Colette’s pear salad

I’ve been treated to many delicious meals during our visit in SA, of which this pear salad is one. My good friend Colette, whipped this up one hot afternoon after coming back from our “hunt for all things old”.

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Colette’s pear salad

  • 2 firm pears
  • mixed salad leaves
  • handful of peppery rocket leaves
  • walnuts
  • parmesan cheese
  • butter
  • brown sugar
  • white balsamic vinegar
  • lemon juice
  1. Wash and cut the pears into eight parts.
  2. Heat some butter with a spoonful of sugar in a pan, add the pears and sauté over high heat until nicely caramelized.
  3. Spoon into a dish and leave aside. Add the walnuts to the same pan and brown quickly over high heat. Set aside
  4. Deglaze the pan with some white balsamic vinegar, lemon juice and a pinch of salt.
  5. Arrange the salad leaves on 2 plates, spoon the hot pears on the salad and sprinkle the walnuts. Spoon the deglazed pansauce over the salad and finish off with some shaved parmesan cheese, a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkling of pepper.
  6. For a more substantial meal: Add some crisp fried parma ham/bacon, or goats cheese, or some flaked white fish to the salad.

                                                        Serves two

Finish off this late afternoon meal, much later, with tea and a freshly baked cupcake that you’ve bought on your way home at the sweet deli just around the corner.

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I’m holidaying in SA.

I have been in SA for the last two weeks, which will explain my silence. I’ll make up for it when back home. I’ll still be here for another week before we turn back for home in France.

Some scenes from around us here under the Southern skies in Stellenbosch :

The Atlantic is cold, but simply beautiful…

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The baboons welcome us around every bend…

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Breakfast by the sea tastes different…

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Proteas, our national flower, growing in abundance on the mountainslopes…

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Eating is the most popular pastime, with Calamari followed by soft serve ice cream, and bobotie followed by homebaked South African delicasies, and seafoodsoups followed by long walks by the sea…and…and…

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We taste the sun, the salty sprays of the seas, we hear the cry of the gulls,  we pick up shells and turn them into memories, our heads spin from the Merlots and Cabernets, we drown ourselves in the magic of the breath taking sunsets and revel in the beauty of the mountains. We laugh with our friends and family. We sail on the blue waters with billowing sails…

The sun makes room for the the moon far too soon, but we don’t think about time, we just live each glorious day to the full, filled with gratitude and appreciation and a healthy zest for livin……life is good.

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