SALADE NIÇOISE - 4 generous portions
This is not the traditional Salade Niçoise, but Chefs everywhere are reinventing and renaming recipes. I also took into account what was in the market. I do like making this with tuna canned in oil, and using that drained oil as the oil in the dressing. I find canned anchovies here are too salty for me and don’t compare with fresh anchovies in oil I ate on the dock in Sardinia with fresh bread. I am sure that’s what is used in Nice. I also leave out olives since I find most of them too salty for me. Many recipes include capers which can be very acidic. This is a great planned in advance meal for after a day out at the beach, or when friends or family are expected. If you cook the potatoes, green beans, (fresh fish or meat) and eggs in advance and make the vinaigrette, then the meal can be on the table within about 10 minutes of walking in the door, far cheaper and healthier than take out which is impossible for most of us now.
I made this on NH’s ABC WMUR during the Cooks Corner segment on Wednesday 24 August 2012 during the noon time news . Here's the piece on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1_Bn1kBOx4&feature=share
According to Wikipedia “ Niçoise salad sometimes referred to as Salade Niçoise or insalata nizzarda, is a mixed salad consisting of various vegetables topped with tuna and anchovy. It is a specialty of the Côte d’Azur in France and named for the city of Nice. Salade Niçoise and its ingredients are often debated by purists.
The salad or "salade" is displayed on a flat plate or platter and arranged on a bed of lettuce. Ripe tomato wedges, halved boiled new potatoes (like American fingerling potatoes), steamed green beans, wedges of hard-boiled eggs, are topped with canned tuna (in oil), and Niçoise Cailletier olives. Finally the salad is garnished with canned anchovies. The salad is served with vinaigrette. The original version of the salad always included raw red bell peppers, shallots, and artichoke hearts, never potatoes. The French, especially in the Nice area, will clearly state no cooked vegetables are to be used. “
This salad was made famous in America by Julia Child and is in ‘the French Chef Cookbook’, where it is a very simple recipe compared to some of the recipes on the web. The quality of the salad depends on the quality of the ingredients, particularly the olive oil and vinegar used in the vinaigrette aka French Dressing in UK, so don’t use the sticky orange bottled dressing on sale here.
1+1/2 lbs (750g) Yukon gold or fingerling or ‘new’ potatoes, peeled and cut into 2 inch cubes.
½ lb (250g) fresh green beans, trimmed or same quantity of fresh asparagus - the green beans haven’t been nice in the market recently. I do love the skinny French green beans.
4 eggs, hardboiled with potatoes, cooled, peeled and cut into wedges.
1 raw red bell pepper, deseeded and cut into either thin strips (julienned) or small dice (brunoise).
1 lb (500g) fresh salmon fillets (what I fancied and I was out of tuna in oil)
4 fresh tomatoes, cut into quarters.
Head of Boston lettuce, Bibb lettuce or Romaine lettuce, washed and well dried.
Anchovies and olives if you want.
VINAIGRETTE. Put vinaigrette ingredients in 4 cup (1 ltr) jug and use immersion blender to chop herbs and make vinaigrette thick and creamy. You can also just whisk oil and vinegar and add herbs chopped by hand. I like lots of herbs and have a herb garden, you can make this with no herbs at all. Some recipes use tarragon which I don’t like.
1/2 c olive oil (120ml, 4 fl oz) -not extra virgin, I find it too strong. If you use tuna in oil, then I drain the oil and add olive oil to make it up to ½ c of oil in total.
2 tbsp (30ml) gluten free, real white wine vinegar or fresh lemon juice not bottled please.
1 tbsp (15 ml)white balsamic vinegar (you can also use regular balsamic vinegar, it just makes dressing darker colored).
12 quite large basil leaves
2 cups (16 oz jug, 500ml) of fresh parsley
green of about 4 green onions, spring onions, scallions or chives. I don’t like raw shallots or red onions, but you can use them instead.
Raw garlic finely crushed with salt if you want. I hate the way raw garlic stays with you.
2 tsp (10 ml) gf Dijon mustard or 1 tsp (5 ml) dry English Colman’s mustard
2 tsp (10ml) maple syrup or sugar, or to taste.
Salt and pepper
1. Put potatoes and eggs in pan, cover with water, add salt and cook until just tender. Take eggs out after about 6 minutes of cooking. Immediately plunge eggs into very cold water which will help prevent the black ring forming around yellow egg yolk. Don’t peel eggs until you are ready for meal. Drain cooked potatoes, and pour about ¼ cup (60 ml) vinaigrette over potatoes while warm and leave to cool down before refrigerating.
2. Put fresh salmon in small skillet, cover with water, slowly bring to the boil, cover, turn down to a simmer and cook for 2 minutes, turn off heat and leave to cool down in water. Drain and refrigerate before use. Add wine, lemon rind, parsley rind etc to water for more flavor. Salmon is moist cooked this way, but you can also cook salmon, fresh tuna, chicken or steak on the grill. Also think about quickly frying raw shrimp in olive oil and garlic and letting cool in oil.
3. Cook green beans/asparagus until degree of tenderness you prefer. Drain and immediately plunge into very cold water to stop them cooking and retain bright green color.
4. To finish: Traditionally, the ingredients are arranged on a platter in segments, not mixed together. So take a platter and cover base with lettuce drizzled with vinaigrette. Then arrange potatoes, green beans, olives, hard boiled eggs, red peppers, tomatoes, anchovies, tuna/salmon etc like the segments of a wheel around platter. Drizzle with more vinaigrette and serve. Some recipes tell you to add vinaigrette to every ingredient in dish but I find that is too much vinaigrette for me. For 2 of us I just put layers of everything on our plates and finish with flakes of poached salmon on top and drizzled with more vinaigrette. The photo shows the arranged (composed) salad.
