It's hot. It seems as though it's been hot forever. It seems like it WILL be hot forever. (We know it won't.)
Sometimes, by August, I just don't have the energy to cook when I get home. So I have done what many bloggers have done. I jumped on the tartine bandwagon.
Before blogging, I had never heard of a tartine. Is this some made up marketing scheme like Haagen Dazs or Frusen Glädjé? Did someone think that this sounded French and then say, "Let's write about it and make them famous?"
I checked my French dictionary and it said that a tartine is a slice of bread spread with butter. But, from what I have read online, it has come a long way since that simple slathered slice.
Nowadays, the word tartine is used in France to refer to an open-faced sandwich, not that the French invented the open-face sandwich.
Open sandwiches are served in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Estonia, the Netherlands, Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and probably in every other country, as well.
They are "the rose by any other name" and are called voileipä in Finland and, elsewhere in Scandinavia, smørrebrød (Denmark), smørbrød (Norway), and smörgås (Sweden). And that is just that part of the world! Just imagine how many words there are for a tartine...
So, one evening this week, I got home from work and just didn't have it in me to heat up the stove, spend an hour chopping and mincing, or stand in the oven-like outdoor heat grilling.
That night I wanted something simple. Thus, the tartine version of my favorite summer cucumber sandwich. Simple. Unadorned. Incredibly good.
Enjoy!
~ David
Tartine aux Concombres (after all, it needed a French name, right?)
2 1/4-inch slices of best-quality French bread
1 Persian cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced
mayonnaise *
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
Slather the slices of bread with an ample sufficiency of mayonnaise.
Layer slices of cucumber on top, as if shingling a roof, sprinkle with salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper, and serve.
Makes 2.
* If you want to make your tartine a little more special, use homemade mayonnaise. I have posted a recipe for saffron mayonnaise, and all you need to do is eliminate the saffron and you will have wonderful, plain mayo. Labels: bread, cucumber, homemade mayonnaise, mayonnaise, tartine
