Every cook needs people who eat.  It’s like leading and following; what kind of leader are you if no one follows? What kind of cook are you if no one is eating your cooking?  Cooking only for Instagram?

My consumers are family, friends, co-workers, fellow volunteers at SmartWorks,  my pilates instructor and her family not to mention my fellow Pilates students.  But my prime consumer and best critic is the Davinator (my husband Dave).  On the one hand, he has never met a baked good he didn’t like.  On the other hand,  he has great ideas about what he wants to eat and has learned to offer frank feedback (or get the same thing again).   I hate to be old fashioned but being a good cook is unlikely to attract a man but it certainly keeps them around.

I digress briefly for an anecdote.  A merchant banker of my acquaintance (probably 5-10 years older than me) told me that he married a terrible cook.  I think that this was a fairly traditional It girl marrying merchant banker story.  Assessing that this inexperience and not bad training, he cheerfully ate whatever she cooked and only offered the mildest and most gentle of suggestions.  He believed that encouragement would get him further than criticism.  Apparently, it was three years before he would come home to a reliably decent meal.  I said ‘did she ever figure it out?’.  He seemed puzzled by the question.  End anecdote.

The Davinator’s favourite salad is Nicoise.  It is a great showcase for summer produce so fits well with our ‘eat locally, eat in season’ ethos.  It also helps with using up the Abel & Cole weekly organic vegetable box.  Well maybe not the tuna but all uncooked tuna you get the UK has been frozen and comes from a distance.   I use fresh tuna but use canned tuna if it suits you for cost or convenience reasons.  Nicoise is very flexible, so feel free to adjust the dressing (there is a ‘standard’ vinaigrette and a dijon vinaigrette below) and add or subtract ingredients as you wish.  Change it enough and it’s something else, of course but it might still be amazing.   This is my ‘go to’ recipe for Salad Nicoise.

Ingredients – salad

• 450g  fresh tuna, about 2.5 cm or 1 inch thick
• 400g new potatoes (approximately 8 to 10 if small, if big, be prepared to chop)
• 120g cherry tomatoes, halved (8 to 12 cherry tomatoes)
• 120g young fresh green beans
• 4 small lettuce hearts to 2 cos lettuce heads
• 1 bunch of spring onions
• 4 eggs, to be cooked
• 6 anchovy fillets (from a jar or tin)  chopped into 2.5cm or 1 inch lengths
• 16 pitted black  olives in brine
• 8 basil leaves (optional)

Marinade/vinaigrette dressing

• 105ml/7tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp red wine vinegar (or balsamic)
• 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped small
• 2 tbsp fresh chives, chopped small
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped (optional, I omit because of Davinator’s allergy to all of the lily family)
• 1 tsp fine salt (not kosher or rock salt)
• 1 tsp black pepper
  (note that most vinaigrette dressings are roughly 2 parts oil to 1 part vinegar or other astringent ingredients)

Marinade/Dijon vinaigrette dressing

• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped (can omit)
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 1 tsp black pepper

Preparation instructions

(I’m trying to write for non-experts so apologies if I’m explaining things you know how to do).  This is my suggested order for preparation.

1. Tuna. Whisk together all of the ingredients for the marinade/dressing and put in a shallow baking pan.  Put the tuna in.  Turn it once or twice while you are doing the rest of the preparation.
2. Potatoes.   Scrub your new potatoes, do not peel them.  If you’re blessed with new potatoes the size of a cherry tomato (or indeed not much bigger than a cherry) go straight to the boiling phase.  If not, you want to cut into chunks not much bigger than one inch square.  Once cut, put in a pan with plenty of water and some salt (just throw the salt in but at least a teaspoon and more if you want).  Bring to a boil.  Boil for 12 minutes then take off the heat, cover and leave in the hot water until you’re ready to assemble.
3. Green beans,  Top and tail your green beans.  Get a pan of water boiling, add salt (see above for potatoes).  Throw in the beans, cook for 3 minutes.  Quickly drain the beans, then put in a bowl with ice water to quick cool.  (This is known as blanching and it keeps the beans a lovely bright green colour).
4. Eggs.   Get a medium sized saucepan, fill with water, bring to a boil.  Pierce the bottom (less pointy end) of each egg and quickly add to the boiling water.  Here’s an egg piercer, it keeps fresh eggs from cracking when cooked using this method.  It’s on my favourite gadget list.  Cook the eggs for 7 minutes, then run under cold tap water.  Some chefs would say 6 minutes, but I find this undercooked for most people.   When the eggs are cool, remove the shells.Obviously, you can do steps 2 through 4 well in advance and refrigerate your ingredients.
5. Prep the salad ingredients on individual plates: lettuce, halve the cherry tomatoes and distribute across the plates,  chop the spring onions very fine and distribute on the plates.
6. Prepare a heavy skillet or cast iron pan, bring it to a relatively high heat.  Cook the tuna steaks, to taste.  I like mine rare so 3 minutes per side.  The Davinator is a ‘well done’ merchant so 5 or 6 minutes per side for him.   While it’s cooking,  distribute the potatoes, tomatoes and green beans on the plates.  Cut an egg into quarters the long way for each plate.
7. When the tuna is cooked, add it to the plates.  Garnish with the olives, anchovies and torn basil leaves.  Whisk the marinade again (or make some more) and dress the salads.

The Davinator likes to have a some toasted sourdough rye bread with butter with his Salad Nicoise but any bread is a good accompaniment.

Good gadgets that help out with this recipe

None of these are mandatory for the recipe but each is a help.

I mentioned the egg piercer above.  The best way to make reliable boiled eggs (soft, medium or hard boiled) is to put them in boiling water (using a slotted spoon) after piercing them.  They won’t crack if they’re pierced before being put in the boiled water.  You can also bring the eggs to a boil starting with cold water and eggs in the pan (also won’t crack) but this method is much more difficult to time accurately.

I find that fresh herbs make a difference in this recipe (not always by the way).   I chop mine with a mezzaluna (Italian for half moon), its a lot quicker and more effective than chopping with a knife.

I’ve got a grilling skillet that I only use for cooking tuna.  It probably is good for steak (Davinator cooks the steaks btw) and sausages but for some reason I only get it out for tuna.  And it does make those attractive stripes.

Keep cooking! And eat more vegetables.

 

Tags: anchoviesboiled eggssalad nicoisetunavegetables