Stunning way to start a dinner party

Tonight's Menu = caramelised walnut, beetroot, pear and goats cheese salad, followed by rare roast rib of beef, finished with a dessert duo. 4 mini pear and almond tarts and 4 mini chocolate souffle tarts.


So I made up this salad, I wanted to achieve a textural medley with the perfect blend of sweet and savoury, now you'd have to ask the dinner guests if they agree, but I think I succeeded.

First I put a few handfuls of baby rocket on the platter and gently tossed with some extra virgin olive oil, mostly for aesthetic reasons, it looks prettier when the leaves are glossy.

Next I dotted the leaves the roughly quartered segments of roasted beetroot (the beetroots were some that I had bought on special ages ago but didn't actually need for a recipe so i boiled them whole, with the skin and tail on, and froze them. I defrosted the beetroots, roughly quartered and roasted them with salt, pepper and a little olive oil at about 180℃ until tender).

Next step is dotting the salad with soft goats cheese and quartered, but thinner more like segments of firm but ripe pear, I used Corella, do this just before serving so they don't turn brown.

The best part of this salad is definitely the caramelised walnuts.
to make the caramelised walnuts I just roasted the walnuts in the oven at 180℃ for about 10 minutes until golden, but keep a close watch in case they burn. In a saucepan put 1 cup of caster sugar and put over medium heat and allow to dissolve. Because you haven't added any water to the sugar you can stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture is a golden amber colour. Once you have achieved the right colour add the nuts and stir quickly to coat the nuts completely and turn out onto baking paper using 2 forks to separate the nuts before they form a clump.

Scatter the nuts over the salad, just before serving to ensure they don't loose their crunch.

And Voila! On the table, is now an amazingly tasty salad with varied, but complementary textures and the caramelised walnuts look so impressive that people will be taking about this one for ages.
Only one difference I would make for next time, the salad lacked astringency to counter the sweetness of the pear and walnuts so when I tossed the rocket leaves with EVOO, I would add a couple good squeezes of ultra fresh lemon juice.

Just to gild the lily, I served the salad with some lightly blanched asparagus spear which I then wrapped with prosciutto and grilled on the BBQ.