Rocket Salad With Mulberries & Goat Cheese

I know the mulberries in my neighborhood are in season when I see coloured spatterings all over the deck in our backyard. In the corner of the deck sits an old aerial antenna that was used for TV reception. Birds like to perch on it and around this time, each year, blue, purple, red, black spots are mark the deck.

Birds will eat berries and such when they are ripe and such is the case with the mulberry trees. Birds will grab what they can off the tree and seek safety high atop the aerial antenna. Sometimes these berries drop and that’s when I know the mulberries are ripe. Mulberries also have a Greek connection as the Peloponnese (southern peninsula of Greece) was called Morea during the Middle Ages.

Traditional thought was Morea came from mulberry, smuggled into then Byzantium from Asia for silk production. Others feel the name Morea was given to the Peloponnese as it resembled the shape of a mulberry leaf. In any case, these plants sprout up very easily and they offer an abundance of sweet berries. When ripe, mulberries are far sweeter than blackberries or raspberries and they make for a nice summer time snack.

My neighbor has a mulberry tree that produces a light purple coloured berry – light lilac if you will and he always encourages me to take as much as I want. I like using mulberries in a simple Summer salad with peppery arugula leaves, a simple 3 to 1 dressing of olive oil and lemon juice, salt, pepper and a tart goat cheese to cut the sweetness of the mulberries.

Rocket Salad With Mulberries & Goat Cheese (Σαλατα Ροκα με Μούρα και Κατσικισιο Τυρι)

(serves 4-6)

6 cups of loosely packed arugula leaves

2 cups of mulberries, gently rinsed

4 -6 hunks of tart goat cheese

Dressing

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

1 close of garlic, minced

salt and pepper to taste

1. Rinse and pat-dry your salad greens (or use a salad spinner) and set aside. To make your dressing, add the lemon juice and mustard in a bowl and whisk. Now resume whisking while slowly adding a stream of olive oil until thick and creamy. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
2. Add the salad greens and half the mulberries and gently toss. Place the remaining mulberries on the salad and drop the pieces of goat on the salad as well.