A light summer side dish: Grilled salad hearts

A restaurant and bakery on the right bank of the Vltava

The U Kalendů pub has occupied the site of the former settlement of Podskalí since the turn of the century. Today, they serve food without pizzaz and carefully treated beer, blurring the line between bakery and restaurant. Chefs make use of yesterday's bread, and the bakers experiment with unexpected ingredients – pick up a crusty loaf or something swet from the bakery, or sample fried kvass in the restaurant.

At first glance, it would seem that it's easy to prepare the perfect salad. But the reality is that in many places you still get a few lettuce leaves with a few pieces of tomato and a dubious dressing. Fortunately, this is not the case at U Kalendů, where they have elevated the salad to a true symphony of flavour. Prepare their unmistakable grilled salad hearts with pistachios and chive emulsion and see for yourself.

For one serving you need:

• 20 g chive mayonnaise
• 20 ml honey-lemon dressing
• 1 little gem lettuce
• crushed pistachios to taste
• chives, dill and chervil for garnish

Chive mayonnaise:

1. Put 15 g chopped chives and 100 ml sunflower oil in a thermomix and heat to 70 degrees. Stir in the chives and heat to 100°C. This will give you the green oil which is the base of the chive mayonnaise.
2. Combine 10 g of egg yolks, salt, pepper and a teaspoon of full-fat mustard with about 100 ml of green oil to make the mayonnaise.

Honey-lemon dressing:

In a bowl, whisk together 40 g olive oil, 20 g lemon juice and 20 g honey.

Procedure:

1. Cut the salad hearts in half and rub with a little oil, salt and pepper. Place them on the grill, inside out, and grill until golden brown.
2. After grilling, season them with the honey-lemon dressing, letting it soak in perfectly.
3. Drizzle with chive mayonnaise, sprinkle with crushed pistachios and garnish with a mixture of chopped herbs.