French Bread with Roasted Tomatoes and Cheese

 Last Year's Post: Spinach Puff Pastry Tarts
Two Years Ago:    Leek, Bacon and Gruyere Tart

I was thinking this week that breakfast doesn't have to be the same old boring thing.  In Europe, breakfast often involves bread and cheese similar to American breakfasts, but served in different ways.  I wanted to serve some French bread with cheese and roasted tomatoes, and I was inspired to use the idea as an excuse to try a new cheese.  I looked up a list of soft cheeses online and headed to my cheese shop, where I found a cow's milk cheese from southwest France called Chaumes.  The online list of cheeses said it was one of the most popular French cheeses so I decided to give it a try.  It's mild and buttery and tastes a lot like Brie.  As for the tomatoes, I found some nice dark ones at the store but decided to roast them anyway - unless you have perfect peak-of-summer tomatoes, roasting almost always helps intensify their flavor.

One of my friends recently told me she was looking for some 20 minute recipes.  If you count roasting the tomatoes this will take more like 30 minutes, but if you roast them in advance it's about 5 minutes to prep.  And it's so simple that it's basically a non-recipe:  roast some tomatoes and put them on a baguette with some nice soft cheese.  Add a little butter to the bread first if you want, and add some herbs to the tomatoes, and you have a really fast and simple breakfast, lunch or light dinner.  And a great excuse to try a new cheese.

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French Bread with Roasted Tomatoes and Cheese

Serves 2

4 small-ish tomatoes

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

French or Italian dried herb blend (optional but very good)

1 baguette

Butter

Interesting soft cheese (Brie or similar, I used Chaumes)

Chopped parsley, for garnish

To roast the tomatoes:  Preheat the oven to 400d.  Cut each tomato crosswise into slices.  Place on a baking pan and brush with a little olive oil, then sprinkle with salt, pepper and dried herbs.  Roast in the oven for 20 minutes until softened but not collapsed.  Remove and cool.

Cut the baguette crosswise into two pieces, and then cut each piece lengthwise in half.  Spread with a little butter and microwave for a few seconds to warm the bread and melt the butter.  Distribute cheese and tomato slices among the bread pieces and warm for a few more seconds in the microwave if desired.  Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Banh Mi

Last year's post:  Special Dinner - Chicken Gruyere and Fig in Puff Pastry

This is an installment in my "famous sandwiches of the world" occasional and erratic series.  Banh Mi (banh mee) is a famous Vietnamese sandwich with distinct French influence.  I'm a Banh Mi fanatic and search it out at restaurants wherever I go, so I've had plenty of experience with great and less-than-great examples.  At its best, it's a sublime combination of flavors and textures.  It's deceptive because the assembled sandwich seems pretty simple, but it's the quality, preparation (and proportions) of the individual ingredients that makes all the difference.

The essential ingredients of a Banh Mi sandwich are as follow:  a light, crisp french roll or baguette, mayonnaise, meat (char siu pork is common), pickled carrots and daikon radish, cucumber, cilantro, and jalapeno.  Some traditional Banh Mi also include pate but I decided against it to make the sandwich lighter and because a lot of people don't like pate. Banh Mi can also be made with roast pork, chicken, or even tofu if you so desire.  The reason why I like Banh Mi so much is the interplay of flavors and textures - crisp bread, creamy mayo, rich meat, crunchy tart vegetables, and the warmth of the jalapenos.  Interestingly, the jalapenos don't taste very hot at all even though they're raw - I think it's partially because they're seeded and partially because of all the other ingredients.  You can spice it up further by adding some Sriracha sauce, one of the uber-trendy ingredients you see in restaurants these days.  Sriracha is a hot chili sauce from Thailand that's closely associated with Vietnamese foods, and readily available in the Asian aisle of your grocery store.  I like to serve it on the table so each person can add it to their liking.

Daikon radish is the other unusual ingredient - a very large, white Asian radish that can be found in most grocery stores.  It resembles a giant carrot in shape.  Because they're so big, I bought one that was just a partial and it was plenty.  It's crunchy but very mild compared to regular radishes.  The taste somewhat reminds me of jicama, if that's at all helpful.

Since we had invited friends for dinner and they had never had Banh Mi sandwiches before, I decided to go all out and even made homemade mayonnaise.

You certainly don't have to do that, but I included a recipe here in case you want to (it's actually very easy).  I made char siu pork a day in advance in a slow cooker, then brought it to room temperature over very low heat the next day.  (Be sure to drain the meat for a moment before adding it to the sandwich or you'll end up with a pretty messy sandwich.)

Finally, I made the carrot and daikon pickles an hour in advance and sliced the fresh ingredients. That's what makes Banh Mi so great for entertaining - all the ingredients can be made in advance and the sandwich is served at room temperature.

A note about the bread - Vietnamese baguette is light and crisp, not chewy or rustic.  If you don't have a local Vietnamese bakery you can use any petite or regular baguette you find that doesn't have a hard crust and isn't heavy.  And about the meat - Banh Mi sandwiches usually contain meat with relatively strong flavor as a balance to the vegetables, but you can use any leftover meat you want.  As I mentioned, I chose to make Char Siu Pork but I think roast pork or shredded Char Siu Chicken (which I posted previously) would also be excellent. Finally, proportions are important - go lighter on the meat and heavier on the veggies than in a normal sandwich - no more than 50% meat compared to the vegetables.

click here for a printable recipe

Banh Mi

serves 4

½ cup rice vinegar

¼ cup water

¼ cup white sugar

1 large carrot, cut into thin matchsticks

1/3 daikon radish, cut into thin matchsticks

4 petit baguette rolls or a long baguette, cut into four  pieces (the bread should be light and crisp, not chewy or rustic)
Mayonnaise (good quality purchased or homemade*)
Your choice of Char Siu Pork*, roast pork, cooked chicken, or tofu, sliced and at room temperature
½ English cucumber, thinly sliced

4 sprigs fresh cilantro leaves
1-2 jalapenos, seeded and cut into thin rings

Sriracha sauce

Place rice vinegar, water and sugar into a saucepan over medium heat, bring to a boil, and stir until the sugar has dissolved, about 1 minute.  Allow the mixture to cool. Pour the cooled vinegar mixture over the carrot and radish in a bowl, and allow to stand for at least 30 minutes.  Drain after the vegetables have marinated.

Slit the bread lengthwise, and then use your fingers or a bread knife to hollow out the insides, making a trough in both halves. Generously spread the inside with mayonnaise. Layer in the cucumber slices, meat, carrot and radish, cilantro leaves, and jalapeno rings.  Note: go sparingly on the meat; the vegetables should be 50% or more of the filling.

Serve with Sriracha sauce to be added to the sandwich by each diner as desired.

* See recipes at the links above in the blog post

Turkey and Gruyere French Dip

French Dip Au Jus is a classic sandwich normally made with beef.  This is a twist on the classic that has melted Gruyere and spinach in addition to tender turkey served with a delicious onion dipping sauce.

Although the recipe starts by cooking a turkey breast in a slow cooker, I'm publishing this post now because many of you probably have leftover turkey in your refrigerator at the moment.  This is a great way to use some of the turkey - just buy and prepare a packet of french onion soup as the dipping sauce.  Or make it even easier by buying a container of french onion soup at a local soup and salad bar.  I love turkey enough that I make this any time of the year and the slow cooker method ensures the turkey is moist and tender every time.  (Another recipe idea for leftover turkey: Wild Rice Salad )

As with many classic recipes, it's the combination of flavors and textures that makes a French Dip great - crisp french roll, rich meat, and flavorful dipping sauce that infuses everything with onion flavor.  This version is just that much better with the cheese and spinach.  Cheese makes pretty much anything better in my opinion. The baguette is briefly toasted under the broiler to melt the cheese, which also makes the bread nice and crisp. You could also certainly make this recipe by substituting leftover thin sliced roast beef or pork.

For those of you who didn't take high school French, you might not know that "au jus" actually means with juices.  Don't ask me why the name French Dip au Jus is half English and half French.  I decided to simplify and leave the au jus part off altogether.

Not only did I take French for a few years in high school, I took two ill-fated semesters of Russian in college (the second semester is the only class I've ever actually dropped out of) and a couple years of Spanish to complete my college language requirement.  All I remember as a sum total of all those years is Si, Da, Nyet, Oui, and Au Jus.   Augh.

 click here for a printable recipe

Turkey and Gruyere French Dip

Serves 6

Note:  if using leftover roast turkey, just purchase French onion soup as the dipping sauce.

 For the turkey:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 (3-pound) bone-in turkey breast

For the sandwiches:

6 individual (demi) French baguettes, sliced in half lengthwise
2-3 cups fresh baby spinach
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
12 slices Gruyere cheese

For the turkey: in a small mixing bowl, mix together the softened butter and fresh herbs.  Season with salt and pepper and set aside.  Spread the chopped onions over the bottom of a slow cooker.  Pour the chicken stock and Worcestershire sauce into the slow cooker.  Sprinkle the turkey with salt and pepper, then slather it with herb butter, spreading half under the skin.  Place the turkey on top of the onions, breast side up.  Cover and cook on high for 4-6 hours, checking the temperature after 4 hours. Once the internal temperature reaches 170d, remove the turkey from the slow cooker, transfer to a cutting board and tent loosely with foil.  Allow to rest for 10 minutes before removing the skin and slicing thinly.

Remove the juices and onions from the slow cooker and keep warm as a dipping sauce.

For the sandwiches:  preheat the broiler.  Brush each cut side of the baguettes with softened butter and place on a baking sheet, buttered side up.  Top one side of each baguette with 2 cheese slices.  Place under the broiler until the cheese melts.  Remove from the oven and place a layer of spinach and turkey on the other half of each baguette.  Close the sandwich and serve with dipping sauce on the side.

Pan Bagnat

Sandwiches have always been one of my favorite foods.  They've become even more popular recently with the proliferation of food trucks serving a wide variety of hand-held foods from around the globe.   I've tried to broaden my horizons by trying  some of the great and famous sandwiches of the world.  As my first choice in a new occasional series of famous sandwiches, I chose the Pan Bagnat which is the specialty of Nice, France.  It incorporates many of the flavors of a Nicoise Salad (also a specialty of Nice) into a tuna sandwich that's completely different from your normal tuna/mayo mixture.  The Pan Bagnat has no mayo - it has an olive oil vinaigrette instead - and has lots of vegetables in addition to tuna and hard boiled eggs.  Everything is placed in crusty french rolls or baguettes and allowed sit for several hours before eating so the juices soak into and soften the bread, the onions can mellow and the flavors meld together.

I chose the Pan Bagnat for several reasons.  First, I love tuna sandwiches.  Second, this sandwich is actually pretty healthy with Omega 3's in the olive oil plus all the veggies.  Finally, it's picnic season and this sandwich is just perfect for picnics since it has no mayo and should be made well in advance of eating. (I just love a picnic dinner at a concert in the park.  If you're quiet about it you can even sneak in a bottle of wine to go with the sandwiches.) If you have a picnic for two, use individual french rolls or mini-baguettes as I did.  If you have more people, use a full-size baguette and cut into pieces prior to serving.

The only drawback to this sandwich is the name.  I took French in high school with limited results, but one thing I noticed was that French words sometimes have letters that are completely absent in the pronunciation.  For example, you pronounce Pan Bagnat as pahn bahn-yah.  So what happend to the "g" and the "t"?  French is sneaky that way.  If nothing else, you can impress people with your pronunciation the next time you order one in a bistro.

A note about the tuna - water pack or oil pack?  Yes, water pack tuna is lower in calories.  It also has less taste.  My personal preference is to use oil pack tuna for special recipes where tuna is a star and use water pack for everything else.  I used oil pack tuna here but the choice is up to you.

* * click here for a printable recipe version * *

Pan Bagnat
Makes 4 servings


Note: you may find it easier to place the ingredients in the top half of the bread rather than the bottom half because the top is typically deeper and will cradle them better.


1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon ground pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 baguette or 4 french rolls
½ English cucumber, sliced
1 tomato, thinly sliced
½ small red onion, thinly sliced
12 ounces canned tuna packed in oil or water, drained and crumbled
8 basil leaves
4 hard-boiled eggs, sliced
½ cup pitted kalamata olives, sliced


Whisk together the red wine vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper. Gradually add the olive oil while whisking to form an emulsion. Add the cucumbers to the vinaigrette and toss to coat. Set aside.

Slice the baguette (or rolls) horizontally into 2 pieces. Tear out some of the soft bread in the center of each side, being careful not to tear the crust. Place the ingredients on one half of the bread in the following order: half the cucumbers, tomato, onion, tuna, basil, eggs, olives, then the other half of the cucumber slices. Drizzle the remaining vinaigrette over the vegetables, top with the second piece of bread, and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Let stand at room temperature for 2 hours or refrigerate for up to 6 hours.

Cut the baguette into four pieces and serve.