Another salad... but this one has figs!

We are celebrating my mother's birthday late this year, and I have the distinct honour of hosting the dinner at my apartment.  I think this is technically the first time my mother will have been over for dinner!  How exciting.

Anyhow, I couldn't help go a little 'nuts' and decided to concoct a tasty salad to go with our Roast Beef (see recipe here).  I give you:

Grilled Figs & Pistachios - A love story salad

Dressing ingredients:

1/2 tbsp honey
pinch of saffron
1 tbsp apricot jam
3 tbsp rice vinegar (can also use champagne or white wine vinegar)
light salad (sunflower/grapeseed/etc) oil to measure

To make the dressing

Combine everything but the oil and blend until all is dissolved and mixed.  Add 2-3 times as much oil as there is everything else (this is the usual measure for a vinagrette).  Shake/blend until awesome.  If made beforehand, the flavours will marry better if left out of the fridge for a few hours.  Don't worry - nothing will go bad!  Serve at room temperature, as sugars taste sweeter when they aren't cold.

Salad ingredients:

6-8 figs (depending on size, guests, etc.)
1/2-2/3 cup pistachios, crushed to very coarse pieces  (shelled first, of course!)
1/4 cup pancetta bits (can substitute bacon bits)
arugula
2 shallots, shredded
olive oil

To prepare the salad

Shell the pistachios.  Put aside.  (Crush just before you add to salad, and the flavour will be fresher.)
Cut pancetta or bacon (or any other cured ham type) into little confetti bits - about 1/2 cm cubed.  Fry lightly without adding any oil (they will provide their own) until crispy and brown.  Let them cool on paper towel to absorb the extra grease.  Put aside.
Shred the shallots just before serving.  Like the pistachios, they'll bite better when freshly cut.
Finally, remove the stem ends and halve the figs.  Heat up a grill to medium-high heat.  Cover the figs liberally with olive oil, and when the pan is hot press them on the grill face first.  Allow to grill/caramelize for 2-4 minutes until lovely brown gold with pretty stripes.  Let cool enough to make the halves quarters, then add to the salad with all other ingredients.  Dress with the vinagrette.  Serve and enjoy!

Blood Orange Salad

Hi all,

Salads, salads and more salads.  I believe I mentioned before that whenever my family has an impromptu dinner, I get asked to bring salad.  This is mostly because my husband and I are quite picky about our salads, and so if we make it, we know we'll like it.

This happened last week, and after asking the spouse what he wanted to eat, he said "do that one with the blood oranges".  Needless to say, I hadn't any clue which one he was talking about, so I set to finding a good arugula and blood orange recipe.  None of the ones I found appealed to me, so I threw all caution to the wind and made up my own recipe.  Here it is:

Arugula & Blood Orange Salad with Mint Vinaigrette

 

Salad Ingredients

spiced almonds (see below)
parsley, without stems and coarsely chopped
arugula
3-4 blood oranges, peeled and pieced
half a fennel, sliced paper-thin (either use a mandolin, or super-sharp knife/shaver)
manchego cheese, shaved (easier to do when quite cold)

Spiced Almonds

1/2 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons pimenton/smoked paprika
1 cup almonds slivered

To spice the almonds, warm up the oil on a frying pan to medium-high.  Once hot, toss the almonds until slightly toasted and completely covered in the oil.  Then sprinkle the pimenton over so the almonds are uniformly covered.  (This may not need all 2 tbsp. of the pimenton)  Let cool before adding to salad.

Mint Vinaigrette

2 tablespoons finely chopped mint
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
pinch of salt
1/4 cup olive oil

I usually make my dressings by putting them in a tight-seal tupperware and then shaking the hell out of them.  If you're all fancy and gadget-philic, you can use a hand blender to get these ingredients smooth and supermixed.  Either way, the dressing tastes best if you let it sit blended for a little while, to let the flavours marry.

Drizzle the vinaigrette over the assembled salad, and toss with gusto.  You're done!

What's with all the carrots?

I've fallen into bad habits.  I had four very stout carrots sitting in the fridge from last weekend's grocery run, and hadn't done a thing with them.  So tonight, searching for something light and vegetably to eat, I decided to tackle one of Jamie Oliver's salad recipes.

Now, anyone who knows me is aware of my distaste for most salads - especially when lettuce or greens are involved.  But in Mr. Oliver's lovely book was a recipe for a carrot salad that looked quite tasty.  But here's where my bad habits come in.  I didn't have mandarin oranges.  That's it - that's the extent of my sin.  So I improvised.

May I present to you: Heather's carrot salad.

It consists of grated carrot, fresh chopped cilantro, prunes, sesame seeds and dressed with an emulsion of lime juice and walnut oil.  Walnut oil is so my flavour of the month.


It turned out quite nicely.  Quite nicely indeed.  It's hard to stick to recipes when experiments turn out like this.


(ADDED)

My husband is still raving about it today, and he insisted I write the full recipe down somewhere so he can replicate it.  Here we go:

salad:
4 large carrots, peeled
handful of fresh cilantro leaves
3 prunes
handful of sesame seeds

dressing:
1 lime, juiced
twice as much Walnut Oil

Grate the carrots into a big bowl.  I don't like cilantro stems, so I pull the leaves off first, then chop them up.  Throw them in the bowl too.  Halve the prunes lengthwise then slice them finely into strips (half a cm wide).  I find that throwing the prune bits in little by little and tossing along the way is best, so that they don't stick to each other.  Toss in the sesame seeds.  Mix the whole thing up with your hands.  To make the dressing, combine the juice and oil in a little jar or plastic container and shake vigourously.  Once well mixed, drizze two or three tablespoonsworth over the salad.  Toss to coat.  And you're done!