Well wouldn’t you know it. It didn’t take me long to return with another delicious Basque recipe. Granted it’s not my first as you will recall we had the grilled tuna sauce vierge, ragout of tuna marmitako, and the salade Niçoise with grilled tuna. Yes indeed we have had some impressive dishes from this region. So naturally I did not hesitate to accept an invitation from my good friends Luc, aka “four fingers” or “Beau Geste” and his lovely wife Anais to return to St. Jean de Luz. If you recall from your history class, back in 1660, Louis XIV chose this tiny fishing village along the coast between Biarritz and the Spanish border, as the place to marry the Infanta Maria Teresa of Spain.

I always enjoy visiting with them and always find myself greeting the fishing fleet on their return. Think fresh! Truth be told I no real preconceived notion of what I was going to cook other than just tuna. Well this is where, Luc and Madame come in as they know a thing or two about cooking especially Luc who has some interesting recipes from North Africa, Asia and few other little spots where he just happened to be when all Hell broke loose. Yes, one of those. While Luc was explaining yet another way to cook tuna Basque-style, he told me a little story about visiting Gibraltar and not the way most normal people do. Apparently, he dropped out of the sky at some incredible altitude with a very low opening of his parachute right into the Straight of Gibraltar and safely swam to Gib’ then proceeded to climb all the way up and unnoticed. I asked why would he do that? His reply to me? It was a team exercise and besides it was great fun. I poured myself another glass of wine and pondered if Luc was missing a finger what else was he missing?   Anyway, here is the recipe and believe me it was simply delicious; we had a beautiful meal and washed it down with bottle after bottle of chilled white wine.

Thon à la Basquaise

Ingredients:
(serves 6)
6 slices of tuna
4 tomatoes
4 onions
3 green peppers
4 cloves of garlic  
1 bouquet garni (parsley, thyme and bay leaf)
2 sprigs of parsley
6 oz  fish stock
6 oz dry white wine
3 oz olive oil 
sea salt and cracked black pepper
Cooking Instructions:
Slice onions and chop the garlic. Wash the green peppers remove the seeds, cut in two then again into slices. Dice the tomatoes.

Heat the oil in a large pan then cook the onions, garlic, peppers and tomatoes for 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper.

Lower the heat then add half the white wine having tasted it first. Add the bouquet garni then cover and cook at very low heat for about an hour. 

Meanwhile, chop the parsley then add the remaining white wine and stock and bring to a boil.
Introduce your tuna slices to the frying pan and cook for about 10 minutes.  
Place the tuna slices on a platter and spoon the sauce basquaise, sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately to your hungry guests. Serve with rice and a smile.
Now about those wines
Don’t pull you hair out on this one. I would settle on a very nice white Bordeaux, Graves.

Château Malartic-Lagravière Blanc 2006: A very fresh and appealing, clean and bright. The palate is lively, fleshy, with grip and substance and a good acid backbone. There is plenty of punch and verve here. This is firm, with delicious character, and an impressive, upright, taut style which would do well in the cellar.

Château Smith-Haut-Lafitte Blanc 2006: An exuberant and characterful nose here, this is plainly a flashy and stylish wine. Soft and seductive and fleshy on the palate, showing plenty of mettle, flavour and vigour. This is very forceful but rather supple too, and overall is really very attractive. Consistently very good indeed.

Domaine de Chevalier Blanc (Pessac-Léognan) 2008: Pure fruit, lifted, high-toned even and lightly volatile. Rather bold and broad rather than elegant on the palate. There is some nice acidity coming through and a  touch of fruit pastille-sweetness at the end.