It has not been a good week for the Berkeland family. First, the air conditioning in the car dies, which isn’t so bad, except it decided to blow heat out of the vents and could not be turned off. Which wouldn’t be so bad in the winter, but, here in the tundra we are experiencing a heat wave.

Next the central air decides to die. Great. We have a repair guy come out to the house and he fixes it just in time for a 95 degree day to a tune of $1125!!!! Yikes! Well, that wouldn’t have been so bad, except it died again a week later. So the guy comes back out and now informs us that we need new air conditioning. Which wouldn’t be so bad, except we just had central air installed eight years ago.

I take a shower on Sunday morning and there is no hot water. None. Now this can be expected because our hot water heater is at least 25 years old. It wouldn’t be so bad that it died, if I wasn’t in the middle of taking a shower. Paul looked at it and the pilot light had blown out. He relit it and there is now lukewarm water. Blah.

I went to take the garbage out and there was a puddle of water in the bottom of the basket. Geezus. The waste basket is under the kitchen sink, which had sprung a leak, which wouldn’t have been so bad, except now everything under the sink was wet, including the recycling bag. Fortunately, Paul was able to fix it.

Since I am not a mega house cleaner, I decided to vacuum last week, on a whim, of course, but, the vacuum wasn’t working. Again. So now I need a new vacuum. I fiddled around with it, so that I could pick up the first layer of cat and dog hair, which wouldn’t be so bad, except there are 10 layers of hair. Boogers.

None of this would have mattered except we were having guests on Sunday. We hadn’t seen our friends in ages and were looking forward to visiting with them. I couldn’t dare put on the oven, because it heats the entire house. Perhaps I didn’t make this clear in the above paragraph, we are experienced a HEAT WAVE here. Not just hot summer weather, but, sweltering, humid, stifling, dangerous to seniors and pets, obnoxious, stagnant, cesspool type of conditions.

While the AC man managed to pour some sort of thingamajig into the whatchamacallit to keep us coolish for another 4 to 5 days, I was not going to danger the little bit of cool air we had in the house by starting up the oven. Fortunately, I had the ingredients for a salmon nicoise. A salade nicoise is a mixed salad consisting of various veggies topped with tuna and anchovy. This is a south of France recipe. How bad can that be? I substituted salmon for tuna and nixed the anchovy.

I figured I could cook the salmon on the grill which would be a preferred choice regardless of the weather and all I would have to do is blanch the beans, boil the taters, hard boil the eggs and I would be good to go. I would be a cool cat. Ya, right. Did you know that by lighting the burners on your stovetop you can heat the entire kitchen and dining area? No? You didn’t know that? Well, then join the dumber than dumb club, because I had NO idea how hot that would make things.  To cut myself a wee bit of slack, if our AC had been working properly, things would have remained cool. But, have I mentioned the AC is on the fritz?

Thanks to the lovely Ina, I followed her salmon nicoise recipe to a tee and of course it turned out perfectly. I love me some Ina.

The Recipe:

Roasted Salmon Nicoise Platter adapted from Ina Garten, Food Network

1. •4 lemons, zested and juiced
   

2. •1/4 cup olive oil
   

3. •1/4 cup Dijon mustard
   

4. •4 garlic cloves, minced
   

5. •Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
   

6. •6 pounds skin-on fresh salmon fillets
   

7. •3 pounds small Yukon gold potatoes
   

8. •1 1/2 pounds haricots verts, stems removed (green beans)
   

9. •3 pounds ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges (6 small tomatoes)
   

10. •12 hard-cooked eggs, peeled and cut in 1/2
    

11. •1 bunch watercress or arugula
    

12. •1/2 pound large green olives, pitted (I used black olives)
    

13. •1 can anchovies, optional
    

Vinaigrette:

1. •1/4 cup champagne vinegar
   

2. •1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
   

3. •1 teaspoon kosher salt
   

4. •1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
   

5. •1/2 cup good olive oil
   

Directions

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. (Or the grill, I grilled my salmon at 400 degrees for 10 minutes)

For the marinade, whisk together the lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil, mustard, garlic, 1 1/2 tablespoons salt and 1/2 tablespoon pepper in a small bowl and set aside.

Place the salmon on a sheet pan that has been covered in aluminum foil, and drizzle the marinade over the salmon. Allow the salmon to sit for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the potatoes and 2 tablespoons salt in a large pot of water. Bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, until the potatoes are barely tender when pierced with a knife. Drain the potatoes in a colander, then place the colander with the potatoes over the empty pot off the heat and cover with a clean, dry kitchen towel. Leave the potatoes to steam for 15 to 20 minutes, until tender but firm. (Don’t skip covering the potatoes with a towel thing, it really makes the potatoes perfect) When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, slice them in thick slices and set aside.

Let’s stop and talk about boiling an egg for a moment. Now I knew what I was doing when I used fresh eggs for this dish. I KNEW that you should never use fresh eggs when hard boiling them, but, I had just bought these farm fresh eggs at the farmer’s market and I knew they would taste great. Unfortunately, they didn’t look so great, because it is nigh near impossible to peel a fresh egg. Blah. So I guess the moral of the story is hard boil your oldest eggs and sacrifice flavor. What kind of moral is that? A sucky one. But, if presentation is your utmost concern, then use an old egg.

Place the salmon in the oven and cook for 12 to 15 minutes, or until it is almost cooked through. (Or grill) Remove to a plate and allow it to rest for 15 minutes. Remove the skin and break into large pieces.

Blanch the haricots verts in a large pot of boiling salted water for 1 1/2 minutes only. Drain immediately and immerse in a bowl of ice water. Drain again and set aside.

For the vinaigrette, combine the vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper. Slowly whisk in the olive oil to make an emulsion. Set aside.

Arrange the salmon, potatoes, haricots verts, tomatoes, eggs, watercress (I used arugula, because that is my new favorite green and because I kill all the watercress I have ever planted), olives and anchovies, if used, on a large flat platter. Drizzle some vinaigrette over the fish and vegetables and serve the rest in a pitcher on the side.

Final Thoughts:

I apologize for not having more pictures, but, I was hot folks. And of course if you are hot, you cannot possibly be expected to have pictures, now can you? I felt it was above and beyond the call of duty to take a picture of those lame hard boiled eggs. Sheesh.

Now that I have tried to justify my lack of picture taking, let’s talk salmon nicoise. Yum. Absolutely yummy. When you live in the tundra and experience a heat wave of Biblical proportions this is the dish for you. You can do most everything ahead of time, assemble it prior to eating and serve at room temperature. Normally, one would use tuna for the salad, but, I don’t have enough money to buy good tuna. Did you read my beginning paragraphs? There is no money people.

I will make this again and again. It is filling, yet not heavy. It is perfect for hot days. A tip: remember to dress your potatoes while they are warm, they will absorb a lot of the vinaigrette and make them mighty tasty.