CeramicChef Posted May 23, 2015 Report Posted May 23, 2015 Howdy KKers! Salade Nicoise is a classical french salade/meal from the area surrounding the town of Nice, hence the appellation Nicoise. Classical Salade Nicoise is made with Eggs, Olives, Tuna, and other garden greens. I'm not big on eggs in my salad, and I had some salmon in the fridge, so I took liberties with the classical French rendition and I've dubbed my concoction Grilled Sooner Seafood Salade Nicoise as an homage to the classic. First we start off with boiling potatoes. I used miniature purples, reds, and golds. I boiled them up using the NuWave induction cooktop as seen below. I really like this induction cooktop as it doesn't get the place hot. In Oklahoma and in the Summer, that's important! After they were cooked, I wanted to stop the cooking process, so into an ice bath the spuds went. Next came the haricots verts (that's green beans to everyone in the world but the French and Quebecois) which were blanched in the spud water after the spuds joined the polar bear club. And here the haricots verts are swimming amongst the ice bergs. And again, just like the spuds, the haricots verts jumped into the freezing water to stop the cooking, set the color, and to win a Polar Bear Club Certificate. As many of you know, I'm a sucker for new gadgets. A friend has a FoodSaver with a marinator, and I just had to get one. Below is a photo of the marinator in action. The marinator really works quite well. Here you see the salmon fillets in a quick marinade of olive oil, tarragon vinegar, lemon juice, tarragon, and pepper. Total time in the marinator was about 15 minutes. IF you have a FOodSaver, you owe it to yourself to get this marinator. Its less than $25 and it's really worth every penny. Now it's time to get down to brass tacks and get the seafood on the grill. I made up a couple of skewers of shrimp and one skewer of scallops and set them on Beauty!'s main grate. Temp was about 400F The shrimp cooked quicker than the scallops so I pulled the shrimp and put on the salmon fillets. Everything cooked quite nicely. The salmon was wonderfully tasty and flakey, the shrimp were done just right, and the scallops had just a nice little sear to them. So everything is cooked and it's time to assemble the Grilled Sooner Salade Nicoise. As you can see, I'm definitely NOT a food stylist, but this salad was a really nice treat. Tasty, refreshing, and dressed with pomegranate-blueberry balsamic vinaigrette. It seems as if everywhere I turn lately pomegranates and blueberries have been paired together, so what not at ChezChef as well, right? Without further ado, here's the money shot of what I placed on the table before SWMBOI. Thanks for looking in. I had forgotten how much it takes to plate up a nice Salade Nicoise. Assembly took as long as it took to cook the seafood! I fell in love with Salade Nicoise over in Paris, but there, they had all kinds of folks to plate it up. Here it was just yours truly. Now I remember why I save Salade Nicoise for really special folks! Y'all have a wonderful and safe weekend. Here in OKC, we're looking at manning the boats. We've had almost 15" of rain this month and another 4" forecast this weekend. Please take a moment this Memorial Day weekend to remember those members of our Armed Forces who paid the ultimate price so that we could sleep well at night and live in the greatest country in the history of mankind!
tony b Posted May 23, 2015 Report Posted May 23, 2015 Yummy looking salad. Don't float away on us, Ken!
CeramicChef Posted May 23, 2015 Author Report Posted May 23, 2015 Yummy looking salad. Don't float away on us, Ken! Thanks, Tony! It was delish. As for floating, I've got the gondola strapped to the top of the car and my swimmies are filled. Just in case!
ckreef Posted May 23, 2015 Report Posted May 23, 2015 Great looking salad/meal. All the entries in that challenge are really "AAA" grade cooks. Mrs skreef is going to cook hers tonight and I'll do mine tomorrow night. I hope we can at least hold our own so to speak. 1
MacKenzie Posted May 23, 2015 Report Posted May 23, 2015 CC, that just had to be a wonderful tasting salad and that is a beautifully arranged salad
CeramicChef Posted May 23, 2015 Author Report Posted May 23, 2015 MacKenzie - it was a really tasty treat. However, it could have used your inimitable talents as food stylist. I trul suck at that! You, onmthemother hand, have that deft touch ...
tony b Posted May 23, 2015 Report Posted May 23, 2015 Sneaky puppy! This was your entry in this month's Guru Challenge! 1
CeramicChef Posted May 23, 2015 Author Report Posted May 23, 2015 Sneaky puppy! This was your entry in this month's Guru Challenge!Duh! I always try and make a dime do a dollar's worth of work! Or how about ... This is my one and only meager attempt at recycling!
mguerra Posted May 24, 2015 Report Posted May 24, 2015 The salad looks great but I appreciate your thought on Memorial Day. For those who died in service to the USA, thanks to God for such men and women. 1
CeramicChef Posted May 24, 2015 Author Report Posted May 24, 2015 The salad looks great but I appreciate your thought on Memorial Day. For those who died in service to the USA, thanks to God for such men and women. Yeah, compared to Memorial Day, that salade really doesn't mean much. Those heros on the other hand ... We can never thank them enough. And thanks be to God that we have such heros amongst us!
CeramicChef Posted June 1, 2015 Author Report Posted June 1, 2015 Yum yum yum what else is there to say. Thanks, tiny! That was one very tasty cook. SWMBOI wants more just like that and I guess she'll just have to eat more salade Nicoise!
tony b Posted June 1, 2015 Report Posted June 1, 2015 Next time, do a deconstructed Cesar salad. Grill the romaine and, if you can find whole fresh anchovies or sardines to grill, Bonus! You can also grill fresh lemon halves for the dressing. 1
CeramicChef Posted June 2, 2015 Author Report Posted June 2, 2015 tony - I do like the way you think! I'm betting that would be one very interesting salad! Thanks.
tony b Posted June 2, 2015 Report Posted June 2, 2015 De nada! Idea was a riff on a dinner I did back in the day where I deconstructed a pasta puttanesca using whole grilled sardines, with a black olive & caper tapenade and grilled tomato slices. Drizzle of good fruity EVOO and dust the whole thing with Parm/Regg "snow" (superfinely grated). It was Amazing! (if I do say so myself) 1
