Salmon Salad Niçoise

This is another inspiration from Gordan Ramsay. Its a interesting take on the classic Niçoise salad which usually uses Tuna as its protein. This recipe may be even further debated since apparent “la salade Niçoise ne contient pas de légumes cuits” (Nice salad’s do not contain cooked vegetables), according to Nice Rendezvous…

Putting the Niçoise semantics aside, this was an excuse to use my new red Le Creuset pot. This recipe will take a little bit of work since each set of ingredients requires its own attention. The reward is good a clean fresh way to circulate salmon on the table. The first step is making a court bouillon with  for which you are going to poach the salmon. In this water bath for the poach, I swapped the out the anise for basil leaves from Ramsay’s take and to give a more subdued flavor to the fish. You can feel free to make the bath to your taste since the salmon will highlight those flavors.

The rest of the heavy lifting is to blanche the vegetables and then lightly pan crisping before it is all put together. He prefers a poached egg and I like a hard boiled one since its more sturdy. You can watch Ramsay explain his technique here on his Christmas Special here or refer to the text version of the recipe here.