Tartine du Quartier Latin

Directions

1. First, hard-cook your eggs so that the centers stay softish. There is nothing worse than an over-boiled egg. Here's how: Starting with cold water, add the eggs to a pot, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook over this low heat for 7 minutes. At 7 minutes, drain and pop them in ice water, cracking the shells a bit. This will allow the egg to steam in the shell, stop the cooking, and make for easier peeling. Leave them in the water for a few minutes before peeling. Peel, then set aside.
2. Now mince the shallots. Pop 'em in a pan with 2 TB olive oil and cook over medium heat until they begin to caramelize. Don't forget to season with salt, and keep these babies moving. They're tiny and quick to burn.
3. Next, when your shallots are caramelized, add the tomato to the pan with 1 TB olive oil. Season with salt.
4. Cook this tomato down until it caramelizes. It will take a good 15 minutes and you will have to toggle the heat up and down to make sure that it doesn't burn. You will know that it's sufficiently caramelized when it starts to smell sweet, and creates a film in the pan. Don't be afraid to push it. You want to see this film because it means that all of the moisture has evaporated from the tomatoes, and the flavors have intensified magnificently.
5. Once you achieve proper caramelization, deglaze with the sherry vinegar, scraping up the tomatoey bits, with the flame turned off. Test for seasoning and add salt if necessary.
6. Here's where you get whimsical. Divide your baguette. A standard baguette with its ends cut off will produce about 3 tartine the size that you would find on the streets of Paris, but you can certainly feed four. Or perhaps you would like to make two large tartine, or many small ones. Just plan on two large eggs and a handful of greens per person. The tomato jam will span the length of your baguette. And just so you know, there is no crime in making a tartine for one. Then you can have one tomorrow too.
7. Now that we've gone over that, slice off a length of baguette and split down the center, length-wise like you would if you were making a sub.
8. Toast the halves under the broiler till golden.
9. Drizzle the toasty face, both halves, with olive oil and swipe with a garlic clove. Don't go wild, one swipe will do.
10. Toss your arugula with olive oil, a pinch of salt, and a pinch of pepper.
11. Slice your peeled eggs.
12. Spread some of the tomato jam over the bottom of the baguette, then arrange the egg slices in a row over the jam and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
13. Next, mound a handful of the arugula atop.
14. Finally, apply the lid. Et voila! Enjoy your tartine!