Q: What is green and goes to summer camp?

A: A Brussels Scout

^{Christmas cracker joke}

A fresh-tasting salad for winter which is a bit out of the ordinary. It has a strong taste and would go well with a hearty tartiflette, or with duck breasts with a chocolate sauce, or with chicken livers and mushrooms.

Clemantines, Tangerines, and Satsumas are all types of Mardarin orange and they all work well in this, but Clemantines are the smallest and sweetest, and they have no pips…. so for preference use Clemantines.

Recipe for Brussels Sprouts and Mandarin Winter Salad

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 450g/1 lb Brussels sprouts – you can use raw Brussels sprouts – or leftover cooked Brussels sprouts
• 2 tsp nigella seeds or pumpkin seeds
• 4 spring onions, thinly sliced including about an inch (2 cm) of the green
• 1 mandarin orange of one kind or another (clementines, tangerines, satsumas – Taclé mandarins are nice) peeled, pith taken off, divided into segments, and the segments cut in half vertically with a tomato knife, then split into smaller pieces
• butter

Other things that can be added:

• An avocado
• Some pomegranate seeds
• Fried for a couple of minutes Israeli couscous (which is really pasta rather than real couscous)
• Fried bacon
• Four or five tablespoons of grated pecorino or manchego cheese
• Frozen peas

The dressing:

• 5 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp grainy mustard
• A few drops of orange bitters (or a couple of teaspoons of orange juice)
• ½ tsp smoked salt
• Generous freshly milled black pepper

Method

1. Take all the old, blackened leaves of the Brussels sprouts and cut them into quarters. This takes ages….
2. Fry them slowly in butter – if you are adding bacon and you haven’t already fried it, add it to the Brussels sprouts. If you allow the butter to go slightly brown it will take on a slightly nutty flavour which will go well with the salad.
3. Peel and prepare the mandarin as described in the ingredients above.
4. Mix together the dressing ingredients, and dress the salad.