Borough Market Salad

Greetings from London, dear readers! I'm sorry it's taken me quite so long to write a new post - but somehow being a tourist has gotten in the way of blogging about delicious food. I've been in London for nearly three weeks now, so that makes me almost a local, right? Well, I'm enough of a local that today I went to one of London's finest food markets, the Borough Market, and loaded up on fresh, local ingredients... including English strawberries, asparagus, salad greens, a cucumber (which at home would be called an English cucumber, but here it was just called a "Cuc"), darjeeling tea, focaccia bread, plump dried cranberries and honeyed almonds, fourme d'Ambert blue cheese, and English cider... unfortunately the only reason I stopped there was because I ran out of cash and then it seemed like a good idea to go home.

The strawberries are in season in England now and they are juicy and sweet. I would love to make strawberry shortcake with them, or scones with clotted cream and fresh strawberries. It would be a bit too challenging for me to make scones or shortcake today though (without any of the ingredients or some of the proper equipment), so both you and I, dear readers, will have to wait until I return to Toronto (when hopefully Ontario strarwberries are in season) for those recipes. Going for afternoon tea here has motivated me to learn how to make the perfect scone - not that my blueberry lemon scones aren't delicious, but I want to make plain, light scones that are meant to be served with clotted cream and jam.

Back to the Borough Market - and the Borough Market Salad I've created with my fine, fresh ingredients. The Borough Market is located right by London Bridge - and according to their website, there have been food markets in this area since 1014. The market has over 100 stalls, which range from fruit and veg, to bakers and butchers. I walked around the market at least three times before I was ready to start buying anything. I had to study each produce stand to decide where to buy my fruit and veg (the prices were not the same across the market), and look at all the cheese stands, and sample olive oils that I didn't buy, and inspect the baked goods and breads at all the bakeries so that I knew I was making the most informed decisions. I went to the market with a vague idea of some ingredients to buy, but luckily I found more than enough inspiration across the stands. Here's my salad to prove to you just how well I did at the market:

The Recipe:

Note: this recipe is a rough guideline only - with salads, I'd say it's not important to follow strict measures - just go with what you like!

Mixed salad greens
(English) cucumber, chopped
handful of dried cranberries
handful of honeyed almonds
Fourme d'Ambert (or any blue cheese of your choice), crumbled
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper, to taste

Focaccia bread, sliced, to serve on the side

1. Wash lettuce thoroughly and dry. Top with cucumber, cranberries, and almonds.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Add salt and pepper to taste, if desired. Drizzle dressing over salad and toss together lightly.
3. Serve with focaccia bread on the side and a local English cider.

At the produce stand where I bought my mixed salad greens, there were giant bins of about six different types of greens - none of them labeled. So I picked a mix of them, taking more of the ones I thought would taste best, but making sure to get some of them all to try.

When I went to buy the cheese, I originally had planned to get an English Stilton. Somehow I ended up with a French cheese instead. To be honest, I haven't really acquired a taste for any type of blue cheese yet, and so I asked the man for the "least strong" blue. He obviously laughed at me. He let me sample some of the cheeses though, and I decided on the Fourme d'Ambert. I find that crumbled into a salad of flavourful greens, complimented by the sweet cranberries and almonds, the cheese is just right.

Happy Eating!

Caroline