Wednesday 6 February 2008

A crisp, healthy winter salad

Yesterday's shopping trip wasn't wildly exciting but yielded some good bargains. 2 kilos of oranges (11 in total) for €1.99 (£1.48), a kilo of endive or chicory for €1.39 (£1.04) and a huge bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley for 78p. That'll last all week.

I don't know why chicory is so much cheaper in France. You'd be lucky to get two heads in England for the price I paid. We'll bake some tonight with the 'Label Rouge' chicken we bought (also reasonable value at €6.53 or £4.86) and probably have some tomorrow wrapped in ham topped with cheese sauce but today I used two to make a simple salad together with a couple of the oranges, some chopped green olives and a can of mackerel (the latter ingredients retrieved from the back of the storecupboard). And a generous handful of chopped parsley. The dressing was made from the juice of half of one of the oranges and some of the oil from the olive jar. Lots of pepper - a bit of cayenne wouldn't have gone amiss - but you couldn't fault it for healthiness. Oily fish and all.

If you can't get hold of any cheap chicory you could substitute fennel or celery.

Incidentally, as you may have gathered, I didn't flake out as a result of eating the out of date Caprice des Dieux which was perfectly fine. Not that I would urge you to follow my example. Heaven forbid.

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