Saturday, February 02, 2019

On the MENU this Week. Buratta Mozarella and griddled apricot salad


This salad was inspired by two things: we bought recently: beautiful fresh apricots with a blush on them and fresh Burrata mozzarella. If you don’t know Burrata, it is a soft mozzarella into which they put cream as they fold it up into a nice neat ball. When you tear it apart, the cream becomes part of your dish with the cheese. This mozzarella bears absolutely no relation to that commercial rendition sold in supermarkets which is used on pizzas. It is not easy to find, good delis and cheese shops have it. We buy ours from Puglia in Table View and Lynne did buy one at the Oranjezicht market recently for R45


Lynne watched Jamie Oliver do a salad where he griddled the apricots and that set her off. We had bought two and she wanted to use them in salads. She bought some Serrano ham in Checkers and they cut it nice and thin. It is so easy and so delicious, but you'll need to be quick as the apricot season is nearly at an end. It is simple to make; just two preparations and then it’s just a matter of assembling the ingredients
1 small red onion, thinly sliced - 2 Tblsps good raspberry vinegar - 8 ripe Apricots – a drizzle of cooking oil - 1 cup of washed and drained rocket leaves – a few gem lettuce leaves - 1 fresh Burrata mozzarella – 75 g thinly sliced Serrano or Parma ham –- 2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, off the stalk – 1 tspn crushed pink peppercorns – 2 Tblsps good extra virgin olive oil – sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Put the red onion in the raspberry vinegar to pickle slightly. Slice the apricots in half, remove the stone and sear the cut sides and then the skin on a hot oiled griddle pan, just until marked. Set aside to cool. On a pretty serving dish, arrange the rocket and the lettuce leaves. Put on the cooled apricots and then tuck in the ham. Remove the onion from the vinegar and keep the vinegar aside as dressing. Scatter the onion, the crushed pink peppercorns and the fresh thyme leaves over the salad. Then, over the salad, tear the Burrata into smaller pieces, and distribute it evenly. Dress the salad with the vinegar and the good olive oil and season well

No comments: