Eating with friends: the salad I MEANT to bring...

Em had retreated from Stillwater for the weekend, and I was invited to eat dinner with friends. I was responsible for bringing a salad, an easy vegan contribution to any meal. However, I intend to be a good ambassador for vegan dishes, trying to represent them as more than glorified sides. A salad poses an interesting dilemma since you have to strike a balance between paradoxical culinary objectives (it's quite possible I'm over thinking this). The entrée is the star of the show, so anything overly grand or surprising will receive too much attention. But salads are often so predictable that people hardly notice they're even eating them, providing no real opportunity for an appreciable enhancement to a meal.

I had given it some thought, and I came up with what I thought would be a tasty and tasteful addition to the evening, sure to make all of the skeptical guests say, "This is pretty great," while still allowing everyone to lavish the vast majority of the dinner's praise on the worthy hosts.

But I ran into a problem which on any other Friday afternoon would have been welcome. I took an accidental nap. The kind that creeps up on you while you're doing important-but-not-urgent things on your to-do list, so you're not unduly motivated to fight off the falling eyelids. I realized about 2:00 in the afternoon that I was beginning to nod off, but I underestimated how tired I was. I didn't set my alarm, believing that I'd be awake in plenty of time to run to the grocery store, return home to prepare the salad, and arrive at our hosts' home on time to enjoy a leisured glass of wine before the meal.

In actual fact, I slept for over three hours, waking up in a haze, initially refusing to believe the clock (which I regularly suspect of lying to me as a practical joke). I had enough time to grab a jacket, rush out the door, run into the grocery store to buy passable ingredients that could be thrown together in the hosts' kitchen. I didn't bring my own bowl! We ended up having a perfectly reasonable salad (how boring) of spinach, strawberries, sliced almonds, and a ready-made pomegranate vinaigrette. Not exactly the shining example of vegan creativity I had hoped for.

Here's the idea for the salad I MEANT to bring:
Arugula, pears, candied pecans, spicy sweet potato croutons, and a fresh cilantro-lime vinaigrette. I thought the peppery arugula would go well with the chili-spiced crispy sweet potatos, and the candied pecans (with agave nectar) and sliced pears would provide some great balance. The citrus and herb from the vinaigrette would bring it all together nicely. Never got a chance to try it, though. I'll make it soon, post pictures, and include recipes for the pecans and the sweet potato croutons.

Eating at Home: Poached Pears

Made this dessert for a dinner party a few nights ago. Simple, simple, simple. This is a great recipe to prep and start after lunch. The pears can poach most of the afternoon and be ready in time for dinner.

Ingredients:
Pears - whichever variety is your favorite
Maple syrup
Apple juice
Cinnamon
Raspberries - frozen or fresh
Orange liqueur (optional)

Instructions for poaching the pears:
Preheat the oven to 350. Peal the pears, cut off a small slice of the bottom so that they will stand upright, and roll them in cinnamon. In a dutch oven, or any heavy pot with a lid, place the pears, and pour in enough apple juice to cover the bottom half of the pears. Cover and place in the oven for 2-3 hours, or until tender all the way through.

Instructions for the sauce:
Place berries in a saucepan and bring their juice to a boil. Add orange liqueur while juices are boiling to ensure most of the alcohol is burned off. If you're not using liqueur, consider using orange zest or a slight amount of orange juice. The citrus really "wakes up" the sauce. Let everything cool slightly and transfer to a blender. Blend until smooth.
For a silkier sauce, I transfered the blended berries back into the saucepan through a strainer to remove any grit. I added just a tablespoon of Earth Balance butter to give it some shine.

Substitutions:
This recipe would work just as well with apples. Either would be appropriate for the fall. You can also use any berry for the sauce. Pears and raspberries were speaking to me in the grocery store, but apples and blueberries would be a wonderful combination, especially with a little nutmeg added to the cinnamon and a few bits of fresh made pie crust on the side. Don't forget the vanilla soy ice cream!

For a different take, you could use a bold red wine as your poaching liquid, which is absolutely incredible, but you would not want to couple this with a berry sauce. Instead, you would want to serve the red wine pears with caramel or butterscotch (vegan preparation, of course).