartines better (the cold tartine with just avocado on top was booooring), and the somewhat strong cheese was a nice finish. M wolfed down most of these, as I could only bring myself to eat a few bites of each (having snitched crab salad as I was cooking). They're rich, so forewarned is forearmed.
We opened the only bottle of white we had in the house (a too-sweet Riesling), but I'd personally suggest a dry champagne.
But then, I never need a reason to open up champagne.
Enjoy!
Comments
What a delicious combination! Crab season has been terrific this year, hasn't it? If we get any more crab I'll have to try one of these out. Just the thought of crab and avocado is making me hungry...
Posted by: Elise | March 8, 2004 08:10 AM
Oh yum. That looks awesome KC! Honestly, I just stand in awe of how perfectly you chopped everything. Mine just end up all sloopy and crooked looking. Nice job!
Posted by: rockybeach | March 9, 2004 10:40 AM