Terrific Spanish Tuna!

 

You may know that we've very recently returned from an extended vacation (five weeks) in Spain and Portugal.  We had a lovely time and ate some great food.  We were in a number of different culinary regions but there was one constant: the ensalada mixte. 

 

 

 

It is a plate of lettuce--sometimes mixed greens, sometimes straight iceberg or romaine--topped with any number of goodies: roasted beets, cucumber, tomato, red or white onion, pickled or lightly cooked carrots, and more.  The one constant was a quartered hard-cooked egg, and a lot of very tasty tuna.

 

The photos here are two sides of the same salad. It was one of the best we'd had, and I asked about the tuna, which didn't taste like our normal canned tuna.  I was told it is bonito, line caught and hand packed.  I checked in a grocery and it is about 4€ a jar.  I fully intended to get some...but let it slip and didn't. So sorry!!

A Summer Salad for your Labor Day Cookout!

If you read my blog regularly, you know that I’m in a wine dinner group that meets monthly. The host picks the theme and makes the main course and each guest couple signs up for a different course along the same theme.
Everyone in the group loves to cook and does it well so we have some stellar dinners. Recently it was our turn to host, and I picked Spain as our wine region.

Once again, every single course was exceptional. This is the last of the ones I wanted to share with you. Jeanene Lawhead Feinstone brought a most delicious salad called "pipirrana."

Pipirrana is a vegetable salad that is found pretty much everywhere in Spain, with regional variations. Some add diced cooked potatoes, others diced avocado or lightly steamed carrot. Although Jeanene used green bell pepper, you can use red, or a mixture of red and green. In the Basque region, the peppers are often sautéed in olive oil with the onion and cooled before adding the remaining ingredients. I’ve had it with sherry wine vinegar in the dressing, and once I’m pretty sure there was a touch of honey in the vinaigrette.

Jeanene suggests that you add the dressing a little at a time. You want it to coat all the vegetables, but not to have a big pool of it in the bottom of the bowl.

However you do it, since there is no mayonnaise, it would make a perfect picnic food or side dish for your Labor Day cook-out. And for another variation, I stuffed the last bit of Jeanene’s salad into a pita half with sliced tomato and hummus and it made a great lunch. I might do that for the next Botanic Garden concert!

Jeanene’s Pipirrana
(Diced Vegetable Salad)

1 ½ green bell peppers
6 Roma tomatoes squeezed
1 small sweet onion
1 cucumber seeded
3 hard boiled eggs
2 tsp. tarragon finely chopped
1 to 1 ½ cans of tuna in oil (slightly drained)
½ cup olive oil (very good grade)
4 tablespoons white wine vinegar

Dice all the ingredients finely into ½ in. cubes and toss with blended olive oil and vinegar. Salt to taste.
Chill for at least one hour before serving. Spoon on bed of chopped green leaf lettuce. Serves 8 generously.