Overdone

Looking at it now it looks a wee bit overdone, burnt one could say even, but at the time I didn't notice, it just had a nice charred taste.

I saw chicory in the supermarket recently and thought it was about time I gave it try again.  I can't remember eating it since I was a child and those memories aren't ones of liking it.  Tastes change though so in the basket it went.  I had thoughts of cooking it on the ridged grill pan and the internet suggested this combination.

Grilled Chicory, Tuna and Salsa Verde (for 2)

Ingredients

2 heads of chicory
2 tuna steaks

6 anchovy fillets
Juice of a lemon
2 small pickled gherkins
1/2 clove garlic
Half a pack (12.5gr maybe) of flat leaf parsley
2 TB of oil (1 olive oil and 1 from the anchovies)

Method

First off make the salsa verde.  Finely chop the anchovies, garlic, parsley and gherkins and mix with the oils and the juice from the lemon.  Season just with black pepper, there should be enough salt from the anchovies.

Chop the chicory lengthways into quarters, rub with oil and then cook on a ridged grill pan for 3 minutes each cut side before removing to your plate.

OIl the tuna, season with salt and cook on the ridged grill to taste (for me that was 45 seconds a side) before removing to the plate and spooning the salsa verde on top.

Simple as that.  Ten minutes maybe from start to finish.

The Verdict

I remember chicory being really bitter but here, once you got past the initial charred taste, there was a lovely sweetness being replaced at the end with a pleasant savoury, bitter note.  Very tasty.

I'm not an expert on salsa verde but I think this is missing at least one ingredient in capers, maybe more. Looking at it from a taste rather than correctness point of view though it was good.  Even lacking some ingredients there still plenty of flavour in there: salt from the anchovies, heat from the raw garlic and the earthy parsley all lifted with the piquancy of the gherkins and the lemon juice.  A great combination with the tuna.

Comments

[Ros]

I often have chicory with tuna, but it is usually with a sweet-savoury soy and honey dressing. I recently tried it with duck with a tart blueberry and pomegranate sauce but I've never tried it without something sweet-sour to balance it. I'll certainly give this a try.