Good food: Nicoise Salads

Jay and I have been having "at home date nights." Which really, really, really sounds like a cop-out. But, in reality, is SO fun. So far, we've had three of these...and what happens goes something like this: Jay makes and serves dinner in three courses; soup or salad, main course, dessert. I'm not allowed in the kitchen. We both shower and shave and get dressed up like we actually are going to leave the house. We listen to records, and put away the technologies (for the most part). We talk about current events, work, the future and other fun things. Then after dinner, we play a board game or watch a new movie, or both. 

This Saturday night, Jay made Nicoise (knee-swahz) salads and tomato bisque with ice cream and milano cookies for dessert. Nicoise salad is one of his favorites that i've never ventured to try. Though I don't know why...because I LOVED it. 

There are different variations and recipes for this delicious salad. Jay enjoyed one last week that used salmon instead of tuna and asparagus instead of green beans. We stuck to the traditional recipe (minus olives, because if you know anything about my husband...you should know he hates olives and most pickles). 

Jay made the dressing from scratch. Here's the things you need for the dressing:

3/4 cup olive oil

1 shallot, minced

1 tbsp. fresh (or dried) thyme

2 tsp. oregano (we used dried whole mexican oregano)

1 tbsp. fresh basil

1 tsp. dijon mustard

1/2 cup lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

Other things you'll need to pick up from the market:

Sashimi-grade Tuna steak (one should be enough for two people)

small red new potatoes 

fresh green beans

1 egg per person, hard-boiled

Nicoise Olives (or capers or kalamata olives, if you can't find nicoise) 

Boil your potatoes and your eggs (separately), and flash cook or steam your green beans. You want the green beans to be crunchy and sweet, not soft and mushy. You'll want to cool these things down before you put them on the lettuce to keep the lettuce from wilting. Jay let them sit in some ice water for a few minutes to bring them to room temp. 

Drizzle a bit of olive oil on your tuna steak, and then pan-fry it over medium heat. Keep the center pink, don't overcook the tuna. You can put a little bit of kosher salt on there, if you like. After cooking, slice it and divide between the salads. Let it cool down a little before putting it on the lettuce.

To arrange your salad, start with fresh butter lettuce. We got the hydroponic head of butter lettuce at the store because Jay loved the tagline on the packaging: "You know it's fresh because it's still alive." Queue the sinister laughter. 

In the middle of the lettuce, place your sliced tuna steak in the middle. Then, arrange the remaining ingredients in clockwise fashion. Potatoes (4 or 5), green beans, sliced deviled egg, and olives. Instead of olives, I opted for capers. Which, I have to say...were really delicious. Drizzle your dressing over the top, and enjoy! 

Nicoise deliciousness

dinner date