I am trying new versions inspired by Ottolenghi, of course, he is my hero, always challenging me to think outside the box. When it comes to dressings, I make the usual - don't you ? I have my favorite I make all the time and hardly think while putting the ingredients together. It is easy to me, and I know exactly the ratio of all that is in it in order to be the same for 4-10 servings ...
Now I had to stop and allow myself to step out of the box - there is a new horizon! There are possibilities unheard of and never tried and I am really inspired.
If this sounded a bit philosophical it was on purpose. Life is just like that. Life is like a dressing... We allow only certain things to shake our boat, trusting what we once approved of. Which does not mean there is only our limited view on things.
Dressing
2 tbsp very fine sugar
ground chili, as much as you want to tolerate
300 ml/ 1 1/2 cups of the grapefruit juice ( saved from the ones we use)
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
60 ml/ 4 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp of salt
This dressing starts in a small saucepan over medium heat.
Melt the fine sugar and the chili add the grapefruit juice and simmer until the sauce thickens to about 70 ml, this can take 30 min.
Remove from heat and let cool.
Stir in the lemon juice and the olive oil. Lemon juice does not like to be cooked for long.
Sun: is SUMAC*
6 pink grapefruits
1 package of fresh baby spinach, washed and drained
1 medium size red onion, cut in very thin slices
1/2 cup roasted almond slivers
1 tbsp sumac*
olive oil
chili
Maldon sea salt flakes
Making the salad :
With a small sharp knife cut of the cap and the bottom of the grapefruit. Cut down the sides of the grapefruit along its shape to remove the peel and the white pith. In your hand is the juice fruit flesh and you can see clearly the lines, the membranes between the filets we want to get. Over a prepared bowl which will hold all the juice that we will need for the dressing, we cut along the first white line to the core, not all the way just to the resisting centre, cut on the other side and Voila! The others are easier after the cut to the centre, turn your knife and peel the flesh away from the other side, save the filets in another bowl, squeeze all the remaining juice from the "skeleton" and finish all your grapefruits in the same manner.
Drain the grapefruit filets into the other bowl you should have at least those 300 ml required to make the dressing. Nothing is wasted, as we are using all the ingredients!
Gently add the Sumac and marinate the filets while you make the dressing.
Assembling:
First put the spinach then the onions and then the filets in a bowl, basil leaves and pour the dressing over it, add the salt. Sprinkle with the roasted sliced almonds!
No vinegar, instead this sweet, fruitful, reduced explosion of aromas in this dressing.
DD Tip:
Pink grapefruits are a perfect combination with avocados, just alternatively arrange them on a platter drizzled with olive oil and finished with some sea salt and fresh ground red pepper.
*SUMAC is a decorative bush that grows wild throughout the Middle East and parts of Italy. The dark purple-red berries are sold dried or ground and have a fruity, astringent taste. The Sicilian sumac and those berries grown at the highest latitude are said to be the best flavored of the sumacs. The berries are picked just before they ripen and dried. Sumac is used in the cooking of Lebanon, Syria, Turkey and Iran.
