Fiddlehead & Pickled Vegetable Salad with Citrus Oil

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Anthony Ploof – Director of Cook Academy at The Essex

Ingredients
2 cups white vinegar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon dried dill
1 head cauliflower, trimmed
1 beet, sliced 1/4 inch thin
2 cucumbers, deseeded and chopped
1 cup fiddleheads, cleaned and trimmed
2 radishes, sliced paper thin
2 each kumquats, sliced thin
Zest of one orange
1 cup olive oil
1 piece orange rind, about 2 inches

Preparation
Clean and trim cauliflower, then cut into 1/2 inch pieces, place in stainless steel mixing bowl or mason jar with sliced beet.

Slice cucumber in half and deseed, then dice into 1/2 inch square pieces. Place pieces in stainless steel mixing bowl or mason jar.

Trim tails off of fiddleheads and rinse repeatedly until water runs clean. Use a vegetable brush if necessary. Place fiddleheads in stainless steel mixing bowl or mason jar.

Bring vinegar, sugar, salt, mustard seed, and dill to a rolling boil in a small sauce pot then immediately remove from heat and pout pickling liquid into the three vessels containing the vegetables. Let pickled vegetables sit for at least one hour then can be used at that time or stored in a mason jar with an air tight lid for up to one week.

Place olive oil and orange rind in a small sauce pot on medium heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool down to room temperature.

Store oil in a glass jar with orange rind for up to 5 days.

To Plate
Place ring mold in center of plate. Place 1/4 cup of cucumber into ring mold and press down firmly.

Then place 1/4 cup cauliflower into ring mold and press down firmly.

Then lay 5-6 fiddleheads down flat into ring mold.

Lastly, lay two or three slices of radish and two or three slices of kumquat.

Slowly remove ring mold.

Sprinkle plate with orange zest and drizzle with orange olive oil.