Portland, Oregon: Since I am home much of the day working on cleaning/organizing projects, it is easy to take a few moments to poach something, thaw something or take a few minutes during the day to prep something for dinner.
My Salad Nicoise is a great main-course salad and only the potatoes and green beans need to be cooked ahead and chilled. Okay, most people put hard boiled eggs on their Salad Nicoise platter, but y'all know how I feel about eggs.
Not going to happen.
Tonight I prepared the salad with potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, Nicoise olives, radish, avocado, red onion, fresh tarragon leaves and the rest of the peppers I roasted for the dinner with My Dad on Saturday. The dressing was a basic mustardy vinaigrette.
It was really good and cool and refreshing. I made enough for four people though, so we will have a nice lunch tomorrow.It wasn't only due to a French-themed week of dining that inspired Salad Nicoise this evening. When we were on the coast with Leo earlier this month, we stopped at the Jacobsen Salt Company salt works to see how they harvest their fantastic salt. While there, we bought a few cans of their Albacore Tuna from their little shop.
Not only is the tuna hook-and-line caught off the Oregon coast, the fish are young/small and have no/very little mercury. Plus, the tuna is lightly salted with Oregon sea salt and packed in Oregon Olive Oil. The only down-side is the $10 price tag... but I know this is the "true price" of sustainably caught/canned fish. Jacobsen's tuna was very good. We usually buy sustainable Oregon tuna (at $7 per 7.5 ounce can) from Fisherman's Direct, and will probably continue to use Fisherman's Direct... even though I bet we only use one can of tuna a month.Tomorrow - Steak Frites!
Until my next update, I remain, your fishy correspondent.