A simple salad with a vibrant dressing

A very simple salad that contains readily avaialable coponents and the very fact that this made its presence on the blog is for the dressing. For me a salad always needs a very good dressing. Without it, there isn't a flavour (my perspective).This dressing is very simple but does really enhance any salad.

You can use any vegetables for the salad. What I used here are green, red and yellow peppers, white onions (julienned) and green chillies (chopped).For the dressing, mix equal parts of vegetable oil and vinegar. Add salt and pepper, toss the salad in the dressing and the salad is ready. Tastes better when chilled in the refrigerator. During the resting time, the flavours of the vegetables and the dressing blend real well. Try it, this salad is really good for you.

Vanilla Pear Jam

Being a part of the Secret Recipe Club was fun last month and this time around too. Every month one is assigned a blog and one has to cook from the assigned blog without revealing it to your partner until the posting day. Fun isn't it. Conceptualized by Amanda of Amanda's cooking, this is a fun way of getting to know more blogs and myriad recipes which could have been missed otherwise.

 

 This time I was assigned Megan's Cooking which is a familiar blog. Being a fellow Daring Baker, Megan's blog has been on my reading list. Her blog is a collection of a wide array of recipes and it can be a very tough time singling out something to make. I love jam and a homemade jam is always better. She has quite a few recipes but I have never tried a pear jam using vanilla beans. So that was what I chose to do. I must say that while the pears are simmering in sugar and the vanilla bean scrapes, there is wonderful aroma that is tough to explain in words. A very soothing aroma it was to me. I followed the exact recipe except for adding in cinnamon and cloves which were removed later. Megan suggested not peeling the skin and so I did not. Although the pears I used had very thin skin they stayed solid without turning into a pulp. It did add a bite to the jam though. And yes I halved the recipe too. So here's the recipe. My changes are italicized.

8 cups chopped  pears (or any smooth, thin-skinned pear. No need to peel.) I used 4 cups .
2 vanilla beans, split and scraped (1 vanilla bean)
4 cups sugar (2 C)
1 packet liquid pectin(I used a powdered
1" Cinnamon Stick
4 Cloves

Cook chopped pears, sugar and vanilla beans, cinnamon and cloves over medium heat until the pears become soft.Mash them well or use an immersion blender. Remove the vanilla bean solids and the spices before doing it. Add pectin and boil for 5 mins to activate the pectin. Fill clean jars and ideally follow Megan's instructions-
Fill jars, wipe rims to remove any residual jam, apply lids (heat canning lids in a small pot over very low heat while you’re preparing the jam to ensure a good seal) and screw on the rims.Process the filled jars in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes (start the timer when the pot has returned to a boil).Remove jars from pot and place the jars on a towel-lined counter top. Let them cool undisturbed for  two hours. During this time, the lids should seal.Check to ensure the jars have sealed by pushing down on the center of the lid. If it feels solid and doesn’t move, it is sealed.