The Mrs first discovered this salad at Longhi's in the Ala Moana Shopping Center. A perfect blend of crisp (and slightly bitter) fresh endive leaves topped with candied macadamia nuts, bleu cheese and a honey-mint-scallion vinaigrette. A little bit of crisp (endive), a little bit of crunch (nuts), a little bit of creamy (bleu cheese), a little bit of salty (cheese and nuts) and a little bit of sweet (nuts, honey vinaigrette) so that the whole covered your four basic taste sensations of sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Of course, I needed to make this on my own so I started with the vinaigrette.
Green onions:
Mint:
Honey:
Blitz everything with salt, black pepper, rice wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil and Micheal Chiarello's secret - powdered Vitamin C so that the green doesn't turn brown.
Spread the endive:
Crumble the cheese:
Then and add candied nuts (I used pre-packaged Trader Joe's candied pecans) and voila!
I know it doesn't look like Longhi's but hey, it's the taste that counts and this version more than satisfies...
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