Custom Search
|
Other Posts Links Comments to: yankinparisot@gmail.com |
Welcome to French Food
Focus. The name describes the intent of this blog. I'll focus on food
and because I live in rural I hope you enjoy my ramblings about rural France!
Click
Here to send me a comment |
|
|
This is our village. Our house is the white one at the top right. |
||
|
|
Salad Nicoise
Its that time of year. We can just begin to get all of the top quality ingredients for salads. To me perhaps the king (or would it re queen?) of salads is Salad Nicoise. You can get a healthy argument going as to where this salad really originated, but I'll settle for the South of France. If the denizens of Nice want to claim it that's OK with me. In any case I really love this salad and the process of making it. Here goes!
Here are some of the green beans which need to get topped & tailed then cooked very briefly. Steam or boil the just long enough to soften them then cool the beans rapidly until running cold water. See below.
Hard boil the eggs. Normally one person plus one or two for the pot so to speak. Also, boil the potatoes. As you can see I found very small new potatoes & was able to leave them whole
If you can't find very small potatoes' its no big deal, but be sure to boil the larger potatoes whole first; then cut them into the size you want. Cutting them then boiling will yield fuzzy edges and small bits.
Next you need to slice the onions (I like to use red onions, but any type will do.) I use my mandolin so that I can get really thin slices. The onions I had for this salad were not the best so I had some trouble with them. Next you should make a nice vinaigrette. In this case I made a creamy variety pretty much as described in "How to Cook Everything" by Bittman. By all means use your own favorite.
Next slice up the pepper.
As you can see I've used a red pepper, but green or yellow work equally well. You're looking for color as well as flavour in the salad.
As soon as the potatoes are boiled drain them and while still hot put them in a bowl and pour over some of your vinaigrette. (or let them cool a bit if they're large before cutting up and marinating.)
Now we're ready to start assembling the salad.
Stage one is to spread out the drained tuna over the serving dish. (if you tuna is oil packed save the oil for pouring onto the salad later.) Next add the onions.
Then add the potatoes, pepper and green beans. The cherry tomatoes (or tomato chunks) come next followed by the black olives (deseeded).
Last, but by no means least come the hard boiled eggs. Cut the eggs in half and top each with an anchovy fillet. Finally pour over your vinaigrette and any saved oil from the tuna or the anchovies. Here are some pictures of the result.
And we enjoyed every bite!
|
|
