相思の光

The pickles were an obvious addition after I saw how well moutarde de meaux went with cornichons when we were making our pork rib sauce at cooking class. *Sigh* Those were the days. The watercress, I get, is an unlikely addition, but it was in my fridge just days away from languishing and it gives the tartines that bright green hint of spring Alexander Hera.

This is not your average ham sandwich. It’s a tartine. It’s grownup and fancy. It requires only the best ingredients and likes to be served on a cute little tray with linen napkins for afternoon tea. #hairflip It’s inspired by the French, the Italians (give me some-a that-a prosciutto) and the Spanish (nothing is more amazing than a bar lined with little pieces of bread stacked miles high with yummy ingredients). If your average ham sandwich is the girl next door, this tartine is the exotic Mediterranean exchange student who visits your junior year of high school. All the girls want to be her and all the boys want to eat her date her. Get your minds out of the gutter external sound card.

Now, let’s talk logistics. If your grocery store has lemon rosemary bread like mine surprisingly did, grab it up STAT. It’s delish. If not, I would suggest a hearty multigrain bread that will stand up to the strong mustard (use a strong mustard). To mimic the flavor of the lemon rosemary bread, add a sprinkling of lemon zest and finely chopped fresh rosemary to the mustard after spreading it on the bread. If you’re looking for something a touch creamier, add just a little bit of light mayonnaise or butter to the bread before spreading the mustard. Alasdair is a big fan of multiple condiments on his “sandwiches.” And, finally, if you can’t eat bread because of a wheat or gluten issue, use a hearty gluten-free cracker as the base. The Crunchmaster crackers are my absolute favorite, and I’m receiving no money or tasty samples to say that jimmy choo sale.

Somebody call TA (Tartines Anonymous - because that obviously exists somewhere). I am obsessed with tartines. I don’t know when it happened. Maybe it was after these creamy salty leek tartines. Or maybe it was the goat cheese and fig. Or these babies that I’m currently cruising. We’ll never know, but I just can’t seem to stop dreaming, making, eating, craving tartines. I can’t help it. They’re so gosh darn adorable. They remind me of the pintxos we ate during our honeymoon in Spain. And the toppings – I mean, the possibilities are just endless. ENDLESS I TELL YOU. Sorry, got overexcited HKUE DSE.

So, when we got back from Paris, and Alasdair told me all he wanted, after a week of eating heavy, rich French food, was a simple ham and mustard sandwich, my brain heard tartine. What’s that? You want a ham and mustard tartine? No, ham and mustard sandwich. Tartine? Sandwich. Tartine it is .

And, of course, being me, I couldn’t just slap some deli ham and French’s on white bread (not that there’s anything wrong with that – my childhood consisted of bologna and yellow mustard on rye bread). Who wants regular ham when you can have salty prosciutto? And how could we use any of the sub-par Dijon mustard varieties in our fridge when we had moutarde de meaux IWB?

Hamburger buns are one baked item I think everyone should have in their repertoire. These are incredibly easy to make and just think of how all your dinner guests will be when they know you made the buns! That is just awesome to tell people don’t you think veuve clicquot?

Well, I believe I have come up with the perfect ratio of liquid, butter, sugar, and flour to make these. And they can even be made smaller to have as dinner rolls or breakfast rolls. They are rich and fluffy while being tame in flavor so you can still taste the other food accompanying these.

Once they come out of the oven let them rest a few minutes and they are ready to slice and top with a burger or black bean burger, as shown below, add the condiments and chow down property agent hk.

Here is a note about the dough. They are slightly wetter than I normally go for this type of bread but it is a great combination. The dough will be slightly tackier so to work with it effectively wet your hands with water slightly and the dough will not stick to your hands as much.

When you are ready to shape them divide the dough in 3 ounce portions or somewhere between golf ball and baseball. That is a really good size for hamburger buns. If you are shaping them for dinner rolls divide them into 2 ounce portions or slightly larger than a golf ball orders flowers.