lambs lettuce, black pudding and raspberries salad | Ensalada de Morcilla y queso
I first tried this dish in a restaurant years ago and fall in love with it. It is not a dish that Spaniards come by often as it is a very regional dish from Valencia, the type that didn’t travel, it stayed in the region. The reason is because eels are not so easy to find given that they need to be alive when you buy them as they deteriorate very quickly. It is interesting that over there when the fishmonger prepare the eels for you they cut them with a bit of skin left that holds the pieces together. When you cook it you will know when its just ready, as the skin will break apart, how clever is that. The good thing is that eel can be substituted by any other white flesh fish such as monkfish, hake or conger eel.
INGREDIENTS
200 g watercress or lamb’s lettuce
1 small punnet raspberries, about 150 g
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 morcilla de Burgos (blood sausage), sliced into 1-cm rounds
200 g soft goats’ cheese, sliced into 1-cm rounds
For the dressing1 teaspoon honey
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preparation
Wash and dry the watercress and toss with the berries and pine nuts.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a non-stick pan over a medium to high heat. Pan-fry the goats’ cheese slices on one side only, until golden. Remove from the pan and then pan-fry the morcilla for about 2 minutes on each side. Remove from the pan and drain on kitchen paper. Add the goats’ cheese and morcilla slices to the salad.
Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing or put them into an empty jar with a lid and shake vigorously. Pour over the salad and serve immediately.
