Harlan's party was at lunchtime and I made 2 chillis, meat and pinto bean. They were fine, I asked Dave to do a salad to go with and he came up with this spectacular and delicious one which was devoured pretty quickly.
ROAST BEETROOT SALAD, WITH APPLES, ARUGULA, GOAT CHEESE AND SPICED PECANS.
We roasted the beets the night before in a little orange juice. Peeled, cored and sliced the apples then did this fancy trick: bring pan of water to the boil, add a pinch of saffron, it will turn water bright yellow. Cool water right down then marinate apple slices for about half an hour. Does not affect flavour much but turns them a gorgeous light yellow and stops them from turning brown between making and serving the salad, genius! He roasted the pecans in honey, 350 degrees for about 12 mins (watch them, they burn easily!), prepared a largish bowl with some sugar and cayenne pepper to put nuts into immediately when they came out of the oven. Tossed them in the sugar and pepper. The dressing was simple too, olive oil, white balsamic, little honey and salt and pepper. It was so good I did a version of it 4 days later on Christmas Eve........
