Salad Nicoise
Description
Years ago, when I was working as a manager at a department store, my boss bragged that she had traveled to Paris when she was in college and had taken a couple of cooking classes at Le Cordon Bleu. I was blown away, jealous beyond belief and totally impressed. She said "oh yes--I can make a wonderful Salad Nicoise!" Not really knowing what Salad Nicoise was, I was yet again devastated with jealousy.
But now, I say, "who can't?"
Salad Nicoise is dead simple to make, and one of those "clean out your fridge" sorts of recipes, as far as I'm concerned. It generally (and I do mean "generally") includes tuna, fingerling potatoes (but just cut up a medium potato in a pinch), lettuce, haricots vert, hard-boiled eggs (although these are kind of optional) and a nice vinaigrette. But...whatever. I would say that the only ingredients that are sort of required are the tuna, potatoes, lettuce and vinaigrette. After that, it's pretty much up to you.
I love to add red bell peppers, asparagus, fresh corn when it's in season, avocado, and kind of anything else that's in season that I need to use up at the end of the week.
I always use a beautiful, fresh, sushi-grade piece of tuna that I sear for a minute on each side, but I've also seen recipes that tell you to just open up a can of tuna. I don't know if I'd do that...but in a pinch--any port in a storm, right?
And here's the dirty little secret: if you serve this to guests, and tell them that you learned how to make it in Paris at Le Cordon Bleu--they'll buy it! It makes a beautiful presentation and you'll be quite the host about town!
The best part about this meal? It's one and done, very healthy and a great way to use up the bits and bobs at the end of the week.
Ingredients
Instructions
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About 45 minutes before you plan to cook your tuna, brine your fish: pour about 1/2 cup of Kosher salt and 2-3 tablespoons of sugar into a re-useable plastic bag, such as a Stasher. Dissolve the salt and sugar in about 3-4 cups of cold water. Add your fish and let it sit in the solution for 30-45 minutes. When you're ready to cook your fish, pull the fish out of the bag and discard the solution. Gently dry your fish off with paper towels before cooking. I usually brine everything at room temperature, but to be on the safe side, I would recommend doing the brining, particularly the longer brining, in the fridge.
Since this is an easy, quick meal that I like to make at the end of the week, I try to use as few pans as possible for it because it could easily use far too many.
The first thing I do is cook the egg. I like my eggs pretty well set. I usually add my egg to cold water and turn the flame up to medium-high. Once boiling, I let it cook for 2.5 minutes, take it out, let it sit for a few minutes, and then peel it. That's what I did for the egg in the picture. The egg pictured is extra large and it came out perfect. There are lots of ways that folks swear by to cook boiled eggs--this is just the method I have always used. Since this meal is basically served at room temperature, it's fine to let the egg sit in its shell for a few minutes while you prepare the rest of the meal.
Empty the sauce pan and fill it with clean water. This time, add the potatoes to the pot, turn it to medium-high heat and let it come to a boil. Turn the heat down to achieve a gentle boil.
While the potatoes are boiling, rummage through your fridge and find whatever odds and ends you're going to use--here, I used up my asparagus, red and yellow bell peppers and haricots vert.
When the potatoes are not quite fork tender, add the asparagus and haricots vert to the pot. Boil everything for a couple of minutes until the potatoes are folk tender and the asparagus and beans are tender, but still crisp.
Drain the whole lot and let sit in the colander while you sear the tuna.
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At this point, you should season your fish to your liking. Remember that it will have absorbed some of the brine and will be slightly salty, so add seasonings accordingly--I like to add a little of Penzey's "Sunny Spain" seasoning--it's like lemon-pepper seasoning, but without the salt.
In your favorite cast iron skillet (if you don't have one, then use your heaviest, large skillet), heat the pan on medium-high. When hot, add a high-heat oil--I really pecan oil because it not only tastes terrific, but it has a smoke point of 470*. When the oil is shimmering hot, but not smoking, carefully add the fish. Be prepared with a splatter screen to contain any splattering.
Let the fish sit, undisturbed, for about a minute (or to your liking).
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After about a minute, turn the fish and cook for a minute on the other side.
For the fish in these pictures, I actually only cooked it for 45 seconds on each side and it came out like this, which for me was perfect:
Remember that fresh tuna is a very, very lean fish, so if it's cooked all the way through, it will be dry.
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Peel the egg, slice it in half. Assemble salad and dress with vinaigrette and enjoy with a lovely, crisp sauvignon blanc, Viognier, Chardonnay or Albarino, and some crunchy French bread.
