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ffwd: lentil, lemon, and tuna salad
This week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie, the first one for June, is starting the month off right. A definite winner, Lentil, Lemon, and Tuna Salad had three big takeaways for me:
1. The final salad was delicious. It makes a good addition to the lunchbox. I like the taste of tuna, but sometimes, in tuna salad, the flavor gets lost in all that mayonnaise. Here, the tuna was an equal partner with lentils. The tastes all blended nicely, and slightly nutty texture was a pleaser too. I found this lasted well in the fridge (and then the lunchbox) for a few days without getting soft.
2. I tried out a new ingredient: preserved lemon. I didn’t have time for a shopping quest last week, so I didn’t purchase the preserved lemon. I did find this recipe to make my own facsimile. How can you lose with Mark Bittman (my secret crush)? This was a “quick” version, so the lemon was diced before “preserving”. I made it the day before and it should keep for a couple weeks. I’m a big lemon fan and the flavor of the salted lemon peel did not disappoint. I used about half a cup, finely chopped, in the tuna salad. I’ll use the rest to try out some Moroccan recipes I’ve passed on in the past for lack of preserved lemon on hand.
3. The dressing for this salad is one I’ll use again and again this summer. The addition of grainy mustard and olive tapenade to a simple vinaigrette infused the dressing with a touch of Provence. I loved how it matched up with the lentils, but know that I will use it with other salads (white bean salad and green bean salad are at the top of the list). I love finding components of one recipe that I can reuse in others. Dorie’s book is chock full of these.
I cooked the lentils the way I usually do, with chopped onion and bay leaves. They only need to simmer about 15 or 20 minutes to be perfect for salads.
I’ll be short this week. I’m leaving later this morning to spend the weekend in New York City with my sisters and wanted to write up this post before I depart. If you have any suggestions on things to do or places to see (or eat), please share. I can read comments while I’m away.
For those of you that follow my bee (mis)adventures, I am happy to report that I’m back in normal comfort zone. The bee sting itching has subsided, and other than the ugly bandage over the worst bite on my foot, I’m no worse for the wear. As they say, “Stay Calm and Carry On”.
If you’re looking for the recipe for the delicious Lentils, Lemon, and Tuna Salad, you can find it in Dorie Greenspan’s book Around My French Table. You can also read through others interpretations of this recipe (and others) on the Leave Your Link post for this recipe at French Fridays with Dorie.
french fridays with dorie: roasted salmon & lentils
This week’s recipe for French Fridays with Dorie seemed old hat to me: Roasted Salmon and Lentils. Salmon is one of my favorite kinds of fish, and lentils is my #1 favorite bean or legume. I make both frequently, so I knew I would enjoy the menu.
My in-laws were in town, and I thought that my mother-in-law, a loyal follower of my blog, would enjoy sharing a Dorie meal.
The primary surprise for me was that even though this recipe seems like a old friend on paper, I learned something new about cooking both the salmon and the lentils.
When we prepare salmon, we typically grill it in summer, or broil it in winter. For Dorie’s version, a large salmon fillet (wild coho salmon, for me) was roasted in a very hot oven. I was a little skeptical because, I find that a large fillet is seldom done in the recommended 12 minutes when cooking under the broiler. What a revelation that roasting the salmon worked out to perfection. While we’ll still be grilling in the summer, roasting will be the new off-season cooking method chez moi.
As for the lentils, I have been in on the secret of the tiny green Le Puy lentils for years. I think I first discovered them in the bulk section at Whole Foods, but they hae been my lentil of choice for salads and sides for many years. Dorie’s method for cooking the lentils again seemed similar to mine on paper, but the actual execution taught me a few new tricks.
I normally just cut the aromatic vegetables into bite-sized pieces and cook them with the lentils, but by the time the lentils are tender, the vegetables dissolve into oblivion. Cooking large pieces of the vegetables with the lentils and then chopping them up afterwards worked out really well. Also, pureeing some of the lentils to thicken the lentil mixture added a nice creamy texture to the final dish.
I served the salmon over a bed of lentils with roasted broccoli alongside. My in-laws enjoyed the meal as much as we did. Chalk this one up in the “Definitely Repeat” column of the Dorie scoreboard.
If you’d like to see how other bloggers’ roasted salmon and lentils came out, check out their links at French Fridays with Dorie.
A Plateful of Happiness 