Fig and blue cheese salad

• serves

  4

• cook

  30 minutes

Ingredients

2 witlof, cut in half lengthwise

1 bunch chives, chopped

2 sticks celery, chopped

1 punnet watercress

1 cup white celery leaves

2 fresh figs

160g blue cheese, such as Stilton

Dressing

3 figs

½ tablespoon butter

2 egg yolks

50ml red wine vinegar

50ml hazelnut oil

50ml extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

To make the dressing, preheat oven to 180°C. Slit the tops off 3 figs and stuff with butter. Wrap figs in oil and bake in oven for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile whisk egg yolks and vinegar together until the mixture starts to thicken. Combine oils and slowly whisk oils into the yolks. Peel the figs, discard skin, roughly chop the flesh and add it to the dressing.

Chop the stalks off the witlof and chop chives into 2-3 cm lengths. Chop the celery in 4mm-thick slices on an angle. Mix all these together in a bowl with the watercress and celery leaves and gently toss through 2 tablespoons of the dressing.

To serve, break the figs, allowing half per person on each entrée plate. Using both hands, delicately arrange salad on top of the fig, then crumble a quarter of the cheese on each plate and drizzle remaining dressing over the whole salad.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.