Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Spiced apple, brie and rocket salad

This recipe was adapted from a book called Christmas - simple and delicious easy-to-make recipes (now only apparently available through Amazon.co.uk) It's a great little book if you can find it!

Ingredients:
500 ml/8 fl oz red wine
100g/3.5 oz sugar
1 cinnamon stick
1 tbsp grated fresh root ginger
4 large apples
2 tbsp lemon juice
150g/5.5 oz rocket leaves
150g/5.5 oz Brie, cubed
salt and pepper

(for dressing)
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
125 ml/4 fl oz extra-virgin olive-oil
1 tbsp honey

Very easy, serves 4, total time: less than an hour

This offers some very unusual tastes! And you don't have to wait till Christmas!

1) Mix together the wine, sugar, cinnamon and ginger and boil in a large saucepan.
2) Reduce heat and simmer for 10 min. You are essentially making a mulled wine mixture!
3) Core apple and cut into bite-size chunks. brush with lemon juice to stop them going brown.
4) Add apple pieces to the mixture and cook for a further 10 minutes.
5) Remove from the heat and leave to cool. This can take a while, so put it outside if it's winter!

6) The dressing is made by mixing the 3 dressing ingredients in a glass jar and shaking well.

7) Put the salad together by first placing the rocket leaves in a bowl, draining the apples (I would keep the wine mixture ;) ) and scattering them over the rocket and then topping all this with the Brie and seasoning. By the way, you should cube the Brie as quickly as possible out of the fridge, or even freeze it a little beforehand, because it will get sticky quickly and be hard to cut.
8) Drizzle the dressing on top and toss the salad until it is all coated. Serve immediately.

Variations: rocket gives the best results, but you could also use mizuna, or something similar. We have also made this with a blue cheese and it's even more tangy!

1 comment:

Athalia said...

It's fanstastic, bet it taste good with some red wine in it^^, thanks for sharing.