Wheat Berry and Tuna Salad (I substituted Israeli Couscous for the elusive Wheat Berry)
This Post almost didn’t meet the Friday deadline because I was waiting for this feed back.
“Oh, Mrs. Hirsch, that salad was great. We all loved it”
“Do you think I could have the recipe?”
“The dressing was just right, not too much. So often there’s too much dressing on a salad.”
“The tomatoes, avocados and hard-boiled eggs were perfect with it.”
It’s America’s Fourth of July Weekend. The Gant, where I live, is bursting at its seams with all 140 condos occupied by owners or paying customers. It’s a demanding weekend for the young people who work the front offices. That’s why I decided to make this week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe choice, Wheat Berry and Tuna Salad, for their lunch today. Keeping in mind that hungry kids will look favorably on almost anything that’s freshly homemade (think of Mom), they do take seriously the responsibility of critiquing my “Dorie” recipes. No negatives this week, however. This hearty-meal-in-a-bowl, is a true winner.
An Aspen Food & Wine Festival classic coversation,”The Chef & the Rancher”, with (l to r) Chef Chris Cosentino, businesswoman Anya Fernald, Chef Mario Batali and Editor Dana Cowin.
One adaption. Not only was there no fireworks display on Aspen Mountain this week (too dry), there also was no wheat berry to be found in local grocery stores. I easily substituted Israeli Couscous for Wheat Berry. Other grains, like quinoa and farro, would work also. What makes this extra-delicious is the Dijon mustard vinaigrette. Besides the tuna and grain, the many veggies – celery, onion, bell pepper, greens, tomatoes, avocado – in addition to an apple and hard-boiled eggs, make for a substantial and colorful salad.
Here’s the recipe.
Food & Wine Magazine’s Best New Chefs, hard at work during the Grand Tasting at the Aspen Food & Wine Festival.
Just because I have not written about Aspen’s 31st Food & Wine Festival, which took place in mid-June, doesn’t mean I won’t. During the next few Posts, I will comment – providing my goods, bads and uglies.
Let me start by saying the two most impressive, forward-thinking speakers/chefs I heard were Anya Fernald and Marcus Samuelsson. No one else, to my thinking, came close.
Following Chef Marcus Samuelsson’s cooking class entitled “Meatball Master” at the Aspen Food & Wine Festival
Fernald is the CEO of several innovative agricultural companies in California, Belize and Uruguay. As the San Francisco Magazine wrote earlier this year, Belcampo, one of those companies, is “the retail arm of a larger operation unlike any other in the United States — one that includes not just a storefront but also a 10,000-acre farm in Shasta Valley and a slaughterhouse designed by animal welfare expert Temple Grandin. As chief executive officer of this multilayered business, Fernald enjoys a luxury unknown to other sustainably minded meat producers: control of every step in an animal’s march to market. Forget farm-to-table. Think of it as pasture-to-processing-to-plate.
‘We’re pretty much going balls to the wall here,” Fernald says. “But if you want to do the right thing while delivering a consistently superior product, that’s the way to do it. You’ve got to own more of the supply chain.’ ”
Chef Marcus Samuelsson talking with food writer Corby Kummer at the Aspen Institute’s Ideas Festival 2013
I knew little about Samuelsson, the owner and executive chef at Red Rooster Harlem. In 1995 he became the executive chef at Aquavit, the famed Scandinavian restaurant in Manhattan and went on to win numerous culinary awards including being crowned a champion on both Top Chef Masters and Chopped (which, unfortunately, I don’t watch so am clueless about these honors).
Samuelsson was arguably the most accessible celebrity chef at the F&W, willing to hang around after his appearances to answer questions, sign autographs and pose for pictures. No fan was left wanting. He also participated in a one-on-one conversation at this week’s Aspen Institute’s annual Ideas Festival 2013. He was interviewed by Corby Kummer, a Senior Editor at the Atlantic magazine and one of the most widely read, authoritative, and creative food writers in the United States. The topic was “Cooking and Eating Your Way to a New Community,” which was an underlying theme at the F&W Festival also and one I will discuss often. I encourage you to read, Yes, Chef, Samuelsson’s bestselling memoir. Called “One of the great culinary stories of our time,” by Dwight Garner of The New York Times, I just received a copy, my bedtime reading tonight.
Chef Thomas Keller being interviewed at the AllClad Booth at the Aspen Food & Wine Festival
Hopefully you’ll make Wheat Berry and Tuna Salad for your friends or family this summer. To see how my colleagues felt about this week’s recipe, go here. This salad was an assignment for French Fridays with Dorie, an international cooking group working its way through Ms. Greenspan’s Around My French Table.
Your salad looks perfect and it sounds like your testers loved it! Bummer about no fireworks in Aspen, but we wouldn’t want Aspen burning down. What an interesting event to attend there!
Finally you posted! Couple of things: I do admire Fernald for using a Temple Grandin design for a slaughterhouse. I think Temple only eats jello but she believes there is a humane way to kill a cow. (ironic or just oxymoronic) Anyway, I want to read Yes Chef, when you are done.
Oh and the salad looks very good too. I think I would like to use the farro if I make the salad.. Much nuttier than couscous. Not sure what a wheat berry tastes like is but it sounds nutty.
We gotta get together soon ……
Wheat Berry is nutty and farro would be a perfect choice. I was going to throw some nuts into the salad – for the flavor – but worried about nut allergies when feeding it to a crowd. I now know you can buy Wheat Berry in bulk at Whole Foods (nearer your home than mine). Will pass “Yes, Chef” your way. Soon, you’re right.
Great photos from the food festival Mary! Your salad also looks pretty good – I couldn’t find wheat berries either and used pearled barley.
The staff at the Gant must love you…you are always feeding them. This salad was a perfect lunch. I served mine as a side dish at our Fourth of July get together. The next day Bill and I ate it for lunch. I love the crunchy nuttiness of wheat berries, but I bet the cous-cous was lovely in this salad. Nuts would have been a great addition! Your’s looks delicious!
The Aspen Food and Wine Festival sounds like so much fun. Glad you enjoyed it! Have a great weekend, Mary!
This year, all my firework viewing was via television. We have been having the opposite problem here – constant rain.
Your salad looks perfect and the Food & Wine Classic sounds like a great event. I followed Samuelsson during his Top Chef season & liked him. (Yes Chef is on my hold list @ the library).
Stay cool!
Fun! I’m glad to hear this salad would work with quinoa or Israeli couscous. I’ve had my eyes peeled for wheat berries while I’m in the states, but haven’t come across them yet. They don’t sound like something I’ll eat that often, so I don’t feel like going out of my way to find them. Quinoa will do just fine.
The Israeli couscous looks like a great substitution! I enjoyed seeing your pictures from the food and wine festival – fun!
This was a delicious salad and I agree that pretty much any grain or even bite-sized pasta could be easily substituted. Sorry to hear that you couldn’t find wheat berries, but israeli couscous sounds like a great sub and I’m sure that your tasters were grateful.
Mmmmm sounds good and looks great. Tabbouleh could work too. Even some corn kernels thrown in for good luck. Love colorful composed salads. Hope to see you Tuesday. Looked for you at open market today. Xoxo
The F&W conference looks like it was quite the event. I saw it advertised in the magazine and I’m glad to get a glimpse of it through your commentary. I heard an interview with Marcus Samuellson and have his book in “the pile” (which is embarassingly high). I’ll pop it up a few spots because you know I respect your recommendations.
Your version of the salad looks delicious. I love Israeli couscous and make other salads with it. I’ll try it with this one another time. The dressing was excellent, wasn’t it? I felt lucky to find 10 minute farro at Trader Joe’s. Do you have that near Aspen?
Nope. I miss my Trader Joe’s. Just a few blocks from my Henderson home.
Mary, this is my kind of salad, for sure, I can see why everyone loved this.
Oh, what a fun time!!! I’m so glad we will be able to live vicariously through your posts…and I’ve always been a fan of Marcus. And now even more.
Your salad looks terrific…and I’d love it with Israeli couscous as well!
PS…Bill and I were talking last night about upcoming travels. Hoping to work an Aspen visit into our schedule next fall. I remember being there in 1976 for the bicentennial fireworks!
You’re so thoughtful Mary making lunch for the staff at your condo. I’m sure they super appreciated it. I see how much my nephew and his college friends enjoy home cooked meals at my house. My kids don’t know how spoiled they are. The festival must have been beyond terrific and I remember you saying you had a class with Mario Batalie too… what a great event. We just had a local chef compete in Chopped but I didn’t make it to the restaurant party. My kids watch the show and said it is very exciting. I’m too busy cooking and cleaning to watch much TV. Glad this meal was a hit for you too.
I love Chef Marcus Samuelsson! Lucky!
Mary, although I am fashinably late with comments (again) this week, I still want to let you know how wonderful that pretty bowl fiiled with that delcious Couscous salad looks like – I think that pearl barley and couscous can easily be used in this wonderful recipe. Now I have already made it twice since last Friday and will be making it again for a party next week – having changed the recipe somewhat to our liking I now have a whole fan community in the kitchen when I make this. How very nice that you pepared this for the folks who mend the front desk! And your pictures of the Food and Wine Festival are (and will be) great – I have heard (and read) a lot about that wonderful event – how nice that you could be there.
Have a wonderful day – we are in the midst of the last two weeks of school here – what a busy time of year and my apologies (again) for being so late commenting.