SC - period frog recipes?

[Philip & Susan Troy]

LrdRas at aol.com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 12/7/00 12:47:16 PM Eastern Standard Time, troy at asan.com
> writes:
> 
> << Probably the best sandwiches (apart from
>  the Pan Bagnat I used to sell at La Colombe d'Or and elsewhere, which is
>  the best sandwich in history)  >>
> 
> Recipe, please.

There is none to speak of, only a description. The classic pan bagnat of
places like Marseilles and Nice (in fact the sandwich has often been
described as a salade nicoise on a baguette) is one of those sandwiches
- -- there are Italian, French, and probably Spanish versions, although I
can't be certain of the latter -- which you make a couple of hours in
advance, wrap, and sometimes even place under a weight to allow the
flavors to blend. The most common pan bagnat involves rubbing the bread
with a cut garlic clove, brushing it with olive oil, and piling on tuna
packed in brine or in olive oil, sliced boiled eggs, sliced onion,
sliced tomato, red, green or yellow sweet peppers, anchovies, pitted
black olives (oil-or-wine-cured, not the canned travesties) and some
greens, often Cos or Romaine lettuce. Optional sprinkle of vinegar. You
then wrap and press this together a bit, which not only blends the
flavors, but also moistens and softens the crusty baguette, and makes
the whole thing a little more cohesive and easier to eat without falling
apart. Allowing it to cross the line between moist and soggy is to be
avoided, but this is a matter of experience and personal taste.

I assembled the allegedly four-star version (at least it ended up on the
menu when the restaurant got four stars from the NY Times, for what
that's worth) based on various odds and ends lying around the
garde-manger and grill stations of the kitchen of a Provencale restaurant.

Let's see... we used a lot of tapenade, we made two gallons or so at a
time, and then there was this sort of modular progression from mayo to
rouille... we used a lot of real, house-made lemony mayonnaise, half of
each batch we used to turn into aioli by adding a small amount of
whipped cream to lighten it a bit, then adding crushed raw garlic and
garlic confited in olive oil, and some whole threads of saffron. Our
house rouille  (the spicy sauce served with things like bouilliabaise)
was the house aioli into which a good shot of North African harissa
(there is a great influence of the Moors, actually, on Provencale
cookery) had been beaten, to make it the requisite pinkish, spicy sauce.

Anyway, the sandwich I made occurred when someone asked for a sandwich
for lunch, and we didn't have any sandwiches on the menu, so I spread
some tapenade on the bottom half of a piece of baguette (thereby filling
the olive, anchovy, and garlic requirement), some rouille on the top
(filling any remaining garlic or olive oil requirements), and then added
sliced hard-boiled eggs, roasted and marinated strips of red pepper,
thyme-roasted tomato, grilled and marinated red onions,
sherry-vinaigrette-dressed mesclun greens, and slices of medium-rare
grilled tuna.

We sent it out, garnished with matchstick beet frites and more dressed
mesclun, and half an hour later we got word that the gentleman had
enjoyed it so much -- he said it was the best sandwich he had ever
eaten-- he wasn't going to ask us to replace his silk tie, ruined in his
epic battle with the pan bagnat. We eventually added it to the menu for
the summer.      

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com