Friday, March 03, 2006

A jolly good salad

Here is a recipe for a salad that I served as a starter before the super-delicious slowly braised beef last weekend. It started as a simple salad thrown together from the ingredients I happened to have, but as the end result was very delicious, I've adopted it as my current party starter salad:)

Amongst the diners last Saturday were two Estonian guys. One of them made it clear that he doesn't like 'grass' (i.e. anything green and salad-like). The other one remembered after the second helpings that he really-really doesn't like goat's cheese. Funny how one forgot his aversion to salad leaves and the other happily munched away on goat's cheese while they were eating:)

A tasty salad with rocket, goat's cheese and bacon
(Pille pidulik salat põld-võõrkapsa, peekoni ja kitsejuustuga)



For the salad:
a bag of rocket salad, washed and drained
a couple of chopped spring onions
a generous handful of toasted pinenuts
a log of soft goat cheese
couple of rashers good quality lean smoked bacon

For the dressing:
extra virgin olive oil
half a squeezed lemon
crushed black pepper
Maldon sea salt

Not much to say about the preparation. Toast the pinenuts on a non-stick pan, fry chopped bacon until just crisp. Mix all ingredients in a bowl, drizzle over the dressing and serve.

Just a jolly good combination of the mustardy sharp rocket, salty-chewy bacon, nutty-crispy pinenuts and creamy-tart Welsh goat's cheese. Will make an appearance on my table again in no time.

13 comments:

shaz said...

hi there. Nice blog you got here. I added your blog as a link on mine., I hope you dun mind. My blog is about my foodie adventures in singapore (where im from) cheers!
shaz

Thredahlia said...

Kõlab ja näeb välja nii, et ... lihtsalt jube maitsvalt. Lihtne aga imemaitsev kooslus.

Ruccola salatit õnnestus suvel süüa, kaubanduses on teda väga harva leida. Eriti hea oli mu meelest teraleiva peal toorjuustu ja imeõhukese taise suitsusingiga, suts pipart juurde.

PS! Põld-võõrkapsast olen ma poes ja retseptides näinud pigem "ruccola" nime all, paljud vist tema botaanilist nime ei teagi. :)

Anonymous said...

Yes, I do love my rocket! Will be making this, you bet. Too bad I'm not in Edinburgh to drop in on you for all these delicacies. You lucky thing...

K and S said...

this recipe sounds lovely!

Pille said...

Shaz - of course I don't mind:) I'll pay a visit to your blog soon!

Thredalia - täpselt minu mõte. Lihtne ja jooksu pealt väljamõeldud kooslus, aga tulemus oli hõrk. Nagu ütlesin, sõid ka "umbrohtu" ja kitsejuustu põhimõtteliselt mittesöövad eesti mehed:) Ja põld-võõrkapsas kasvab väga hästi ka aknalaual lillepotis!

Roxy - let me know how you liked it. And I don't think O. is so far after all. Just can just hop into your car and drive up here:)

K&S - thank you for your kind words - it was a lovely simple salad indeed.

Polkkapossu said...

This sounds good to me :=

Journal Actif said...

Edin, my 11 years old son is the one in charge of salads here. I called him to look at your recipe and he'll make it for us this week. He says he would prefer feta rather than goat cheese but will try goat since "the apple cake lady makes it that way it must be good".

Pille said...

Polkkapossu - it not only sounds good, but it tastes good as well:)

Zoubida - you've just made my day - or your son Edin did:) I'm blushing now:) I imagine feta would work nicely, too, but goat's cheese is creamier and less salty and might be 'safer' to use together with already salty smoked bacon.
Greetings to Edin from me!

Anonymous said...

LOL! at your friends' reaction to the salad, especially after they claim not to like salad.

That does look like a jolly good salad to me. ;-)

Paz

Pille said...

Paz - LOL indeed. The no-goat's cheese guy had 2 large platefuls (with loads of cheese) and declared it to be delicious. Then he asked which cheese it was. When I told him, he looked surprised and confused, because he thought he didn't like goat's cheese. Go and figure out indeed:)

Ummu Muhammad said...

Hi Pille,

those salads really look delicious and since I'm now on a diet, I think ur salad will be one of the dishes I'd do more than the rest! All I have to do is just get the salad and the lemon, I have the rest already! Thanks so much Pille!

Anonymous said...

Delicious. Also makes a complete meal if you increase the amounts slightly and top it with a poached egg.

Pille said...

Annamox - I am more of a pudding girl than the starter girl, so I had - again - forgotten about the starter. And then ended up throwing this salad together from ingredients I happened to have. If you only have to get the rocket leaves and the lemon, then you're half-way there!

W7 - did you make the salad? Wonderful - it's great to know that I manage to inspire someone to recreate my humble recipes:) The poached egg addition sounds great - I'll keep that in mind next time!