TARRAGON SALAD

This salad is a real trip. From Jamie Oliver, it's the most creative (and one of the most difficult) salads I've served. Guests usually cannot identify the ingredients but they love the overall effect. And it's really good. And really unusual.

TARRAGON SALAD

serves 4

 

 

6 shallots, peeled and very thinly sliced (as thin as you can manage)

good vinegar, champagne, white or sherry

4 large handfuls of fresh tarragon, leaves picked off (this is the hard part)

1 small bunch of seedless red grapes, halved

1 small bunch of seedless green grapes, halved

6 T  extra virgin olive oil (the "extra" is important here)

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

7-oz good aged goat's cheese or hard salted ricotta

 

1. Put the shallots and vinegar together in a dish, making sure that the shallots are all covered by the vinegar, for about 10-15 minutes. They should be crunchy like pickled onions when ready.

 

2. Throw the tarragon leaves into a bowl, add the grapes, the shallots with only 5 T of their vinegar, and the olive oil. Toss this all together, taste it and add a little salt and pepper if it's needed. Go easy on the salt though, as the cheese will be quite salty. Use some tongs to pick up the salad and divide it between 4 plates. Grate or crumble the goat's cheese on top of each salad and drizzle over any remaining dressing. Or use a vegetable peeler to peel the cheese.

 

Note: keep all the ingredients cold and make this at the last minute before serving.