Coupon Clipper: Grapes

With all the Super Bowl savings going around on huge slabs of meat, tortilla chips and beer, it was easy to look past some of the lighter fare offered on sale this week. It was especially hard at Pathmark where shell steaks were going for an incredible $4.99 a pound (which beats Fairway's price!) and the spare ribs were $1.99 a pound (which we pigged out on during the big game). But if your mind was full meat, then you’d miss the sale of the week, which was not so hidden on page one: Grapes for $.99 a pound. We were immediately suspicious when we encountered the price, expecting mushy grapes instead of nice crisp ones. But upon squeezing, we knew these were legitimate specimens.

What to do a couple pounds of grapes? You could just pull the whole lot of them out and dangle them above your lover for hours. But that could get messy. You could even bake them in the oven for 2 hours on 250 degrees, to make some impromptu raisins. We even like our chicken salad with the little suckers inside. But we decided to go with a fresh salad with halved grapes and sliced pears with a roasted shallot dressing. The plump grapes added a nice crisp burst of fruit with the earthy dressing and peppery greens.

Remove the skins from two shallots, dose them in a tablespoon of olive oil, and wrap them in aluminum foil. Roast in the oven for an hour and half at 250. Remove and let cool. Toss the shallots and any juices in a blender along with two tablespoons of sherry wine vinegar and 1 tablespoon of honey. Blend until smooth. While blender is
running, slowly add 1/3 cup of olive oil. Toss with arugula, sliced pears, and halved grapes.