Mar 18 2009
Nice Idea!
A rather foxy little tea, comprising a Tuna Niçoise-inspired salad and some haloumi over lentils.
I must have had a good day at work as I came home and threw together a couple of really scrummy little salads. The haloumi was a two-parter. Firstly I made a base, frizzing up chunks of yellow and orange peppers and courgette in garlic oil, before stirring through some ready-cooked puy lentils (smashing things!) and chunks of avocado and seasoning the whole lot with a good squeeze of lime juice and a liberal sprinkling of cayenne pepper. On top was griddled thick-cut haloumi, seasoned with lots of lime juice, and a sprinkling of parsely.
The main part of the meal was a Helen-style Niçoise salad: sweet romain lettuce; mixed baby leaves; boiled potatoes; boiled eggs, sundried tomatoes; fine green beans; wanky albacore tuna; a smattering of anchovies (we’re getting there!) and a mustardy dressing. I can’t remember, there might also have been black olives on my side of the plate.
Either way it was fab. We ate it all with a really cold, crisp New World White- I wish I could remember what- and talked ourselves, pink-cheeked, into the night. I am dead excited about this transition into spring and summer, the opportunities now to eat salads for tea and not feel empty and cold at the end. When the clocks change we’ll be able to have the blind open and sunlight at tea time- and it’ll feel like it did when we first moved in. Magic!
Yum…
I have some halloumi lurking in the fridge, I think…. but the last time I griddled halloumi, it stuck like hell which screwed up the presentation. Any advice on non-stick halloumi cooking?
Gosh, just noticed this was weeks ago… this is time-slipped blogging…. or did I just miss it earlier?
feeling confused!
I had brushed the halloumi with a little garlic oil, I believe. Failing that, whilst you don’t get the stripey effect, it works pretty well in a non-stick Jamie pan too!
It is indeed time-slipped blogging! Known as dealing with yer backlog. But I’m dating things as per the date of eating. And trying not to get so far behind in future :o)
That just freaked me out – it appeared in my feed reader today yet talked about the clocks going forward. Don’t do that!
How do you make your dressing?
Not being a blogger, I am not sure of the etiquette of this.
Should the entry be dated as of when it happened, or should it refer back to the event in the past (maybe even referencing the actual date of the event) but be dated as when it was posted?
I don’t know, but my gut feeling is for the latter; it may reveal the tardiness of the poster, but we are not timing you!
It would save any more “What the… ???” moments!
Is your mustardy dressing a bit like mine? Gradual adding of olive oil to a spoonful of Dijon mustard to create an emulsion, with a little drop of whatever tasty vinegar you fancy at the end?
Or have you gone off with someone else’s recipe?
I’ve always back posted, to an extent- I did it during the challenge so that the week by week cooking graph was an accurate reflection of our cooking not my blogging!
On the other hand, I was never quite so behind with my blogging then as i am now.
Yes….my dressing (for this salad) was as you’ve described above, dijon, olive oil, and then vinegar and seasoning. No real measure to it any more, all just done by the light of day. I don’t deviate from the Hare way very often! That said, like you, the only dressing i make in a glass these days is a mustardy one. Everything else gets glugged/drizzled/grated straight on to the leaves. Never used to do it that way. But perhaps that was a ’stop the children ruining the salad with vinegar’ technique, rather than the Hare way at the time.
yes, generally I dress the salad by the direct route unless I want a mustardy one in which case it’s in a glass, but I always make more than I need, add it all and end up with an over-dressed salad (white tie and tails?). Maybe I need more restraint? (straightjacket??)
I suspect I kept my back turned, when doing a direct dressing, when you were wee to protect you from the awful truth! I was never a great one for using a glass; must have been at an educational stage: “This Is How You Do It”.