Happy New Year guys! I hope you had a wonderful and delicious set of holidays and feasts these past couple of weeks! You know, I had a plan. Quite the delicious one at that – a masterpiece to start off this year’s Midweek Specials for you guys. But… well, I’ve been up to my ears in food these last three weeks, and, after a quick glance around my peers, I realized, I wasn’t the only one still feeling kind of full. So, pushing the hard and heavy to a back burner, I decided to get rolling with a simple, refreshing and quick-to-make salad with a fruity twist.

The Salad
200g mixed Lettuce Leaves – make sure there are some bitter leaves like rocket or spinach in there, they’ll take the sweet pears to a whole new level
6 thin Slices of Bacon
1 Tbsp Walnut Oil
2 large Comice Pears, peeled, cored and sliced into 1/8 segments – for my little pear-101 clicky here~
50g Parmesan – or more, especially if you’re leaving the bacon to someone who would pick it off of your serving the next time you dare to blink anyways.

1) Fire up a griddle and place the pears inside for about 2-3 mins per side, just until they’re nicely griddle-marked.
2) Once the pears are done, carefully set them onto a cooling rack for the time being. Leave the griddle to cool down a little, then drizzle in the walnut oil and use a rubber spatula to loosen every last bit of pear-essence and juices left in the griddle. Pour the results of your aroma-hunt into a small bowl and set it aside.
3) Replace the griddle with a pan large enough to hold the bacon strips in one layer. Set it to medium-high heat and fry the bacon strips until they start to crinkle and crisp up. Once they reach your favorite bacon-stage, pick them out of the pan and spread them out on paper towels to get rid of any excess fat.

The Dressing
2 Tbsp Maple Syrup
1 Tbsp Olive oil
2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
3 Tbsp toasted Walnuts
¼ Tsp dried Thyme
Salt & Pepper to taste

1) Set the pan aside and turn the heat to low. Give the pan and your stove around 3 mins to cool down a little, then set the pan onto the heat again.
2) Pour the pear-infused oil you’ve procured earlier into the pan.
3) Add the olive oil, maple syrup, balsamic vinegar, mustard, thyme and nuts to the pan and give everything a good stir with your rubber spatula.
4) Leave the dressing to warm up a little bit.
5) Have a taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.

Assembling the Dish
1) Divide the leaves onto 2 plates.
2) Arrange the pears and bacon strips on top of the leaves.
3) Scatter the heaps with the parmesan shaves.
4) Drizzle the servings with your dressing and serve right away.

Enjoy~!

♥