I have this addiction. Whenever I chance upon something I instantly fall in love with, I make little notes about it on my phone so that I can recreate my version of it at home. SS introduced me to a wonderful app called Foodnote, which simplified the archiving of this addiction. But the detail of the salad that I have made was jotted down prior to introduction to this intelligent app, and thus I have faint/no recollection of when and where I came across it. None the less, the salad is fantastic. It’s not one that you can make and serve in a bowl. It’s to be plated nicely and shared between a few, immediately. I tweaked it to availability/liking/inability to recreate a few details!
This was a truly trying time for me. I set off to prepare a batch of homemade caramelised walnuts. First batch came out looking amazing-albeit a little lighter in colour than I would have envisaged. I bite into one after it’s cooled a bit, and realise the walnuts needed warming up before caramelising as they were rather soft. And soft ones aren’t the desired result. So that was a beckoning to do a second batch. And little did I realise that I was out of acacia honey. I went on to substitute with langhese which umm after it was done I realised didn’t taste ANY good. Fail. Not to mention that I was trying to make a bit of balsamic glaze for the salad, on the side. That too was a royal failure. Not much of a cooking day, but the salad ended up being the saviour, without any complications. Amazing restaurant quality stuff. So when the world seems to hand you a bunch of fails, here is a hit to make it all ok!
Rocket and Pear Salad, with Caramelised Walnuts and Cherry Tomatoes
Balsamic citrus vinaigrette, parmesan, crusty camembert ciabatta
Ingredients: (Feeds 2)
1. 2 cups of rocket leaves, cleaned and torn into bite sized pieces
2. 1 pear, peeled, cored and cut into wedges
3. 1/4th cup, caramelised walnuts
4. ½ cup cherry tomatoes, halved
5. 2 tbs parmesan, grated
6. 4 slices ciabatta, toasted
7. 1/4th cup camembert, for ciabatta
Balsamic citrus vinaigrette:
1. 1 ½ tbs extra virgin olive oil
2. 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
3. Zest of ½ lime
4. 1 tsp powdered/confectioners’ sugar
5. Salt and freshly cracked pepper, to taste
Method:
1. Whisk together the vinaigrette ingredients.
2. Arrange the rocket leaves on a large plate. Layer over the pears. Now drizzle with the cherry tomatoes and caramelised walnuts.
3. Toast the thinly sliced ciabatta and butter with camembert. Arrange on plate. Shower with the vinaigrette and parmesan and serve immediately!
If you liked this recipe, you may also like:
1. Caesar Salad
Feedback:
1. I found that although this salad looks rather small, all the ingredients mesh so wonderfully together and it actually is quite filling.
2. If you need to make this for more than 2-3 people, make sure that instead of maing a big platter full, make small sharing serves for 2-3 people each or individual plates as the flavour and the effect of this salad only surfaces when each ingredient is had, more or less together or one after the other.
3. Instead of Camembert, you can easily substitute Brie or any other non strong soft cheese, so as to not overpower the delicate salad.
