Author Notes
A citrus salad to tide you over until spring really comes -- and the stuffed dates you'll want to eat always. —Phyllis Grant
Ingredients
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1
shallot, diced
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1/2
clove garlic, finely chopped
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2 teaspoons
lemon juice
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2 teaspoons
sherry vinegar
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2 tablespoons
extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for dates
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8
pitted dates
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1/4 cup
goat cheese (fresh and creamy, not aged)
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A splash good balsamic vinegar
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2
navel oranges (or Cara Cara or juice oranges)
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1
seedless tangerine
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Coarse salt
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1 tablespoon
slivered blanched almonds, lightly toasted
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Lemon zest (preferably made with a zester, but a Microplane is fine)
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8
parsley leaves
Directions
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Combine shallot, garlic, lemon juice, and vinegar. Set aside for a few minutes. Slowly whisk in olive oil. Taste. If it's too acidic, add more oil. If it's too oily, add more vinegar or lemon juice. Set aside.
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Preheat your boiler. Fill each date with goat cheese (no need to be careful -- the cheese can be spilling out). Place dates in a cast iron pan or baking dish. Splash with olive oil and thick balsamic. Broil until dates are just warmed through and the cheese is starting to brown. Watch carefully. Don't let them burn. This should take about 4 minutes. Cool for a few minutes while you slice the citrus.
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With a serrated knife, carefully cut off the skin and the pith off of the oranges and the tangerine. Slice them both longitudinally. Spread slices out on plate, overlapping a bit. With a spoon, splash the citrus with your reserved dressing (make sure to scoop up some of the vinegary shallots). Sprinkle with salt. Nestle in the warm dates. Garnish with almonds, lemon zest, and parsley leaves. Eat with a baguette. You will have some dressing left over for the next day's salad.
Phyllis Grant is an IACP finalist for Personal Essays/Memoir Writing and a three-time
Saveur Food Blog Awards finalist for her blog,
Dash and Bella. Her essays and recipes have been published in a dozen anthologies and cookbooks including
Best Food Writing 2015 and
2016. Her work has been featured both in print and online for various outlets, including
Oprah, The New York Times, Food52, Saveur, The Huffington Post, Time Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, Tasting Table and
Salon. Her memoir with recipes,
Everything Is Out of Control, is coming out April 2020 from Farrar Straus & Giroux. She lives in Berkeley, California with her husband and two children.
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