The Perfect Boiled Egg (and Salad Nicoise)

And...I'm back!
Little Ms. has had a busy week - hence the delay in this post...my apologies - its been far too long. Although its been a busy week, its also been a great week. I am now officially a real (not almost) lawyer and I still love food! Although I haven't been posting, I've still been cooking, so let's get down to business.

Little Ms. used a recipe to make a hard boiled egg. That's right, I said it - I used a recipe to boil an egg...and I was rewarded with a  soft, bright, pure yellow yolk and a pleasingly firm white. I was inspired to make this recipe by the cover of the May issue of Canadian Living magazine, which featured this salad. It is a classic nicoise salad, with the simple twist of using rainbow trout instead of tuna. Apart from following the recipe in order to make my perfect boiled eggs, I used most of the ingredients suggested in the recipe, with the exception of the salad dressing. Rather than using the vinaigrette suggested in the recipe, I made my own based on PC's Black Label Walnut Mustard, which added a rich, nutty flavour to the dressing. I steamed my vegetables, rather than boiling them, to retain more flavour. I also used more greens then would be used in a traditional nicoise salad.

On another note - I've realized that I haven't been noting how many servings each recipe makes. Going forward, I will strive to do this so you can determine if the recipe is tonight's dinner or dinner for the rest of the week.

the eggs!

When making the eggs, use a pot that is big enough to hold the eggs, covered by a minimum of an inch of water. Place the eggs in the pot and cover with water. Place the covered pot on the stove over high heat and bring the water to a boil. As soon as the water is boiling (look for a lot of steam), remove the pot from the heat, leaving the lid on the pot. Set a timer for 18 minutes. After the eggs have sat in the hot water for 18 minutes, drain the water from the pot and run the eggs under cold water for 1 minute, until they are cool enough to handle. Now peel the eggs. Boiling the eggs this way makes them super easy to peel. Just crack into the shells by rolling them on the counter and begin peeling. 

the salad! 

Serves 2 people

1/2 lbs fresh rainbow trout

about 15 mini potatoes, steamed

about 20 green beans, steamed

4 perfect hard boiled eggs

10 nicoise or other black olives

20 grape tomotoes (you could use two plum tomatoes instead)

1/2 head red leaf lettuce

2 handfuls of arugula 

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp olive oil

dressing

1 tbsp PC Black Label Walnut Mustard or other Dijon style mustard
1 tbsp mayo (I used PC Black Label Truffle Aioli) 

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp finely chopped fresh basil

1 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme leaves

big pinch of salt

big pinch of pepper

Mix all the ingredients for the dressing together and set aside.

Steam the potatoes for about 12 minutes, or until fork tender. When the potatoes are done, toss the beans into the steamer and steam for 2 minutes. At this point, you could toss the hot potatoes and beans with about 2 tbsp of the prepared salad dressing, so that the veggies can absorb the flavour. I didn't do this and my salad turned out really wall, but doing it would amp up the flavour.

Heat a frying pan on the stove with 1 tbsp olive oil. Sprinkle the trout well with salt and pepper. Once the pan is hot, add the trout, flesh side down. Cook on the trout flesh side down for about 4 minutes. Flip the trout to crisp the skin, cooking on the other side for about 2 minutes. 

Toss the salad greens with the dressing and then add the other ingredients, tossing the salad again. I plated this salad before tossing the ingredients with the dressing, just for the photos, but tossing the salad in a big bowl is probably the best way to distribute the flavours evenly throughout the salad. Serve and enjoy!