Everything and nothing at all, Part 2: A recipe

offwhiteliving

Of course the delicious food of my Big Sur weekend was an element of how it all flowed so seamlessly.    It wouldn’t be right to keep all those great recipes to myself, so here’s one for you, created by my mother in law.  It’s delicious and went really well with the chicken salad I concocted.  It also tastes especially grand when eaten during a picnic at Julia Pfeiffer beach beach on a sunny day 😉

Ingredients

  • 1 10-oz. package plain couscous
  • 3 fresh mandarins, peeled and separated into segments
  • ½ cup dried cranberries
  • ¼ cup pistachios, coarsely chopped
  • 1 bunch green onions, sliced, including some green top (about ½ cup total), divided
  • Curry Vinaigrette (recipe below)

Directions

Prepare couscous according to package directions, remove to large bowl. Stir mandarin segments, cranberries, nuts and half green onion into couscous; add half of vinaigrette and toss well. Arrange on large serving platter; Drizzle evenly with remaining vinaigrette and garnish with remaining green onion. Serve immediately.

Curry Vinaigrette: In small bowl whisk together ¼ cup mandarin juice OR white wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon curry powder, ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon cayenne, 1 teaspoon honey and 1/3 cup canola or other vegetable oil.