Endive, Pear and Roquefort Salad

Every two weeks or so, I try to clean up my fridge and get rid of some long forgotten bits and pieces of vegetables, leftovers and one or two shrivelled grapes ( that often happens to me). This week I did not have much to throw out . I feel bad when I have too, I always vow not to forget what I have in the fridge but that does not work all the time. I found some leftover Roquefort cheese, 2 pears, walnuts and a lone dried up parsnip. Not bad at all, all I needed to get from the grocery store was some endive and I was set to make endive, pear and Roquefort salad. ( I had to toss out the parsnip). This salad is quick to make and tastes wonderful, the rich flavour of the Roquefort was nicely offset by the freshness of the pears.

The dressing for this salad calls for raw egg yolk. If raw egg yolk is not your thing, you could always use one tablespoon of mayonnaise instead.

Endive, Pear and Roquefort Salad

5 heads of Belgian endive
1 1/2 tb white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar
3/4 tsp Dijon mustard
1 egg yolk at room temperature
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
5 tb of olive oil
2 ripe pears - I used Bartlett pears, cored, halved and sliced
1/4 lb of Roquefort cheese
1/2 cup of roasted walnuts

In a bowl whisk salt, freshly ground black pepper, vinegar, mustard and egg yolk. Make an emulsion by slowly whisking in olive oil into the egg yolk mixture. Toss sliced pears in half of the vinaigrette and place pears on endive. Crumble cheese over salad and sprinkle with walnuts. Drizzle the balance of the vinaigrette over the salad. Serves 4.