Week 4 - Nicoise

Salad Nicoise is coming up quite a bit lately. A few weeks ago it came up in the Times (or maybe the Times Magazine) as a simple, small ingredient list recipe that signalled summer in France. There it popped up on Alton Brown's Good Eats show on the Food Network. Finally, and without prodding, my best friend ordered it at a cafe where we pleasantly sat at the tables in the fresh air. The basic idea is that you have tuna, olives, potatoes, tomatoes and haricots verts with a tangy dressing. The Times suggested grilled fresh tuna as a substitute for the canned variety used as a standard in this salad. Alton Brown's show was all about canned tuna which resolved that issue, but he did have an interest twist of making a salad out of the tomatoes and eggs instead of the traditionally separated slices on the plate. The restaurant was out of potatoes. So as in all things, be flexible. My version this week used two substitutions, garlic scapes in the place of the haricots verts and canned smoked trout in place of canned tuna.

Salad Nicoise
Black Olives - small handful
Garlic Scapes - 5
Boiled Potatoes - 2
Hard Boiled Eggs - 2
Tomato - 1 medium
Smoked Trout - 1 small tin
Lettuce - 1 cup
Thyme
Salt
Pepper

Dressing
Olive Oil - 1/4 cup
Mustard - 1 tbsp.
Lemon Juice - 2 tbsp.

Cut the garlic scapes into pieces about 4 or 5 inches long. Blanch them in pot of boiling water for about 1 minute then shock them in ice water. Take them out of the water and let dry.

Dice potatoes, eggs and tomatoes, set aside in a mixing bowl.

Wash, dry and cut the lettuce into thin strips.

Take all the dressing ingredients and wisk together in a mixing bowl untilk well blended. Take 3/4 of the dressing and pour over the potato, tomato and egg salad, mix gently. Add salt and pepper to taste. Put the garlic scapes into the bowl with the remainder of the dressing and toss.

Place the lettuce on half of the plate as a bed for the potato, egg, tomato salad, sprinkle some thyme on top. place a few olives on the plate. Place the garlic scapes on the remaining open space on the plate and top with the smoked trout (tuna, salmon, whatever). Sprinkle thyme over the edges of the plate.

- Steven Waxman, Yorkville CSA