Friday, March 7, 2014

FFWD Two Tartines from La Croix Rouge


This is supposed to be a guest post from Paul.  He "made" this recipe, and asked if that meant he got to post about it.  I said of course, but here it is Friday morning and he's made no progress on his post.  (For some reasons I'm not surprised!)  I'm having trouble thinking of much to say about this one.  I bought the ingredients for the smoked salmon one because I don't eat beef, and Paul assembled it while I tried to convince Charlotte to eat her dinner.  (I know there have been volumes written on this, but I find it so hard to not take it as a personal insult when Charlotte doesn't like the things I make for her to eat.  I understand logically that she's a baby and not exactly the best judge of my cooking skill, but I definitely spend time and energy on her food, and it's sad when she emphatically spits it out, sticks out her tongue, and makes gagging noises as if I'm trying to torture her.  Anyway, enough of my rant...)  I love smoked salmon in all of its incarnations, and this was another good one.  We served it with a souffleed omelet with sauteed baby spinach and a green salad.  (I get to say "we" because I planned the menu and gave Paul instructions, although he did do most of the actual cooking.)  The best part of this recipe was that it forced me to make some homemade bread.  I did a no knead rye bread, which was excellent.  It has just enough rye flour to give it flavor, but not so much that the bread feels weighed down.  We enjoyed the bread for our tartines, but also used it to make an excellent chicken and bread salad (a winter panzanella from a Canal House book) and to eat as toast for our breakfasts.  I probably won't bother to pull out the tartine "recipe" again, but I'm definitely happy we made it once.


Update:  I've been asked about no knead rye bread.  The recipe I use is from Jim Lahey's bread book.  It follows his same basic method, described here, but you substitute 3/4 cup bread flour for rye flour.  So, it uses  2 1/4 c (300 g) bread flour and 3/4 c (100 g) rye flour.  The other change is to increase the yeast to 1/2 tsp.  Also, the recipe in the book calls for less water, only 1 1/3 c.  However, last time I made it I accidentally added extra water, closer to the 1 5/8 c called for in the NYT recipe, and I thought the crust came out even better than usual. The bread was sticky, hard to shape, and a little bit flat, but the crust was delicious.  So, I guess the amount of water is open to experimentation.

15 comments:

  1. Ooh! I bet the homemade bread was delicious with this! I am glad you liked it. Don't be sad about the baby not liking you food, she will come around. ;)

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  2. Don't take it personally. I had terrible taste as a kid.

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  3. Kudos for using rye. I stuck with a plain country loaf.

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  4. Well done! You made your own bread, better than many of us! Please tell Paul he did a great job with the tartine!

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  5. Your salmon tartine looks great, and the sides sound good. Kudos for making your own bread.

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  6. My kids are teenagers and still spit things out... but I never stopped trying. If you go the chicken nugget route it is hard to ever get them back. My kids eat so much more than their friends.. so be tough she'll enjoy more food in the long run.

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  7. Paul did a great job! Your dinner looks great. I've been obsessed with no-knead bread since the beginning of the year. Would your share your recipe for the rye version? I love rye bread!

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  8. Your bread sounds delicious! I had planned on making some home-made bread for this as well, but then, there was this nice fresh loaf of sourdough... you get the idea. Well done! (I second Betsy's request)

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  9. Ah, yes. Children's taste buds. Sometimes, my 18 year old gives me the same face :-) But she knows that dinner involves two choices - take it or leave it. That being said, she does have a very eclectic pallet - she won't eat steak, but she'll eat duck...

    Your bread based meals all sound tasty

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  10. Your Tartine looks delicious, glad you both enjoyed it! It had to be wonderful served on your homemade bread. Don’t take Charlotte's taste buds personally…babies likes and dislikes change quite often!

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  11. thanks for the rye bread instructions! I've got a loaf of cheese bread rising now, but I'll try rye bread later this week.

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  12. The tartine looks wonderful.. You were ambitious in making your own bread.

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  13. I'm so impressed with those of you who made bread for this week's recipe! I took the easy route, but it was still delicious.

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  14. Jora, your tartines look wonderful...especially on homemade rye bread! I have a feeling Charlotte will grow up to love your cooking. I'm still working on the hubby ;)

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  15. I'm quite impressed with the meal that the two of you put together. Most of us just put the tartines on a plate and called it a meal. You two made an entire dinner - nutritional also - around the salmon tartine. Homemade rye bread? Remembering that you have a baby to care for and are still making your own bread? Making the rest of us look bad. Don't worry about Charlotte. I just call that "developing a personality". Nice Post, Jora. You have a busy life.

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