Friday 19 September 2014

This week in my kitchen :: Fig and feta salad with a pumpkin seed oil and maple syrup dressing



The kitchen has had a number of reincarnations since we arrived. On the first morning a sofa took the spot under the stairs, soon replaced with a small dining table. Now an old metal industrial school kitchen table takes pride of place and it's perfect. Maybe I'll actually manage to do some baking. 

The hob is busy every day. Lots of Persian khoreshs that last a day or more with steamed rice and yoghurt dressing. 'A' has made both plum and damson wine using vintage recipes. I've roasted chickens and baked potatoes there, stitched curtains, opened presents of local produce and made soups and salads. And at last we found time to open the bottle given by old neighbours as a fair-well gift to celebrate the new home. 


Fig and feta salad

Ingredients:
  • salad leaves. I like contrast in flavour and texture and so used iceberg for crunch plus some mixed small leaves for a little sweetness and bitter radicchio.
  • one or two figs per person
  • three or four large cherries per person
  • Feta cheese or another of choice
  • walnuts
  • a medium sized mushroom.
  • red onion
  • cherries
  • sea salt and black pepper. If the cheese is a salty one like feta you probably won't need any additional salt. 
For the dressing:
  • toasted pumpkin seed oil (so good for you and an amazing ingredient. It just tastes like pumpkin seed, lovely nutty and rich)
  • balsamic vinegar
  • maple syrup
  • fresh ginger if you like a little heat in your dressing

Simply wash, peel, slice or dice the salad ingredients and then trickle with the dressing ones. 

At last I'm joining with Heather again, are you coming for a peep too?
debx

14 comments:

  1. Beautiful photos Debby. I will have to save your recipe until next summer when the fig are once again on the tree.
    What is the dish with the blueberries? I can't figure it out.

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    1. Thank you Tracey. You are so lucky. I'm contemplating buying a little fig tree for the new garden. I believe that you can grow anything here. I must do more research.

      The dish with the blueberries is Persian rice with sumac. A lovely fresh lemony spice. You can read about here if you haven't heard of it before.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumac
      and poached chicken and greek yoghurt. We like to eat it with berries or grapes for a sharp contrast to the plain food.
      debx

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  2. I was looking forward to a kitchen post in your new kitchen!!! :) Lovely photos, as usual! The fig salad looks absolutely deligtful! Thanks for sharing the recipe. Have a great weekend, Debby,

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    1. Hi Emily. It keeps changing all the time. Thank you. I don't have much room and there are still a few unopened boxes. We need to spend more time at home to really sort things out properly.
      I hope yours was good too. I'm just going to pop over and see.
      debx

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  3. i was wondering about the blueberries, too? rice? please share. everything is looking wonderful....you must be feeling more settled if you have so much going on in the kitchen. (I wish I had enough figs to do something like that salad....my first year to grow figs, and I'm eating (the few ) right from the 'tree'.

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    1. Hello Steph, thanks for coming over. As I explained to Tracey it's:

      The dish with the blueberries is Persian rice with sumac. A lovely fresh lemony spice. You can read about here if you haven't heard of it before.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumac
      and poached chicken and greek yoghurt. We like to eat it with berries or grapes for a sharp contrast to the plain food.

      Sometimes we just want something very plain. We seem to add fruit to everything, especially at this time of year. Interestingly lots of Persian savoury recipes include fruit in them.

      I hope you have a bountiful crop next year so that you can try out lots of recipes.
      debx

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  4. hello debby,
    lovely photos from your kitchen.the salad looks delicious.all the other food,too. plum wine sounds good! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
    Have a wonderful weekend,
    hugs regina

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    1. Thank you Regina. It was all delicious to eat. I hope that you have a good weekend too.
      debx

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  5. This all looks so good, including not only the food but even the round dish draining object! and those retro books! Your home is looking lovely.

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    1. Oh thank you.The circular drainer is from Ikea. It just fits the space perfectly. A lovely neighbour brought a bucket of damsons from her garden for us and when we mentioned that we wanted to make wine came back the next morning with the recipe books. It was very sweet of her.
      debx

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  6. Fig Feta and Walnuts go so well together. Bet that dressing just made it even more special.

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    1. I love the combination too and the dressing is a nice change from my usual balsamic vinegar, olive oil, honey and grainy dijon mustard that seem to make all the time.
      debx

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  7. yay! yummy food is back :) I've missed it! Glad you kitchen is humming with activity once again.

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    1. Thanks Karen. It's been busy from day one but so untidy. I kept organising a nice tidy space to work and then something else would get put in there. At last a bit of order is in place with the school kitchen as an extra working area. I hope it keeps that way for a while.
      debv

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