Welsh Salad
Wandering through a Welsh country market and seeing all the fresh local produce on offer sparked an idea. the Greek have a greek salad, but do the Welsh have a welsh salad? Well heres my take on it, grilled radish, charred bell pepper, fresh cucumber and tomato. Then we hit the big time, Beautiful crumbly lumps of Welsh Caerphilly Cheese, blanched Runner Beans and mint, doused in balsamic with a hint of lemon.
Ingredients
3 Tomatoes, Roughly Chopped
A Bunch of Radishes, cut in half
4-5 Runner Beans, roughly chopped
200g Caerphilly Cheese
1/2 Telegraph Cucumber, diced
A few Mint Leaves, shredded
Juice of Half a Lemon
1 Red or Orange Capsicum
Balsamic Vinegar
Flaky Sea Salt
Cracked Black Pepper
Sunflower oil
Method
Three things need to be cooked and you can do them in any order.
On an open flame or on an element, char the capsicum skin all over. Push it really hard, so it's black. Once you've got good coverage, run it under the cold water and rub the black skin off. It'll come of very easily. If some of it stays on there, it's all good, a bit of char tastes nice!
Move to a chopping board and chop it into chunks.
Next blanch the runner beans in boiling water for 1.5 minutes. No longer! You're just aiming to make the green pop, not cook them. If you blanch them too long they'll shrivel up when they cool. Once done, drain and rinse under cool water.
Finally, put a bit of sunflower oil into a cast-iron frying pan. Fry the radishes cut side down in the frying pan for 3-4 minutes on a low heat. This will make one side tender and caramelized with a hint of crunch on the other side!
Mix all the ingredients together, then crumble in the Caerphilly cheese (it's texture is sort of like a firmer feta cheese). Garnish with shredded mint leaves, then drizzle in balsamic vinegar. A dash of lemon juice - just a hint will do! Finally, sea salt and pepper to taste. Mix it through one last time then drizzle with a bit of sunflower oil to give it an appealing glaze and delicate fattiness.
Serve with grilled meats or on it's own.
Enjoy!
