Gelled Bloody Mary Salad

A bit of a retro classic deconstructed and made ultra healthy. And what better way to burn off the weekend hangover than with a hair of the dog in a salad. Very pretty and last weeks best seller in Kaffeine I highly recommend trying something different and going out of one's comfort zone.

2 gem lettuce
2 celery sticks
10 runner beans
Small handful of flat parsley
Sea salt and cracked pepper

TOMATO GEL:
800ml tomato juice
1 white onion
1 carrot
6 garlic cloves
2 bay leaves
1 stick celery
1 dried red chilli
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon tobasco
Pinch of sea salt
8 gelatin sheets

DRESSING:
200ml tomato juice
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
4 dash of tobasco
Pinch of sea salt

METHOD:
First make the tomato gel, peel and cut the onion and carrot in half, slice celery into 4 piece's and place in a large pot with tomato juice, garlic, bay, chilli, worcestershire, tobasco and salt. Put the pot over a medium heat and bring to a simmer, in the mean time pour 2 cups of water in a small bowl and cut the gelatin sheets into smaller pieces and soak in water for 10 minutes.
Once the onion has softened and turned translucent strain liquid and discard the solids, place tomato juice back over a medium heat to simmer for 5 minutes. Squeeze the gelatin sheets of excess water and add to tomato juice, stir for 1 minute and remove from heat. Grease a square plastic container with a little olive oil and pour in the tomato jelly. Leave to cool at room temperature for 30 minutes then place in fridge uncovered for 6-8 hours.

Place a pot of water on to boil, top and tail the runner beans and slice very thinly. Once water is boiling add the runner beans and cook for 5 minutes, drain and blanch under cold water. Thinly slice celery, finely chop parsley and wash lettuce leaves.
For the dressing place all ingredients in a small bottle with lid and shake together to combine.
Now its time to construct salad, you can either make a large platter or individual plates. First turn out the tomato gel onto a chopping board and cut off a 2cm slice and lay flat, then cut into 3 strips length ways and carefully cut each length into cubes. On a platter or smaller plates tear and lay out lettuce followed by scattering over runner beans and celery. Gently distribute the desired amount of tomato gels and season with salt and a good cracking of pepper. Lastly sprinkle over the chopped parsley and and drizzle in dressing and serve as soon as possible.