Tuna Steaks Niçoise and Scrippelle (and two kinds pickles)

Wednesday 2 March

Our friend Billur from Turkey has to go back soon, so we wanted to have her over for a friendly dinner.

We started with some rosé wine and crackers with salty appetizers, mainly homemade, except for the olives (which we can't do ourselves); Holt's cornichons, and two kinds of pickles that Barbara made back on Sat. Feb. 5. Here are the recipes.

Dvorah's pickled turnips

Bright magenta pickles that are served at every good Israeli felafel stand.

4 big turnips (6 small in this case, 1 lb. 12 oz)

2 beets (also smallish, 10 oz)

salt (kosher, what else?)

2 stalks celery, sliced to jar size

white vinegar

Peel and cut turnips in half, slice thin, about a quarter inch thick. Pile in colander, salting each layer. Then peel and slice beets in half, boil in water to cover until half-soft.

When beets are done and cool enough to handle, slice them too; reserve juice. In two quart jars, put half of each stalk of celery on either side. Roughly rinse turnips, pile in jar in layers, packing down in alternation with beets. Fill jar with beet juice, then water if needed almost to top, then vinegar. Taste to adjust salt and vinegar. Let sit 2 days to a week; after that refrigerate.

Joel's Pickled Daikon

Joel told us that these are both simple to make and addictive, and he was so right.

2 cups daikon or radishes (8 oz.),

sliced into quarter-inch-thick bitesize wedges

1/2 cup rice vinegar

a scant 1/2 cup sugar

1-1/2 teaspoon salt

Place daikon slices in a jar. In a bowl stir together vinegar, sugar, and salt until sugar is dissolved. Pour over daikon. Cover and refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight before serving.

But back to dinner. The main course was sort of a Salade Niçoise but made with whole grilled tuna steaks, on a beautiful green salad with potato and green beans and black olives, slathered with an anchovy-flavored vinaigrette.

As for dessert, it was inspired by Lidia's scrippelle ribbons with fruit sauce (fiocchi di scrippelle all'arancio). Essentially, these are crespelle, but rolled and cut up to look like ribbons of thick pasta. Our arancio was the tail end of a jar of 5-citrus marmelade, loosened with some triple sec, which made a lovely flame, and then a very elegant ending.

Bye, Billur! Come back soon!