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Salad Tulipe with Walnut Dressing
Yield: 6 servings
This salad is a flavorful combination of field salad, pecans, pears, goat cheese, and walnut-oil dressing. The field or corn salad (doucette or māche in French) is planted around the end of August and gets large enough to be ready for picking at the end of November. After the first frost, it becomes sweeter and tenderer. If these greens are not available, the salad can be made with a mesclun mixture, widely available now in most supermarkets.
The pears must be ripe; Bartlett, Comice, or Anjou pears
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36 to 40 segments field or corn salad (māche)
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(6 to 8 pieces per person), or 6 cups mesclun salad greens, thoroughly rinsed and dried
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1 tablespoon unsalted butter
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30 pecan halves
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Pinch salt
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3 ripe pears (Bartlett, Comice, or Anjou)
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1 tablespoon lemon juice for pears
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1 teaspoon coarsely cracked black pepper
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(see illustrated mignonnette technique,
page 30)
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3/4 pound goat cheese, preferably the small,
round, semi-hard variety
Walnut Dressing
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1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
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2 tablespoons walnut oil
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1/4 teaspoon salt
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1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
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1 tablespoon peanut or safflower oil
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Try to keep each individual bunch of field salad attached together. Pinch off the bottom of the root from each, and rinse the salad carefully in cold water. Dry in a salad spinner.
Place the butter on a small baking tray, and heat in the 375-degree oven for about a minute to melt. Scatter the pecans and the salt over the butter, toss together, and bake for 6 to 8 minutes, until nicely browned. Set aside. The pecans should be served at room temperature.
Halve the three pears lengthwise, then core, peel, and cut each half into three pieces. Sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent discoloration, then sprinkle with the cracked pepper. Cut the goat cheese into small wedges.
For the dressing: Whisk the vinegar, walnut oil, salt, pepper, and peanut oil in a small bowl.
Put three pieces of pear near the edge of each plate with wedges of cheese and pecans between. Arrange bunches of field salad in the center of the plates, and sprinkle approximately 2 teaspoons of dressing on each salad. Serve immediately.
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