12.6.12

GREEN PEAR SALAD

Guaranteed this will be the first to go on the buffet table. And the dressing… ah the dressing is heavenly! If you have a good salad garden, this will be a joy to prepare. My greens are still small so I bought a large package of prewashed greens at Safeway. Make sure the packed greens are very, very fresh. I washed them anyway... the water brings the leaves alive and your salad will be fresher that way. As for the green pear, I would not use soft, fully ripened pear. It should be firm, because you want the pear sliced very thin. I used only one pear, but I think the salad could use up to two pears. 

My daughter said this would have been nice with goat cheese too. [smart daughter eh?] But I opted to go without, because I made a couple of other salads with feta cheese, and it would have been just too many salads with cheese. I also rather liked the lightness of this salad without cheese.

Words of caution, when you make the dressing, use a blender*, not a food processor. What a mess it made for me! If you don’t have a blender, prepare it by hand**. 

GREEN PEAR SALAD
Salad:
3 large handfuls of mixed greens
1 green pear thinly sliced
3/4 cup pecans, lightly toasted
3/4 cup dried cranberries
Dressing:
2 very finely chopped shallots
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 cup vegetable oil

• On medium heat, lightly toast the pecans in a non-stick skillet.
• Remove and set aside to cool.
• Wash and spin-dry the salad greens.
• Place the salad greens in a large mixing bowl.
• Wash and thinly slice the pear. [Do not peel]
• Place the sliced pear in a bowl and toss with 1 heaping Tbsp of Fruit Fresh. This will keep the pear from oxidizing.
• Add the pear slices to the bowl.
• Add the toasted pecans and the dried cranberries to the bowl.
• Lightly toss and transfer to a salad bowl.

*Dressing in Blender:
 Place dressing ingredients [except the oil] in a blender and blend.
• In a thin, steady stream, add the oil.
• Transfer to a decanter and serve with the salad.

**Dressing by Hand:
• Alternatively, dice or grate the shallots and set them aside.
• With a balloon whisk, combine the rest of the dressing ingredients [except the oil].
• In a thin, steady stream, whisk in the oil
• Add the shallots and whisk to combine.
• Transfer to a decanter and serve with the salad.
 

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It began with posting a few recipes on line for the family. "zsuzsa is in the kitchen" has more than 1000 Hungarian and International recipes. What started out as a private project turned into a well visited blog. The number of visitors long passed the two million mark. I organized the recipes into an on-line cookbook. On top of the page click on "ZSUZSA'S COOKBOOK". From there click on any of the chapters to access the recipes. For the archive just scroll to the bottom of the page. I am not profiting from my blog, so visitors are not harassed with advertising or flashy gadgets. The recipes are not broken up with photos at every step. Where needed the photos are placed following the recipe. Feel free to cut and paste my recipes for your own use. Publication is permitted as long as it is in your own words and with your own photographs. However, I would ask you for an acknowledgement and link-back to my blog. Happy cooking!