Red cabbage, blue cheese and walnut slaw

I know all this cold weather would usually mean a slate of hot recipes, but I've been wanting to post this recipe for a winter salad for some time now. It's what I've been regularly eating for lunch for, oh, several weeks if I'm honest. It's truly one of the best salads I've ever eaten, or made for that matter. I won't lie that the blue cheese and walnuts are probably what really makes it special, but it's so good that you shouldn't let those toppings blind you to what lies beneath.

Start by slicing up about a quarter of a red cabbage. Or half a small one. Cabbages are so cheap and they keep well in your fridge for a very long time.

Next, slice up about half a fennel. Cut off the green tops first and get rid of the core.

The original recipe calls for a Russet apple, which is what's here. But I've made successful substitutions with Empires and Suncrisp too. I'm sure any variety would work.

Here it is all mixed up and dressed. It does require a bit of chopping time, but once you've got that out of the way, I find the salad keeps really well for a few days. The dressing doesn't make anything soggy, and the colour of the cabbage somehow never bleeds into the other veggies.

Top it off with some crumbled blue cheese and some walnuts and you've got a really great side or starter. Add some leftover chicken or steak and you've got a truly yummy lunch or dinner.

Red cabbage, blue cheese and walnut slaw
From Nigel Slater's Tender Vol. 1

A salad for a light lunch or maybe a first course.

Per person

red cabbage - ¼

fennel - ½ medium-sized bulb

russet apple - 1

lemon juice - a little

medium carrot - 1

blue cheese such as harborne, cashel or beenleigh - 150g

walnuts - a handful

celery - a rib

for the dressing:

mild red wine vinegar - 2 tbs

smooth Dijon mustard - 2 tsp

groundnut oil - 3 tbs *I use a combination of olive and walnut oils
walnut oil - 2 tbs

caster sugar - a pinch

Shred the cabbage and fennel. Core the apple, slice finely and toss in a little lemon juice. Shred the carrot into matchsticks (or grate it very coarsely). Slice the cheese thinly. Toast the walnuts in a non-stick pan till they smell warm and nutty. Thinly slice the celery.

Make the dressing by mixing the vinegar and mustard with a little salt and black pepper. Beat in the groundnut and walnut oils, then taste, and add a little sugar if necessary. Toss the salad ingredients together, gently, so you don't break up the cheese too much. Divide between plates and drizzle over the dressing.

Blue cheese pizza with pears and arugula

Who says pizza has to include tomato sauce and mozzarella? Not me. Besides, if you go that route, you're stuck with the leftover can of pizza sauce that will just grow mould as it sits in your fridge. Much better to stock up on some pears and blue cheese and get at it!

This recipe comes from Chatelaine which has undergone a bit of a makeover of late (or should I say the latest makeover in the past five years). Now it resembles the old Wish magazine -- which I loved -- and which isn't a coincidence, as the former Wish editor is now at the helm of Chatelaine. Anyway, if you haven't picked up a copy in a while, it's worth a look.

But back to the pizza....

Start with your pears and slice 'em up. Actually, you start a few hours earlier by making the crust, which will have suitably risen by this point...

...until it looks like this. At which point you spread with olive oil and sprinkle with cayenne.

Then comes the assembly. A layer of arugula, followed by the pears and blue cheese. More olive oil to make it shiny.

And into the oven it goes until it looks like this. This is really tasty, and while the crust is a bit of a bother compared to my usual recipe, it was really good.

Blue cheese pizza with pears and arugula
From Chatelaine, October 2010 edition

Ingredients

3 tbsp whipping cream (35%)
4 tsp grainy Dijon mustard
2 tsp regular Dijon mustard
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp honey
2 firm but ripe Bosc pears
extra virgin olive oil
1 recipe pizza dough
1 pinch cayenne pepper
3 cups argula, plus more for garnish
114 g blue cheese, crumbled

1.Preheat oven to 500F. Place a large baking sheet in the oven and heat for 45 min.

2.Whisk cream with mustards, lemon juice and honey in a medium bowl. Reserve. Cut pears into 1/4-in. slices and toss with 1 tsp olive oil to coat.

3.Cut dough into 2 portions. Roll 1 out into an oval and place on a sheet of parchment paper. Trim parchment so it’s just wider than dough. Brush dough with olive oil. Sprinkle with cayenne. Top with half of arugula and drizzle with more olive oil. Top with half of pear slices and half of blue cheese.

4.Remove hot baking sheet from oven and quickly transfer pizza and parchment paper onto it. Bake until edges are golden and crisp, 12 to 15 min. Transfer to a platter and garnish with additional arugula if you wish. Repeat with remaining pizza. Serve with mustard sauce.

Comfort food Sunday

This has been a long, tiring week. I had to work very late on Tuesday night, then spent all day Saturday in my wine class and then had to go back into work for most of today. It was pretty tedious too, making small talk with strangers for hours on end. Ugh. But what helped get me through it was the thought of coming home to something yummy.

I decided that after such an arduous week that a little meatloaf was in order. I don't really follow a recipe for this, but this is how it started today. A pound of lean ground beef, a chopped shallot, a handful of oatmeal, an egg, seven or eight chopped (in the food processor) mushrooms, a couple dashes of worchestershire sauce and some salt and pepper.

I mixed all that together, and added my secret ingredient.

Yep,that's right. Blue cheese. Stinky, smelly blue cheese -- or to be specific, gorgonzola. I crumbled up the whole lot and added it in, then formed the mess into two loaves. No real reason for the pair, other than they're easier to handle.

Here's what they look like after an hour or so in the oven. I'll they probably won't win any beauty contests, but they're tasty little things. And let me just say the combination of blue cheese and meat sounds odd, but trust me when I say you will want to climb into the oven as this bakes, because it smells so unbelievably good!

Here it is served up on my plate with some mashed potatoes (sweet and yellow) and beans. Again, it tastes better than the grey blobs indicate.

Oh yeah, I was pretty industrious this afternoon. While my meatloaf was baking away, I cooked this stock using a chicken I cooked last weekend. Here it is ready to go on the heat. Imagine all the soups I'll get from this pot!

Make yourself a meatloaf this week. You'll be happy you did!