Thanksgiving... salad?
I know usually salad isn't the star of the show but I wanted to share this one I made that was really really good. I got inspiration from a poached pear and goat cheese salad that we had at an Italian restaurant in Siesta Key:
I used a bag of forelle pears; they are like 1/3 the size of regular pears and were a good size for a small serving of salad.
Champagne Poached Pears:
12 forelle pears or 4 big pears (sturdy and firm)
1 bottle dry champagne (I used prosecco)
1 cup orange juice
some freshly grated cinnamon (I didn't use a whole stick b/c I thought it might overpower)
handful of dried cranberries
~1/2 to 1 cup of sugar (to taste)
water to cover
Peel the pears (could also core them but could do that later as well). You can put the peeled ones in a bowl with some lemon juice mixed with water in order to keep them from browning as you peel more and do the other steps. Mix orange juice, sugar, cranberries and cinnamon in a stock pot or dutch oven and stir to incorporate the sugar. Stand the pears up on end in the pot, put on med-high heat and pour in the prosecco and enough water to cover. You can also put a "top" on the pears of parchment paper cut to the shape of the pot, with a hole cut in it to let steam escape and to keep the pears completely submerged. Boil until pears are tender, approx 15 minutes for little pears, maybe 25 for big ones.
Remove from heat and store pears in the poaching liquid in the fridge.
Salad:
50/50 mix of arugula and organic spring mix
poached pears (cut in half and cored, 1/2 pear per serving if the servings are small, could use more)
a few sliced strawberries
Toasted pecans
Salted/roasted Pepitas
crumbled Goat Cheese
diced roasted pumpkin (with enough water roasted out of it that it has a good consistency and isn't mushy)
Raspberry walnut vinaigrette dressing. (This was what I had in the fridge, "Newman's Own" brand. It worked well. If you want to make your own champagne vinaigrette or something, that would work well. Salad does not need a ton of dressing, just a little bit).
It was really good. This entry was originally posted at https://eve11.dreamwidth.org/1502353.html. Comment wherever you would like.
I used a bag of forelle pears; they are like 1/3 the size of regular pears and were a good size for a small serving of salad.
Champagne Poached Pears:
12 forelle pears or 4 big pears (sturdy and firm)
1 bottle dry champagne (I used prosecco)
1 cup orange juice
some freshly grated cinnamon (I didn't use a whole stick b/c I thought it might overpower)
handful of dried cranberries
~1/2 to 1 cup of sugar (to taste)
water to cover
Peel the pears (could also core them but could do that later as well). You can put the peeled ones in a bowl with some lemon juice mixed with water in order to keep them from browning as you peel more and do the other steps. Mix orange juice, sugar, cranberries and cinnamon in a stock pot or dutch oven and stir to incorporate the sugar. Stand the pears up on end in the pot, put on med-high heat and pour in the prosecco and enough water to cover. You can also put a "top" on the pears of parchment paper cut to the shape of the pot, with a hole cut in it to let steam escape and to keep the pears completely submerged. Boil until pears are tender, approx 15 minutes for little pears, maybe 25 for big ones.
Remove from heat and store pears in the poaching liquid in the fridge.
Salad:
50/50 mix of arugula and organic spring mix
poached pears (cut in half and cored, 1/2 pear per serving if the servings are small, could use more)
a few sliced strawberries
Toasted pecans
Salted/roasted Pepitas
crumbled Goat Cheese
diced roasted pumpkin (with enough water roasted out of it that it has a good consistency and isn't mushy)
Raspberry walnut vinaigrette dressing. (This was what I had in the fridge, "Newman's Own" brand. It worked well. If you want to make your own champagne vinaigrette or something, that would work well. Salad does not need a ton of dressing, just a little bit).
It was really good. This entry was originally posted at https://eve11.dreamwidth.org/1502353.html. Comment wherever you would like.