Tuna Nicoise

[Bond Girl]

I don't normally like French food, nor do I like my fish cooked. But, over the weekend, I dreamt of the most perfect tuna nicoise, the kind you get in a bistro that came with a piece of toasted baguette. So I set about assembling the Nicoise salad. Starting with poached tuna. I got a 1/3 pound piece of sushi grade yellow fin lay it on a bed of onions, garlic and peppercorn, threw in a bouquet garni and pour enough olive oil to barely cover the tuna. I set it over lowest possible heat and watch for the occasional bubble. An hour later, the last part of red just about disappeared, so I turned off the heat and let it cool.

Here I ran into a hitch, the tuna wasn't bad but it was on the dry side....Any ideas on how I can make it moist and tender?

Or, is it supposed to be dry so that one can flake it into bits and mix it with mayo?

[budrichard]

I normally poach at least a 1# piece of shashimi grade Maguro rather than yellow fin. I poach in either a veal or chicken stock with herbs and aromatics and chill it off quickly after poaching.

I make my own Mayo and and then a rouille and/or aioli to go along with it. The dressing for the salad and potaotes is usually wine vinegar/olive oil.

Tuna except for the belly part (Toro) is not a fat fish and will be a little dry. that is probably why most recipes call for canned tuna in oil!-Dick

[Ducky]

You are talking "classic" Nicoise?

As far as i know this is always made with canned tuna. At least I have never had this served with fresh tuna in France - though I have, ocassionally, in North America.

[little ms foodie]

You are talking "classic" Nicoise?

As far as i know this is always made with canned tuna. At least I have never had this served with fresh tuna in France - though I have, ocassionally, in North America.

←

Same here. I use really high grade tuna canned in Italian EVOO, this isn't Starkist but gorgeous chunked tuna. I reserve the oil and use that to make my vinaigrette. Then pile on the potatoes, olives, capers, hard boiled eggs, haricot vert..... Damn! that sounds good. Must make a salad nicoise soon.

[larousse]

Classic Nicoise is about garlic, anchovies, olives, tomato and haricot vert. Try poaching only the sinue laden belly part and making Tonato sauce (I'm not sure on the spelling) and just tatare the rest is you feel its too dry. Tonato sauce:

Blend Tuna with a bit of water, lemon juice, some anchovy and garlic. Egg yolk could be added as well for added richness or not. Blend in oil to consistency (add water if needed to balance the emulsion) and season.

[docsconz]

This dish is one of our summer staples, especially when the really good haricots verts and new potatoes hit the farmers' market. I would also support the notion that high quality Italian or Spanish tuna in EVOO is the way to go. If you want to splurge you can get ventresca fo additional fatty silkiness.

[MichaelB]

As said above, start with the really good Italian bonita packed in olive oil. Make a vinaigrette using lemon juice as the acid.

Hard boil eggs.

Blanch hericot vert in salted water until tender. Shock. Use the water to peel tomatoes. Seed and dice the tomatoes. Boil quatrtered new potatoes in the water.

Sliver some red onion. Clean some tender head lettuce like Boston Bibb. Get out some anchovies and capers. Chop the egg.

Using a large bowl, separately season each ingredient and toss with the dressing (starting with the lettuce). Arrange on plates or on a large platter.

(I swear I am missing something here but cannot think of what it is.)

[Ducky]

(I swear I am missing something here but cannot think of what it is.)

←

Could it be the critical thing: that at this point you need to pour yourself a large glass of good Rose from the Luberon or Bandol?

[Bond Girl]

I know that most recipes called for canned tuna but I abhorred anything canned...and, what do people us before industrialized canned tuna was invented?

[DRColby]

Buy a side of fresh albacore, poach it in olive oil to cover, herbs and garlic. Use what you want for the salad and preserve the rest in refrigirator for other uses. It will be the best "canned" yuna you have had.

Dave

[Adam Balic]

Not sure why you dislike all canned products (does this include in glass), some are very good and it gives you an increased range of products.

Anyway, the classic recipe contains canned tuna, never fresh according to "Cuisine Nicoise" by Jacques Medecin, former mayor of Nice (before he had to go to Brazil....). And ships biscuits I think. Will check on the latter.

Before canning there was drying, salting (you can still buy dried salted tuna in Sicily, Liguria and Andalucia) and preservation in oil, which is essentially the canned product.

Medecin has this to say:

"salade nicoise is one of those dishes that is constantly traduced. At its most basic -- and genuine -- it is made predominantly of tomatoes, consists exclusively of raw ingredients (apart from hard-boiled eggs) and has no vinaigrette dressing: the tomatoes are salted three times and moistened with olive oil."

Also, anchovies or tuna, but not both and fava beans an artichokes when in season.

Personally, a bastard version sounds OK to me, but I like the idea of the salted tomatoes.

Edited June 14, 2005 by Adam Balic (log)

[Tess]

Not sure why you dislike all canned products (does this include in glass), some are very good and it gives you an increased range of products.

Not speaking for the original poster, but I have very rarely had a canned fish product that didn't have what I consider a strikingly unpleasant taste. I won't say exactly what it tastes like to me, for fear of injecting a turn-off into a recipe thread. (If you look at the recent thread on ordinary foods people hate, canned fish turns up a fair amount.) And yes, I have had the superior products; they all suffer from the same problem to some degree as far as I'm concerned. I find it irritating because I would love to enjoy things like salade Nicoise.

This thread is giving me an idea, though, for a quasi-Nicoise salad with cubed raw tuna that they sell at the Japanese market, marinated for a little while in the usual Nicoise dressing. Or maybe sear and marinate.

[Adam Balic]

Tastes are personal and I haven't got a issue with that, but I am glad that to be the tuna bellies preserved in olive oil in those hugh cans you get in Italy/France/Spain taste fantastic.

[Jinmyo]

I know that most recipes called for canned tuna but I abhorred anything canned...and, what do people us before industrialized canned tuna was invented?

←

Tuna has been packed in olive oil before the 300 Spartans held Thermopylae against the Persians.

There are truly excellent Greek, Italian, and even Korean tinned tunas.

And I would never poach tuna. It would make me cry.

If I don't use tinned tuna for a standard nicoise, I'll sear a block of tuna and serve a few thin slices atop a mound of fingerlings and haricot verts mixed with anchovy aoli and topped with tomato concasse and a quail egg or two.

[Adam Balic]

I know that most recipes called for canned tuna but I abhorred anything canned...and, what do people us before industrialized canned tuna was invented?

←

Tuna has been packed in olive oil before the 300 Spartans held Thermopylae against the Persians.

There are truly excellent Greek, Italian, and even Korean tinned tunas.

And I would never poach tuna. It would make me cry.

If I don't use tinned tuna for a standard nicoise, I'll sear a block of tuna and serve a few thin slices atop a mound of fingerlings and haricot verts mixed with anchovy aoli and topped with tomato concasse and a quail egg or two.

←

Fresh tuna, potatoes, green beans in salad nicoise make Jacques Medecin cry .

[ldubois2]

Julia Child adds potatoes steamed, skinned and sliced tossed with minced shallots,salt and a bit of wine or broth...then tossed again with the vinagrette.

Blanched green beans

tomatoes

anchovies

black olives

hard boiled eggs

good canned tuna in evoo

lettuce base.

All dressed individually before plating.

[MichaelB]

As said above, start with the really good Italian bonita packed in olive oil.  Make a vinaigrette using lemon juice as the acid.

Hard boil eggs.

Blanch hericot vert in salted water until tender.  Shock.  Use the water to peel tomatoes.    Seed and dice the tomatoes.  Boil quatrtered new potatoes in the water.

Sliver some red onion.  Clean some tender head lettuce like Boston Bibb.  Get out some anchovies and capers.  Chop the egg.

Using a large bowl, separately season each ingredient and toss with the dressing (starting with the lettuce).  Arrange on plates or on a large platter.

(I swear I am missing something here but cannot think of what it is.)

←

Pssst, hey Moron! Yes, you. NICOISE OLIVES.

[Bond Girl]

Not sure why you dislike all canned products (does this include in glass), some are very good and it gives you an increased range of products.

Not speaking for the original poster, but I have very rarely had a canned fish product that didn't have what I consider a strikingly unpleasant taste.

←

Exactly why I hate canned tuna...but having said that I've never had the "high quality" variety only because my experiences with canned fish products have been disappointing.

Anchovies are a good idea, but how do I use fresh anchovies?

Tuna has been packed in olive oil before the 300 Spartans held Thermopylae against the Persians.

Does anyone know how they used to do it?

The seared fresh tuna is also an idea...the tomato concasse with quail eggs sounds absolutely precious...Thanks for the Idea Jinmyo! Will head out to hunt for quail eggs this afternoon.

[Tess]

I've eaten the better canned fish products here and in Europe-- lived in Italy. They're better, but not perfect if you have this problem. Quite likely, if you start with the real bad stuff you get sensitive.

[Bond Girl]

Not sure why you dislike all canned products (does this include in glass), some are very good and it gives you an increased range of products.

Anyway, the classic recipe contains canned tuna, never fresh according to "Cuisine Nicoise" by Jacques Medecin, former mayor of Nice (before he had to go to Brazil....). And ships biscuits I think. Will check on the latter.

Before canning there was drying, salting (you can still buy dried salted tuna in Sicily, Liguria and Andalucia) and preservation in oil, which is essentially the canned product.

Medecin has this to say:

"salade nicoise is one of those dishes that is constantly traduced. At its most basic -- and genuine -- it is made predominantly of tomatoes, consists exclusively of raw ingredients (apart from hard-boiled eggs) and has no vinaigrette dressing: the tomatoes are salted three times and moistened with olive oil."

Also, anchovies or tuna, but not both and fava beans an artichokes when in season.

Personally, a bastard version sounds OK to me, but I like the idea of the salted tomatoes.

←

I also love the idea of salted tomatoes...I was once taught a recipe of poached tuna by Kevin Garcia who used to work at the Boca Raton resort that involved first salting the tuna in a mixture of salt and sugar,leave for an hour then rise off the salt and gently poach it in olive oil at a shiver....his version is nice and moist, although I've never successfully emulate it at home.

[ludja]

As said above, start with the really good Italian bonita packed in olive oil.  Make a vinaigrette using lemon juice as the acid.

Hard boil eggs.

Blanch hericot vert in salted water until tender.  Shock.  Use the water to peel tomatoes.    Seed and dice the tomatoes.  Boil quatrtered new potatoes in the water.

Sliver some red onion.  Clean some tender head lettuce like Boston Bibb.  Get out some anchovies and capers.  Chop the egg.

Using a large bowl, separately season each ingredient and toss with the dressing (starting with the lettuce).  Arrange on plates or on a large platter.

(I swear I am missing something here but cannot think of what it is.)

←

Pssst, hey Moron! Yes, you. NICOISE OLIVES.

←

No self-flaming allowed...

[Busboy]

I know that most recipes called for canned tuna but I abhorred anything canned...and, what do people us before industrialized canned tuna was invented?

←

Tuna has been packed in olive oil before the 300 Spartans held Thermopylae against the Persians.

There are truly excellent Greek, Italian, and even Korean tinned tunas.

And I would never poach tuna. It would make me cry.

If I don't use tinned tuna for a standard nicoise, I'll sear a block of tuna and serve a few thin slices atop a mound of fingerlings and haricot verts mixed with anchovy aoli and topped with tomato concasse and a quail egg or two.

←

With all due respect to the Spartans -- barbarians though they were -- I'm relatively certain that Salad Nicoise is a recent recipe, perhaps from the last decades of the 19th century, perhaps even after that. The story I recall is that it was the product of a grand hotel catering to the then-nascent tourist trade on the Cote d'Azur.

[The Hersch]

Fresh tuna simply cannot compete with really first-rate tinned (or jarred) tuna in olive oil. There are some excellent products from Spain and Italy available in the US now, although they are incredibly expensive. Bonito del Norte from Ortiz is one of my favorites. Fresh tuna is insipid by comparison.

Supposedly, as noted upthread, "classic" salade Niçoise has no lettuce, no green beans, no potatoes, and (as I understand it) no tuna either, but rather tomatoes, bell peppers, olives, anchovies, and eggs. However, as Julia Child notes (in Mastering v I, I think), the typical modern version with all those other things is basically the version given by Escoffier, in himself the locus classicus of French cuisine in general, with the added authority of having been Niçoise.

[mrbigjas]

The seared fresh tuna is also an idea...the tomato concasse with quail eggs sounds absolutely precious...Thanks for the Idea Jinmyo!  Will head out to hunt for quail eggs this afternoon.

if you haven't left yet, be sure to check your local asian market. around here quail eggs are like $4/10 at the market (and i'm not sure why they always seem to come in packs of 8 or 10 instead of a dozen), but they're $1.29/10 at the asian supermarket.

[Bond Girl]

Hey do you cook the quail eggs the same way as normal egg...sorry, this is one thing I don't normally work with.