Salad Nicoise

Before Christmas I took part in a 6 week cookery course in training for a ‘Masterchef’ competition between my university, Sheffield Hallam and our rival, the University of Sheffield.

The course was funded by the Sheffield on a Plate project, a project set up to teach students like myself the importance of cooking good food using quality ingredients from in and around Sheffield.

My university won and in a few weeks I will be doing my prize, a days work experience at Fischer’s at Baslow Hall, a Michelin starred restaurant.

Excited doesn’t come close to explaining how much I am looking forward to it. A post will come about all of my experiences on the day!

Before that I thought I would share a recipe I learnt while on the course. A delicious and quick Salad Nicoise, which is always a hit with my friends.

4 Servings

Ingredients

• 160g anchovies
• 200g tuna chunks
• 400g green beans
• 2 cloves garlic
• 300g cherry tomatoes
• 30g basil
• 3 shallots
• 300g new potatoes
• 4 eggs
• 25g capers
• 25g gherkins
• 50g pitted black olives
• 30g french mustard
• 200ml olive oil
• Pinch of sugar
• 50ml white wine vinegar
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Method

1. Top and tail green beans and place in boiling salted water and cook for around 5 minutes until tender, drain and then plunge into ice water, remove and leave to one side
2. In another pan add the potatoes and boil until they fall off the point of a knife. Drain, cut into quarters and place in a bowl.
3. Halve the tomatoes, slice up the shallots thinly and chop the basil add to the bowl with the potatoes
4. Chop up the gherkins, add to bowl along with the olives, capers and green beans
5. Crush the garlic until it resembles a puree and mix into the bowl
6. Drain the tuna from the brine and add along with the anchovies and their oil and mix in
7. Hard boil the eggs for 8-10 minutes, remove shell and slice, set aside for decoration at the end.
8. To make the dressing put all of the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl and whisk, pour over the salad and serve.