Chopped Green Salad with a Grape Balsamic Dressing

I recently received a lovely set of Balsamic Vinegars and Olive Oils from  Vom Fass.  They came in a lovely wooden box and tied up with a pretty yellow ribbon.



Inside was no less than 8 different varieties, including some very unusal ones.



There is a bottle of Aceto Balsamico Di Modena Maletti Italy.  I think this is the one we are most familiar with.  I love a good Balsamic vinegar.  I could eat it just with a spoon, and often just spritz my salads with that and nothing else.   This is one of Vom Fass's most popular choices, and no wonder.  It is produced in the proper region of vinegar in Italy, Province of Modena.  It has 6% of acidity, the king of the balsam, made only from Trebbiano grape and aged in individual small barrels.  The juice is concentrated at a maximum, giving a pure and thick syrup used by all the best chef's for dressings and desserts such as ice creams and fruit salads.

There is also a Grape Balsam Vinegar with Lemon and Ginger, a Star Date BalsamVinegar, a Mango Balsam Vinegar, a Fig and Chili Balsam Vinegar and a Raspberry Balsam Vinegar, all produced in Germany as well as some Hazelnut Oil from France and a White Truffle Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Italy.   All presented in a beautiful box.  I am going to have aot of fun trying these out over the next couple of weeks, so look for lots of tasty posts.



The first one I have used is the Grape Balsamic Vinegar with Lemon and Ginger. The grape balsamic vinegar is made from white grape juice. This pulpy and highly aromatic juice is then blended with exclusive wine vinegar from the region Champagne-Ardenne to create an incredibly  delicious white balsamic vinegar.   This one has been infused with the flavours of lemon and ginger.



I had a nice and punchy flavour, not too sharp and almost sweet, with a nice balance of lemon and ginger flavours.  I decided to make a salad dressing with some of this.   I was in the mood for salad and the Toddster had taken himself off into town.

 

The chives are coming up in our garden now and so I thought they would go well with the flavours of this vinegar and I decided to do an all green salad, using baby petit pois, thinly sliced cucumbers, chopped baby gem lettuce, spring onions, fresh flat leaf parsley and some really tasty cured green olives that I like.



One might think that the flavour of green olives would not go with lemon and ginger, but they would be completely wrong.  This was a fabulous combination and one I will definitely try again.  I loved the flavours of this vinegar!

 

*Chopped Green Salad with a Grape Balsamic Dressing*

Serves 2

Printable Recipe 

A delicious chopped salad with a lovely dressing which I created to use some beautiful Grape Balsamic Vinegar I received, which also had notes of Ginger and Lemon.   Fabulous! 

2 baby gem lettuces, rinsed, dried and coarsely chopped

a handful of washed and dried flat leaf parsley leaves

1 spring onion, coarsely chopped

1 stalk of celery, coarsely chopped, along with some leaves if possible

a 3 inch piece of English Cucumber, washed, un-peeled

a handful of frozen petit pois, thawed and drained

1 TBS chopped chives

about 8 oil cured pitted green olives, sliced

For the dressing:

60ml of good quality olive oil (1/4 cup)

2 TBS Grape Balsamic Vinegar

pinch sugar

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/4 tsp dried dill tops

1 TBS chopped fresh chives 

  

First prepare all of your vegetables.  You will want to cut the cucumber in half lengthwise, remove all of the seeds from the cucumber and then slice it into very thin half moons.  

Prepare two chilled salad plates as follows:  Place on the bottom of each plate, half of the chopped lettuce along with half of the parsley leaves.   Top with the chopped celery, then the chopped spring onions.   Scatter the peas over top along with the sliced cucumber  Sprinkle each with half of the sliced olives and then finally sprinkle with half of the chives.

Place all of the dressing ingredients in a glass jar and shake well to combine.   Drizzle the emulsified dressing over each salad in equal portions.  Serve immediately.  Enjoy!

Note:   This dressing made with the Grape Balsamic Vinegar was lovely.  The vinegar had notes of fresh lemon and gingeroot in it, which went very well with all of the flavours, even the olives.  If you are unable to get it, I would recommend using a good quality white balsamic and adding about a tsp of fresh lemon juice along with a generous pinch of dried gingerroot.



The Vom Fass Philosphy
"VOM FASS is a Mediterranean way of sampling and savouring premium artisanal products directly from the cask.”

Vom Fass Mission
"The VOM FASS mission is to provide our customers with a Mediterranean way of sampling and savouring the finest, premium quality artisanal products, directly from the cask – with a commitment to uncompromising levels of customer satisfaction.”

Vom Fass has been created to enhance and meet the demands of a 21st century lifestyle, housing a superb selection of exquisite oils and balsamic vinegars, selected wines, liqueurs and a huge choice of exclusive spirits.   What makes Vom Fass completely unique is that all their products are sold straight from the cask, which means everythingn can be sampled before purchase.

Carefully sourced from leading producers from the Mediterranean to Austria, Vom Fass has selected it's artisan oils and vinegars for their eherapuetic health properties and as versatile cooking ingredients with real nutritional benefits.   Even the more indulgent products in the range have been created to bring something unique to shoe who also really know how to enjoy life.

Vom Fass prides itself on a vast range of high quality style conscious products, stocked by iconic store Selfridges.  Wtih an exceptional range of over 70 different glass bottles and hand inscribed labels or personal messages, Vom Fass will always represent a style choice.

For more information check out their web page.

I thoroughly enjoyed this vinegar and can't wait to get stuck into the rest!

Many thanks to Vom Fass!