Tartignole aux pommes (apple pancake)

A dish from northern France, from among the "Ch'ti", it's like a Tarte Tatin but as a pancake. I don't know what to say. It's really good! My ancestors may have originated from this area, and over the generations made their way down to central France before making their way West to the coast, and finally over to l'île d'Orléans as early settlers. Knowing that my family are settlers in New France makes me wonder about my own indigeneity, and what wisdom my ancestors can transmit through traditional regional foods.

4 servings

150g flour

3/4 tsp baking powder (1/2 tsp = more custard, 1 tsp=more cake)

Optional, 1 Tbsp sugar

1 pinch salt

2 eggs

2/3 cup water

2 lrg apples, peeled, quartered and sliced thick (300 to 500 g)

40 g BROWN sugar

1 Tbsp calvados, brandy, or 1/2 tsp cinnamon or Poudre Douce)

40 g butter + 10 g

15g white sugar

To serve, plain or drizzle with maple syrup, or yogurt, chocolate, apple butter

1. Mix together the flour, baking powder, eggs, water, and salt. Stir the batter very well. Let it rest while preparing the apples.
2. Put the prepared apples in a bowl and mix together with the sugar and flavoring (liquor or spice), to coat.
3. Melt the 40g of butter at medium-high heat. When the butter begins to froth, reduce the temperature to Medium, add the apple mixture, spread evenly across the pan and let it cook for 2 minutes. 
4. Flip the apples to cook the second side. As soon as you've flipped all the pieces, pour the batter over the apple and cook on Low for 5-6 minutes or until the top is almost set. Put a lid on top to make this happen faster.
5. As the first side is cooking and the top is just starting to set, sprinkle the 15g of sugar on top.
6. Meanwhile, grease a dinner plate with the 10g of butter for the next step, reserving any leftover butter to add to the pan for the flip (next step).
7. When the bottom of the pancake is brown, make sure it's loose from the pan, perhaps by running a spatula underneath it. Upturn the plate on top of the pancake, hold firm with your hand, grab the handle of the pan and flip the pancake onto the plate. Remove the pan. The pancake should just drop onto the plate.
8. Set the pan back on the stove-top, add the remaining butter to melt in the pan and slide the pancake back in to finish. Cook the second side for about 3 to 4 minutes to get another nice brown crust. 

Apple Cinnamon Bread

THE BREAD

1½ cups apple sauce, drained in a sieve of extra moisture before measuring (390g)

¼ cup/4Tbsps (2oz/58gr) melted butter 

½ cup sugar (110gr)

½ cup (4.5oz/125gr) Brown Sugar (packed)

2 eggs

1 + ½ tsp ground cinnamon 

1½ cups (7.7oz/220gr) flour

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp cloves

STREUSEL TOPPING

¼ cup (32g) flour

¼ cup (62g) Brown Sugar (packed)

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

1½ Tbsps. (23g) melted butter

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350°F. 
2. Sieve any extra moisture from the apple sauce before measuring the 1½ cup.
3. Melt the butter and whisk into the apple sauce
4. Add the sugars and then whisk in the eggs.
5. Without stirring, add the flour, cinnamon. salt, baking soda and cloves.
6. With a wooden spoon mix the batter just until combined.
7. Grease a bread pan with butter and pour in the batter.
8. In a small bowl, mix the flour, brown sugar and and cinnamon until evenly combined. Rub in the butter.
9. Sprinkle the streusel on top of the batter.
10. Bake for 1 hour or until a knife comes out clean.

Slowly Cooked Spiced Red Cabbage Soup

This has Fall and Winter written all over it. All of the main ingredients are late season products or products that keep in the winter: bacon, onion, carrot, apple, cabbage. It has such a warming, comforting flavor, not quite like a dessert but it has all the earmarks of a soothing cold weather soup.

Number of portions: 6 servings
Serving size: ~540 g per serving
Calories per serving: ~410 kcal (mostly from bacon and stock fat)
Speed: Slow Food (hands-on cooking is moderate, but simmering is long and patient)
Experienced cook (active time): 35–45 min
Novice cook (active time): 50–65 min
Total elapsed time: 1 hr 30–1 hr 45 min
LHSS Score: 7.5 / 10

6 slices smoked bacon (approx. 190g), chopped en lardons
1 large onion (10oz/285g) finely diced
1 large carrot (4 to 5oz/145g) finely diced
1 firm, tart apple, finely diced
1½ tsps. caraway seeds
1 small head (1½ lbs.) cabbage, diced (preferably red but just for the appearance)
¼ tsp pepper
⅛ tsp nutmeg
In a cheesecloth bundle collect: 5 or 6 juniper berries; 3 or 4 whole cloves; 2 fresh bay leaves; a strip of fresh lemon or lime peel (grated instead, maybe?); 1 small cinnamon stick
1⁄4 cup plum vinegar or cider vinegar or red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp dark brown sugar
6 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1 tsp salt

1. In a soup pot render the fat from the bacon until the meat is crisp. Remove the bacon bits and set aside. If there isn't enough fat at the bottom of the pot, add some oil.
2. Add the onion, carrot, apple, and caraway and cook until the onion is soft. 
3. Add the cabbage and season with pepper and nutmeg. Cover and cook just to wilt the cabbage. 
4. Return the bacon to the pot and add the spices, the vinegar, brown sugar, stock, water and salt, and bring to a boil. 
5. Simmer uncovered until the cabbage is very tender and the soup has thickened/reduced, about 1 to 1½ hours.
6. Adjust the salt to your taste.
7. Serve with the Autumn Grain & Green Salad for a LHSS score of ~8.7–9/10.

Olde English Blacke Berrie Pie

Adapted from a recipe in the classic Food in England by Dorothy Hartley, this is a surprising pie with a very thin crust. The apple thickens the filling so that when it is completely cooled, it creates a lovely silky loose jammy texture. If you've made Blackberry Liqueur, try cutting in about a cup of the boozy fruit with regular fresh berries for a little kick. If you pick your own blackberries, there is a difference in flavor depending at what time of the season you pick them. According to Hartley's research, the first berries should be eaten fresh, the mid-season berries used to cook with, the late season berries used to cook with and augmented by spices, such as ginger or lemon zest (brief notes in the recipe on this).

2 medium apples (364gr) peeled, cooked and mashed

1 Sweet pie dough recipe, rolled extra thin and the edges rolled up to be a bit thicker

A little oil

½ cup sugar

3 cups (432gr) blackberries (or substitute 1 cup with leftover blackberries from making liqueur)

¼ cup (2oz/58gr) butter

For Late Season Berries

- 2 tsps fresh grated ginger

- zest from ½ lemon

1. Peel and core the apples. Steam with a little water to get perfectly soft, then mash fine. Mix in the sugar and allow the sauce to cool completely before mixing with the blackberries and before putting in the pie shell to avoid melting the butter in the shell. 
2. If you have late season berries, now is the time to add the ginger and lemon to the apple.
3. As the apple sauce cools, roll out the dough quite thin, ¹⁄₁₆" or about the thickness of a nickel. 
4. Put in the pie plate and, to avoid soggy crust syndrome, brush the bottom with a little oil or melted butter to help seal it against the liquid of the blackberries. 
5. Do not trim the crust. 
6. With a wooden spoon, very gently combine the blackberries and the applesauce. Spoon the mixture into the pie shell, then dot the top with bits of butter. 
7. Instead of cutting away the excess, fold over the crust, wet the edges and pinch together.  The extra crust should fold over the pie leaving an open center with irregular edges. Pop in the refrigerator or freezer for at least 15 minutes.
8. When you're ready to bake, turn on the oven to 400°F. Brush the top of the pie with a little more oil and put it on a parchment-lined baking sheet to catch any drips and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the crust is deep golden brown.
9. Allow to cool completely before serving to allow for the juices to set.

Apple Crumble

I can't resist a simple, oldfashioned recipe. Easy and quick to make, this is such a comfort food, baked using our lovely mystery apples growing up on the hill at our old farm. I don't use store-bought quick cook oats but oats I roll myself from whole groats - the texture is just different enough that I prefer this to store-bought but, otherwise, they work well! With the Poudre Douce, it adds a little Mideaval flavor that does not go amiss. If you prefer things more simple, just an equal amount of cinnamon will do.

2 lbs apples, diced (weight before peeling and coring)
1 Tbsp flour
¼ cup white sugar
¾ tsp ground Poudre Douce
¼ cup water
--
1¼ cup quick cook rolled oats 
1¼ cup flour
¾ cup brown sugar (loosely packed)
¼ tsp baking powder
1 tsp Poudre Douce
½ tsp salt
¾ cup (6oz/169gr) melted butter

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. In a large bowl toss the cut apples with the flour, sugar and cinnamon, then pour over the water. Toss again before spreading out evenly in a 2 quart baking dish. 
3. Mix together all the dry ingredients for the topping, then pour in the melted butter and mix until it takes on an evenly crumbly consistency.
4. Spread this over the apples, but don't pack down. Try to maintain the crumbly texture.
5. Bake for 1 hour or until golden brown and some of the filling is bubbling around the edges. Remove, cover loosely with foil to keep warm and let stand for 10 minutes before serving (let's the apple filling come together). Just as good at room temperature.
6. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream!

Jacques (apple spooncakes)

According to Elizabeth David, these are from the Perigord region of France. It's amazing how the texture improves if the batter is left to hydrolyze overnight. They are small, custardy delicious little pancakes.

1 cup flour (4¼oz/120g)

½ cup of milk

½ cup water

1 Tbsp oil

a pinch salt

1 tsp sugar + more for sprinkling

2 eggs

2 or 3 small apples (5oz/approx 300g) preferably old and wrinkled, grated. If skin is tough, remove it.

Optional: rum or brandy

the juice from ½ lemon

Butter

NOTE: This recipe should be started several hours before making, preferably left overnight. 

1. Mix together the flour, milk, water, oil, salt, sugar, and eggs; stir the batter very well, then let it rest for several hours to overnight.
2. Grate the apples and mix in the lemon juice (and/or booze). TIP: if it's a fresh apple, take fists-full of the grated flesh and squeeze out as much juice as possible. Lightly desiccated this way the apple will more easily soak up the lemon or booze, and won't make the pancakes soggy.
3. Coat a thick bottomed pan with a pat of butter and heat up until the butter just starts to froth. Turn the heat down to medium low for a slow fry.
4. Using a wooden mixing spoon, drop a spoonful of batter onto the hot pan, making room for more; you should be able to cook at least four little spooncakes at-a-time in the pan. They are done when both sides are nicely browned.
5. Put more butter in the pan for every new batch of spooncakes.
6. Serve immediately. Tasty with maple syrup and/or apple butter and yogurt.

Huge Apple Pie

This pie is best eaten when completely cooled to room temperature. It smells so good while baking, but when we've indulged in eating it warm from the oven, we notice that the fullness of flavour from the spices doesn't come through. I came up with the pie recipe because I found a beautiful used deep dish pie plate that I just had to have. This was about the same time that our Granny Smith apple tree started to drop its fruit in our first year on the farm. Being one of the classic apple pie fruits, it was a perfect fit.

Part 1 - the crust

1½ cups flour
2 Tbsps sugar
¼ tsp salt
¾ cups (6oz/172gr) very cold butter cut into 1⁄2 inch pieces
½ cup (2 oz) sharp cheddar, grated
1 egg yolk
4 Tbsps (more or less) ice water

NOTE: The pastry needs time to cool in the refrigerator not once but twice for 15 minutes each time, and then at least another 15 minutes before baking.
NOTE: The secret to a flaky crust is to keep everything cold. If you work the dough with your hands, be sure they are cool - my hands tend to be hot, so I dunk them in an ice bath before making pie dough.

1. Put the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add the butter pieces and pinch with your fingers to create a crumb texture (it's like playing with sand) with bits that are pea-sized and no smaller. The goal is not to completely combine the butter into the flour, but to break it up into the flour so that there are tiny globule of butter that, when the dough is baking, will create pockets as they melt, giving you that lovely pie flake.
2. Stir in the cheddar.
3. Make a well in the middle and pour in the egg yolk and 3 Tbsps of water (add the 4th and more until you get the classic pie dough texture). Quickly work in the liquids into the flour until you can form it into a ball; don't overmix or you'll have tough dough.
4. Pat into a thick disk, seal in plastic and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
5. Roll out the dough, line a deep dish pie plate with it (or divide into 2 pies) and chill at least for another 15 minutes.

Part 2 - the filling

The Cream:

2 cups heavy cream

1 whole star anise

1" piece fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely grated

4 whole cloves

2 cinnamon sticks (14 to 20 cm total)

pinch ground nutmeg

The Apples:

9 cups (2 to 3lbs when peeled and cored, or 10-11 fruits) of sliced apples

⅔ cup sugar

The Custard:

6 Tbsps (or ¼ cup+2Tbsps) flour

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Position the oven rack in the bottom third of the oven (to make sure the bottom of the crust bakes properly) and preheat to 400°F.
2. Bring the cream to a simmer in a small saucepan with the star anise, ginger, cloves, cinnamon sticks and nutmeg. 
3. Remove from the heat and let the spices steep for at least 20 minutes. 
4. After 20 minutes, strain the mixture into a bowl and allow it to cool while you complete the following steps.
5. Combine the apple and sugar in a large pan and cook until the apple starts to soften. The apples won't cook much in the oven, so get them to stay whole as much as possible but get them to soften.
6. Remove from the heat, add the flour, toss to coat evenly and set aside.
7. When the cream is cool enough, whisk in the eggs and the vanilla.
8. Fold the egg and cream mixture into the apples, being careful not to break up the apple pieces any further.
9. Take the crust out of the refrigerator and pour the apple mixture into it. Pop in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.
10. Meanwhile, combine all the streusel ingredients until well blended, in preparation for the final stage of baking.

For the streusel

1 cup flour

½ cup (4oz/114gr) melted butter

½ cup firmly packed brown sugar

½ tsp ground cinnamons 

1. Squeeze the streusel ingredients between your fingers and palms to make clumps ranging in size from small to large grapes. Once the first 15 minutes of pie baking has elapsed, reduce the oven temperature to 375°F, remove the pie from the oven and scatter the streusel all over the top of the pie. There is a lot of streusel; use it all, gently mounding it in the centre (if you are making two smaller pies instead of one giant pie, you may choose to make a double recipe of the streusel, or just divide this one. It's whatever ratio you prefer of filling-to-streusel).
2. Return the pie to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes, then turn the oven temperature down again, this time to 350°F, and continue baking for an additional 20 to 30 minutes, or until the streusel is evenly browned and the pie feels firm when the top is gently prodded. If you can see any filling bubbling around the edges, that is a good sign of doneness, but also a sign that the streusel could have been spread more evenly in those areas.
3. Remove the pie from the oven and allow the filling to thicken and set. Feel the bottom of the pan to make sure there is no more warmth and that it is completely at room temperature before even thinking of serving it.
4. This pie is best when completely cooled.

Pear or Apple Cake

We juiced some pears to make cocktails with, using some really lovely whiskey. What was left in the juicer was this wonderful frothy slurry which I strained to get more juice out of, then saved the rest to make a cake with. With this same recipe I've used sliced apple, apple butter, and a mixture of apple butter and apple diced small. All have worked nicely. In short, it's a pretty versatile recipe to use all sorts of fruit as the filling.

2 eggs
⅓ cup milk
¼ cup grape seed oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
¾ cup (105g) flour

½ cup (105g) sugar

¼ tsp salt
2 tsps baking powder
1½ cups crushed pears, apple sauce or butter or fresh fruit etc.
3 Tbsps whiskey

Part 2: The Topping
3oz (80gr) of butter (about ⅓ cup)
¼ cup (35g) icing sugar
1 egg

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Lightly butter a spring form pan.
3. Thoroughly beat the egg separately, and add the milk, oil, vanilla. Set aside.
4. In another bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. 
5. NOTE: Work the batter as little as possible.
6. Create a well in the centre and add the beaten egg, milk, oil and vanilla, folding gently until the batter is uniform.
7. Mix together the whiskey and fruit.
8. Pour half of the batter into the prepared pan, about 235g. Pour the fruit as a ribbon in the middle, to make a ring. Pour the remains of the batter over this, and put in the oven for 15 minutes or until the surface is starting to set.
9. While this is baking melt the butter and whisk in the sugar, then set aside to allow it to cool.
10. Just before the timer rings, add the egg and whisk until it's all uniform.
11. Pour the butter mixture on top of the cake, to even it out, and bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, or until the top is uniformly golden (you may have to turn the dish after about 10 to 15 minutes for even browning).
12. Allow to cool and serve while still warm or at room temperature.

Roast Chicken with Savoury Apple Mash

3 to 4 (1lb before coring) quartered and cored apples
2 (1 lb before coring) peeled and quartered onions
½ to 1 whole head garlic, cloves peeled
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 sprigs thyme
1 tsp rosemary powder
1 generous pinch of salt and pepper
½ cup apple cider vinegar
4 lbs whole chicken
¼ cup (2oz/58gr) butter

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Toss the apples, onions, garlic, rosemary and thyme together in a roasting pan large enough to hold the chicken. Pour in the cider vinegar. 
3. Season chicken well with salt, pepper and rosemary powder and rest it on top of the apple mixture, on its left side. Put the butter as a block on top of the chicken and put in the oven; roast for 15 minutes and turn onto its back; roast another 15 minutes and turn onto its right side; Turn onto its breast and roast 30 minutes; turn onto its back and roast until the skin browns and the internal temperature of the breast is 165°F, about another 10 minutes.
4. Let the chicken rest about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, scoop out the apple, onion and garlic, leaving the juices behind to serve separately. Either use the coarse setting on a food mill or mash roughly, to push down the skins and herb stems and push up the delicious savoury/sweet apple and onion garlic and drippings blend. Scoop up the top part and discard the skins. Carve the bird, spoon some of the broth over it, and serve with the mashed apple mixture. 

Traditional New Years PA Dutch Lucky Pork, Sauerkraut and Mashed Potatoes

Hey there! Ben here. Roland is letting me add this traditional Pennsylvania Dutch New Year's Day dinner to the blog. The recipe is based on my Mom's recipe, but I've added more specifics - my mom, like her mom before her, tends to give directions like "put it in a hot oven for a bit, then turn the temperature down to a warm oven till it's done." I've actually added some temperatures and times for all those "detail-oriented" people out there. It goes very well with  seared carrots and parsnips.

3 or 4lbs pork roast (pork shoulder or leg)

Salt, pepper, thyme, and vegetable oil
2 stalks of celery - cut into 2" pieces
1 apple, peeled and cut into chunks
1L jar of pickled sauerkraut
4 large potatoes - peeled and cut into chunks, or ½ lb of potatoes per person
Cream and butter (for mashed potatoes)

1. In the oven place an empty baking dish with a lid (ex. a Dutch oven) that can hold the size of your roast. Preheat the oven to 450°F for 20 to 30 minutes. 
2. Rub the pork roast all over with vegetable oil and season all sides with salt, pepper and thyme.
3. In the hot oven, sear the roast in the uncovered Dutch oven to brown on all sides, turning about 5 minutes. There are 6 sides to a roast, at 5 minutes per sides it comes to about 30 minutes.
4. Reduce heat to 325°F. 
5. Arrange the celery and apple around the roast and add enough water to cover the bottom by about a half inch. Cover and continue to roast for 30 minutes. 
6. Add the sauerkraut to cover the roast and cover with the lid again. In a separate pot, turn on the heat to boil the potatoes in salted water.
7. Continue roasting until the internal temperature of the roast is 160°F, at least another 45 minutes. 
8. For the mashed potatoes, boil them until tender then mash with cream, butter, salt and pepper to taste. 

We always served it all together - a bed of mashed potatoes and sauerkraut, and a slice of the roast leaning up against the whole thing. Roland made pan seared carrots and parsnips as a side which added a little sweetness and some beautiful colour to the dish.  

Apple Pie with Meringue Cream

I've converted this recipe from French metric, and it seems to work really well. It's not a single-bowl kind of recipe, but it's well worth it. The word"emmitouflée" is used to describe someone well dressed against the cold, but I'm guessing here it means 'slathered' or 'encased' or something of the sort - the apples are under a tasty blanket of sweet meringue.

Les pommes emmitouflées de Grand-Mère

Part 1 - the pie crust

1 cup flour

1⁄4 tsp salt

1 Tbsp sugar

1⁄2 cup (4oz/114gr) butter, cut into pieces

1 egg yolk

1 Tbsp + cold water

1. Follow the instructions for the Cookie Pie Crust, but substitute the vanilla for 1 egg yolk and be careful about the amount of water you add to avoid having a wet dough. Roll out, place in a pie plate and keep in the refrigerator until the filling is ready. Do not pre-bake.

Part 2 - the filling; apples

5 to 6 large apples, firm when cooked

1⁄4 cup (2oz/58gr) butter 

1⁄4 cup apricot jam

1. Peel and core the apples, then slice them into sections about 1⁄4" thick.
2. Melt the butter and get it to froth before adding the apples. Cook until the apples just start to brown. Finally, add the apricot jam and allow to melt completely before taking the pan off the heat.

Part 3 - the topping

1 Tbsp (1⁄2 oz/14gr) butter

1⁄4 cup sugar
3 egg yolks

3 egg whites
1⁄4 cup sugar

1. In a small bowl, cream the butter as best you can, getting it nice and soft, before adding half the sugar and the three egg yolk, one at a time. Beat vigorously until you get some volume out of the mix.
2. Meanwhile, beat the egg whites, adding the rest of the sugar. Beat until the whites become hard peaks - you should be able to rest a teaspoon on top of the whites without it sinking.
3. Add a bit of the whites into the butter-and-yolk cream, then pour this into the egg whites, gently folding so as to retain as much volume as possible.

Final Assembly

1. Pre-heat oven at 375°F.
2. In the chilled pie shell, pour in apple mixture, then top with the beaten egg mixture. Bake for 45 minutes or until the top gets some nice colour.

Apple-Custard Pie

This is part of a perfect marriage. I like fruit pies, Ben likes custard pies. This apple custard pie blends the creaminess of the custard with the pleasant bite of cooked apple. I like vanilla a lot so I always put in a bit more than most, and in this recipe the custard takes on more of a pastry cream texture, with the vanilla lending a wonderful floral quality that marries well with the apple.

Cookie Crust Pie Shell, partially blind-baked (when blind-baking, only bake for up to 10 minutes and try to protect the crust by covering it - the pie will bake an additional 30 minutes and you don't want the crust to overcook)

4 firm apples such as Spartan, Jona Gold, Granny Smith, etc, peeled, cored and sliced thin

1⁄4 cup + 2 Tbsp sugar

Pinch of nutmeg

1 cup heavy cream

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3 Tbsps (42gr) butter

1. Set the oven rack in the middle position and preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, smear the paper with a little butter and arrange the apple slices in a single layer on top (you will likely have to use two cookie sheets to do this properly. The apples have to cook and absorb the sugar which is best done if they're not overlapping). Sprinkle each cookie sheet with 1 Tbsp sugar, powder with the pinch of nutmeg. The amount of time the apple cooks depends on the firmness of the apple - test the slices with a paring knife; if it goes in smoothly, the apple is done. The slices should be tender yet still keep their shape.
3. Whisk the cream, eggs and vanilla together, add the remaining sugar and mix a bit more then set aside.
4. Layer the apples in the pie shell in concentric circles. I tend to make two layers of apples in two concentric circles. At last pour the egg mixture on top. Dot the surface with the remaining 2 Tbsp of butter and bake the pie at 400°F 30 minutes.
5. During the baking, check the crust; if you see it browning too much, remove the pie from the oven and cover the edges of the crust with tin foil, then re-introduce into the oven.
6. Allow to cool completely before serving.

French Salad My Style - Endive Salad with Gouda

I discovered this recipe on a French cooking site - with the theft of my laptop this spring I've lost the link, but I had published my revised version on Recipezaar.com. Here it is again.

The flavors in this salad are very bright and refreshing and nicely balanced with the warmer flavor of the gouda cheese. Be sure to purchase plain gouda and not the smoked variety. Rubbing the bowl with garlic sounds a bit odd but adds just a hint of flavor that subtly warms the whole concoction. I hope you enjoy it!

1 garlic clove

2 Tbsps. lemon juice

4 Tbsps. olive oil

salt (to taste)

pepper (to taste)

2 heads Belgian endive

1 cup packed mixed baby greens (to taste)

1 apple, pared and chopped

100g gouda cheese, cubed

1. Rub your salad bowl with half a clove of garlic and reserve the garlic.
2. Mix together lemon juice, olive oil, salt + pepper then cut the remains of the garlic into chunks and add it to the dressing; set aside.
3. Wash the endive and the lettuce, pat dry or dry in salad spinner. Arrange the endive as a crown around the inside of the salad bowl. Place the baby lettuce leaves in the middle of the crown. Mix together the chopped apple and the cubed gouda and place on top of the baby greens.
4. Pour the dressing over the salad being careful to strain out any of the garlic chunks so that they don’t end up in the salad. Serve immediately.
5. NOTE : if your salad has to sit for a bit, toss the chopped apple with a little lemon juice to keep it from turning brown.