Before my daughter’s birthday party, I had only had a Salade-Nicoise maybe once or twice, not being a total fan of the way it has been served to me with a heavily mustardy dressing. Given the crowd that was coming to her party, though, with their dairy, gluten, and various and sundry other intolerances, this seemed the safest bet for serving traditional French food that someone might actually eat.
It turned out beautifully. Maybe too beautifully. I had to get Sean (Delicious Daddio) to go serve himself a huge helping so that people wouldn’t be afraid to muss the presentation.
The great thing about creating a salad like this with your mini-chef is that they can use their inner artiste to arrange things. Below, there are instructions given for how we lay this particular salad out, but please do not limit yourself to these. Part of teaching children how to cook is the creative play that ensues with the ingredients. Encourage them to do their thing and to, possibly, maybe, try some of the ingredients along the way. They’ll have sardine breath in no time.
Nicoise Salad
For the Dressing:
*1 1/2 c. olive oil
*1 large bunch basil (1 1/2 c. )
*1/2 c. parsley
*juice of one lemon
*3 medium cloves of garlic, peeled and with the woody ends cut off
*salt and pepper to taste
For the Salad:
*3 large heads of Boston or Butter lettuce, washed and spun
*3 lbs new potatoes, creamer potatoes, or another soft little potato, gently scrubbed clean
*1 1/2 lbs. wax beans, little ends cut off
*1 1/2 lbs, green beans, little ends cut off
*1 c. Nicoise olives
*4 (6 oz.) cans Albacore tuna, packed in water
*25 sardines, packed in oil
*8 hard-boiled eggs
To make the dressing, have your mini-chef throw all the ingredients into an unplugged blender. Place the lid on tightly, and plug the blender into the wall. Let your mini-chef press the “ON” button and watch the ingredients blitz. When the dressing is sufficiently blended, unplug the machine and pour the dressing into a large liquid measuring cup. Set aside.
Fill a large pot with water and sea salt and bring to a boil. Add the potatoes and cook about 15-20 minutes, till tender in the center. Remove the potatoes with a slotted spoon and place them in a large bowl. Toss with 1 c. of the dressing.
Together: Set up a medium-large bowl of ice water because we’re going to give our green beans a bath after they’ve finished cooking.
Big Person: Place the wax and green beans into the pot of boiling water and cook until just slightly tender but still bright green, 2-4 minutes. Take the beans off the heat, drain and plunge them into their ice bath.
Together: Once the beans have been lounging in their ice bath for a couple of minutes, drain them throughly and place them into a medium bowl. Toss them with 3/4 c. of the dressing.
Now, set up the salad. First, take out a big platter. Make a bed of lettuce on top with your lettuce leaves. Next, place a stripe of green and wax beans down the center. On either side of the beans, make stripes of the tuna. Then, arrange the potatoes and the hard boiled eggs all along the edges of the platter. Top the beans with anchovies and the tuna with the olives. Finally, drizzle the rest of your dressing over the salad just before serving.
