Poached Pear Salad

This recipe was inspired from a visit to a restaurant (Money Order Office) in Melbourne CBD for one of our team lunches. I believe recreating a salad is a lot less trickier than other dishes as you can see almost all the elements that went into it can be seen on your plate. It's a very interesting dish with each ingredient imparting its own unique flavour - sweet poached pear, tangy lemon vinaigrette, salty cheese, peppery wild rocket and crunchy toasted almonds. The salad tasted amazing and it was a great start to a wonderful lunch....

For the salad:

• Wild rocket leaves - 1 packet
• Poached pear - 1/2 cup (add more if you like)
• Slivered almonds - 1/4 cup
• Blue cheese (Valdeon) - 50 g (cut into small cubes)
• Lemon vinaigrette - as required
• Salt as required

In a salad bowl mix all the ingredients except the blue cheese and lemon vinaigrette.
Add the cheese and dressing just before serving.

Lemon vinaigrette

• Olive oil - 4 tbsp
• Honey - 1 tsp
• Lemon juice - 1 tsp
• Lime juice - 1 tbsp
• Dijon mustard - 1/4 tsp (optional)

Method:

• Place all the above ingredients in a screw-top jar and shake well to combine. Taste and add more lime juice & salt if required, set aside.

Poached pear

• Corella pears - 2 firm
• lemon juice - 1 tbsp
• Water - 2 cups
• Vanilla pod - 1 cut & scraped  
• Honey - 1/2 cup
• Cardamom - 2 crushed
• Cloves - 2
• Cinnamon - 1 stick
• Rose water - 1 tsp
• Nutmeg - 1/4 tsp
• Ginger - 1" piece bruised

Method: 

• Peel and core the pears and cut them lengthwise. Sprinkle lemon juice over the cut pieces to avoid browning.
• Heat water over medium heat in a saucepan with vanilla bean, honey, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, rose water, nutmeg and ginger. Bring to boil.
• Add the pear, flat side down and continue to simmer on low heat.
• Cover the pear with a round parchment paper, with a small hole in the center.
• Using a paring knife or fork, poke the pears to check for doneness. If it slides through without resistance the pears are done.
• Remove the pears using a slotted spoon and let it cool, cut into 1 cm cubes.
• Strain the spices from the stock, reduce it by half over medium heat.
• This sauce can be used in the salad as dressing instead of lemon vinaigrette.