Camembert, Watercress and Marinated Figs with Walnut Dressing

From Vegetarian, Alice Hart, Murdoch Books, 2010.

Camembert, watercress, figs and walnuts—a perfect match of flavours. This looked as though it would be an excellent salad but after the rather disastrous fig recipe I had made recently I was a little unsure.

Firstly a marinade had to be made for the figs. A hundred grams of balsamic was placed in a saucepan with 50g caster sugar, a peeled garlic clove, a couple of sprigs of thyme and 50ml of water. This was brought to the boil and simmered for a couple of minutes, then left to cool.

Three figs were halved and placed in the marinade and left for a couple of hours.

When it was time to make the salad the figs were removed from the marinade and placed cut side down in a hot frying pan until they had caramelised. The pan was turned off and the figs turned over and left to cool.

Meanwhile the marinade was turned into a dressing. Three tablespoons of the mixture was measured into a small bowl. To it were added the leaves from a spring of thyme, two tablespoons walnut oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper. This was beaten until combined well.

A good handful of watercress leaves were tossed with a little of the dressing. This was placed on the serving plate, chopped walnuts were sprinkled over, the figs were added and 125g camembert cut into pieces. The remainder of the dressing was drizzled over.

A delicious salad. I loved every bite of it.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔