Pear Hazelnut Salad with Roquefort

This is an absolutely delicious little salad with pears carefully poached in lemon and white wine, toasted hazelnuts, sharp crumbly roquefort cheese and snappy arugula salad. I served it for the 13 courses dinner. (And if you're getting sick of hearing about that, take comfort in the fact that this is the last post on the dishes I made for it.)

The idea for this recipe comes from a book called Smårätter ("Little dishes") written a few years ago by Per Gustafson, Malin Söderström and Henrik Norström - three successful Swedish chefs. It's actually the first thing I try from this book, which has been sadly ignored in my book shelf. I'll really try to make more things from it - it's a nice little book!

Pear Hazelnut Salad with Roquefort
Serves 4 (or 8 if you're doing many courses)

4 firm pears (preferrably Kaiser Alexander)
150 g rouquefort cheese
50 g hazelnuts
1 large bunch of arugula (rocket) (about 100 g)
3 tbsp hazelnut oil
salt

To poach the pears:
100 ml white wine
150 ml sugar (about 135 g)
the juice of two lemons
500 ml water

Toast the hazelnuts in a hot oven (about 200°C) for 5-10 minutes or until they are fragrant. Remove and skin them by rubbing the nuts in a towel or between your hands.
Chop coarsely.

Mix all ingredients for the poaching liquid and bring to a boil. Peel the pears and quarter them. Remove the core. Immerse the pears in the hot liquid, and let them simmer for 6-7 minutes or until fairly soft. Remove from heat, and let the pears cool completely in the liquid.

Clean and dry the arugula. Mix with the nuts, the hazelnut oil and the salt. Arrange on individual plates or a large platter. Crumble over the cheese, and top with the pears.


Recipe in Swedish:
Sallad med citronkokta päron, roquefort och rostade hasselnötter