Grilled Tuna Salad Nicoise
This week's recipe comes from Debrah, whose says that the recipe is intended to serve 2 people but can be doubled or tripled at will. She also says that anyone who knows her recipes from past postings will remember that she is rather loose in her interpretation, but hopes this fairly straightforward composed salad is easy to make. She also gives us two recipes for salad dressings because she couldn't decide on her favorite.
Well, Debrah, this was easy, and certainly delicious - your recipe certainly did allow for a great deal of flexibilty and creativity in the composition. I, for one, decided to make it for one, since David was away on business last week, and I knew we would be away for the weekend. And since I did not want to fire up the grill for just me, I decided to pan sear the tuna on high heat and roast the vegetables in the oven. For my veggies I chose potatoes, green beans, and asparagus, omitted the hardboiled egg, and purchased olives and roasted peppers at the olive bar in the market. I served the salad on a bed of greens.
In the beginning, there were raw fish and vegetables, and ingredients for the classic vinaigrette:
Ingredients
2 tuna steaks
2 cups green beans or asparagus, cut in half
2 cups cooked potatoes (sliced, diced or quartered, depending on size)
12 olives (use your favorite or a mixture, obviously nicoise are the classic)
1 orange or yellow pepper
2 green onions
1 cup grape or cherry tomatoes
1 hard boiled egg (if using classic recipe)
* optional: spring baby carrots or radishes - scrubbed, served whole
Dressing: (should be made prior to cooking vegetables)
Classic: (put all ingredients into a jar, cover and shake)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
2 small or 1 large shallot, minced finely
4 T olive oil, (or taosted walnut or hazelnut oil)
1/2 t anchovy paste (optional, I did not use )
2 cloves crushed garlic
1 t whole grain mustard
pinch of thyme
Asian (put all ingredients into a jar, cover and shake)
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
4 T Sesame Oil
2 cloves, garlic, crushed
1 T grated ginger
4 T olive oil
For salad: Steam or parboil green beans or asparagus until just tender crisp. Put into ince water to stop cooking process. Cook small potatoes whole. Let cook, cut into desired shape and pour a small amount of dressing on and chill. I roast or grill the peppers and tomatoes (with a small amount of either dressing tossed on). I like to cook the tomatoes until they release their juices and carmelize a bitl.
{my note: I roasted the vegetables with a small amount of the dressing at high heat until crisp/brown. The tomatoe I chose to quarter and serve raw on the salad}
Put tuna steaks on the grill , brush with dressing and cook to your preference.
{my note: I seasoned the tuna steak with lemon pepper and seared it at high heat in a pan, 2-3 minutes each side.}
Platiing: This is a composed salad, so arrange the vegetables and tuna separately on the serving plate. I chose to arrange them on a bed of mixed greens.
Thanks,Debrah - this was truly a beautiful and colorful use of the bounty of the spring season - and did I mention delicious. I will have to try it again with the Asian dressing.
Comments (2)
Marcia this looks amazing!
Posted by Barb Cabot | May 25, 2009 3:03 PM
Posted on May 25, 2009 15:03
I laughed at your comment about what the French would think about grilled tofu. I think we would have to ditch the "nicoise" from the name!
Yours looks great. I'm more of a tosser than a composer, so this was fun to make.
Posted by Annie | May 27, 2009 6:03 AM
Posted on May 27, 2009 06:03