Tempura Hearts Of Palm Salad with Blood Orange Gastrique



A few weeks ago I mentioned that we took a trip to Trader Joe's for the first time, one of the unique ingredients we picked up was a bag of Hearts of Palm Medallions. I've seen hearts of palm used a lot on Pinterest, usually to mimic some sort of seafood in a vegetarian/vegan way, like as a replacement for scallops or lobster. At first we thought we would make tacos using hearts of palm as the main ingredient, but we couldn't find anything we liked, and we weren't sure what hearts of palm actually tasted like in order to come up with our own recipe.

This recipe has a lot of ingredients, but it's pretty easy to put together. We both enjoyed the hearts of palm with the tempura preparation.  The sweetness of the blood orange gastrique paired nicely with the with the spiciness of the seasoning on the hearts of palm medallions. I added the goat cheese for a creamy element and it went with everything nicely. Blood orange is so stunning, I couldn't resist adding more into the salad in addition to the gastrique. 

Slightly adapted from Emerils.com.


Ingredients: 
-1 beaten egg
-2/3 cup flour
-1/2 cup cornstarch
-1 cup cold soda water
-1 teaspoon salt
-1 bag Trader Joe's Hearts of Palm Medallions 
-1 pound assorted leafy greens
-Salt and black pepper
-1 blood orange, segmented and sliced
-1/4 cup goat cheese
-Oil for frying

Essence (seasoning recipe from Food Network)
-1 1/4 tablespoons paprika
-1 tablespoon salt
-1 tablespoon garlic powder
-1/2 tablespoon black pepper
-1/2 tablespoon onion powder
-1/2 tablespoon cayenne pepper
-1/2 tablespoon dried leaf oregano
-1/2 tablespoon dried thyme

Blood Orange Gastrique
-1/2 cup sugar
-1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
-Juice of 1 medium sized fresh blood orange

In a small bowl mix together all of the seasonings for the Essence and set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, vinegar and blood orange juice and bring to a boil. Cook until reduced by 3/4, or the mixture has thickened like a syrup. Remove from the heat and pour the mixture into a glass bowl. Let cool completely.

Heat the oil in skillet with deep sides. Add in a mixing bowl combine the egg, flour, cornstarch, soda water and salt, combine until all ingredients are fully mixed.

Season the hearts of palm medallions with Essence, on each side.

Dip each medallion into the batter, coating each palm, completely. Gently lay the hearts of palm in the hot oil and fry until golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the oil and drain on paper-lined plate. Season with salt and pepper.

Plate the greens and top with goat cheese and blood orange segments. Once all of the hearts of palm are fried add as many to the salads as you'd like. We ended up with about three salad potions, but you could easily do two large salads. Drizzle with the blood orange gastrique.



   

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