Time well spent

The last time I wrote about Niçoise salad, life was pretty different around here. I thought many times of returning to this space the last few years. I did a lot of cooking, but it was different. To be honest, some days the planning of meals felt like a burden. Other days, I'd feel inspired again, wake up hungry as always, thinking of what to make. During initial 'lockdown,' being in the kitchen was comforting in many ways; the prepping, the chopping, even the dishes afterwards. There was solace in the most quotidian tasks, punctuating each day, however gently. 

Still, it was a difficult time, all the sameness, and the horrible news, the days and weeks blurring together. Not wanting to spread Covid to my family, I was extra careful, barely going out. I worried about getting a second chronic illness on top of the one I already have. Back in January of 2020 I just started beauty school, and by March the school had shut down, the whole city too, and none of us knew what was going on, or when this would all be over. I finally finished school about a year later. That first summer I spent three days a week doing online classes through Zoom, which I found frustrating (to put it mildly). And yet I was grateful to have a kitchen, to have time to make lunch at home, and to be able to eat outside on the porch. I made French-style carrot salads a lot. Or grilled cheese, a chopped salad with salami, or tuna. I made popsicles. My mom and I helped each other. On breaks I’d take Milo for a walk, drink my matcha. By the end of each day, it was time to make dinner.  

As I was putting this salad together, I felt a little pang that I wasn’t in the South of France, at that very moment. It has been a long time since I’ve been in Europe, it feels especially far away. I imagined being on some tiled patio outside, wearing a sundress, the scent of lavender wafting...(sigh). Of course, there’s nothing wrong with indulging in an occasional daydream; indeed I know that longing, that exquisite ache, is an essential part of being alive.*

When the longing fades, though, there is a kind of homecoming. Where are you right now? That afternoon, the answer was this: halving tiny orange tomatoes, tearing lettuce, snapping the ends of green beans, testing a steamed new potato for doneness, making dinner. A return, as always, to the present. 

There is a great scene in the second season of the Hulu series The Bear that stuck out to me. In it, Richie encounters the chef at the restaurant where he is training, getting a crash course in fine dining. The chef is played by Olivia Colman (‘Chef Terry’). Richie finds her peeling mushrooms with a paring knife, and asks her why she does this when she could have her underlings complete the task, and furthermore why she bothers to peel them at all. Chef Terry explains that it’s “a nice little fun detail that, when the diners see it, they know someone spent a lot of time on their dish.” She goes on to say that doing something you love is always “time well spent.” You can think of these ‘boring’ sort of tasks as beneath you, or you can shift your perspective, and suddenly the most humdrum tasks have value. If you can be of service to others, all the better. Someone will notice the care, the respect, so it matters. Every second counts.

I loved this episode so much, and Richie’s entire arc over the season. I was rooting for him. And I could relate to his need to find purpose, his search for identity. 

Anyway, Niçoise salads. I seem to always crave them in the last days of July, right about the time when tomato season is in full swing. Cherry tomatoes, as I mentioned, are my favorite. It’s divine and indulgent with fresh seared Ahi tuna, which is how I made it recently, but it’s also great with a good quality canned tuna (and a few anchovies). It is such a delicious combination of ingredients that it’s worth a bit of toiling away by the stove and some prep work, which most salads don't require. I like adding chives and parsley for freshness. I even forgot the olives the first day we had it and it was still good. As with any salad, a good dressing is key, and a punchy red wine vinaigrette is just right. I basically followed the Julia Child method, as I wrote about before. We enjoyed it together, feeling quite fine, with two very furry canine creatures waiting nearby, hoping for a morsel to eventually fall.** 

* Susan Cain's book Bittersweet explores this idea further and with incredible sensitivity and depth.

** See furry canine creatures in second photo, fully enjoying golden hour at Cannon Beach on a recent trip.