nicoise olives

Nicoise Salad With Grilled, Olive-Oil- Marinated Tuna

tuna

salt and black pepper

olive oil

garlic,

Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed

green beans

lemon juice

minced garlic

tomato,

parsley

Prepare a charcoal grill or preheat a broiler. Season the tuna generously with salt and pepper and grill or broil very close to the heat source until it is seared on the outside but still rosy in the center, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Transfer the tuna to a small bowl and add the olive oil and sliced garlic. Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight.

Place the potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with cold, salted water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer, covered, until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain, cool and slice the potatoes. Set aside.

Bring another large saucepan filled 2/3 full of salted water to a boil and add the beans. Cook until the beans just begin to become tender, about 3 minutes. Drain the beans and immediately plunge them into a large bowl of cold water. When cooled, drain the beans and chop them in half if they are large. Set aside.

Drain the tuna, reserving 5 tablespoons of the olive oil and discarding the rest. Place the reserved oil in a large bowl and whisk in the lemon juice, minced garlic, 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add the potatoes, beans, tomato, parsley and olives. Toss well and season to taste with more salt and pepper. Using a sharp knife, slice the tuna on the bias into thin slices. Lay the slices carefully over the vegetables and serve.

For leeks vinaigrette, look for smallish leeks, which are more tender and more closely resemble asparagus spears, for the French call this dish “asperges du pauvre,” the poor man’s asparagus. 

This is important; a crunchy leek is unpleasant. Drain the leeks and hold at room temperature for up to several hours, but do not refrigerate or they’ll lose their delicate texture.

To serve, simply smear the leeks with vinaigrette; I make a thick, sharp rather mustardy one to complement the sweetness of the leeks. Then garnish as you wish. I like capers, hard-cooked egg, olives and cornichons.

Classic Leeks Vinaigrette

leeks,

Salt and pepper

Dijon mustard

red wine vinegar

extra virgin olive oil

capers

cornichons

olives,

eggs,

NYT Cooking

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/04/04/dining/leeksvinaigrette/leeksvinaigrette-facebookJumbo-v2.jpg

Trim leeks, removing tough outer layers and cutting off root ends. Leave a little green at the top. Make a lengthwise slit part way down each leek. Put leeks in a large basin of warm tap water and swish vigorously to dislodge any sand or dirt. Remove carefully, leaving grit in basin.

Fill a medium sauce pot with water and bring to a boil. Add a generous pinch of salt and put in leeks. Cook at a brisk simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, until leeks are quite tender when pierced with a paring knife. Drain and cool to room temperature.

Make vinaigrette: put mustard and vinegar in a bowl and stir to dissolve. Whisk in olive oil to make a thick sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

Blot leeks and divide among 4 plates. Spoon vinaigrette over leeks, smearing with back of spoon. Sprinkle with capers. Garnish each plate with cornichons, olives and half an egg.

Very pleasant rich salad. Easy. Cornichons would be better chopped and mixed in, sorry I didn't think of that. Served with an egg dish so forewent the egg garnish, also forewent the olives.

Also, forgot to say that I only was able to find the regular giant leeks. So I halved them lengthwise and cut them into 3-inch batons before poaching them. The layers came apart in the poaching liquid. It didn't look neat like the pic above but still tasted very nice.

I'll never understand the near universal suggestion that we cut off almost all of the green from our leeks. 
What you should do is leave almost all of it on.
Just cut off the last inch or so which can be a bit tough. And also look at the picture – does this look like leaving "a little" green at the top? No – it is leaving 3/4 of the green, as it should be.

Agree that leeks will be cooked in about 5 min depending on size. Also try finishing the dish with course chopped roasted hazelnuts instead of capers, egg etc. Adds a nice texture contrast and the hazelnut plus mustard forward vinaigrette is heaven.

I had these leeks today at David Tanis’ restaurant LULU in Los Angeles  They were amazing. I look forward to attempting this recipe. 

I’m not a big vegetable guy, but I can’t stop raving about these leeks!

Sweet and hot! Delish! Steaming the leeks for 20 minutes in the airfryer seem to make the leeks much sweeter. Added more olive oil to reduce the sharpness of the dijon. Chopped capers and cornichons and added to the dressing and diced the egg to sprinkle on top of the leeks and dressing (the way it's served in most restaurants) instead of using as a garnish. Lots of compliments!

I was taught a different method to clean. Make a slit lengthwize, turn a quarter turn and make another. Hold the leek horizontal to a faucet and gently open leafs, turn so you have done that 4 times w each leak..make sure to hold horizontally so as not to drive the dirt into the center of the leek. An added bonus is they end up a bit ruffled at the ends.

I had some leeks that I cut up raw and froze. Microwaved them (frozen, covered) in bit of water until they were tender. Drained them. Let them cool a bit and then tossed them (slightly warm) with the capers, 2 (chopped) cornichons and 6 (sliced lengthwise) pitted black oil-cured olives. Nice informal presentation as a side salad.

For an antipasto with a bit more oomph I added a small jar of Sun of Italy artichoke hearts and ditto of stuffed olives.  If I had had on hand a large spoon of  pickled pimento it would have been a nice touch of color. The leeks are no longer le ausperge de pauve- ‘the asparagus of the poor.’

do in microwave 10-15 minutes ?
add strips of ham

One of my favorite spring/summer luncheon dishes!  A dear friend of mine taught me this while I was living as a student in Lyon, and just before serving added thin strips of beautiful French ham and a few sprigs of fresh cilantro.  A truly memorable dish! Thank you Hilary!!

For my leeks (of medium thickness), at least, 8 to 10 minutes was definitely too long.  I would suggest poking them after 5 minutes.  BTW, that leek boiling liquid formed part of the base for my bollito misto:  very nice.

It runs very fast into too acidous.
Caution.
May be we have more acidic Dijonmustard than in U.S. but in any case the vinegar is expendable.
On the other side it's easy to cook and makes no mess in the kitchen.

Really good, even without cornichon/olives/eggs/capers. Some preferred just vinaigrette.<br/><br/>Larger leeks, slightly longer simmer. +2-4 min

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