Salad Tulipe is named for the plate presentation of Bibb lettuce/Boston Butter Leaf. Using the whole leaves, overlapping one another, is reminiscent of fresh tulip petals. The flavor profile of poached pears, quality blue cheese and toasted walnuts is one of those made in heaven. Layering the Bibb lettuce with the walnuts, Point Reyes Original Blue Cheese and dressing makes for a beautiful presentation and is super easy to do.
In this case, for a formal dinner, the salad is cut with a knife and fork, then mixed to bring all of the elements together. The object is to make a beautiful presentation without getting super complicated, which is something I think every home cook can pull off. Since there are so few ingredients to this salad, using quality blue cheese like Point Reyes Original Blue Cheese is important. There are several brands of quality creamy blue cheese out there. Just pick your favorite.
While I’m not a fan of deconstructed dishes, this one is just on the edge of that genre by using whole leaves. Still another way to eat this luscious salad is by utilizing the whole lettuce leaves as a wrap. Add a few dots of blue cheese, toasted walnuts, and walnut dressing with a bit of poached pear in the center and you have a savory vegetarian taco. This makes an excellent wine party appetizer.
Light and savory salad that is a perfect beginner to almost any meal.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. This is 2/3 cup of plain, dry walnuts. Roast the walnuts in the oven for no more than 8 minutes. Once they have been roasted and are giving off a nice, toasty aroma, remove from the oven and place in a cold dish to stop the cooking process.
The roasted walnuts are now tender and flavorful. Before service, gently crush the walnuts with your hand as you dot them on the salad and around the plate. For now, reserve them until you need them.
Gather the ingredients to make the walnut oil salad dressing. Since there are relatively few ingredients, quality should be you first priority. I’m using grape seed oil, but you can also use any neutral flavored oil like canola, avocado or vegetable oil.
Add all of the ingredients to a container with a lid and shake vigorously until well mixed.
Gather the ingredients to make the poached pears.
To safely extract the pit and stem from the pear, choke up on a small paring knife so that only a small part of the blade is used, then use your thumb as a guide for how deeply the knife tip penetrates. This will help you avoid cutting yourself while holding the pear. If you feel uncomfortable with the knife use a cut glove on the opposite hand.
Carefully use the tip of the blade to follow along with the stem and around the pit. The pit should release fairly easily after cutting all the way around it.
Take a fresh vanilla bean and split it lengthwise to allow the seeds in the center to flavor the wine.
Measure out 2 cups of good drinking wine. With a whisk, and the pot on medium-high heat, stir in the sugar until it has dissolved. Add the pears to the wine mixture and bring to a boil for 10 minutes. Reduce the temperature to medium-low for 1 hour.
After the pears are soft, remove them from the pan and seasoned wine with a slotted spoon. Bring the wine and seasonings back up to a boil and reduce the mixture until slightly syrupy. Pour the wine mixture back over the pears and allow to cool. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate to allow the wine to fully penetrate through the pear, ideally overnight.
This is the poached pear after sitting in the reduced wine mixture overnight. In addition to giving it a wonderful flavor, the color of the wine has fully penetrated through the pear as well.
Thinly slice the pear and reserve.
On a salad plate add 1 leaf of the cleaned Bibb lettuce.
Overlap each leaf on top of the other to make a small stack of lettuce leaves or lettuce cups. On each layer of Bibb lettuce, add some of the crushed toasted walnuts, Point Reyes Original Blue Cheese, and a small amount of the walnut dressing.
Continue building up the layers of lettuce to 5 or 6 tiers. Add half of the sliced pear halves around the base of the Bibb lettuce. Dot the plate with a little more Point Reyes Original Blue Cheese and crushed toasted walnuts. Drizzle with a little more of the walnut dressing on the lettuce, and some of the reduced wine mixture on the pears. Enjoy!
Wine recommendations Auxey-Duresses, 2016 Burgundy, France , Chardonnay, 2017 Medicino, CA
Salad Tulipe with Poached Bartlett Pears and Point Reyes Original Blue Cheese
Ingredients
Poached Pear
- 2 cups wine, red
- 1/3 cup sugar, granulated/caster
- 2 whole star anise
- 2 sticks cinnamon
- 1 whole vanilla bean, split
- 2 whole pear, like Bartlet or Bosc peeled, split, and core removed
Walnut Dressing
- 4 tbsp walnut oil After opening walnut oil refrigerate after use to keep it fresh.
- 2 tbsp sherry vinegar
- 2 tbsp grape seed oil You can substitute any neutral flavored oil like vegetable, canola or avocado
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 rsp black pepper
Salad Tulipe Assembly for each salad
- 5-6 leaves butter leaf lettuce, aka bibb lettuce, cleaned and leaves separated
- 2 tbsp walnuts, toasted, slightly crushed
- 2-3 oz. blue cheese like Point Reyes
- 1/2 whole pear, poached, sliced
- 3 tbsp walnut dressing
Instructions
Poaching Pears in red wine
- Combine the wine, sugar, star anise, cinnamon and vanilla bean in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Add the pears and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, turning occasionally, for 1 hour or until pears are tender. Use a slotted spoon to transfer pears to a heatproof bowl.
- Increase heat to high and bring the syrup up to a boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until the syrup thickens slightly. Pour over the pears and set aside for 10 minutes to cool. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight to chill.
Walnut Dressing
- Add all of the dressing ingredients to a shaker with a tight fitting lid. Shake vigorously until mixed. Reserve till needed. Shake before using.
Toasting Walnuts
- Preheat an oven to 375 degrees.
- Add 2/3 cup of raw shelled walnuts to a baking sheet and insert into oven for 6 minutes to 8 minutes maximum. When the walnuts are slightly toasted and fragrant, remove them from the baking sheet and allow to cool. Just before service, crush the walnuts with your hands as you add them to the salad.
Salad Tulipe Assembly
- Wash and prepare Bibb lettuce leaves. Carefully disconnect each leaf at the root and trim the excess at the bottom. Each individual Bibb lettuce should provide 2 or 3 servings, so keep this in mind when working up how much you will need.
- Place a lettuce leaf in the center of a chilled salad plate. Top with a few crushed, toasted walnuts, dabs of the Point Reyes Original Blue Cheese and a little bit of the Walnut Dressing.
- Repeat the process above until you have stacked 5 or 6 layers of the lettuce leaves/walnut/cheese/dressing.
- Add the sliced poached pears around the bottom of the salad and drizzle with a little bit of the reduced wine mixture. Dot the plate with more of the Point Reyes Blue Cheese Original, crushed walnuts and drizzle the whole thing with a little more of the walnut dressing.