This Recipe is part of the Merry Morning Christmas Brunch Menu
Why save warm Camembert for an appetizer, covered in cranberry sauce or tapenade? Spoon it onto a salad, served after a main course for a cheese-meets-salad course.
Ingredients
1–2 heads frisée lettuce
1 green onion, chopped
1/2 cup walnut pieces, lightly toasted
7 oz Camembert or brie cheese (whole, small wheel)
Vinaigrette (makes enough for many salads)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp honey or sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
Fine sea salt and ground black pepper
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Directions
1. For the salad, cut the bottoms off the frisée leaves, then wash the leaves and arrange them on a platter. Sprinkle with chopped green onion and walnut pieces.
2. For the vinaigrette, whisk the red wine vinegar with the Dijon mustard, honey or sugar, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste until fully blended. Slowly pour in the oil, whisking constantly. The vinaigrette can be prepared in advance. Simply whisk it to emulsify it before drizzling over the salad.
3. Preheat the oven to 375°f (190°c).
4. Place the whole cheese on a baking tray and bake it for 12 minutes. Place it on the table next to the salad so that everyone can spoon out as much as they want.
Serves 4
Fresh Take
• Frisée is a feathery, light-colored lettuce with only a mild bitterness to it, unlike other bitter greens like radicchio or escarole. Be sure to buy mostly light green or yellow frisée for the mildest taste.
• My inspiration for this salad is the French salade au lardons, a frisée salad topped with cooked bacon and a poached egg. When you break into the egg, it coats the lettuce like a creamy dressing. I find the warm Camembert does the same thing here.
• It can be challenging to tell the ripeness of a brie or Camembert when it’s a whole wheel. Gently press the center of the wheel. If it “gives” when gently pressed, then it’s ripe, but if it still feels firm give it a week to ripen in the fridge. Baking the cheese does turn the center fluid, but an underripe cheese will still have a solid, chalky core to it.
Excerpted from Fresh by Anna Olson. Copyright © 2009 by Anna Olson. Excerpted by permission of Whitecap Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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