Moorish-ish Salad

On Saturday, I got ventured to fellow Füd’ers Will and Liz's apartment to cook dinner and watch movies. Movies ended up being Monty Python’s “The Meaning of Life,” followed by the first part of the BBC’s “Human Body” documentary (an oddly appropriate combination), preceeded by cooking to the Scissor Sisters CD (because they'd never heard it, and it was still in my head from Wednesday).

My dish (I’m sure Liz and Will will share their recipe soon enough) began in one of Jamie Oliver’s books, called a Moorish Crunch salad. Now, I’ve made that before, following the recipe, and never been quite satisfied...this time, I decided to experiment a little bit, which turned into experimenting a lot. And so, without further ado, I present my very own Moorish-ish Salad:

• About 6 oz. baby carrots, sliced into matchstick-sized bits (I do this by cutting them in three, lengthwise, and then again in three, lengthwise).
• About 6 oz. radishes sliced very thin, in semi-circles.
• Three Pink Lady apples, thinly sliced. You don’t have to use Pink Lady, but they are best here in my mind: very crisp, and have enough tartness to hold up but are sweet too – somewhere between Granny Smith (would be too tart) and Mitsu (would be too sweet). For best results, cut the apples last, so they don’t oxidize.
• A good handful of parsley, chopped.
• A couple handfuls of fresh spearmint leaves, roughly torn up. A couple handfuls of raisins (sultanas might be better, but I used raisins).
• Two heavy tablespoons of black sesame seeds.
• 4 tablespoons of good red wine vinegar.
• 6.5 tablespoons of olive oil.
• 1.5 tablespoons of sesame oil.
• 1 portion of dressing (see below)

Mix it all together, let stand 15-20 minutes and then serve.

Dressing!

The Naked Chef’s recipe calls for a tablespoon of tahini here, but I don’t like tahini, and previously found it added nothing to the salad. So, I decided to
improvise, and came up with a dressing, which could also be a dip or sauce or marinade, that is delicious.

One heaping teaspoon of organic all-natural peanut butter (you know, the really gooey runny kind).

½ tablespoon olive oil.

 ½ tablespoon sesame oil.

2 splashes white vinegar.

Two or three shakes black sesame seeds.

Put all this into your mortar, and grind it up into a more-or-less homogenous paste with your pestle. This takes some work, as the seeds are small, but getting a good grind is key. Yum!