Salade Nicoise with Seared Tuna

I know you have all heard the saying "great minds think alike" and it amazes me when things happen that remind me of this. Today Gerry got an email from a very good friend with a recommendation for a Vegetarian Salade Nicoise and ironically my menu for today was a Salade Nicoise with Seared Tuna. Our friend could not have known the menu for today, so I find it amazing that we were both thinking on the same lines. I wonder if the fact that we are both Libras has anything to do with it.

Gerry actually did the cooking tonight since I was at work a little later than usual. He started with some small red potatoes cut into slices which were boiled along with some eggs. Some haricots verts were tossed in to the same pot for a couple of minutes before everything was drained and given an ice water bath to stop the cooking. The eggs were then peeled and cut into wedges.

The vinaigrette was prepared next by combining stone-ground mustard, olive oil, white wine vinegar, honey and salt. One half pound of fresh tuna, cut into cubes were tossed in half of the marinade for 15 minutes.

The salad was assembled by tossing salad greens with herbs, the cooked potatoes, haricots verts, tomatoes and nicoise olives with the remaining vinaigrette. This mixture was topped with the tuna cubes that were skewered and seared on each side for about 1 minute. This turned the tuna golden brown on the outside but still rare in the center. The egg wedges were the final garnish. Absolutely delicious!