Tuna Nicoise Salad — For the Week I Couldn’t Cook

I sat with Ma on Saturday after pho and asked her to tell me about the boat. Not the story she told the grandkids — the full story. Everything. She looked at me for a long time. She put down her chopsticks. She said, "Why now?" I said, "Because I should have asked twenty years ago." She told me. For two hours, she told me. I'm not going to write all of it here — some of it is hers, not mine to share. But I'll tell you what I can. There were forty-three people on the boat. The boat was meant for twelve. It was a fishing vessel, wooden, twenty-eight feet long. They left at night, from a beach south of Vung Tau. Mai was twenty-three. She was seven months pregnant with me. Huy was twenty-six. Linh was three. The first three days were calm. They ate rice and dried fish. The water was blue and flat and Ma said it was so beautiful it made her angry, because beautiful water doesn't care who's floating on it. Day four: a storm. Not a typhoon — a squall, short and violent. The boat took on water. Three people went overboard. Two were pulled back. One — a teenage boy, fifteen — was not. Ma remembered his name: Dat. She said it clearly, like she'd said it to herself a thousand times. Day seven: the engine died. They drifted for two days. The water ran out. Huy gave his ration to Linh. Ma gave hers to Huy. Nobody gave water to the fifteen-year-old's mother because she'd stopped speaking and they were afraid. Day nine: a Thai pirate boat approached. Everyone was terrified. But the pirates looked at the condition of the boat — forty starving people in a listing vessel — and they either felt pity or saw nothing worth stealing. They gave them water and pointed north. Day eleven: a U.S. Navy ship found them. Ma was dehydrated, semi-conscious, and eight months pregnant. They put her on a stretcher and took her to a ship's medical bay. She woke up in a hospital in the Philippines. She asked for Huy. They brought him. She asked for Linh. They brought her. She asked for rice. They brought her rice. She ate the rice and she said: "We made it." I sat at her kitchen table and listened and I didn't say anything because what do you say? What do you say to the woman who carried you through all of that? I didn't cook this week. I went home and sat in my kitchen and looked at the smoker through the window and thought about a wooden boat and forty-three people and a boy named Dat who didn't make it and my mother, twenty-three years old, eating rice in a hospital in the Philippines and saying: we made it. We made it.

I didn’t fire up the smoker. I didn’t turn on the stove. I sat in my kitchen for a long time, and eventually I made this — a Tuna Nicoise, cold and composed, something I could put together without really cooking at all. There’s fish in it, which felt right somehow, given everything. Ma crossed the South China Sea on a wooden fishing vessel. The least I could do was open a can of tuna, lay everything out carefully on a plate, and eat something quiet.

Tuna Nicoise Salad

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 35 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 2 cans (5 oz each) solid white tuna in olive oil, drained
• 1 lb baby Yukon Gold potatoes, halved
• 8 oz haricots verts or thin green beans, trimmed
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 cup Nicoise or Kalamata olives, pitted
• 1/4 small red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons capers, drained
• 4 cups butter lettuce or mixed greens
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 small garlic clove, minced
• Salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Cook the potatoes. Place halved potatoes in a pot of salted cold water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook 10–12 minutes, until just tender when pierced with a fork. Drain and let cool to room temperature.
2. Blanch the green beans. While potatoes cook, bring a small pot of salted water to a boil. Add green beans and cook 2–3 minutes until bright green and just tender-crisp. Transfer immediately to a bowl of ice water to stop cooking. Drain and pat dry.
3. Hard-boil the eggs. Place eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water by 1 inch. Bring to a boil, then cover, remove from heat, and let sit 10 minutes. Transfer to ice water, peel, and halve lengthwise.
4. Make the vinaigrette. In a small bowl or jar, whisk together olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, and minced garlic. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Compose the salad. Arrange greens on a large platter or in individual bowls. Lay out the potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, olives, red onion, and tuna in separate sections over the greens. Nestle the egg halves around the plate and scatter capers over everything.
6. Dress and serve. Drizzle vinaigrette evenly over the salad just before serving. Finish with a few turns of black pepper. Serve immediately at room temperature.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 385 | Protein: 31g | Fat: 19g | Carbs: 25g | Fiber: 5g | Sodium: 610mg