Sunshine salad

Okay, the reason for this continuous evacuation of blog entries is because my laptop is playing up and there has been a backlog of posts I need to clear before a friend of mine looks at it (my laptop that is) and God only knows what will happen to all my image and text files when that happens! It is a race against time and I hope to get most of what I would like to share published before the unthinkable happens, which hopefully doesn't happen. Fingers crossed!

Here is a simple salad I made taking advantage of the season's citrus bounty. Did I mention I love citrus? Well, in case I haven't, I do. In fact, I can't wait til the arrival of blood oranges in my local market because I am just itching to try out a recipe I came across. And of course, Seville oranges to make some bitter-tart marmalade which I will use in a bread and butter pudding, hopefully before the days begin to warm up.

Anyway, I am rambling.

The salad is a toss of sliced radishes, navel orange segments, a variety of lettuce leaves and frisee. The star is of course the salad dressing, a departure from the standard lemon juice or vinegar base. Here, I used the juice of the oranges I segmented with a splash of white wine vinegar, a smattering of good dijon mustard, grapeseed oil and finely chopped mint. After photographing the salad, whilst in the process of tucking into it, I stumbled serendipitously upon some leftover roasted walnuts and golden raisins, too few to include in a baking project but enough to garnish my salad so I scattered them atop. The walnuts' oily-bitterness was just the perfect foil for the tart citrus dressing and the sweet raisins complimented the pepperi-ness of the radish.

If not for the delightful play of flavours on your palate, wouldn't you just make this colourful and optimistic looking salad to brighten a grey winter's day?

sunshine salad

1/2 head of frisee, white bits only

1/2 head butter lettuce

1/2 head coral lettuce

4-5 radish, finely sliced

2 medium sized navel oranges, segmented

handful of toasted walnuts (or pinenuts, pecans - your nut of choice really)

handful of golden raisins

*optional: small fennel, finely sliced and roasted baby beetroot, quartered

citrus dressing

juice squeezed from the remnants of orange after segmenting

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tbsp good quality dijon mustard

grated zest of 1 orange

1/2 cup grapeseed oil

salt and pepper to taste

finelychopped mint leaves

wash lettuce and drain completely to dry

toss leaves in a large bowl and scatter the remaining ingredients over the top.

**I have made suggestions for other optional ingredients you may wish to include in your salad. Fennel and beetroot has a true affinity for oranges and will go superbly well with the citrus dressing**

make dressing by placing juice, zest, vinegar, a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper into a little jam jar with half the amount of oil.

shake vigourously to form an emulsion

add remaining oil and shake again

finally add the chopped mint leaves

pour over salad and enjoy!

I have in the past used this citrus dressing enriched with a couple of tablespoons of good mayonnaise for an apple, carrot and cabbage slaw. It makes a refreshing change from the classic version of coleslaw.