I don’t know where you’re living, but yesterday in my neighborhood a few rogue snowflakes dared to fall and today I was wearing a hat and scarf. I’ve been wanting to write about the new foods and trends of Spring, but it’s hard to feel springy when you’re wearing long underwear. A salad drenched in blue cheese dressing may not be everyone’s idea of therapy when they’re feeling blue, but today it worked for me. The best part is that I didn’t eat it as a meal, I snuck it in at 4:00 and then went on to eat dinner a few hours later as if the salad drenched in creamy blue cheese never even happened.
I used Maytag Blue cheese and a recipe printed last week in the New York Times that I have posted below. When you make the salad, be sure to leave mixed baby greens out of it – a creamy dressing like this needs the crunch of Iceberg or Romaine.
If you want a completely different but equally delicious Blue Cheese experience, seek out Great Hill Blue from Massachusetts. This luscious and slightly funky blue is one of the few made with both raw and unhomogenized milk. Raw, meaning the milk is unpasteurized, which some say imparts a stronger and more authentic flavor, and unhomogenized, meaning the lumps of fat are not mixed up and separated, which gives the cheese an especially creamy texture. Next, buy a loaf of bread from your local artisan bakery that contains nuts and fruit (like a walnut raisin loaf). As a rule, I don’t like dried fruit in my bread, but trust me on this one. When you lightly toast the bread and the sweetness of dried fruit and nuts is paired with the salty cheese, you'll be hooked.
Blue Cheese Dressing:
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese 1/2 cup buttermilk 1/2 cup mayonnaise1 to 2 tablespoons heavy cream or milk, or to taste1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper Mash together cheese and 1 1/2 tablespoons very hot water in small bowl. Cheese should partly melt, but there should be some lumps. Mix in buttermilk, mayonnaise and enough cream or milk to make dressing pourable. Stir in pepper. (printed from NYTimes, April 4, 2007)
I used Maytag Blue cheese and a recipe printed last week in the New York Times that I have posted below. When you make the salad, be sure to leave mixed baby greens out of it – a creamy dressing like this needs the crunch of Iceberg or Romaine.
If you want a completely different but equally delicious Blue Cheese experience, seek out Great Hill Blue from Massachusetts. This luscious and slightly funky blue is one of the few made with both raw and unhomogenized milk. Raw, meaning the milk is unpasteurized, which some say imparts a stronger and more authentic flavor, and unhomogenized, meaning the lumps of fat are not mixed up and separated, which gives the cheese an especially creamy texture. Next, buy a loaf of bread from your local artisan bakery that contains nuts and fruit (like a walnut raisin loaf). As a rule, I don’t like dried fruit in my bread, but trust me on this one. When you lightly toast the bread and the sweetness of dried fruit and nuts is paired with the salty cheese, you'll be hooked.
Blue Cheese Dressing:
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese 1/2 cup buttermilk 1/2 cup mayonnaise1 to 2 tablespoons heavy cream or milk, or to taste1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper Mash together cheese and 1 1/2 tablespoons very hot water in small bowl. Cheese should partly melt, but there should be some lumps. Mix in buttermilk, mayonnaise and enough cream or milk to make dressing pourable. Stir in pepper. (printed from NYTimes, April 4, 2007)
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