As I start usually these days … we are still in Southern France. However, we moved from Carcassonne to Sérignan meaning from Languedoc into Hérault approaching also the Mediterranean coast. For statistics: Carcassone is a town of about 47.000 inhabitants while Sérignan has got about 8.000 people i. e. a village. So now we are living in a small townhouse near the centre of the village – and enjoy the daily noisette resp. glass of vin rosé sitting somewhere on the main place crowded by cafés, bars, bistros, brasseries … restaurants.
The weather is fine w/ lots of sunshine – so we are fond of salads … When surfing my recipes I came across a salad w/ green beans & tuna. I decided to give it a try … adapting the original recipe to our kitchen life in Southern France.
So we start w/ a bunch of beautiful fresh green beans … (no changes so far!)
The main point I adjusted the salad was not creating my very own tuna cream, but relying to a cup of rilette de thon which I smoothened w/ some liquid cream. It worked well!
Concerning the cornichons: in France cornichons are a lot more acid & salty than at home. So I reduced the amount of chopped cornichons …
Now let’s start w/ the original recipe!
What do we need:
- dried savory for the beans
- olive oil & balsamic vinegar
- spring onions
- cornichons
- hard-boiled eggs
- tuna & mayonnaise for the creamy dressing.
We start w/ trimming & cutting the beans. Then the beans march in boiling water together w/ some salt & dried savory – let them get cooked for about 5 min for real al dente beans. Then drain them & let them cool by help of cold water. (I substituted dried herbs of Provence for dried savory.)
Afterwards we rescue the still warm cooked beans in a big bowl.
We cut the cornichons lengthwise as well & chop the spring onions.
We boil the eggs & cut them w/ an egg-slicer.
So far the preparations …
Then we combine olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper & spring onions. We add the mess to the beans & mix well. Finally we add the cornichons …
For the tuna cream we just put tuna, mayonnaise, salt & pepper in an appropriate bowl & start blending w/ a handheld electric blender until there is a fine creamy mess.
Drain the beans once more to skip remaining liquid as well as oil & balsamic vinegar … Add the tuna cream & mix. Fold in the egg slices.
Voilà: the salad is ready for serving!
We had some fresh baguette w/ the salad – it’s a full dinner.
Enjoy!
- 500 g green beans
- 1 tsp dried savory
- 100 g cornichons
- 3 spring onions
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 140 g canned tuna in olive oil (1 can)
- 2 tbsp mayonnaise
- 4 eggs
- salt & pepper (to taste)
- a handheld electric blender
- Boil the eggs to get real hard-boiled eggs & peel them.
- Clean the beans, trim the beans & cut them once or twice.
- Bring water w/ salt & savory to a boil.
- Add the beans when boiling & cook for about 5 min.
- Drain the beans & cool them in cold water until still warm.
- Chop the spring onions.
- Mix olive oil, balsamic vinegar & spring onions; add salt & pepper.
- Mix w/ the beans.
- Slice the cornichons lengthwise & add to the beans.
- Drain the tuna roughly; some of the olive oil won’t do bad.
- Add mayonnaise & salt & pepper.
- Blend w/ a handheld electric blender like hell – until it’s a thickly creamy mess.
- Drain the beans once more to dispose of too much liquid from cooking the beans as well as the olive oil-balsamic vinegar mix.
- Add the tuna cream to the beans & mix all well.
- Slice the hard-boiled eggs w/ an egg-slicer & add to the beans i. e. fold in carefully.
- Serve at room temperature.
