Grand Central Bakery’s Peasant Loaf
I love the traditional big French peasant loaves. I first experienced them at Poilaine in the 6th arrondissement in Paris on one of my early trips.
http://www.poilane.fr/pages/en/company_univers_histoire.php
Poilane is very serious about the traditional peasant loaf and the third generation head of the company, Appollonia, has even expressed a desire to have it displace the baguette which is universally associated with France.
Anyway I have enjoyed this bread many times, on it’s own and as part of a sandwich or tartine.
Some years back, I noticed Grand Central Bakery had the bread for sale in Portland. I started pestering them: will you make it in Seattle? Will you ship it to Seattle? I tried lots of angles and this year, my persistence paid off. Apparently, some of my other fellow chefs around town wanted that loaf as well.
When the loaf became available, I immediately put it to work by starting a long list of tartines on Cafe Campagne’s lunch menu. At lunch we now serve tartines made with marinated leeks and carrot salad, fromage blanc, house-made chicken and pork sausage on a base of Comte cheese, salmon gravlax, and also beef tartare topped with a quail egg yolk. All have a base of a little Dijon mustard.
Just last Friday we added a salmon roe tartine to to be served upstairs at Campagne. We get the bread nice and toasty with good color, spread it with a little softened butter and then top it with salmon roe which comes from the gang at Loki. A little grind of black pepper finishes it off just so. Right now we we serve it with a little dressed pea vine and the combination is just fantastic. It’s the perfect snack .
Daisley
