Watercres Salad with Blood Orange and Candied Pine Nuts (Ensalada de berros con naranja y piñones)

I made another visit to the local organic store and left with a lot of ideas. Today I just went to get some fiddlehead ferns. I like the earthy flavor, the feeling of country, of the nature of the ferns, that with the ramps and morels are flavors of spring. Well, I ended up buying the ferns but Bob insisted on giving me two blood oranges. I couldn't even wait to get home to try those oranges so I started peeling one as I was driving. Not a good idea, but I managed to finish it between red street lights. What a flavor! It was sweet and tangy, but mostly sweet. Since I only had one orange left, I made a salad.

This is the result but if I had extra orange, I would have used it for the salad dressing for color and flavor.

Ingredients (per person)

1 small blood orange

1 handful watercress

1/2 ounce pine nuts

1 tablespoon sugar 

water

olive oil

sherry or you favorite vinegar

Maldon salt

Cut the top of the orange. With a knife cut the peel in the way you see the orange and then between the membranes. Put 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/2 tablespoon water and the pine nuts in a pan and let them toast a little bit but do not let them caramelize (they get hard and tough for your teeth). The pine nuts should have some sugar attached. In a bowl, mix the vinegar and oil, whisk until you get a nice emulsion, and wet the watercress in it. On a plate place and arrange the watercress, blood orange, pine nuts, and add Maldon salt at the end.