What We Eat When We Eat Alone - Deborah Madison [57]
You can use any leftovers from three-minute tuna to make a tuna salad. Flake a chunk of the tuna with your fingers, season it with a little salt, then dress it with more salsa verde, mayonnaise, or a lemon vinaigrette. Add something crisp—such as finely diced celery. Pile it on a mound of lettuce or, for a change, a bed of shaved fennel. You can also use leftover tuna to make the tuna spread.
Salsa Verde with Lemon and Capers
Use a wedge of lemon instead of just the zest and juice to make a bright lemony sauce to use over seared tuna, under scallops, and in a million other places you can think of, from sandwiches to soups. A sweet Meyer lemon is ideal. If using the more acidic Eureka lemon, you might want to correct its tartness by adding a little more oil at the end.
1⁄4 CUP FINELY CHOPPED PARSLEY OR CHERVIL
2 SCALLIONS, INCLUDING A LITTLE OF THE GREEN, FINELY CHOPPED, OR ONE SHALLOT, FINELY DICED
1⁄8 LEMON, PREFERABLY A MEYER LEMON, FINELY SLICED
2 TEASPOONS CAPERS, RINSED
2 TO 3 TABLESPOONS EXTRA-VIRGIN OLIVE OIL
SALT
Combine all the ingredients except the salt in a bowl. Stir them together, add salt to taste and more olive oil to loosen the herbs, if needed.
A Farmers Market Salad
More elaborate than other salads you might make from a farmers market, such as sliced tomatoes with basil, this recipe takes artichokes, new potatoes, a bulb of fennel, and a fresh farm egg and turns them into a meal. Because there’s only one of you to cook for, it really doesn’t take all that long, plus you can overlap the different steps. To me, these vegetables cry for tarragon, chervil, or another licorice-flavored herb.
The Vegetables
4 FINGERLING POTATOES, SCRUBBED
SALT AND PEPPER
4 BABY ARTICHOKES
1 LEMON
1 FRESH EGG
1 SMALL FENNEL BULB
The Lemon-Herb Dressing
GRATED ZEST AND 2 TO 3 TEASPOONS JUICE OF 1 LEMON
1 SHALLOT, FINELY DICED
A FEW PINCHES SALT
3 TABLESPOONS OLIVE OIL
1 TEASPOON FINELY CHOPPED PARSLEY
1 TEASPOON FINELY CHOPPED TARRAGON
1. Put the potatoes in a pot, cover them with cold water, add 1⁄2 teaspoon salt, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and cook until tender when pierced with a knife, about 20 minutes, depending on their size. When they’re done, remove them, but keep the water in the pot.
2. While the potatoes are cooking, snap off the outer leaves of the artichokes until you get to the pale green soft-looking ones. Trim the base and the stem, cut off the top third of the leaves, then slice the artichokes lengthwise in thirds. As you work, put them in a bowl of water with the lemon juice. When all are ready, place them in the potato water and boil gently until tender when pierced with a knife, 12 to 15 minutes. They should be evenly colored when done, not blotchy. Drain and set aside.
3. Put the egg in a small pot, cover with cold water, bring to a boil, and boil for 1 minute. Cover the pot and let stand for 6 minutes more, then drain. Rinse, then peel, the egg.
4. Make the lemon-herb dressing by combining the lemon zest and juice, shallot, and salt in a small bowl. Whisk in the oil, then add the herbs. Taste and adjust, adding more oil or lemon as needed to get the right balance.
5. To compose the salad, grate the fennel on a box grater into paper-thin slices and scatter them on a plate. Drizzle a little of the dressing over the fennel and season it with a few pinches of salt. Separately dress the artichokes and potatoes, then scatter them over the fennel. Quarter the egg and tuck the pieces in among the vegetables. Have with a good piece of bread and, perhaps, some cheese from your farmers market.
Roast Bone-In, Skin-On Chicken Breasts with Herb Butter
Both the bone and skin add flavor, and the skin provides a nifty little pocket in which you can tuck herbs, spices, and flavorings of all sorts. If you can only find a split breast, then use that. Roast some diced summer or winter vegetables at the same time; have them with the chicken.
1 WHOLE BONE-IN CHICKEN BREAST, ABOUT 1-1⁄2 POUNDS