Bluenose Fillet with Quinoa & Slow-roasted Tomato Salad with Chopped Egg & Caper Dressing

In my search last week for a recipe using quinoa for a contribution to Make it with ... Mondays challenge quinoa, one of the first places I looked for some inspiration was Peter Gordon's book "Salads, The New Main Course", one of my current favourites.

The original recipe calls for tuna to be served on top of a quinoa, rocket (arugula), olive and blackened tomato salad, with a chopped egg and parsley dressing.  However, if you can't be sure of the source and sustainability of tuna available at your fishmonger, I urge you to use a different species of fish.  Peter Gordon suggests salmon, sea trout, mackerel or grey mullet as alternatives - I chose on this occasion to settle for a piece of bluenose.

Although there are a number of steps to this recipe, and it may seem a little complicated, it was actually really very simple, and the result was a wonderful dish.  Very fresh, light and healthy, with lots of interesting textural contrast and complimentary flavours.  The slight "chewiness" of the quinoa works nicely with the soft flesh of the fish, and the sweet blackened tomatoes, salty olives, peppery rocket, and sharp tangy capers add plenty of flavour punch.  Peter Gordon says "... this salad takes as its spiritual grandmother salade nicoise" and, although the result is an entirely different dish altogether, you can certainly see the parallels.

Although, I adapted this recipe to serve two people, this would actually be a great dish to make for a crowd and serve on a lovely big platter, and since much of this dish could be prepared in advance it makes for easy entertaining.

Bluenose Fillet with Quinoa & Blackened Tomato Salad,

with Chopped Egg & Caper Dressing Recipe

Adapted from recipe by Peter Gordon in

"Salads, The New Main Course"

Makes 2 generous servings

Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

3 tomatoes

extra virgin olive oil

small handful fresh basil leaves, torn

1/2 cup quinoa, well-rinsed

2 fish fillets or steaks

flaky sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

large handful mixed olives

large handful of rocket (arugula)

For the dressing

2 eggs

small handful fresh flat leaf parsley roughly chopped

1 tablespoon capers

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

juice of 1/2 lemon

To make the dressing:  Bring a pan of water to the boil, add the egg, and boil for 5 minutes, drain and put eggs into a bowl of cold water and allow to cool completely.  Peel the eggs carefully (they will still be quite soft, and yolks will be slightly runny).  Put the eggs into a small bowl and break up roughly using a fork - you could chop them, but I found them soft enough to use a fork.  Add the chopped parsley, capers and olive oil.  Set aside.  Add the lemon juice just before serving.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).  Cut the tomatoes crosswise into rings about 1cm thick, and place in a single layer in a lightly oiled, shallow baking dish.  Drizzle each slice with a little of the extra virgin olive oil.

Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes or until just starting to blacken around the edges.  Remove from the oven, arrange on a plate or platter, drizzle over any of the juices from the baking dish, scatter over torn basil leaves, sprinkle with a little flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, and drizzle over some of the extra virgin olive oil.

While the tomatoes are baking, prepare the quinoa.  Rinse thoroughly first under lots of running water.  Then put the quinoa in a small pot with 1 cup of water (basically 1/2 cup quinoa - 1 cup water), bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer, and cook until all the water has been absorbed (about 15 minutes).  Remove from the heat, fluff up with a fork, and spread out on a plate to cool down.

Heat a little more olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat.  Season the fish on both sides with flaky sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Once the pan is hot, add the fish and saute until lightly browned on both sides and cooked through.

While the fish is cooking, put the quinoa, torn up rocket, and olives in a bowl, season with flaky sea salt and black pepper, add a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and gently mix together.

Arrange the rocket salad over top of the tomato slices.  Top with a piece of the fish.  Add the lemon juice to the chopped egg dressing, and spoon over the top.

This post is a contribution to Make it with ... Mondays challenge quinoa - the linky is still open until Monday 31 January, so keep your quinoa posts coming, and don't forget to check out this week's special ingredient which is paprika.

I'm also submitting this post to Cookbook Sundays, hosted by the lovely Brenda at Brenda's Canadian Kitchen.  She's worth a visit any day of the week, but why not head over there right now and see who else has dusted off their cookbooks - you'll almost certainly find some great recipes, and maybe you'll discover a new book you'd like to add to your collection.

I'm also submitting this post to the Hearth & Soul blog hop.