Lentil, Lemon, & Tuna Salad with a Garnish Bonus of Tomato & Pepper Salad. It’s French Friday with Dorie X Two.
My repertoire of salad recipes, those I mix together often, totals three: Tossed, Caprese and Marshall Field’s Wedge. I’m not particularly proud of this and don’t usually admit to it. So glad I’m among friends.
This year I’d already decided to turn over a new lettuce leaf (Just had to do that.)and make this my Summer of Salads. Each week I am going to create a delicious and nutritious melange, using ingredients outside my comfort zone. By the end of August I will have added fourteen salads to my repertoire of three bringing me to a more respectable seventeen. Blast Off!!!
That’s why I was especially pleased to kick off my Salad Summer with this week’s FFWD choice, Lentil, Lemon, and Tuna Salad. To be honest, I made two salads this week because I also made Dorie’sTomato and Pepper Salad. Little credit, please. She suggested we use this as a garnish for flavor and color. A good idea.
Mise en Place. All my ingredients are set out on my table.
The Snob of the Legume Family, Green Lentils from LePuy A.O.P.
The salad gives birth as lentils du Puy (from the Auvergne region of France) which I found at my local Whole Foods. After putting the lentils in a strainer and rinsing them under cold water, I brought them to a boil and let simmer for forty minutes. The lentils cooked quite happily in a chicken broth filled with onion, carrot, celery, garlic, clove and bay leaf. At the last moment, I even sweetened the pot with a tablespoon of Cognac. After draining the liquid and removing the softened vegetables (my choice), I added a minced shallot and salt/pepper.
The veggies and herbs are ready to be added to the chicken broth.
After the lentils were cooked, I drained the liquid off and removed the mushy vegetables.
It was simple to add a tasty dressing of mustard, tapenade, red wine vinegar and Lemon Blush olive oil to the warm lentils. Instead of using a preserved lemon (which I didn’t have), I substituted lemon zest, capers and scallions. Once everything was blended, I used a fork to flake drained tuna over the salad. Salt. Pepper. Toss. Done.
While the salad was chilling, I put together halved grape tomatoes, diced raw red pepper as well as roasted red pepper with some olive oil and a dash of cumin. I think it was a colorful garnish, perfect for the rather dowdy-looking lentils. What this dish lacks in color, it makes up in flavor. It is delicious and can be served on a bed of greens or plain, chilled or at room temperature. LLT can be a starter course, a luncheon dish or spread over crackers for nibbles with cocktails. Versatile. Delicious.
If this Lentil, Lemon and Tuna Salad appeals to you, go here. The Tomato and Pepper Salad, a colorful garnish or accompaniment, is great to have in your arsenal for its many uses. To see what others mixed together this week, stop by our FFWD Site.
I was delighted to learn Kathy who writes http:/www.bakeawaywithme.com/ has nominated my blog to receive The Food Stories Award for Excellence in Storytelling. Since Kathy and I share the belief that serving good and well-prepared food to family, friends, colleagues and even hungry strangers, creates life’s memorable moments, I am especially honored to have been chosen by her. I have been interested and inspired by her participation in Gourmet’s 50 Most Influential Women in Food. Merci beaucoup, Kathy.
Now I get to share this award with 5 fellow bloggers!
1. The nominee should visit the award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/food-stories-award/) and leave a comment indicating that they have been nominated and by whom. (This step is so important because it’s the only way our judges will know who is being considered for the monthly presentation).
2. The Nominee should thank the person that nominated them by posting & including a link to their blog.
3. Share one random thing about yourself in your blog post.
4. Select at least five other bloggers that you enjoy reading their stories and nominate them for the award.
Food Stories will put together a team of judges to review all nominees and to select a Food Stories Award Winner for each month. More information to come on what fabulous opportunities await for those lucky winners!
MY STORY:
1. Done
2. Thank you Karen! I have been smiling all evening.
3. For more years than I will admit to, I have been a Volunteer Wilderness Ranger, representing the United States Forest Service in Aspen’s Rocky Mountains. The job of a volunteer ranger is to help restore, monitor and manage the wilderness that we Americans are “loving to death.” I hit the trails two or three times a week in my”fashionable” Ranger outfit and Stetson (no gun) to help those seeking the solitude of the wilderness have a good experience. My office is the beautiful outdoors. The best job I’ve ever had. That’s why it feels especially good to be back in Aspen, after an eight-year hiatus due to family health issues. Back on the trail again.
4.Not an easy task. I’d like to nominate and share the good work of the following:
Trailhead of the Storm King Mountain Memorial Trail. Plaques honoring the fallen firefighters.
Each Spring, when I’d return for a few days to Colorado, my first hike was always the Storm King Mountain Memorial Trail. This year, although my stay is more permanent, was no different. The trail, which is located seven miles west of Glenwood Springs, is dedicated to the fourteen wildland firefighters who lost their lives battling the South Canyon fire. It is a journey of grief and gratitude through a charred and aching landscape that is slowly recovering.
On July 2, 1994, lightening sparked a fire near the base of Storm King Mountain. Early efforts to get the fire under control failed and more help and assistance were needed. On July 6, a dry cold front hit the area, causing high winds and increased fire activity. The fire jumped beyond the fireline and twelve firefighters were caught, unable to outrun it. Two other helitack firefighters were also killed as they tried to flee in another direction.
Trailhead Sign-In Box showing decals and stickers representing firefighters from around the USA and the world who have visited this memorial.
Firefighters from around the world hike the trail, honoring their fallen brethen.
According to Go.Colorado, this relatively unknown trail,, “was built by a community literally walking through the grieving process. It began as a footpath made by families of the firefighters and others as they hiked the mountain to pay their respects to those who had died, and to try to understand what had happened. In response to the community’s need, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, and volunteers built the trail.
Signage on the Trail tells the story of the South Canyon fire of 1994.
The fire, which started at the base of Storm King Mtn., was threatening to Interstate 70, nearby homes and West Glenwood Springs.
Over 100 volunteers from the Glenwood Springs area built the main trail and water bars in October 1994. In April 1995, 60 cadets from the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs installed wooden and stone steps, hauled mortar to the observation point for stone benches, dug holes for interpretive signs, and developed an area for reflection at the base of the hill where 12 of the firefighters fell.”
The trail shadows the journey of the firefighters. “The main portion of the trail is about one-mile long and leads to an observation point with good views of the memorial sites. Beyond the observation point, a footpath leads to the sites where firefighters died. The footpath, marked only by rock cairns, is not maintained. Its rough condition is intended as a tribute to firefighters and the challenging conditions under which they work.
The barren landscape left by the South Canyon Fire of 1994.
The Storm King Mountain Memorial Trail.
The trip from trailhead to memorial sites and back is about four miles. It climbs 700 vertical feet to the observation point and another 450 feet to the top of the ridge leading to the memorial sites.”
Today we honor all of those young men and women who have given their lives to protect us and our country. It is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service. Therefore, it’s especially appropriate to honor the Storm King 14.
Those who died:
Prineville Hotshots: Kathi Beck, Tamera Bickett, Scott Blecha, Levi Brinkley, Douglas Dunbar, Terri Hagen, Bonnie Holtby, Rob Johnson, Jon Kelso. Missoula Smokejumper: Don Mackey McCall Smokejumpers: Roger Roth, Jim Thrash. Helitack: Robert Browning, Jr., Richard Tyler.
Cervelle de Canut, created in Lyon when it was the center of a thriving silk industry
(Translation: LYONNAISE GARLIC & HERB CHEESE (aka boursin’s mama))
For the past seven years I’ve been taking leçons françaises. While I don’t speak the language well (really, I’m awful), I do possess an amazing vocabulary, know 13 of the 17 different verb tenses and can understand everything that is asked of me in a boulangerie.
That’s why I knew this week’s recipe involved cooking someone’s brain. Probably a duck. Cervelle means brain. Although duck translates to canard, the French do absurd things with word endings so I just assumed canut, canard, duck. If I thought Sardines Rillettes (April 13, 2012) was a culinary stretch for me, duck brains might be an impossibility.
Quack. Quack. Quack.
photo by greengabbro.net
Imagine my surprise when I realized canut meant silk weaver. Literally, this week’s FFWD recipe: Brain of a Silk Weaver. Pas de panique. Fortunately, there are no brains involved in the creation of this recipe.
Trust me on this.
After spooning the ricotta in the strainer, I placed it over a pan, covered it with plastic wrap, allowing it to drain and rest in the refridgerator overnight.
The next morning, I assembled the ingredients for the cheese spread.
Cervelle de Canut is a soft and creamy herb cheese that is part mix, part spread and part salad dressing. It is said to be the inspiration for the popular Boursin cheese that is easily found in any American grocery store. I was invited to a 70th birthday celebration last week-end and I knew it would be a wonderful addition to the appetizer table. Since it would be my first food contribution to party fare since returning to Aspen, this was a “Dorie, please don’t fail me now” moment.
photo by boursin.gif
The night before the party I spooned ricotta into a fine-mesh strainer, covered it with plastic wrap and refrigerated it overnight. The next morning I put the drained ricotta in a bowl, adding shallots, garlic, chives, parsley and tarragon, salt and pepper. After pouring red wine vinegar and olive oil into the ingredients, I mixed everything together and let it chill in the fridge for the entire day. Just before plating Trader Joe’s Raisin Rosemary Crisps with the cheese spread, I tasted the mix again and felt it needed more salt. Much more. Then it was perfect.
Mix all the ingredients lightly with a rubber spatula. Don’t overbeat the cheese and risk thinning it.
Luckily my food offering stood tall with the other delicious fare including crab won tons, Chinese shrimp-snow pea skewers, spinach-cheese squares, paté mousse and smoked salmon-neufchatel spread in filo cups. Did I mention that all my friends are fantastic cooks? And, there was some mention and mumbling that it appeared ‘Mary had not lost her touch.’
Thanks, Dorie. Soooooooo much. Merci beaucoup.
The Groaning Table
Every bite was well-worth the calories! Happy Birthday, Dear Friend.
Peter’s wife, Ruth, an author and writer, lighting his cake. The birthday boy stands nearby.
Although we urge you to buy Dorie’s inspiring cookbook, Around My French Table, you will find the recipe here. To see the brainy versions created by other Doristas, go here.
A friend once commented to me, during a discussion of homes, square footage and rising construction costs, “I just admire and respect what people do with small spaces.”
That friend is definitely going to ratchet up her respect and admiration for me. Last week I finally came to terms with 940 square feet.
The Gant, a condominium complex in Aspen, where I own a tiny condo. Summer. (photo: condorentals.com)
The Gant, a condominium complex in Aspen. where I own a tiny condo. Winter (photo: orbitz.com)
Here’s the back story. For the past twelve months I have had to face the reality of my future lifestyle. Moving from our Colorado home of 20 years to the Las Vegas area in 2004 was definitely a good idea. I intended to oversee the recovery of my husband, Michael, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. I needed and would have the support of my kids who lived nearby. Granted, at that time, reality was not yet my sidekick. Fast forward to 2012. While life in a warmer climate at a friendlier altitude has been kinder, it, of course, was not a cure-all for Michael. Yet the professional care he would eventually require and currently needs has been available and is excellent.
Anthem Country Club, Henderson, Nevada
Anthem Country Club, Henderson, Nevada
I have often written about the small gated-community where I live and the wonderful friends I have met. Anthem Country Club was a lucky discovery and I am grateful. For a woman who’s totally country, Las Vegas has been a hoot-and-holler love affair. Having never lived in a large city before, this has been one heck of an introduction to life-in-the-fast lane. There’s the rub. Living in Las Vegas is fast lane and I’m not. My life in Nevada has primarily revolved around an increasingly debilitating illness and one that now requires professional caregivers. This past year I’ve been forced by everyone to look forward. For the first time in my life, I didn’t have a plan. At my age, that’s scary.
A welcoming flower arrangement from The Gant Staff
According to Thomas Exter, writing in American Demographic, more and more, middle-aged adults are finding themselves living alone. The most dramatic growth in single-person households will occur among those aged 45 to 64. Boom! Boom! Single households are expected to increase by a whopping 42 percent, a number that is staggering and unprecedented.
Here’s what I began to realize. Baby Boomers, be damned. I am a single, sixties-something woman and, in a flash, will become a seventies-something woman. Las Vegas and I cannot live together forever. To navigate around this large, sprawling city of 3 million people, I average 2-3 hours every day in my car. Notorious for bad drivers, with insurance rates to take your breath away, getting behind the wheel in Vegas is a gamble. NIght driving? Forget it. I no longer want to be my car’s best friend and my unwillingness to drive in Vegas at night has always been lifestyle limiting.
My condo kitchen is small and compact – HELP!!!
There are more closets, but, not many. Probably need to cut the clothing budget.
In addition, may I remind you about Nevada summers? For the past seven years, I’ve tolerated summertime with good cheer and a “It’s not so bad”. I lie. One-hundred degrees and higher. For months and months. This is no lie: I have no more sweat to donate to the cause.
Finally, what last Winter’s hiatus on California’s Central Coast, as the guest of a good friend, highlighted, was the fun of companionship. Never eating a meal alone. The daily repartée. Sharing chores and responsibilities. Unfortunately, this only exacerbated the loneliness of the past few years.
My Colorado Backyard
My Colorado Sideyard
Author J. Kerby Anderson, in his book “Signs of Warning, Signs of Hope, Seven Coming Crisis That Will Change Your Life,” discusses the baby boom generation’s crisis of loneliness. The reasons are simple, he says, demographics and social isolation.“In previous centuries where extended families dominated the social landscape” he writes, “a sizable proportion of adults living alone was unthinkable. And even in this century, adults living alone have usually been found near the beginning (singles) and end (widows) of adult life. But these periods of living alone are now longer due to lifestyle choices on the front end and advances in modern medicine on the back end.”
My first night in Colorado – dinner with good friends.
Hosts Donna and Bernie Grauer, welcoming me home
These facts have kept my mind preoccupied and whirling the past year as I’ve explored my options. Moving to the same California community as my daughter and her family? Although I’d be welcome, my son-in-law turns pale, paler and palest, at the thought. And I agree. Last December, I thought I had put together a blueprint for moving forward that would make me happy, secure, and content. Unfortunately, a few weeks ago, that plan fell apart and I found myself back at “Go.” Then, on April 22, the headlines:
“It reached 99 degrees Sunday in Las Vegas, a record high for April, according to the National Weather Service.”
I needed a plan. Fast. That’s when Serendipity called in the form of our long-time Colorado tax accountant, Mark Kavasch. Usually these calls cost me money. This, however, was merely a ‘check-in, taxes were filed, let’s talk about the upcoming year’ call. Mark, ever the professional, discussed the future and then, uncharacteristically, finished his call with these words, “You know, Mary, Michael wouldn’t like this. He wouldn’t like it at all. You need to get back here [Colorado] to your friends and the mountains. You really do.”
My Colorado home may be tiny but the dining room table has plenty of room for family, loved ones and good friends.
Mark’s advice became my permission and my plan. Last Wednesday I made the ten-hour drive to Colorado, returning to a community that has changed dramatically in the past eight years. But so have I. My condominium is tiny but that makes it manageable. I can walk or bike everywhere, safely. Although the mountains seem steeper and the bears are still lurking, the trails are nearby, at my back door. My friends of the past 25 years saved me a place at their tables. Of course there’s sadness and memories that bring some tears. That’s natural and healthy, I’m told. But, at long last, life seems good again.
With apologies for paraphrasing someone wiser than I,“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.”
A Tart as Cake to Celebrate? She’s Nine. That’s Fine!!! Let’s Party.
This week’s French Friday’s with Dorie recipe coincided with my granddaughter’s ninth birthday. This tart originated with chocolatier Christian Constant who created it for world famous designer Sonia Rykiel, a founding member of Le Club des Croqueurs Chocolat. Now, there is nothing about Clara that doesn’t like chocolate. In addition, she’s a banana-a-day kid. What Christian did for Sonia, Grandma could do for Clara. Pourquoi pas?
Although my daughter (Clara’s mother) holds her tongue over sugar-overload at Grandmother’s house, I do, at times, exert glucose-restraint. I thought the “double” in chocolate might send Melissa over the top, so I used Dorie’s all-purpose tart dough (page 498) for the crust. “It produces,” Dorie says, “a not-too-rich, slightly crisp crust that is as happy holding pastry cream as it is encasing a creamy cheese filling for a quiche.”
Doppio zero flour from Italy’s oldest producer
What took One Him to load into the car took Two Her’s to unload from the car. Ahhhhh, Youth..
To make that crust, I used the “00” Italian flour our baking group (Michelle, Amalia, Adriana, Pina & me ) just purchased from Naples via Settebello’s in Henderson (Nevada). Now Settebello’s is a pizza place not a grocery store but we’d been eyeing those sacks of stacked flour for years. Adriana, our pseudo-business manager, volunteered to negotiate the sale for the doppio zero flour (which she did successfully).
Settebello’s is not your average joint. It’s already taped a Food Network segment to be shown in July and has another TV crew on the books. Settebello’s earned a 91% rating from Zagat and, according to roadfood.com, “the mozzarella is fresh; the flour, San Marzano tomatoes, Parmesan, and prosciutto come from Italy and the other cured meats are hand-crafted by Mario Batali’s dad’s artisan salumi shop in Seattle. The pizzas are cooked directly on the brick floor of the bell-shaped oven, next to a pile of burning wood.”
We wanted that flour.
A warm Nevada day so Adriana can divide the “white treasure” outside, under the pergola.
Probably not the best photo op but that’s some fine lookin’ flour. Honestly, it’s flour.
In their catalogue, King Arthur Flour, which also markets an Italian style-flour, writes, “American flour has a type A personality. It’s full of gluten, ready for action, go go GO! Italian 00 flour, on the other hand, mirrors the warm, laid-back climate of its native land. Its protein is not only lower, but much more mellow. Make pizza or flatbread with this flour; you’ve never worked with such friendly dough! It’s incredibly extensible, practically flowing under your hands as you pat it into shape. And the resulting bread or crust? Light as air, tender, snapping crisp or soft as a cloud… this flour is definitely personality type B.”
I found the dough to be easy to work, really, a pleasure (King Arthur has it right.). The crust baked beautifully, remained filling-firm and was delicious.
After making the crust, I caramelized the bananas. Dorie suggested 1/8-inch-thick-slices but I found them too thin for this process. Next time I make the tart, I will slice to 1/4” or 1/2” thickness.
My favorite tart dough from “Around My French Table”, chilling in the fridge.
Caramelizing the banana pieces which, when I make again, will be 1/4″ to 1/2″ slices rather than the suggested 1/8″.
While the caramelized bananas were cooling, I made the bittersweet ganache using Ghirardelli’s 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips. (This is probably not the time to go with Nestle’s.) I arranged the caramelized bananas in an even layer over the bottom of the crust and then carefully poured the ganache over them. Simple.
Just cooling off, waiting for the topping-off party.
During the hour required for refrigeration, I made an apricot jam glaze and cut 1/4” banana slices for the topping. Remember to toss all the cut bananas in a slight bit of lemon juice to prevent blackening. To finish off the tart, I placed the cut bananas in a spiral and then gently spread the light apricot glaze over the top. Since I wanted the tart to be firm and cooled, I popped it back into the fridge.
This tart is rich. Serve slender slices. Although it’s best to enjoy immediately, we found the tart to be delicious on Day 2 and Day 3.
In a word, sublime.
A delicious Single Chocolate & Banana Tart
Although we don’t provide this recipe, we’d love you to buy Dorie’s “Around My French Table,” you might try here. If you’re curious about the double chocolate creations of other FFWD cooks, go to http://www.frenchfridayswithdorie.com/.
