I just made something delicious, and inspired, if I do say so myself. Though it’s true that my cooking is in the vein of the Mediterranean, I find that I oft avoid the clichés of this region, and as such have unwittingly eliminated olives and sun-dried tomatoes from my cuisine. Quelle domage, I know. This happened quite by accident, I’m sure, and my discovery of the offense was as serendipitous as it’s origins unintentioned. You see, I was sent a recipe for Panisse the other day, of which I made a giant batch and have been dining on ever since (panisse is the true term for chickpea fries, another food that has, to my chagrin, become trendy in America.) I studded my panisse dough with black olives, and served it with a tomato & pine nut relish, redolent of garlic. I shall post that recipe, which in fact precedes this one in conception, later. A few days ago I splurged and bought some frozen, wild caught Yellowfin tuna. If you are recoiling from the screen in horror, I am with you in spirit. Frozen meat is a colossal tragedy, frozen fish condemnably so. But, voiyez kind people, I am landlocked, in ze middle of Texas, so one does what one can. Needless to say, the texture of the fish was less than pleasing, and the taste unremarkable. Turned off by this, I ignored the fish for a few days and feasted on the leftover offerings of the restaurant (and yes, even though I declared to my kitchen crush that nothing must transpire between us, he still makes me food constantly. I am developing a roll, and a double chin! I wonder how long I shall remain appealing to him?) This morning, I once again returned to thoughts of tuna, and what to do with my thawed,old, less-than-delicious extravagant expenditure. Confit! Indeed, the French, particularly in the region of Landes, in Southwestern France, have made preserving meats by pre-salting them and then slowly cooking them in fat, in which they are stored, a defining culinary tradition. So, pourquoi pas? I gently poached my tuna in the olive oil I’d retained from a jar of sun-dried tomatoes, so that it would infuse it’s flavors into the fish, added a couple slivered garlic cloves, some lemon zest, two handsome sprigs of rosemary, and some chiles. And now, back to what I was saying before: having again recaptured the romance of Mediterranean clichés, I finished the dish with diced sun-dried tomatoes, black olive tapenade, and a sprinkling of pine nuts. C’estait delicieux! What more could a girl ask for?
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Tapenade, and Pine Nuts