Salade Niçoise with Smoked Trout and Blood Orange Vinaigrette

Salade Niçoise is the queen of all salads. Contrary to popular belief, the part that makes it Niçoise is the olives. Gorgeous, tiny, salty Niçoise olives. Traditionally, canned tuna is the fishy topping of choice, but we've gotten totally hooked on Ducktrap Smoked Trout from Trader Joe's, so that's what's on my salad! The salad is pretty simple to make, but requires a bit of preparation. A good mis en place will help tremendously with the actual making of the salad. Also, make sure you're using the largest plates you've got!

Blood Orange Vinaigrette
juice of 1 blood orange (you can use orange, lemon, grapefruit, or a combination if you can't get blood oranges)
1 T red wine vinaiger
2 T olive oil
1 t Herbes de Provence (fresh would be best, but who has time for that?)
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and let stand until you are ready to make the salad.

Salade Niçoise with Smoked Trout
2 eggs
2 medium vine tomatoes
6-10 oz baby red potatoes
8 oz haricots verts, or small green beans
large head or bag of butter or Boston lettuce (I like butter lettuce and radicchio blend)
about 20 Niçoise olives
1/2 small shallot, thinly sliced (or red onion slices)
1 filet of smoked trout or a can of tuna (preferably packed in olive oil) or fresh grilled fish or shrimp
2 T capers, drained

A few hours before you plan to eat, hard boil 2 eggs (of course I always make a bunch because YUM) and then put them in the fridge to chill.

Have a bowl of ice water ready. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Cut a small X in the skin at the bottom of the tomatoes. Carefully lower the tomatoes into the water and boil until the skin at the X starts to peel back. With a spider or slotted spoon, remove the tomatoes from the water and place them in the ice water. Do not discard the boiling water. Let the tomatoes rest in the ice water for a few minutes, then remove them so they don't get soggy. Once cooled, remove the skin and seeds and roughly chop what's left. By the way, these are called tomatoes concassé and since I'm not terribly fond of tomatoes, this is how I prefer them in my Salade Niçoise. You can just use fresh quartered tomatoes if you're of that persuasion, though.

Cut the potatoes into bite-sized pieces and boil them until they are tender. Remove them with a spider or slotted spoon to a bowl and drizzle, while still warm, with 1-2 tablespoons of the dressing. Again, do not discard the boiling water. You can either put the potatoes in the fridge to chill or serve them slightly warm, that part is up to you.

Place the haricots verts into the boiling water for about 1 minute, or until they start to become tender and bright green. Remove them to a fresh ice water bath to stop them cooking and retain their color. At this point, you can discard the boiling water. Remove the green beans after a minute, drain them well, and toss them with about a tablespoon of the dressing.

Place the lettuce into the large bowl you made the dressing in and toss it up well. Pile the dressed lettuce in the middle of your large plates. Quarter the chilled hard boiled eggs and arrange them along with the potatoes, haricots verts, tomatoes, and olives around the lettuce. Lay the shallot or onion slices on top of the lettuce in the middle. Break up the trout fillets into bite-sized pieces and place on top of the shallot slices. Sprinkle the salad with the capers. Serve with some nice bread!

Serves 2.