Before I even start this post let me just say that I really don’t like any of the photos I took of it. Nothing is right with any of them. I don’t like the light, I don’t like the composition, I don’t like the focus.
So, having said that, the three here represent the best of the 47 I took.
Ingredients for pomegranate and persimmon salad
The flip side of that is… the salad turned out scrummy-umptious.
I’ve been lusting after the Williams-Sonoma Cooking For Friends cookbook. The photos in it are so divine. But, I only had money to splurge on one cookbook last week and after having my two choices pulled out on the floor in the bookstore and comparing, I picked the one with the more mainstream ingredients (more on the one I chose in another post).
But while I was sitting cross-legged on the floor of Chapters comparing my books (am I the only person over the age of eight who does this in bookstores?), I came across the Endive and Persimmon Salad. Seeing as I had the very first two persimmons I have ever bought sitting in my fridge without a clue what to do with them, I made a mental note.
Persimmons, chives and pomegranate seeds
Sure enough, when I got home a quick google found me the salad recipe on the Williams-Sonoma site. Follow the link and you can check out the original recipe.
What follows here is the Melissa-ized version. And I will tell you why.
- I went to the grocery store to buy endive and couldn’t find it (mistake number 1, I went to the grocery store and not the farmer’s market). I found something that I thought might be endive but it had no sign and there was no produce boy around who knew what the item in question was sooo… I bought romaine hearts instead. Because I like them.
- Champagne Vinegar. Right. No. We will settle for white wine vinegar thank you very much. I notice they sell it on their site for $18 a bottle. But no matter, my grocery store has a pretty great selection of the unusual but they didn’t have champagne vinegar.
- I wanted to make this a meal salad so I added chicken.
The finished product - and yes, there is, in fact, chicken hiding in there.
So, without further ado: the Melissa version of the Endive Salad with Persimmons or as I like to call it:
Persimmon & Pomegranate Salad with Chicken
1 box or bag of fresh Romaine hearts
seeds from 1 large pomegranate
2 ripe Fuyu persimmons
1/2 lb of feta, crumbled
1/2 tsp plus 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup of toasted pistachio nuts coarsely chopped
2 tbsp of snipped chives (reserve blossoms for garnish if you feel fancy!)
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp white wine vinegar
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to season
3-4 chicken breasts, sliced into thin strips – like for stir frying
Trim the ends off of the Romaine leaves if you don’t like them (I do so I keep them) and put them in a large bowl.
Slice the persimmons as thin as you can – use a mandoline if you have one.
Combine the cheese with the 1/2 tsp olive oil. Add the cheese/oil mixture, pistachios, persimmons slices, pomegranate seeds and chives to the Romaine leaves.
In a small bowl combine remaining 1/2 cup of olive oil with lemon juice, lemon zest, wine vinegar with a whisk. Once well combined season with salt and pepper.
Drizzle the oil over the salad and toss. Add extra seasoning if needed.
I don’t like my salad drenched in dressing so I only used half the dressing for the salad and I cooked my chicken with the remaining half instead of cooking oil, which gave it a nice lemony tang.
Top the salad off with the warm chicken and serve. You should have enough for four.
Now go eat.
These pictures are amazing! You inspire me to take better pictures.
that’s my goal – to turn the world into a bunch of shutter snapping fiends! You can never have enough pretty photos to look at! haha
That salad looks most delicious. I especially like your presentation. Great photos.
thanks
Hi! Looks yummy.
And I do that at bookstores quite frequently.
(I’ve missed seeing you around and hope you don’t mind if I visit here occasionally?)
Briana!!
I’ve missed you too! So good to see you popping up. And of course you can visit – anytime
I think the first picture looks a little bit staged, if you know what I mean. Artificial. One can see the effort that was made to create the composition.
But I like the other two that you took, especially the second one.
You take really good food pictures, and once in a while it’s ok that one can see how much effort is taken to produce these pictures!
I totally agree with what you said about the first one. I have to say, doing food photography is probably the number one thing I could have done to improve my technical abilities. It’s HARD!! You wouldn’t thing it would be – it’s just food. But the styling, composition and definitely the lighting take so much work. I’d like to get a nice 100mm macro lens for my camera to help out
I like the first image…hrmm
Can I ask a really stupid question. Considering all the things I’ve eaten in my life, pomegranates are the one thing I can’t wrap my head around. I like them but I never know – are you supposed to spit out the seed or eat it? Seriously.
I know, embarrassing, but humor me and help me out – I want to love them but I feel like an LOLcat “Pomegranates: You’re doing it wrong”
bah.. not embarrassing at all! I avoided them for years because I didn’t know either. I thought you were supposed to slurp the juicy part off and what with that and trying to get them out of the shell/pith it seemed like waaaay to much work.
But nope… you just eat the kernels – seed and all. Just like corn niblets. They have a nice juicy crunch!