red cabbage, cherry and roasted walnut salad
Whilst this wonderful salad is at its best during the cherry season, it can also be made with dried cherries that have been moistened in a little water. Dried cherries are a favourite of the Middle Easter kitchen and these grocers are a good place to start looking for them. South Australians can buy dried cherries from Fleurieu Cherries and they will be able to tell you suburban Adelaide locations where their dried cherries can be found.
posted December 28, 2017
Accompaniment serves 10
Entrée serves 6
500g walnuts in the shell, shelled, roasted @ 160°C, coarsely chopped when cold
800g white potato
½ small red cabbage, finely shaved
100g p/w white onion, finely sliced
75g Vine Valley white wine vinegar
50g caster sugar
150g p/w carrot, finely julienned….optional
750g large crunchy cherries, pitted but cutting in half with a sharp knife
Maldon
White pepper, freshly ground
Black pepper, freshly ground
EVO
Leonardi white balsamic
20g Beerenberg Hahndorf hot mustard….optional
Method
Put a pot of water on high heat and add a generous amount of salt. Peel the potatoes and dice them into 15mm cubes and drop them into a bowl of cold water until you are ready to blanche them. In another bowl add about 100g EVO and 50g Leonardi white balsamic. Drain the potato and blanche in the boiling salted water until they are just cooked, drain and tip into the oil and vinegar. Season with Maldon and some freshly ground white pepper and stir over…cover loosely and stir over from time to time. If doing potato same day do not refrigerate…if day before refrigerate when cooled but bring up to room temp when you are assembling your salad.
Put the white wine vinegar and sugar into a bowl, add a couple of good pinches of Maldon and some white pepper and stir until they sugar is dissolved. Add the onion, mix through and leave at room tem for about 30 minutes before refrigerating.
To serve
Tip everything except the walnuts into a big bowl [including the marinade from the potato and onion]. Add generous amount of EVO and balsamic season and toss over. Check the seasoning and adjust as required for the wine you are serving…pleate the salad and scatter the walnuts over the top.
Notes
Everything in this salad can be prepared the day before and put together in minutes. The cabbage and carrot are vacced to prevent discolouration…serve with Christmas leg ham but equally delicious with duck or pork confit mixed through the salad….just make sure the confit is at room temperature so that there are no cold fat blobs in the salad.
Wine
The misconception that red wine cannot be matched with vegetarian food is something we have long proved incorrect. Crush and chop until fine two juniper berries and serve with red wine with spicy fragrant notes such as Tempranillo…with the duck or pork confit, more black pepper and swap the white balsamic for Leonardi Dolce Vita and serve with Shiraz..keep the pepper down slightly and Grenache Mataro.