Karen Wright column: How to make a Salad Nicoise
Last week we enjoyed another heatwave, well to be factual I think endured would be the word that I would use. I have never been a fan of scorching temperatures, and these days I always prefer to sit in the shade and watch the world pass me by.
We ate mostly salads for the duration of the heatwave and I enjoyed preparing them. When I was a child, a salad was a very predictable affair, consisting of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, spring onion, boiled egg, boiled ham slices rolled into cigar shapes, beetroot, and a generous dollop of salad cream.
Dressings other than salad cream were unheard of and I don't recall coleslaw being around. One memory I do have of things that might go on the side of the salad are very small tins of Heinz Russian salad. I wonder if they still produce that?
I invited a few of my girlfriends over for tea to see my new apartment and as it was smack bang in the middle of the heatwave, I did make them a salad and a slab of focaccia to go with it.
The salad I chose this time was a classic French one, a Niçoise! I did use traditional ingredients except for anchovies which I know my friends don't like. This is what I did:
I took my largest shallow bowl and rubbed all over the surface with a peeled garlic clove. Then I filled the bowl with crisp lettuce, large chunks of tomatoes, slices of cucumber, rings of red onion, cooked green beans, cooked salad potatoes, boiled eggs, black olives and a couple of tins of tuna. The dressing was very simple. I mixed olive oil, lemon juice and Dijon mustard together and just before serving I drizzled it all over and then tossed in some sea salt flakes.
We all enjoyed the meal and we washed it down with a couple of glasses of ice cold rosé wine. It was like being in the Provençal region of France rather than sitting under my pergola in Wakefield. Of course, we needed something sweet to finish with and I did manage to make a Victoria sponge which I served with a few strawberries and of course plenty of cream.
Next week, watch out for my column, it might be a little fishy and it might be a little taste of the Mediterranean.