(10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare)
By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate
Why not go to Nice this spring for lunch? Although visiting the capital of the French Riviera would be nice, you can avoid the crowds - except for the foot traffic of your own family in your own kitchen - and still reap some of the benefits.
Looking up foreign culinary words you or your kids might not be familiar with and then preparing the recipes is a delicious diversion, whatever geographical region of the world you choose. The French Riviera's Nice is a spirited spring recipe retreat in which you can start with light ingredients, like seafood and vegetables that are stars in much of the cuisine.
Salade Nicoise is one of their famed contributions to the world and you can find it on many U.S. restaurant menus (especially at French-themed cafes) and try one on for size as a sit-down or takeout treat if that's easiest. To prepare at home, you just need trimmed green beans, cooked mini red potatoes, drained canned artichoke hearts, Boston lettuce, cucumbers, bell pepper, red onion, tuna (preferably in olive oil), capers, hard-cooked eggs, tomatoes, anchovy fillets, homemade or store-bought vinaigrette and, of course, Nicoise (or small black) pitted olives (all to taste).
What's a fun variation is that the salad can be used to fill another Nice specialty that fits the bill for practicing the language: a pan bagnat (which fittingly means "bathed bread.") You crater a baguette and spoon in the salad. Depending on the size of the baguette (round wheat breads, that resemble U.S. sourdough rounds, are also often used in Nice), you can feed just lucky you or even the guests at an entire party.
Using a leftover salade Nicoise to fill a pan bagnat is a shortcut. Below is a quick recipe specifically for pan bagnat, including a thick olive dressing that also includes olive oil in which the tuna was packed.
Fun fare like this also proves food preparation can be easy, nutritious, inexpensive, fun - and fast. A description, like the aforementioned salade Nicoise, takes just 10 seconds each to read and is only slightly longer to prepare. The creative combinations are delicious proof that everyone has time for creating homemade specialties and, more importantly, the healthy family togetherness that goes along with it!
Another benefit: You effortlessly become a better cook, with a toss-together like the salade Nicoise, since there are no right or wrong amounts. It's a virtually-can't-go-wrong combination, so whatever you - or your kidlet helpers - choose to use can't help but draw "wows" from family members and guests.
PAN BAGNAT
- 1 (approximately 12-ounce) baguette (see Note)
- Olive dressing (recipe follows) or vinaigrette of your choice
- 2 (3-ounce each) cans tuna (preferably in olive oil), drained (oil reserved if making salad dressing), and broken into flakes
- 2 or 3 cocktail (or cherry or plum) tomatoes, thinly sliced
- Salt, to taste
- 1 (about 2-inch) piece English cucumber, peeled, thinly sliced and patted dry
- 2 large eggs, hard-cooked and sliced
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
- 2 canned or thawed frozen artichoke hearts, patted dry and thinly sliced
- 1/4 small red bell pepper, thinly sliced
- 6 small Boston lettuce leaves
Yields 4 to 6 servings.
Cut baguette in half lengthwise. Remove enough bread from the center of each half to make room for the filling. Lay bottom half, cut side up, on a long sheet of plastic wrap.
Smear half of whatever dressing you are using over cut side of bottom layer. Add tuna and tomatoes and sprinkle lightly with salt. Layer on cucumber, eggs, onion, artichokes, red pepper and lettuce. Smear remaining dressing over cut side of top portion. Place on top of filled baguette and press down lightly.
Pull up the plastic around the loaf and wrap tightly. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving. To serve, cut on the diagonal into 4 to 6 servings.
Note: Use a wider baguette, sometimes labeled "Parisian loaf," rather than "French stick."
OLIVE DRESSING
- Reserved olive oil from tuna, plus enough extra-virgin olive oil to make 1/4 cup, or just
- 1 / 4 cup extra-virgin olive oil if not using olive oil from tuna
- 12 pitted black olives
- 1 tablespoon rinsed, drained capers
- 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon anchovy paste
- 1 teaspoon parsley leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Yields 4 to 6 servings.
In a mini blender, combine all ingredients. Or, if you don't have a small blender, chop or mash the ingredients finely and then whisk them together.
- -Recipes from "200 Best Canned Fish & Seafood Recipes."
QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK: "Oh, the dreaded buffet --- whether it's the all-you-can-eat one at your favorite restaurant or the office party, we're all kind of afraid of it," writes "Biggest Loser" TV trainer and bestselling author Bob Harper in his "Skinny Habits: The 6 Secrets of Thin People." He continues, "....Brian Wansink has studied how
thin people behave around buffets....Here is what his research shows:
- Thin people tend to sit about sixteen feet farther from food than heavy people.
- Thin people are three times as likely to face away from food.
- Seventy-one percent of thin people scout the food, walking around before picking up a plate. Photo courtesy of "200 Best Canned Fish & Seafood Recipes."
Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food and nutrition writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Council Against Health Fraud and author of seven food books, including the best-selling
The Tofu Book: The New American Cuisine with 150 Recipes (Avery/Penguin Putnam) and
Turn Your Supermarket into a Health Food Store: The Brand-Name Guide to Shopping for a Better Diet (Pharos/Scripps Howard). She writes two nationally syndicated food and nutrition columns for Creators Syndicate and had been a longtime newspaper food and health section managing editor, as well as managing editor of Gayot/Gault Millau dining review company. Lisa traveled the globe writing about top chefs for Pulitzer Prize-winning Copley News Service and has written about health and nutrition for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Reader's Digest, Woman's World and Prevention Magazine Health Books. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.
