Fall is here and no, I do not want to hear your complaining about how long it has been since I have posted. The Mendon Foodie was very busy this summer planning and executing the Gates Foodette's wedding. (That would be my daughter.) Here is a picture. We didn't cater the wedding, but we did do the cold hors d'oeuvres, with considerable helper from Grandma Foodie. We served: Carpaccio of Beef with fried capers and parsley oil, shrimp cocktail shooters, endive stuffed with salmon spread, crudites with homemade Green Goddess dressing, salumi with assorted olives, some damn fine but very expensive cheese, and a cascade of fruit. You'd have to see it to believe it. It was truly amazing. If you're nice to me I might invite you to wedding hors d' oeuvres reenactment day, which we are planning on having for the Marine foodie, who missed the wedding and is returning home this week from Iraq. Oooh Rah. Leave a comment and I'll consider inviting you. If you promise not to bring any food.
Now that I have made your mouth water with food that nearly impossible for mere mortals to prepare, I will deign to grant you a fabulous recipe that anyone (almost anyone, I have a friend or two who shall remain nameless, L, who would still probably find a way to mess it up.) It is pretty simple and straightforward, yet sophisticated enough to impress all of your guests. It uses the ingredient that I cannot get enough of this time of year: pears.
Caramelized Pear Salad
3 Bartlett pears
3 T sugar
1/4 c butter
4 oz prosciutto
olive oil
butter lettuce
Balsamic glaze (you can buy or make. To make, boil balsamic vinegar until it is thick and syrupy.)
crumbled blue cheese (if you use anything other than Maytag or Point Reyes blue or a similar quality you are a heathen and shouldn't be allowed to cook.)
Peel, core, and cut pears into medium thick slices. Toss them with the sugar. (If you want to slice them ahead of time, drop them into a bowl of water with some lemon juice in it.) Heat a saute pan and melt the butter. Add the pears and cook on one side until they have nicely caramelized. Turn them over and cook the other side, adding more butter if necessary to prevent the sugar from burning. Remove the pears to a plate and let cool slightly. Wrap each slice with prosciutto. Toss lettuce with olive oil to coat and arrange lettuce on individual serving plates. Arrange 4-5 pear slices on top of the lettuce and sprinkle with blue cheese. Drizzle with balsamic glaze and start drooling, cause it is REALLY good.
4 comments:
Four to five pear slices per plate are not enough, they are too good, you always end up craving more.
After June honored me with a plate of this when I dropped by, I went home and made a version for my husband. I'm sure it wasn't up to June's standards, but it was fabulous nonetheless. David and I divided the prosciutto-wrapped pears evenly between us (okay, it wasn't even, I sneaked a few when I was preparing them, but that's the advantage of being the chef), which wound up being about 8 per salad. Even then it wasn't quite enough, because you always want more.
The nicest thing is that if you want more of this stuff, just go make some more. Make more and eat more until you're full. It's SALAD...it's good for you. This is one of those dishes that the more you eat, the better off your body is. Unless, I guess, you overdo it on the blue cheese. Which I don't.
Deb, as usual you flatter me too much. Yes, it is that good, I admit, but you have proven that ANYONE can do it!
You may well be first in line for an invitation to wedding hors d'oeuvres reenactment day.
I think that that's an insult disguised as a compliment. I must have made the "A" list of your friends, June!
The Mendon Foodie is baaaack. And cranky as ever. Good Lahd.
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