Confit Tuna and Chickpea Salad
Serves 4
Learn how to confit Tuna - transform your everyday salad.
Confit Tuna (Serves 4):
2 large or 4 small tuna steaks
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp salt
3 sprigs of fresh oregano
2 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 lemon, peeled into strips
1/2 fresh red chilli, sliced
Lots of olive oil
Salad (Serves 2):
400g chickpeas, listen, let's not mess about, @boldbeanco are the only way to go. They've got the best flavour and honestly, without them you have so much work to do to make these chickpeas delicious
2 tomatoes, cut into quarters
1 tbsp dill
1 tbsp parsley
1 lemon juice
olive oil
Pickled shallot:
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp peppercorns
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
2 shallots, sliced
Dijon Creme Fraiche:
2 tbsp creme fraiche
1tsp dijon
2 tbsp dill
pinch of salt
1 tbsp lemon juice
It’s quite a long recipe when it’s written out like this, but I can assure you that this is not complicated. You could be serving this dish for a fancy lunch on the weekend or preparing it for a considerable number of extremely delicious packed lunches for the week.
Method:
Mix the sugar, salt and oregano together. Place the tuna steak in an oven proof dish. You want this to be as snug as possible to cover efficiently with oil. Generously cover the tuna with the salt and sugar mixture and then leave it in the fridge for 1-2 hours.
Heat oven to 150C. Remove tuna from the fridge and add fennel, coriander, lemon and chilli. Then you need to fully submerge you tuna in olive oil. Failing to do so will result in corners of very dry overcooked tuna, rather than sumptuous soft buttery ones. Bake tuna in the oven for 13 minutes. Then allow to cool in the same oil for a further 13 minutes.
Make your shallot pickle by putting all the ingredients, apart from the shallots, into a small pot and bringing to the boil. Pour hot pickling liquid over the shallots.
Make your creme fraiche dollop by mixing dill, dijon, lemon, salt and creme fraiche together.
Now time to make the salad. Mix it all together - chickpeas, tomatoes, dill, parsley, lemon, salt and olive oil. Throw in a few pickled shallots. Split into bowls and then top with confit tuna, a dollop of herby creme fraiche and some more pickles.