Blue Cheese Grape Salad With Caramelised Pecans Recipes

BLUE CHEESE & GRAPE SALAD WITH CARAMELISED PECANS

Steps:

• First, caramelise the nuts. Heat the butter and sugar in a small frying pan, then stir in the nuts. Cook over a low heat for about 5 mins until the nuts are crisp and coated in the sugary butter. Tip onto an oiled baking sheet, leave to cool slightly, then roughly chop. Whisk together the vinegar and olive oil until well blended, then stir through a little salt and pepper to taste.
• To serve, tear the leaves off the chicory and put into a bowl with the rocket. Slice the grapes in half, remove the seeds, then add to the bowl with most of the dressing. Gently toss everything together until the leaves are coated, then arrange on 4 serving plates. Crumble over the cheese and top with a scattering of nuts. Drizzle with the remaining dressing to serve.

TANGY PEAR AND BLUE CHEESE SALAD

Steps:

• In a small bowl, mix ketchup, vinegar, sugar, and salt. Gradually pour in oil, stirring constantly, until well blended.
• In a large serving bowl, toss together lettuce, blue cheese, pears, walnuts, and red onion. Pour dressing over salad, and toss well to coat.

PEAR AND BLUE CHEESE SALAD

Steps:

• Place the salad greens in a large bowl. Add the red onion, pear, pecans, and blue cheese, and toss to mix evenly.
• To make the dressing, place the maple syrup, vinegar, mayonnaise, brown sugar, salt, and pepper in a blender, and blend thoroughly. With the motor running, slowly pour in the walnut oil. Blend until mixture becomes creamy, about 1 minute. Pour over salad mixture, and toss to coat greens evenly. Serve immediately.

BLUE-CHEESE-PEAR-PECAN SALAD

Steps:

• Mix the pears, cheese, pecans and romaine in a medium-sized salad bowl.
• For the dressing; stir together the vinegar, garlic, basil, honey, salt, and pepper and then add oil slowly in a small bowl with wire whisk. Toss the dressing with the salad just before serving.

SPINACH AND BLUE CHEESE SALAD WITH SLICED APPLES AND SPICED CARAMELIZED PECANS

Steps:

• Cut the apple into quarters, remove the stem and the seeds, and cut into very thin slices. Sprinkle lemon juice over the slices and set aside.
• When ready to serve, in a salad bowl, combine the apple, spinach, radicchio, and blue cheese. Season lightly with salt and pepper and toss with the dressing. Adjust seasoning to taste.
• To serve, divide the salad among 4 plates and sprinkle the pecans around each salad.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the shallots and the mustard. Whisk in the vinegars, and then the olive and vegetable oils. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Transfer to a covered container and refrigerate until needed.
• Yield: 1 1/4 cups
• Recipe courtesy Wolfgang Puck, "Adventures in the Kitchen", Random House, 1991
• In a deep-fryer or a deep pot, heat the oil to 350 degrees F. (A deep-frying thermometer can be clipped to the side of the pan so that you can tell when the proper temperature has been reached).
• Meanwhile, in a large saucepan bring 2 quarts of water to a boil. Add the pecans and boil for 2 minutes. Drain in a large strainer, shaking off all excess water. Sprinkle the salt and cayenne pepper over the nuts and then coat with the confectioners' sugar, a little at a time, allowing the sugar to melt into the pecans. Toss the nuts by shaking the strainer, adding a little more sugar each time, until all the sugar is used and all the nuts are coated. Do not use hands or a spoon to toss. The nuts should have a glaze of sugar.
• Carefully add the nuts to the heated oil, keeping the oil at 350 degrees F. Cook until golden brown, about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove with a slotted spoon to a baking tray to cool.
• Yield: 2 cups
• Recipe courtesy Wolfgang Puck, "Pizza, Pasta & More!," Random House, 2000

GRAPE SALAD WITH WALNUTS AND BLEU CHEESE

Steps:

• wash, drain and remove from stems the red and green grapes.
• break walnuts into pieces, add to grapes.
• crumble bleu cheese, add half of bleu cheese crumbles to grape, walnut mixture.
• use fork to mix honey, salt and vinegar into remaining bleu cheese, crushing bleu cheese with fork.
• wisk in olive oil and pour over grape mixture, stirring to coat.
• store in refrigerator.

ROMAINE SALAD WITH PECAN AND BLUE CHEESE DRESSING

Steps:

• In sald bowl,combine oil,vinegar,salt and pepper.
• Whish until well blended.
• Add half the blue cheese,mash into dressing.
• Add 1/4 cup pecans.
• Add romaine. Toss well to coat.
• Top with remaining blue cheese and nuts.