Nicoise...I will never forget you.

There are some things in life you learn and never forget. How to spell a word. Your 4 times tables. How to tie your laces. How to make a bechamel sauce. What goes in a martini. What is a salad nicoise.

To me nicoise was the first salad I ever 'learned'. Sure I knew what a garden salad was, a greek salad even a caseser salad. But I don't remember ever learning what they were. Nicoise was the first salad I stumbled across that I had never ever heard of.. It seemed so foreign, so intriguing, so alluring.... it was a salad with out lettuce. I was all of 18 and just beginning what would become my journey into dining and all things culinary. My 'foodie' friend and I ( another waitress) would save up all our tips to shout ourselves out to flash restaurants once a month. We were almost always out of our league but these dining experiences were the most educational lessons of my career. It was on one of these occasions that I met a salad nicoise. Green beans, tomatoe, soft boiled egg, olive cheeks, fresh seared tuna. Oh what a delight. The flavours were something special so simple so crisp and yet I had fallen in love with something else....Nicoise.... I had fallen inlove with the word. Knowing it, I all at once felt so accomplished. Before I sat down for that meal I knew nothing of this salad. I would never have even known the word was a salad should I have heard it said aloud. And yet suddenly here I was a part of this educated club. This culinary world where a little jumble of letters were a secret code for something known, something else. I had learned the code.. I knew what it was, this salad ' nicoise'. And I would never forget.

Of course as I ate more dinners, drank more wine and started my chefs apprentciship I was exposed to many new and wonderful things but none more significant then that first discovery. When I make a nicoise salad these days I cheat by substituting kipfler potatoes for tuna. I also love dressing it up with a little basil oil.

Vego (ovo-lacto) Nicoise salad

Crisp Green beans (topped only) (blanched)
Sweet cherry tomatoes
Olive cheeks (must be good quality olives)
Soft boiled egg (must be farm fresh free range organic)
kipfler potatoes (cooked and peeled)
basil oil
Preserved lemon mayonaise (homemade)

Dress the ingredients with EVO sea salt and crakced pepper.
Scatter on a plate and drizzle with basil oil and s small amount of mayo.

Whether I make a nicoise the traditional way or with quails eggs or tuna or salmon I always remember that very first salad I ever had. I hope some one else out there can understand why