Think pink!

Life with The Gentleman has not always been a bed of roses. And those darkest moments would have been impossible to get through without the help and support of my friends. Especially The Wine Merchant and The Chocolate Manufacturer with their occupational perks have proved invaluable. To a point there were times I found myself genuinely surprised my tear ducts were still producing tears instead of Riesling infused chocolate bars.

With any luck those moments are safely behind me now and me and my friends can focus on sharing happier moments. And that Riesling, of course!

Coordinating any kind of get-togethers has become challenging by each passing year though.  Not just because of the challenges that marriages, children, renovations, relocations to suburbs and other issues, apparently inextricably linked to growing up has posed, but also because of the way each one of us has spent time living in all sorts of foreign countries. But occasionally, like this particular night a little while back, things work out and we get to have a girls' night out/in.  Which would have been all the merrier, had The Eternal Student, another crucial part of our little group of friends from years and years back been in town too. 

And girls night calls for girly treats - something light and pink. See, we're part of a generation that was cheerfully oblivious to anything called gender-neutral socialization process - we poor creatures were happily conditioned to princess games, My Little Ponies and frilly pink dresses without a clue that was just another ploy by heteronormative macho-culture upheld by the (at the very least)  implicitly misogynistic market forces to oppress and objectify us (thankfully one of us went ahead and got herself a silly degree in Arts and farts and knows this now!).

The starting point for this salad came form all the hams I've been dragging back form Spain. Figs (a classic combination with ham!), red onion, mangold leaves, red cabbage and pomegranate seeds continued the theme. Instead of red cabbage you could also use radicchio, but in its bitterness it is a taste not for everybody. If you use it though, you could balance it with a creamily rich  mozzarella. For red cabbage version cheese lovers might want to add Manchego or Parmesan shavings.

Feeds four

Salad:

different leaves
1/2 small red cabbage OR 1 small radicchio
8 figs
200 g good Serrano ham or paleta, if you can get some
1 large red onion
the seeds of 1/2 pomegranate

2 mozzarellas OR Manchego or Parmesan shavings

Cut the figs in 4, chop and shred the rest of the ingredients and combine. 

The dressing:

oil
brown sugar
pomegranate molasses

Mix the ingredients according to your taste (and adjusting to the bitterness of your salad) and serve with the salad.


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ANYONE FOR SECONDS?