INGREDIENTS
Salad
2 x baby cos, washed, dried and trimmed
Sea salt flakes
100 g goat’s cheese, frozen
Apricots
150 g apricots, fresh firm or tinned
70 ml Umeboshi vinegar
Rosemary croutons
2 slices day old sourdough bread, crusts removed
10 cm rosemary sprig, stripped and chopped fine
2 ½ tbsp extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp salt flakes
To serve
2 tbsp grain mustard
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
METHOD
Apricots
- If using fresh apricots, remove stone and slice into 2 cm wedges. If using tinned, drain well and slice into 2 cm wedges.
- Combine the apricots with the umeboshi vinegar and allow to sit for 24 hours in the fridge.
Rosemary croutons
- Preheat the oven on Fan Plus at 160°C.
- Tear the bread into large rough pieces and toss with the rosemary, oil and salt. Spread onto a universal tray.
- Place into the oven on shelf position 2 and bake for 10-15 minutes. The bread should still be chewy and not fully hardened.
- Drain on paper towel and season to taste. Store in an airtight container until required.
To serve
- Cut the baby cos lettuce into halves and arrange on a platter, sprinkle with salt flakes.
- Arrange the drained apricots and croutons with the lettuce.
- Remove the goat’s cheese from the freezer and using a sharp knife cut irregular shards off the edge of the block, arrange these over the salad.
- Spoon small amounts of the grain mustard over the salad.
- Combine the juice from the marinated apricots with the extra virgin olive oil and use to lightly dress the salad.
Hints and tips
- Umeboshi vinegar can be purchased from Japanese grocery stores and selected health food stores.
- Umeboshi or ume vinegar can also be made by soaking five umeboshi plums in white wine vinegar for minimum two weeks but ideally a month.
- You may not need all the goat’s cheese, however, using a smaller sized block can be difficult to cut.