Salad Nicoise

Here's one salad that I love doing. Needs extra time for preparation but good enough for lunch or dinner. Got this from Barefoot Contessa's show, but tweaked it a bit.



Salad Nicoise

Ingredients
1 Block Tuna fillet - sashimi grade (about 1 inch thick)
Arugula leaves or baby romaines (I use this)
2 Eggs
1 cup olives (dark or green, I used green)
1/4 kilo (or less) french beans
1/4 kilo baby potatoes
2-3 vine or salad tomatoes (I used the seedless variety) - diced into big chunks
1/4 cup capers (optional)
2 tbsp white wine
Salt and pepper

For the vinaigrette
3 tbsp champagne vinegar
3 tbsp dijon mustard
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Boil baby potatoes, eggs and beans together. After 1 minute, take out the beans and put in a bowl with cold water to "shock" it and stop the cooking process. After a couple of minutes, take out the eggs - make sure it's cooked (hard-boiled). Leave the potatoes until cooked. Strain and bring back the pan to the stove top and heat a bit to remove excess water. Let the potatoes cool, then pierce with fork. Add the white wine and let the potatoes soak for a bit. Remove the beans from the cold water and set aside. Now the eggs... cut them with an egg cutter (or just slice them yourself).

Mix together the ingredients of the vinaigrette and adjust depending on your taste preference. Pour a little over the potatoes, mix, and set aside.

In a salad bowl (also nice if it's a little "flat") put first the leaves. Then arrange the other veggies and what have you's: beans, tomatoes, olives, capers (if you prefer), potatoes, and eggs. Leave a small space in the middle for the tuna.

Season the tuna with salt and pepper and sear it in a very hot pan. After one minute, turn it over. After 1 minute, take it out of the pan. This leaves you with a cooked outside and sashimi-like rawness inside. If you do not prefer your tuna to be too raw, cook an additional minute on each side. Slice the tuna and add it into the salad bowl. Drizzle with some vinaigrette and leave some for serving.

I had this for dinner, along with toasted whole-wheat baguette (baked with butter, garlic, olive oil, and topped with basil ribbons).

Enjoy!