While I love all things buttery and delectable I also have a deep abiding love for vegetables. I think I was one of those few kids whose mother didn’t have to fight with them to eat them (unless it was cooked green peppers. BLECH!). This Salmon Nicoise is my version of Tuna Nicoise. While I love tuna it is extremely hard to find any decent fish in where I live hence the Salmon. This is such a brunch type dish and it looks oh so pretty and colourful. It is also very fast to make, the longest part is prepping the veggies and can also be served at room temperature which would make it ideal for serving large numbers of people at a party.
The first thing I do when making this recipe is to wash and cut the potatoes and put them in boiling water since this is the what takes the longest to cook. I usually use baby potatoes but since I didn’t have any I just quartered some larger ones. Since the eggs and the green beans cook in boiling water as well, I time everything so that I put in the eggs 10 minutes before the potatoes are done and the green beans 5 minutes before. This way I can just dump everything in the colander at the same time and I don’t have to boil multiple pots of water.
My pile of lovely, washed green beans with the ends cuts off.
I found some really nice cherry vine tomatoes in the supermarket last week. During the winter cherry tomatoes are usually better tasting than their bigger counterparts.
While everything was boiling I started cooking my salmon. Usually I don’t like the taste of meat and have to slather it in sauce but I love the taste of salmon. I usually just add salt and pepper and cook it so it is still pink in the middle. I ended up overcooking it a bit on one side since it was so thick. Oops.
Here are my eggs, green beans and potatoes steaming dry.
Next I made the vinaigrette. The one crucial ingredient is French shallots. Regular onions are too acrid and green onions just don’t fit.
The rest of the vinaigrette is ridiculously easy. It is basically Dijon mustard (to act as and emulsifier and for flavour), extra virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar along with salt and pepper to taste.
Most vinaigrettes call for a much higher proportion of oil to vinegar but I prefer them on the acid side so I add a lot of red wine vinegar.
This is not a recipe that is hard to make look good. You just arrange your fish, eggs, veggies and potatoes on a plate and drizzle the vinaigrette over. I also like to add some kalamata olives to the side since I don’t have any Nicoise olives. This recipe is in my regular rotation since it is so easy to whip up.
