This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe is Two Tartines from La Croix Rouge. According to Ms. Greenspan, our leader extraordinaire, La Croix Rouge is one of Paris’s busiest, most chic cafés. Chic grabs my interest but it’s the roast beef and smoked salmon tartines that whet my appetite.
Two paper-thin slices of the rarest-possible roast beef are needed for this week’s Tartine Saint-Germain.
Besides being just darn delish, these tartines are easily thrown together and require little equipment, dishes and utensils. Last Saturday the water guru in Cambria, where I am living this winter, invoked Mandatory Stage 3 Drought Restrictions. The crucial word here is mandatory. Everyone has to play or fine$ are imposed. Despite our recent rains, more than 22% of California still remains in the worst category: Exceptional Drought. Unfortunately, we on the Central Coast are part of that number.
Let’s leave water issues for later and get to the tastier part of my post. Tartines are simply fancy French toasted, open-faced sandwiches topped with any spreadable ingredient that one would eat. The combinations are endless. We Americans being Americans prefer to just slap another piece of bread on top, toasting is optional, and enjoy a sandwich. A Brit, John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, claims credit for that.
A light dinner, Tartine Saint-Germain with roasted brussel sprouts (Fresh. Spotted at the farmer’s market. Sold.)
The French love their tartines and there are five of them in Greenspan’s Around my French Table cookbook. We’ve made them all. You may remember the Nutella, Dieter’s and Goat Cheese and Strawberry Tartines. Of those three, I remain nuts about Nutella.
At La Croix Rouge the two most popular tartines are Tartine Saint-Germain and Tartine Norvégienne. For the Tartine Saint-Germain, start with a 2-inch thick slice of rustic bread. Grill or toast it on one side only. Then, slather the toasted bread with mayonnaise (I suggest using Aïoli, a garlicky mayonnaise and très français.) Although Dorie says to thinly slice a cornichon or gherkin to lay on top of the mayonnaise before covering the tartine with rare roast beef, I suggest not. Save the pickles for the surface along with salt and pepper. Cut the bread crosswise into one-inch wide strips. The wine is red.
For the Tartine Saint-Germain, I chose a Zinfandel from Peachy Canyon, another Central Coast wine.
Will it surprise you that the Tartine Norvegiénne includes smoked salmon? First, repeat the bread drill. Once toasted, spread butter (I used homemade dill sauce) on the bread and smother it in smoked salmon. Don’t forget those one-inch crosswise cuts. Top it off with pepper, capers and sliced lemons. The wine is white.
These were tasty, light dinners for me. Two tartines. Two nights.
While I’m not ready to put aside my lox and bagel with creme cheese, this Tartine Novegiénne is tasty.
Even better, these were no fuss, no mess, little clean-up, which helps as I try to restrict my water use here. Cambrians are restricted to using no more than two units of water, 1,500 gallons per resident per month. When I think of all the people in the world who have little access to water, I’m not feeling abused.
What I am feeling, however, is naive. Last Saturday I stopped by the local hardware store to purchase a bucket (for the shower, in case you were wondering). While paying, I said to the clerk, “I am a winter resident here and haven’t experienced water restrictions before. Could you give me some tips.”
For the smoked salmon tartine, I chose a chardonnay from Terra Robles, another local winery committed to sustainability.
The moral of this story is whenever you have a question, stop by your local hardware store. Business screeched to a halt. Customers gathered around the counter and my water-saving seminar began. Within 15 minutes I knew more than I wanted to know. No dishwasher. (Okay.) Launder colors and whites together. (Maybe.) Buy bottled water for cooking and drinking and brushing your teeth. (Aren’t all those plastic bottles bad for the environment?) Your car remains dirty. ( Or, grab a sponge and that bucket of shower water.) The other tips? (You don’t want to know.)
Next week-end my friends Susan and John Lester who blog at Create Amazing Meals will be coming here to join me for “Vintage Paso: Zinfandel and Other Wild Wines.” Readers, be honest, do you think it would be rude to ask them to bathe before they come?
French Fridays with Dorie is an international cooking group working its way through Dorie Greenspan’s Around my French Table, more than 300 recipes from my home to yours. Please visit the blogs of my other colleagues who do bathe frequently by clicking here.
I love this post…well the food stuff is good, but the whole drought thing is fascinating. & funny too about asking your guests to shower before they come. But questions remain?
if you have houseguests can you get more water rations? If so then I think you can let your guests shower. Also, is there a higher level than 3 when you don’t have ANY Water? At that point is Plan B for California to consider some miraculous intervention to turn the wine into water.
What Cambria needs, Ms. Grauer, is for a Colorado Master Naturalist whose speciality is Geology to get out here and locate more aquifers. Do you know anyone that fits that description? And, no, I do NOT support turning wine into water. Visiting all these wineries is tough work but since Bernie is not here, someone has to do it. See you at Easter. Who’s decorating the eggs?
LOL…I think you should let your guests shower, while the hostess roughs it 😉 Have a blast with Susan and John!!!
PS… could eat these tartines every night!
Glad these turned out so well for you! They look amazing! Sorry about the drought restrictions, that is a pain to deal with. Have fun with Susan and John. I am sure they would understand if you asked them to shower before they came to visit. 😉
Oh Mary, you are so funny! Good thing you didn’t come into the office yesterday, this whole water situation has us ready to go play on the highway. We really shouldn’t be in stage 3 but there hasn’t been an awful lot of ummm…prevention or preparation so it seems we are now paying the price, literally! We still have not heard if vacation rentals are to be allotted a fair amount of water or not. We have thought about having Harvey’s Honeyhuts delivering porta showers to each house and parking them in the driveways. Your guests wouldn’t mind that would they??? Can you imagine???? Keep the fun posts coming, we need them and do so enjoy them…and you <3
We went through a drought here in Carolina a few years ago so I totally get it. I started to dread sunny clear skies after a while. It seemed that it would never end and all the lakes around here went dry. Now we have an abundance of water. It seems everything is a cycle, doesn’t it?
Your tartines sound wonderful. I had never heard of tartines till about 5 years ago when I discovered them in London. Now I love them and these are amazing!
Oops, still getting used to my new computer and somehow posted that before I meant to. I wanted to say that we still have one more tartine on the line up, Tartine de viande des grisons. I guess we will find out what that means.
In the meantime, good luck with the water conservation. Sounds like you’re getting quite an education.
Whoah – that’s a lot of info to digest! Nice tartines, btw 😉
I loved the tartines too! I have never had to endure water restrictions before, but it really does make you think about how much we take for granted.
I’m glad you enjoyed these!
We are experiencing dry weather and dams over here in Malaysia too! Love both your tartines and the two choices of wine that went with them!
There’s something ironic about looking at the ocean and being told not to use water, isn’t there? I hate to break it to you, but Saturday is our regular bathing day so we can be clean on Sunday! ROFL! I’d say we’d just take a swim in the ocean but wearing wetsuits wouldn’t help us to get clean, now would it? How about a sponge bath at the local gas station restroom? Okay…
John loves Peachy Canon! I am all set to be the DD for our winery tour so you 2 can savor all the Zins you desire! Can’t wait to see you! xoxo
LOL – hmm, I would keep the bathing thing under your hat. Great looking tartines. I will stay away from hardware stores unless I want to know more than I bargained for.
Thank goodness it wasn’t soup this week. Water restrictions…bummer. I disagree about the dishwasher. All the studies of water use I’ve seen say if you pack a dishwasher full the water use is less than washing by hand… but in general I would agree, hardware store worker know an awful lot.
What a post!!
I thought these were very good, but happy to be reminded about the strawberries and goat cheese – so yummy! Good luck with your restrictions – in AZ we don’t actually have them (for now). But probably a good thing to keep in mind.
Happy that you’re enjoying – and your zin tour sounds fantastic!!!
I love your fancy spreads (aioli and dill sauce). I loved these, so am happy to have new lunch menu inspiration. Funny, one of my least favorite tartines was the nutella one, then again, I am not a fan of PBJ which it resembled. You missed one, we still have one more tartine yet to come. Enjoy your visitors! Maybe you can ask them to shower together, which would use just half the water? (just kidding) Give Susan and John hugs from me.
Fun post, Mary! Glad you enjoyed the Tartines! I have to say, these were my favorite ones that we’ve made! Although I did enjoy the Strawberry with goat cheese one, too! I’m agreeing with Betsy on the least favorite…It seemed too sweet for my taste!
Water restrictions are tough to live with, but you’ll be going home before you know it! I hope Ca. figures things out…that’s a tough way to have to live long term!
One weekend without a shower is not going to hurt anyone!! I say wash the crucial parts and enjoy the winery…LOL!! Sounds like you have a fun visit planned with Susan and Jon! Enjoy!
Your younger granddaughter will be THRILLED not to have to shower while visiting Grandma in April. Each night when we suggest it is time to bathe she acts like we are sending her to a torture chamber. . . she then spends twenty minutes in using up all the hot water. But your preteen granddaughter? Let’s just say, I will let you break the news to her. You might want to have a few gallon jugs of water plus a bottle of that nice Peachy Canyon red to offset the fall out. Maybe TWO bottles–one for each of us. Well done post–as always!
The tartines look delicious. I only made the roast beef one and it was delicious. I would let the guests shower. My husband would time the guests showers and if they took too long the water would turn off.
Our water restrictions tend to affect lawns, not showering. Hope you’re holding up! With beautiful tartines and Brussels sprouts fresh from the farmers’ market, I suspect you are.
Mary, I have been stuck in the house a lot this winter and when that happens you find more
time to eat. All the goodies that went into the freezer since Christmas came out. So,
the best thing I could do was wait for lent. It’s not all bad, since on Sundays you are exempt,
and yesterday I enjoyed pizza for dinner and I made crepes for dessert. Have a great
week. These little tartines were really good, and I enjoyed them both.
I think my favorite thing about this group is the window into other people’s lives. I’ve never been under a water restriction. I know it’s not fun for you, but it’s interesting to think about. I try not to take water for granted, but I know I do…Anyway, I know this makes me a stereotypical American, but I think I prefer sandwiches to tartines any day. I just really love bread.
I’m so embarrassed that I bought all the fixings twice to do this, and still have not managed to get this one done. Lovely post! Looks like you are having a lot of great wine experiences!
Enjoy reading your lovely posts and the responses. Just as I love reading cookbooks for fun, I’m loving your blog. My cooking, however, is a whole other thing. Recently being diagnosed as having Celiac disease, I am deep into reading labels and changing my cooking and eating into a much simpler form. Luckily, there is no gluten in M&Ms or wine. All is not lost. As to water, even though we should be more careful in Az of all our resources..here in Oregon where we’ve been visiting family this week, they have enough water for us all. Feast or famine. That’s the water story!
How come I haven’t made it over to this post yet. Bang my head on the desk…
You sure are having a fine time with the wine out there. Should we be worried?
P.S. Mustard, rye and salmon go very well together. It’s the mayonaise that makes me go “ewwww”. Hugs.
We are in Northern Cali and dont have those kinds of restrictions, I wonder if its just because its warmer down there? Well I hope you are faring well!
The wine looks great with the tartines… have you a favorite from the bottles that you, John & Susan picked up?