stilton, watercress and crouton salad with toasted seeds
rating:I had to make a salad to take to a LibDem lunch (what an exciting life I lead, eh?).
I had chinese pears, and stilton, and walnuts, so I thought "that'll do nicely". Except when, the night before, I googled for suitable recipes, I found (as I should have realised) that the pears almost certainly wouldn't travel. All the recipes said "serve immediately", and I felt sure they would go brown.
so after a bit of a panic and a stamping of feet, I decided to do stilton and walnut as a base. I sent 'im indoors up to the farm shop for something green, and he returned with a couple of bunches of watercress. And to a very vexed wife :) - read the recipe to see why.
but the salad was gorgeous, as bitsa recipes so often are, and I shall do it again.
take a clove of garlic and chop finely. Put it in a frying pan with *lots* of good olive oil, and then gently fry a couple of slices of bread, cut into cubes, to make croutons. When they're ready, lay them on some kitchen paper to drain.
cut some Stilton into small cubes, and put in the bowl you plan to serve this in. Get out a small frying pan, to toast the walnuts. Discover - with some rage and not a little panic - that there are NO walnuts (because someone, naming no names, Pete, used the last of them to make walnut bread).
put a goodly quantity of pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds in the aforementioned small frying pan, and dry roast them. Bung in the bowl. Add croutons (they should be cool by now). De-stalk a bunch of watercress, wash very well, and add to bowl.
make a dressing of lemon juice, walnut oil and some grain mustard. Don't dress till the last minute (we took the dressing in a jar and added it there).
