A New Take on Tuna Salad

My cooking challenge for last week was to prepare a fresh and flavorful fish dish. My husband wanted this dish to reflect the bounty of the season and to be tasty, because he generally thinks fish is bland. (I don’t agree, but that’s another story.) He suggested a flavorful sauce.

The combination of fresh and flavorful got my mind working, and I came up with a salad. But not an ordinary salad. Rather, I wanted a composed dish that would showcase tasty produce surrounding a really nice piece of fish, all dressed with a tasty vinaigrette, which works really well on both fish and vegetables. I hit upon doing a version of a salade Niçoise, but with a twist: no olives (because I don’t really like olives). Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home has a tuna Niçoise recipe that is both gorgeous and easy to make; that would be my template. Leafing through Ad Hoc at Home‘s many vinaigrette recipes, I spotted the one I wanted: bacon vinaigrette! The bacon would taste great on a thick tuna steak and on the vegetables I wanted to accompany it: new potatoes, green beans, cherry tomatoes and avocado.

The vegetable platter.

The best part about this dish is that it is very easy to prepare. The most important step is the shopping, as this dish relies on finding the freshest, tastiest produce and cut of tuna available. It can also adapt to the season. I suggest visiting the farmers market or local co-op and buying whatever looks fresh and beautiful. As for cooking the vegetables, I simply blanched the green beans and steamed the potatoes until they were tender. I then cut everything up and apportioned it on a pretty platter.

As for the tuna, this challenge gave me a chance to explore the best local markets for buying fish. While my regular co-op does a great job of supplying local, organic chicken, bacon and sausage, it doesn’t stock a large selection of fish, and they never have tuna. The grocery store I usually shop at has a fish counter, but I am suspicious of their sources. Their tuna in particular often tastes a little fishy, and it’s a little too red, if you know what I mean.

That meant I had to go further afield. Because I left my shopping so late in the day, I chose to head over to Whole Foods rather than trying out Fresh Market, which is a little farther away. I normally avoid Whole Foods, because the experience of shopping there could easily be the tenth circle of Hell, in my opinion. Starting with the parking lot, which is poorly designed and always jammed with cars fighting for the spaces. Once you’re inside, the food is so gorgeous and artfully laid out, but you have to contend with people jamming the narrow aisles with huge carts and cutting across your path. I feel like a bumper car whenever I go inside. I could stand it just enough to go back to the fish counter and pick out a gigantic, gorgeous tuna steak. I couldn’t even handle ducking over to the bakery for a loaf of bread before my patience snapped. (I do have to give kudos to Whole Foods’ cashiers and fishmongers, who are just as friendly as they can be, unlike their clientele.) The trip was worth it, though, because just take a look at this fish.

The tuna.

Fish this good only requires a little salt and pepper for seasoning and a brief pan-searing in a thin film of olive oil. To judge doneness, watch the edges. You want just a thin sear on both sides. Remove it from the pan and slice thinly for serving. A one-pound steak was plenty for my husband and I, with leftovers. (My toddler refused to partake, of course.)

All that’s left is the dressing, which is also very simple. For two servings, cut 2 slices of bacon into 1-inch pieces. Fry over medium heat until crisp on the outside, then transfer to paper towels to drain, reserving the bacon fat in the pan. Combine 2 tablespoons champagne vinegar, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, and ¼ cup olive oil with salt and pepper to taste in a blender. Pour off the bacon fat into this mixture and blend until it is well emulsified. Stir in the bacon pieces and spoon the vinaigrette over the vegetables and fish to serve.

The whole salad.

I feel like this wasn’t too much of a challenge, since it was so easy to prepare. But I think this only goes to show that even the simplest dishes can be the most rewarding, if you take the trouble to find truly excellent ingredients. I would definitely make this salad again and again.

For the next challenge, I am tasked with making an Asian noodle dish. Since I’m still on a light and flavorful kick, I’m thinking Japanese. I hope you’ll join me.

Emergency Dinner Guests? Pesto Vinaigrette!

Not too long ago, I blogged about the five things I always have in my fridge, freezer and pantry to ensure that I can put together a delicious meal anytime. I didn’t put pesto on that list, but I probably should have. I made a big batch of pesto last summer and froze it in ice cube trays. All throughout the winter I have been making use of that pesto whenever I need to make a quick dinner with a big flavor boost. It’s come in handy for pasta sauces, pizza, soups and risotto.

Now I’ve found another great use for pesto: the pesto vinaigrette.

Last night I unexpectedly had three guests for dinner. As it was the end of the week, I didn’t have a lot of groceries left, but fortunately I had sausage in the freezer and salad greens in the fridge (both on my “five things” list). I pan-fried and sliced the sausage, and tossed it with the greens and the pesto vinaigrette to make a hearty salad that was a big hit. For vegetables, I only had odds and ends: a couple of potatoes, a leek or two, an onion, a few carrots. I chopped them into large pieces, tossed them with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roasted them together at 400 degrees for 45 minutes or so. The roasted vegetables were also delicious drizzled with the pesto vinaigrette. I imagine it would also be tasty as a sauce for grilled chicken or a dressing for sliced tomatoes.

I do like to plan out my menus, but when I have unexpected guests drop in, it really stretches my creativity and leads me to discover new combinations I might not otherwise have tried.

Pesto Vinaigrette

Yields: 8 servings
Time to make: 5 minutes with prepared pesto

Whisk together:

• 4 tbsp. prepared pesto (any flavor)
• 2 tbsp. white wine vinegar
• Juice of 1 lemon
• ½ cup olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Adapted from a recipe in Sara Foster’s Casual Cooking.

What’s in Season? Tomatoes

There is nothing quite like the taste of a vine-ripened tomato picked out of your own garden. Supermarket tomatoes in any season are pale, watery imitations of what real tomato-y goodness can be, and therefore not worth buying, in my book. (Fortunately, canned tomatoes will get us through the winter.) Fresh-picked tomatoes are the essence of summer; they command us to stop and savor, because the time when we will have them is so fleeting.

When I was a kid, I remember the freedom of summer days as punctuated each lunchtime by a walk out to my father’s garden to pick a tomato. I’d fry up a little bacon, slather toast with mayonnaise, add a modicum of lettuce and thick, juicy slices of the tomato, still warm from the sun. I’d eat the sandwich at the table with the book I was reading in hand, tomato juices likely running down my chin. The remembered warm sweetness of truly ripe tomatoes is just what I would imagine sunshine would taste like.

Today, a tomato sandwich is still one of my absolute favorite ways to consume a ripe tomato out of my garden (although I’ve now replaced the bacon with cheddar cheese). But I never seem to tire of eating fresh tomatoes in all kinds of ways, which is good because I can barely keep up with what my first-year garden is producing. Whether it’s the soil or these 100+ degree days or some other factor, I’ve gotten mounds of tomatoes this week. Here are some other of my favorite ways to eat tomatoes:

• Simple tomato salad: Slice them and sprinkle with salt. Let sit for about 10 minutes to release the juices, then drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil and a few drop of red wine vinegar. Eat alone or combine with fresh herbs, greens, cucumber or red onion.
• Tomatoes with cheese: Like all fruits, tomatoes go great with cheese. Mozzarella is a natural pairing; slice a ball of fresh mozzarella into disks, layer with thick tomato slices and basil leaves, and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to make insalata caprese. Tomatoes also taste divine with a sharp cheddar or a creamy gorgonzola.
• Tomato vinaigrette: Halve small cherry, grape or pear tomatoes (preferably a combination of colors) and sprinkle with salt. Let sit 10 minutes, then combine with a simple vinaigrette. Use as a sauce for grilled chicken or fish.

Never, ever refrigerate tomatoes. The cold will kill the wonderful flavor, and the texture will get mushy. Just leave them out in a bowl where you can admire them. Slightly underripe tomatoes will continue to ripen out on the counter. Once ripe, eat within 2 days.

Of course, you can cook tomatoes, but I think when they’re dead ripe, they’re best showcased raw. Still, if you get more tomatoes than you can possibly eat, it’s time to make tomato sauce. I make as much sauce as I can and freeze it in 1-cup portions, so I can recapture that flavor of summer once the dreary winter months are here.

In order to make tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes, you will probably want to peel the tomatoes. Here’s a quick and easy way to do that.

How to Peel a Tomato

1. If the tomato is large, core it (an apple corer works really well for this). If it is small or a roma, skip this step, but do remove the stem.
2. Bring a pot of water to a boil.
3. Slip in 5 or 6 tomatoes and blanch them about 15 seconds, or until the skin starts to split.
4. Remove the tomatoes with a slotted spoon and immediately plunge them into an ice water bath to stop the cooking.
5. Slip the skin off — it should come away easily.
6. Repeat with remaining tomatoes.

How to Make a Vinaigrette

Image via Wikipedia

The vinaigrette is probably the most useful basic recipe in a cook’s repertoire. Once you learn how to make a tasty vinaigrette, you’ll never buy bottled salad dressing again. (If you have a bottle of salad dressing in your refrigerator, go read the ingredients list–I’ll bet it’s mostly sugar of some form or another!) But vinaigrettes go way beyond dressing salads. I use them as marinades, to dress simply cooked vegetables and as a sauce for fish as well.

At its simplest, a vinaigrette is nothing more than oil and vinegar (usually salt and pepper, too). First, the oil. I am nuts for olive oil (which is pretty ironic, since I loathe olives). I use it for almost everything. I’ve read in cookbooks that the strong taste can be too overpowering, but I never find that to be true. So my first choice is always going to be olive oil. I don’t like to use vegetable or canola oil for a vinaigrette, because I don’t think they contribute much in the way of flavor, and flavor is the whole point, as far as I’m concerned.

Other useful oils to have on hand are nut oils like walnut oil and almond oil, which have a sweeter, stronger flavor. They should be kept in the refrigerator or they will go rancid. Infused oils–oils infused with another flavor, such as basil, garlic or chiles–are a fun alternative. Sesame oil is also a good choice, but since it’s so strong, I usually mix it with a neutral oil like canola.

The other component is the vinegar. Stocking a variety of vinegars is the key to always having a lively salad. For a simple salad of mixed greens, I prefer balsamic vinegar, which packs the greatest flavor punch. I also keep on hand red and white wine vinegars, sherry vinegar and apple cider vinegar. There are many, many other flavors, so go crazy. For instance, I’ve had a bottle of raspberry vinegar for a while that comes in really handy for fruit salads. My father once gave me a bottle of lemon-thyme-infused vinegar that was heavenly on greens.

The alternative to vinegar is citrus. Lemon and lime juice contribute bright, sunny flavors to the vinaigrette. I particularly enjoy them on simply cooked vegetables and fish.

The basic formula to making vinaigrette is: 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar. (I’ve seen cookbooks advocate 4 parts oil, but in my opinion, that just makes the salad taste oily.) So if you’re making a lot, use ¾ cup oil and ¼ cup vinegar. If you’re just making enough for two salads, use 3 tbsp. oil and 1 tbsp. vinegar.

You do have to make some adjustments to this formula depending on your ingredients. If you’re using a strongly flavored oil, such as a nut oil, use a ratio of 2 parts oil to 1 part vinegar. If you’re using lemon or lime juice, which is not as acidic as vinegar, also use a ratio of 2 parts oil to 1 part juice, and mix in some of the zest for extra flavor.

What else can you add to your vinaigrette to jazz it up? The standards are, in any combination (per 1 cup vinaigrette):

• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 minced shallot
• 1 tbsp. mustard
• 1 tbsp. honey
• 1 tbsp. minced capers or pickles
• 1 tbsp. seasoning mix
• 2 tbsp. or more fresh herbs, minced

I hate to keep touting Penzey’s, but they sell a number of mixes that will add instant flavor to any vinaigrette. My husband particularly loves their Italian dressing mix, which is pretty zesty.

So, how to make it? If you’re getting ready to dress the salad, just whisk together all the ingredients until well combined and toss. If you want to really emulsify the vinaigrette–in other words, combine the oil and vinegar so thoroughly that they won’t readily separate–put all the ingredients but the oil in the blender. With the blender running, slowly pour the oil in and keep mixing until the vinaigrette is thick.

Chef’s tip: To make an easy creamy vinaigrette, substitute heavy cream, sour cream or plain yogurt for 1/3 of the oil, adding it after whisking in the oil.

Store extra in the refrigerator. The oil will probably solidify, and the vinaigrette will separate. Take it out for a while before dinner to let it come to room temperature, then re-whisk before serving.

Basic Vinaigrette for Two

Whisk together:

• 1 tbsp. vinegar
• 1 tsp. mustard
• 1 clove garlic, minced, or ½ shallot, minced
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 3 tbsp. olive oil