Grilled Tuna - salad nicoise.

Another post with seafood.

As I chose this photograph I began thinking of the people I have spoken with by email as well as friends who have partners who have very different culinary tastes from each other.

I am very lucky that P and I only diverge on a couple of things, mushrooms being one and beetroot being another, and mussells. He prefers meat as a fillet while I prefer to have bones we can though reach a solution whereby the meal can contain both.

But when your partner simply cannot eat seafood whether it be due to allergies or cultural reasons or just a matter of taste, I really would find that most difficult. I think on occassion I would just have to cook that something that I am used to just so I could recognise myself. It's the way I approached pregnancy too, while I didn't really feel like drinking alcohol and wouldn't have drank much even if I could, I felt that I had to have the occassional glass just so I remembered what it was like to do the things that I know are a part of being me.

I think that would have to be how I feel about eating mussells for instance, while P is not particularly fond of them, some weekends I make up a batch of mussells just for me and he can have something else like a crab omelette.

The Tuna salad is one of the things P and I really enjoy together. The salad is not exactly nicoise as I don't use the baby potatoes, I do however use some blanched green beans, olives, tomatoes, asparagus, eggs, and red onion and green leaves.

The tuna is dealt with very simply. I use my black grill heat it up on high and brush the tuna steaks and leave them cook on one side for a few mintues and then turn. As you can see they are still quite pink in the middle.

The dressing I use is based on the caesar dressing (no mustard) with lots of lemon juice and finely chopped capers added for good measure. If you wanted to go to less trouble though you could also use a bought mayonnaise and add the capers and thin it out with some extra lemon juice.

This salad was accompanied by a chilled white wine and some fantastically chewy ciabatta.