Sep 25 2008
Nice Tuna
A Storecupboard SOS recipe….for which I had to buy in pretty much every key ingredient. Ho hum!
- Salade Niçoise
Another adventure into the world of nasty little fishes! This salad was a sped-up take on a standard Tuna Niçoise, with croutons replacing boiled potatoes and ’sun drenched’ tomatoes creeping in to add some moisture and softness.
All in all I was really pleased with this salad actually. The flavours came together nicely; I even managed to eat all my anchovies, although there was a little strategic loading of forks going on (…if I add a bit of Tuna it’ll already taste fishy…then some olives will mean it’s already salty…) and the tomatoes were gorgeously soft and melty. The dressing of tomato-steeping oil, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and sugar was surprisingly punchy and the iceberg lettuce added structure and simplicity in amongst all the other fancy bits. Speaking of which, exceptional tuna was sourced at Kember and Jones in Glasgow (although immediately after Waitrose got their act together and started selling interesting stuff) but was not the really expensive variety as seen on the inside sleeve of Nigella Express. The NHS will have to start paying scientists considerably better if I am to be willing to pay £7.20 for a (larger than average) tin of tuna, exceptional or not!
Next time I might up the egg count to two between three- only getting four quarters seemed a bit mean, but then perhaps I’m just a pig as Dougal only ate three of his. Also, I was very impressed by the frozen fine beans; they cooked up a treat and now I have veg in my freezer for when the notion next takes me. Excellent.
