Meme Monday – Salade Niçoise

I like to cook healthy, light meals. I also like to eat a big bag of salt and vinegar chips by myself, in little portions so it doesn’t seem like I’m actually going to finish the bag, but really, whom are we kidding? No one.

One meal that I really like when it is summer and the tomatoes are good is Salade Niçoise. My recipe is kind of old school, and I prefer canned tuna to fresh. Ted prefers fresh, so if he is making the salad, he will grill tuna outside. If I’m making it, I find the expensive Italian tuna in a jar. I like to add avocado to the recipe too, because avocado makes everything better.

The key to this recipe is to dress the ingredients individually as you put the salad together. It’s a composed salad, not mixed all together, so this way the potatoes at the bottom get dressed as well as the green beans, etc. I follow Julia Child’s recipe from her cooking show, which you used to be able to find on YouTube, but now PBS has blocked it, so you can’t find it anymore. Sad, she had a lot of advice about drying your lettuce, dressing your potatoes, etc. I have a cookbook, Julia and Jacques, Cooking at Home, with 2 Salad Nicoise recipes, but neither one is this one. So I had better write it here, so I can find it when I need it. I found a pretty close version on Food Network, here. I cribbed it and modified it to match what I remember. It’s very wordy on the egg advice at the beginning. Julia’s recipe includes dabbing mayo onto your eggs on the platter, which seems disgusting to me. She also includes anchovies, about which I am ambivalent, so I omit them.  Note that the picture below is from a salad without avocados, which is really stupid. You could also use asparagus instead of green beans if you were so inclined.

This recipe is a lot of steps, but none of them are complicated or difficult. It does take a little while, but you could do much of it ahead of time. Serve with a chilled Sancerre/Sauvignon Blanc and some delicious baguette if you are so inclined.

Salade Niçoise

Ingredients

• 1 large head Butter/Boston lettuce
• 6 eggs
• 6 to 8 red-skinned or yukon gold potatoes, of a uniform, medium size
• 1 pound fresh green beans
• 1 tablespoon finely minced shallots or scallions
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 1/3 cup cold water
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2/3 cup Vinaigrette dressing (recipe follows)
• 3 to 4 ripe tomatoes quartered, or some halved cherry tomatoes
• 2 avocados, diced or sliced, however you like it
• 2 cans/jars oil-packed tuna, drained (I like Italian tuna)
• 2 tablespoons capers
• 1/2 cup small Italian or French olives

Directions

Tear the lettuce and wash in a salad spinner. On the TV episode, after she dried the lettuce, she wrapped it in a clean kitchen towel and put it in the fridge. This keeps it fresh and very dry, so the dressing will adhere well.

Next, cook your eggs. With a push pin, pierce the large ends of eggs to release the air bubble, which otherwise can expand during cooking, cracking the egg shell. Into a 3-quart sauce pan place the eggs. Pour in 2 1/2 quarts of cold water. Bring just to a rolling boil, remove from heat, cover the pan closely, and set the timer for 17 minutes.

Transfer the eggs to a bowl of ice cubes and water, and let cool for 2 minutes (to shrink the egg body from the shell) while you bring the egg water back to the boil. Then transfer the eggs back into the boiling water and let boil for exactly 10 seconds (to expand the shell from the egg body).

As soon as the eggs are cool enough to handle, crack the shells, and starting at the large end, peel under a thin stream of cold water. Return the eggs to the iced water, and continue with the rest. Let them chill a good 20 minutes in the iced water. Rapid cooling helps prevent the dark line between yolk and white.

Quarter the potatoes, place in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, add about a tsp of kosher salt, lower the heat to medium, and simmer until the potatoes are cooked through.

In a bowl, combine salt, shallots, wine, and water. Lift the potatoes gently into a the bowl. Gently baste the potatoes with the liquid. Julia said why to do this before dressing the potatoes, but I don’t really remember why. I think it had something to do with the wine and salt and water helping the potatoes to absorb dressing. Let set for awhile so the potatoes absorb most of the water and wine. Then gently toss with a bit of the vinaigrette.

Using the same water as the potatoes, quickly cook the green beans until crisp tender. (You don’t HAVE to use the same water, I just reuse the same water as much as possible because I live in California.) Plunge the green beans into ice water (same water you used to chill the eggs perhaps?), then dry.

Toss the lettuce leaves in a large bowl with just enough dressing to coat them. Taste the potatoes, adding a little more seasoning if necessary. Halve the eggs. Toss the green beans with a spoonful of the dressing. Lightly dress the tomatoes. Drain the canned tuna.

Arrange the lettuce around the edges of a serving bowl or platter, leaving a bed in center. Put the potatoes in the bed of the lettuce. Place the tuna on top of the lettuce and potatoes, then arrange the beans, tomatoes, avocado, and eggs around the tuna. Dress the salad lightly, sprinkle with capers and olives.

Jacques Pepin’s Vinaigrette

• 1 tsp choped garlic
• 1 Tbs Dijon mustard
• 1/8 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• salt and pepper

Whisk together garlic, mustard, and vinegar, then whick in olive oil until emulsified. Season well with salt and pepper.