Lettuce With Orange, Kalamata Olives & Viande De Grisons Salad

One mentioned Swiss, images of Gruyère, Raclette, Swiss Army Knives (remember MacGyver's faithful companion?), Swatch, Sigg, Lindt, Quark or Caran d'Ache flashes in your mind. There's one Swiss produce that doesn't really take off in certain countries and a put off to some people. Can you guess what it is? :-P

Two weeks ago, my family was visited by our Swiss friend and his family whom we didn't meet for some years except through emails and online. Guess what? They brought me 6 x 1.5 Lt bottles of Red Rivella! That's the only carbonated drink I would gobbled down anytime! I was totally fallen flat with this lactoserum or sérum de lait based drink since 1988! For Lactose Intolerance and Vegetarian foodies, don't fret, there's Rivella Yellow made from Soy Beans serum (shocking indeed for me)! I haven't taste it but am not sure it's as good as original version and I prefer my Soy Bean milk as it is!

Anyway, that aside and for future blogging. Today's a bit hot for my family but the beach is crowded with sun worshippers! No kite flying today as we can't find any spot to take off. I don't want to step over anyone, of course but actually, I would love to! :-D

For such a hot day (I bet in one or two days, it would rain -my nose is itchy now), I decided to make salad with some Bio Navel oranges I bought few days ago. Add to that, some left over slices of my favourite air-dried beef, gorgeous beetroot shoots and delicious dressing! With a tall glass of chilled Rivella, I drink to that ;-)

Lettuce With Orange, Kalamata Olives & Viande de Grisons Salad

Serves 4

1 nos Lettuce

4 nos Oranges

1 pkt Viande De Grison (available in ± 20 pcs/pkt)

Kalamata Olives (or any Black Olives)

Germes de Betteraves Rouge (Young Beetroot Shoots) ~ optional

For the Vinaigrette:

5 Tbl Red Wine Vinegar or juice of 2 Limes/Lemons

4 Tbl Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

1. Separate the leaves of lettuce individually. Wash and dry the leaves thoroughly.

2. Wash and remove the outer skin and white pith of the oranges. Slice into rounds. Keep aside and reserve the juice in a small bowl.

3. In the same small bowl with the orange juice, add in red wine vinegar, olive oil, ground pepper and salt to taste. Whisk until well mix.

4. Prepare a Salad bowl, put in the lettuce leaves. Pour in the vinaigrette and gently toss the lettuce leaves until well coated. Use hands if you must :-P.

5. Arrange the lettuce leaves in large Salad Plates and lay on top slices of oranges in each plate.

6. Granish with kalamata olives, Germes de Betteraves Rouge, few pieces of Viande de Grison for each serving.

Note:

You can also serve the vinaigrette separately and drizzle it on the sliced oranges instead of mixing it into the lettuce leaves. If you want mix the vinaigrette with the lettuce, do it when you about to serve to avoid wilted salad leaves.

Viande de Grisons or Grisons beef (Swiss Bündnerfleisch ~ thin slices of air-dried beef) originated from canton des Grisons, Switzerland. If you can't find this type of Swiss air- dried meat, you can replace with other similar air-dried meat or omit it. I also added some pinches of Sumac, one of my favourite Turkish spice on the Viande de Grisons and the salad of salad :-) If you don't have Sumac, you can use the usual way of eating Viande de Grisons with grounded black pepper.

Enjoy!