Beach Blanket Baguette

Greetings from Los Angeles! Where Hot Knives are knee-deep in summer picnic season. Lately all of our recipe posts have been fixated on barbecues, pool potlucks and picnic fare. But the simple truth is that none of it — not perfect potato salads nor mystery meat burgers or even barbecued pizzas — beats packing a tiny cooler with a few choice ingredients and making a 30-second spread on a baguette.

When our friend Tom was in town last month we set our sights on the cheese store Alex helps run, picked out some condiments, packed said ‘tiny cooler’ and headed to the beach. Tom, who was on furlow from medical school in New York, kinda has a thing for baguette and cheese. He’s probably the only lactose-intolerant dude we know who eats double crème brie like its, well, non-dairy butter. The following is his evil concoction. Though it seems super simple, let us emphasis that tricky techniques in this case are replaced with the absolute necessity that the bread is perfect, the cheese bloomy and everything is fresh.

Dr. Tombo’s Sammy

Serves 4-5

1 crispy French baguette
1 avocado
4 Tbs. chipotle grain mustard
4 Tbs. butter
12 oz. morbier cheese (room temp.)
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. fresh black pepper

1. Slice baguette down the side, enough to open wide but still keeping it in one piece. Slather one side with butter and the other with avocado.

2. Cut open avocado, pit it, half it and slice into about 12 pieces. Distribute evenly on bottom side of baguette.

3. Using a huge ass knife, remove exterior rind of the morbier. Don’t worry the funky middle layer of ash has little to no flavor. Its there to keep an inner rind from forming between the two layers of cheese. Place small slices along bread. Sprinkle with a mix of sea salt and black pepper. Devour.

Beverage: Lagunitas farmhouse Saison
Soundtrack: Pavement’s Brighten the Corners