published: Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Make this popular salad at home

I spent the weekend up in Flagler Beach helping Chef Patrick Lee roll out the Great Living menu at Florida Hospital Flagler and it is a beautiful area of Florida.

The first night I ate fish tacos in Flagler Beach at a place called Golden Lion Inn, and I recommend them if you are ever up that way. The next night I drove up to St. Augustine and had dinner at Rhett's piano bar. I ordered braised short ribs over butternut squash risotto. The beef was cooked perfectly and the risotto was a great compliment to the ribs.

The final night I went to Blue in Flagler Beach and had their Macadamia crusted Mahi Mahi with mango chutney. I thought the Mahi went well with the chutney and would order that dish and if I ever find myself at Blue again.

I must say I really enjoyed seeing St. Augustine and all the history there. It reminded me of my days in Key West and I am looking forward to going there again.

This week, I want to give you my version of a salad that is starting to show up everywhere. I even saw a version of it at McDonald's. It has pears, apples, dried cranberries and blue cheese. I like to make this salad as an appetizer or add protein to it such as chicken or seared tuna.

I think you will enjoy making this salad and will notice that it has lots of color, great flavor and texture. Until next week ... Cheers, Chef.

Great Living Salad

4 oz. fresh, cored, sliced Bartlett pears

4 oz. fresh, unpeeled, sliced apples

1 tsp. fresh lemon juice

1 oz. julienne sliced fresh red onions

4 oz. spring lettuce salad mix (Mesclun)

8 tbs. dried cranberries

2 oz. Bleu cheese crumbles

4 tbs. sliced, toasted almonds

4 tbs. balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing

1. Wash all the fruit and lettuces. Julienne slice apples and pears; place in water with lemon juice to prevent browning for 10 minutes. Drain and reserve.

2. Toss apples and pears with the remaining ingredients just before serving or serve with the dressing on the side.

Tim Spain is System Executive Chef with Florida Hospital Heartland Medical Center and Morrison Healthcare Food Service. He can be reached at tim.spain@ahss.org/. Guest columns are the opinion of the writer, not necessarily those of the News-Sun staff.