THIS IS the tuna with tapenade that was Sunday night dinner about a month ago (!). A funny thing about this camera...the colors aren't true at all, but at least in this case, that seems to have improved matters rather than made them worse.
I can't remember whether this was from Fast Food My Way or Encore With Claudine, but it is the best Jacques Pepin recipe I have tried yet. You simply mince olives (Nicoise and oil-cured) and press them onto one side of the fish before cooking it on top of the stove. (We should have added anchovies to the tapenade, too, but I did not want to buy them). You finish the fish in the oven, but this left it rather dry--if I use such a thin piece again (just under an inch), I might skip the oven. I would not skip the bed of arugula, though. I'm usually not sold on that kind of thing, but in this case, the cool, peppery bed made the meaty tuna and olives all the tastier.
By the way, you will perhaps be amused to know that part of my original intent here was to show my grocery bill for each dish. This would help me comparison shop, and I think it's interesting. So far I have a big pile of receipts but have not broken anything out. I can tell you off the top of my head that fish is almost always so expensive as to be a very special dinner. Last week wild ("wild"?) salmon cost only $10/lb at Whole Foods, and I had to buy it; though on second thought, that's pretty expensive for Tuesday night dinner. In the new house maybe I'll start managing my receipts. Onward!
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