Originally, I had something else in mind, I wanted to use this tofu as the stuffing of some filo dough triangles. Unfortunately, sometimes things change…since I had no filo dough in my refrigerator. The funny thing is that I was so convinced I had some, so here I am all ready to roll the filo dough but no filo dough at the horizon. I needed a plan B.

Since tofu works well in many different ways, I figure cakes it will be, just no dough.

I wanted some Mediterranean flavors in my tofu, and what’s more Mediterranean than tapenade? This wonderful olive paste that is so fragrant. In this tapenade, I did not include anchovies, I kept it vegan which would go better with this dish.

The great thing about tofu is that it’s naturally bland, so you can season the way you like. It absorbs whatever spice and ingredient you combine it with.

I loved this dish and will definitely make it again for vegetarians and non vegetarians, including myself.

Ingredients for 2

For the tofu cakes

• 230 g extra firm tofu
• 1 carrot, peeled and grated
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 handful kale, finely chopped
• 2 tbs parsley, chopped
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbs + oat flour
• salt and pepper

For the salad

• 1 large red bell pepper
• 1 large yellow bell pepper
• 1 medium eggplant, sliced 1 cm crosswise
• 2 tsp Meyer lemon juice
• 2 tbs extra virgin unrefined olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tbs cilantro, finely chopped
• salt and pepper

For the tapenade

• 150 g green olives, pitted
• 1 tsp capers, rinsed
• 1 garlic clove
• 2 tbs olive oil

Preparation

For the tofu cakes

Squeeze water from tofu, using your hands. With a paper towel, pat dry all excess moisture. In a mixing container, crumble tofu using your hands to obtain a very thin and smooth and almost non-grainy texture. There should not be any thick pieces of tofu.

Add carrots and garlic to tofu.

Heat olive oil in a pan. Add shallots and cook until soften. Add tofu mixture and cook for about 5-7 minutes until carrots soften. Mix well. Remove from heat and place in a mixing container. Add all other ingredients and add the flour at the end. If the mixture is too liquid, add a little more flour.

At this point, the mixture is ready to form little cakes of about 2 inches diameter.

Heat olive oil in a pan. Cook cakes at medium temperature until golden brown on both sides.

For the salad

Char broil the peppers under a broiler. Turn peppers on all sides until the skin is burnt. Remove from oven and place in a plastic bag until cool. Peel the peppers and remove seeds. Cut strips of 1/2 inch wide.

Heat skillet, add eggplant slices and cook until golden brown on each sides. Cut each slice in quarters.

In a mixing container, add peppers, eggplant, and all other ingredients.

For the tapenade

Mix all ingredients in a mixer until smooth but a but with a bit of a grainy texture.

Place some salad on a plate, top it with tofu cakes and add a tsp of tapenade on top

When you eat out, salades niçoises are always more or less the same, with minor variations from one restaurant to another…and often a little on the boring side. So after a few thoughts on how to make things a little more exciting and with a different way to prepare them, I came up with a salad that has the ingredients of a salade niçoise (less the salmon), that was lovely. Most of the ingredients are here but in a different way to present and cook them, which modifies all the textures and make them very interesting and exciting. Here the green beans are cut and mixed with the greens and cherry tomatoes. The olives are turned into a tapenade which is an olive paste from the South of France spread on top of the bread. The egg is poached and not boiled and the other final touch is the salt, I used sea weed salt (from Brittany) but of course, you can use any other sea salt.

If you want to remain traditional and feel the salmon shall not be seen on a salade Niçoise, use tuna instead. This salad is really fun, and you can play with it using your imagination as you wish. For instance, if I had quail eggs, I would have poached two quail eggs and made two tartines, instead of one. Now there is not one particular recipe for salade niçoise, and each cook can make it the way he wants, even though the traditional recipe is not supposed to have any cooked ingredients, only raw. So if you want to say that my salad is not a Niçoise, like a Nicois (a person from Nice) would probably say. Well, I am ok with that…it is nonetheless delicious.

Sometimes for specific recipes, I like to remain as close as the original recipe as I can, but in some more “flexible” recipes, I also like to have fun in the kitchen and play around with food…but obviously it needs to be good or it shall not have its spot on the blog.

Ingredients for 2

• 1 salmon filet of about 1/2 lb
• 4 small round yukon potatoes
• 1.5 cups fine green beans
• about 20 cherry tomatoes, cut in half
• 1 cup of mixed greens or arugula
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 1/2 bell red pepper, roasted,  peeled and cut in stripes
• 2 eggs
• 2 baguettes slices or country bread

For the vinaigrette

• 2 tbs extra virgin unfiltered olive oil
• 3 tbs lemon olive oil
• juice of 1 meyer lemon
• orange-champagne vinegar or any mild fruity vinegar
• about 8 leaves basil, chopped
• Sea weed salt
• pepper

For the tapenade

• 1/4 lb kalamata olives
• 2 good quality small anchovies
• about 6 capers
• 1/2 garlic clove
• 2 tbs olive oil

Preparation

Start by cooking the potatoes in water. When the potatoes are about 3/4 cooked but still a little firm in the center, remove from stove. Let them cool and then peel. Set aside. Cut the salmon in about one inch cube pieces.

Cook green beans in boiling water until cooked but still firm. When cooked remove from stove, then let them cool and cut in about 2 inches pieces.

Using a wooden skewer, place one piece of salmon, then one potato, until you have two pieces each on each skewer.

In the meantime, in a container mix cherry tomatoes, salad, green beans, bell peppers. Prepare vinaigrette by combining all ingredients together.

For the tapenade, mix all ingredients together in a mixer. Toast baguette and spread tapenade on top.

Broil skewer in the oven until golden brown and salmon cooked all the way through or pink (depending on your tastes).

Poach egg in boiling water for about 2 minutes (poaching technique will come in another post).

Pour vinaigrette on salad, toss well and keep some vinaigrette for the skewer.

Plate first salad/beans/tomatoes mixture, then place skewer on top, add the remaining vinaigrette on top of skewer. Serve with tartine of tapenade topped with poached egg, and drizzle with olive oil.

I am still in the middle of boxes and no kitchen cabinets and no silverware and tons of boxes filled with junk stuff…the bad news is that I need to cook tomorrow for some new clients and that I am still wondering how it will happen…All I want right now is sleep 24 hours straight.

This is the second post featuring a sandwich, just because I am not a sandwich fan…but sometimes, they can be fun to make, even if you don’t eat them. I wouldn’t say this is a quick one to make, since you need to grill your vegetables first but still it’s fun put it together and look at all the bright colors combined. When you organize a picnic party, those can come in handy since they’re tons of vegetables packed in two slices of bread, so instead of eating junk food at a picnic, you can actually enjoy some healthy food.

Sandwiches for me, were only eaten during the time my parents and I would leave Nancy to drive to Italy. My mom would make a few of them for the 10 hour drive trip, since my dad would drive straight, without any stop in between point A to point B. You needed to have some sort of food handy in the car. My mom would get up at 2 am and make a few panini per il viaggio and by 3 am we would be on the road. I hated to get up at 2 am…but my dad always wanted to hit the road on Sunday at 3 am because there would be no truck on the freeways (trucks don’t drive on Sundays) and the freeways in Europe are not as large as the one in the US…now at 70 years of old, he still gets up at 2 am to hit the road at 3 pm and there is nothing and no one that will make him change his mind.

In France, the most traditional sandwich you get, is the jambon, beurre, cornichons = ham, butter and cornichons (It’s not really a sandwich country). On a great crunchy baguette, with great ham and salted butter, it’s wonderful. What I like about the real French baguette is that there is very little crumb, the middle is airy and not dense, so it’s not as filling as some other breads. Now many boulangeries are making some fancy sandwiches with all kinds of baguettes and all kinds of stuffing (but always on baguette) and even though I am not a sandwich fan, I somehow like the ones on baguettes once in a rare while because they have a lovely crust and almost no mie (the breadcrumb inside) that is the stuffy part.

Ingredients for 4

For the Kalamata olive tapenade spread

• 1 cup kalamata olives
• 1/4 cup capers
• 3 tbs. olive oil
• ½ tsp garlic crushed
• ½ tsp. extra strong Dijon mustard

For the sandwich

• 2 small size eggplants, cut crosswise
• 3 zucchini, sliced lengthwise
• 4 tbs sundried tomatoes
• 1 cup arugula
• 1 avocado, sliced
• 4 tsp parsley, chopped
• 2 tsp oregano, chopped
• 1 tsp crushed garlic
• 4 tbs crumbled goat cheese
• 4 tbs roasted peppers, sliced and well drained
• 2 tsp olive oil

Preparation

For the spread

mix all ingredients in a mixer.

For the sandwich

Grill eggplants and zucchini in a grill pan or regular grill. Place in a mixing bowl with sliced roasted peppers. Add parsley, oregano, olive oil, salt and pepper. Set aside.
Cut country bread in two, grill on a grill pan or regular grill.
Spread 1 tbs. of tapenade on each slices of the bread. Add arugula, avocado, grilled zucchini and eggplant. Add sundried tomatoes, roasted peppers and goat cheese.

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