Tuna Rillettes (+ Salad Niçoise Sandwich ) # French Fridays with Dorie

In French cuisine, rillettes are appetizers usually made with pork or goose meat that is diced, seasoned, cooked, then pounded or ground and served as a spread.  As the title suggests, this week the Doristas were assigned to prepare Tuna rillettes... that is a spread with tuna. 

The recipe was quick and got done in less than 10 minutes. All I had to do was to empty two drained cans of tuna in the jar of the blender, add a finely chopped shallot, bit of curry powder, bit of ground all spice, few tablespoons of heavy cream, salt, pepper and lime juice to it, blend the mixture to a smooth paste and refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.

Of course we, that is my son and I did not wait that long to taste the rillettes. As soon as the spread as ready, I scooped out a spoonful, tasted and immediately decided to make myself a Sandwich along the lines of Salad Niçoise, the salad that had inspired the Mediterranean Chicken salad. Little boy on the other hand tasted the spread and asked me if I had made a fish smoothie... Yes my rillettes did seem like a smoothie because of the 4 tablespoons of heavy cream that I had added at a go, but it was tasty nevertheless...

And in my "Salad Niçoise sandwich" it was simply wonderful ! 

For the sandwich, I toasted two slices of bread, generously slathered the rillettes on both of them, then piled  a handful of baby spinach, 4-5 strands of boiled green beans, 3-4 thin slices of boiled potato, 4 halved cherry tomatoes, 3 halved black olives, 2 capers and an anchovy on one slice of bread, seasoned it with salt and pepper and sandwiched it with the second slice of bread. Since the rillette had enough flavors, I decided to skip the vinaigrette. That was a good idea for the sandwich was perfect as it was. In fact I enjoyed it so much that I decided to repeat today's lunch menu for the next few days....   

Visit French Fridays with Dorie to know what the other members thought about this spread. You can find the  recipe for the tuna rillettes here . For more such delicious recipes order your copies of Around my French Table and join the Doristas in this tasty adventure.

I shall be sharing this recipe at some of these parties.

Toddler friendly Tuna Cakes

Bringing your child up in a country where you have not grown up yourself can sometimes be confusing. Specially when planning their meals. Had I been raising my son in Kolkata, West Bengal, I would probably not twice about which fish to buy and feed my toddler... Catfish it would be for most of his meals.. and sometimes Rohu perhaps. They would always be fresh, bought from the local fishmongers selling their early morning catch...

I am pretty sure, families who have been living here for a while and are keen on fresh catches and farm fresh products know which sources to tap and make an effort to tap  them for their everyday needs .. But not us... not yet. We are still finding our way into the system... so largely depend on canned products and frozen food  for all our fish. And all of all the preparations I have tried with canned Tuna, these Tuna cakes happen to be our favorite. Both toddler and I love them... 

The other day the toddler even thanked me for making them :))..

He can sometimes be surprisingly sweet !

He also thought these Easter Eggs were pretty...

and wanted to eat all three...  :)))

Happy Easter everybody !
~ the Khandais

Wheat Berry and Tuna Salad # French Fridays with Dorie

Yesterday I served this hearty Wheat Berry and Tuna Salad for lunch.... 

Unfortunately,  Mr MN  missed on both the star ingredients. the Tuna, because he does not have any, and wheat berries because i forgot to add the berries to his plate. it wasn't until it was time to take the pictures that i remembered the berries...but by then it was too late. so he merely had a regular bowl of greens, veggies and chicken salad with olive oil dressing and a helping of well-seasoned berries, and had nothing much to say about it. i, on the other hand had an extraordinary salad for lunch !

wheat berries were new to me. It was the first time i tasted it and i really liked it. it is chewy with a subtle nutty flavor and it added a nice crunch to the salad. from the internet i gathered that these  berries are packed with fiber, protein and iron and hence a nutritious alternative to breadcrumbs which i otherwise use in salads. I think i'll use these a lot more in my salads/meals from now on.

the vinaigrette of vinegar and mustard was also great. I actually got a new bottle of French Dijon Mustard the day before, just so that we would not miss on the tang. and it was totally worth it. though i am used to mincing the fruits and veggies in salad, being short on time, i  ended up dicing them as per the recipe, then added the tuna and wheat berry to the veggies, seasoned the salad and and ate. since the salad looked filling and colorful enough even without the eggs, i omitted them. i actually did not miss them at all. with the berries, avocado, tuna and the greens this bowl was quite a substantial  meal by itself. 

update 5/7/2014. Today, almost after an year I made the Wheat Berry and Tuna Salad. This time I arranged it just the way Dorie suggested...

I cooked the wheat berries well in advance, whisked the mustard vinaigrette into it and let the flavors blend in over the next couple of hours. Next I gently stirred in the diced apples, celery, onion, green bell pepper and drained tuna into the bowl of berries. Finally I seasoned the the greens (spinach in my case) with salt and pepper, tossed them in olive oil and put them in the serving bowl. I then spooned the wheat berry salad over the greens, topped it with halved cherry tomatoes, diced avocado and quartered hard boiled eggs and served.

With all the ingredients in place, the salad felt so healthy and wholesome that once again we decided to fix Monday as the Salad Day at our niche !

You can find the recipe for this salad here. For many more delicious recipes like this order your copies of Around the French Table from Amazon and join us as we cook our way through the book.