Pleasant Memories Salad
Mar 22nd, 2009 by admin
Pleasant Memories Salad
If you’re only a wanna-be mystic, or if you’re like the chef and think it is still okay to savor some of the earthy sensual pleasures, then this is the salad for you.
Memories of smokey maple-cured bacon may be decades old for vegetarians, yet they still tug at the taste buds when certain aromas waft through the air. The olfactory sense strongly connects the past to the future. This salad recipe is adapted from one served at Wisconsin’s White Gull Inn of the Door County peninsula.
The smoked string cheese may be difficult to find in other states, but what better reason to travel to Door County than to enjoy fresh-water great-lakes harbors and pick up a package of Baker’s Smoked String Cheese and some Door County dried cherries from peninsula orchards?
Then, you can take your treasures and memories home with you to extend your vacation. Make this delicious salad, and the recent past will come drifting back into your senses and give you visions of art galleries, Peninsula Players summer theater, cherry orchards, those wonderful harbors, and Wilson’s perpetual soda fountain at Ephraim. Don’t forget the smoked cheese.
And don’t everyone come at once. The best places on earth are easily spoiled.
The Salad
6 cups mixed salad greens
1/3 cup Balsamic vinegar dressing
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/2 cup toasted pecan halves, broken
1/2 cup smoked, string cheese, torn and chopped
Toast the nuts in a skillet or in the oven, watching them closely to prevent scorching. Tear the string cheese into strips and chop the strips into 1-inch lengths.
Toss the mixed greens with dressing. Divide among 4 chilled plates. Top each with 2 tablespoons dried cherries, 2 tablespoons pecan halves and 2 tablespoons of cheese. Makes 4 servings.
The Balsamic Vinegar Dressing
In a jar, combine
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup Balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Dijon-style mustard
1 tablespoon snipped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon ground white or black pepper
Cover and shake until blended. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks