Recently my friend Ellie gave me her recipe for blue cheese vinaigrette. Blue cheese makes a savory and tangy dressing that adds a lovely zest to a salad made of ordinary vegetables. If I have a bottle of homemade salad dressing or a special sauce on hand, I can always make something yummy to eat in a snap.
I looked at Ellie’s recipe then remembered my friend Joanne’s recipe for a creamy blue cheese dressing. Without even thinking about it, my mind merged the two recipes as if a marriage of recipes had just occurred in my head. Creamy meets vinaigrette and falls in love in the fridge. Imagine that, of all places! The end result was a salad dressing so delicious that I couldn’t stop tasting it and suddenly ¼ of the bottle was gone. Who said you can’t drink salad dressing straight out of the bottle?
This emphasizes the point I have made for quite awhile. The most valuable skills in the kitchen are flexibility and adaptability. Those give you the freedom to play and experiment and you will feel much joy along the way.
Here is Ellie’s original recipe:
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
¼ teaspoon coarse salt or seasoning salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
pinch sugar
¼ cup white-wine vinegar
¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil
½ cup blue cheese crumbles
Combine the first five ingredients together then add the olive oil and blue cheese. Then I add the following ingredients from the creamy blue cheese dressing recipe: 2 cloves garlic, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 ½ teaspoons sour cream, a teaspoon of a no-salt herb blend. I used half white balsamic vinegar and half white wine vinegar, and half avocado oil. I didn’t have Dijon mustard so I used stone ground mustard. My all-time favorite mustard is Pommery Mustard de Meaux and it’s the only mustard I use. You can get it online. Apparently the kings of France have been eating this same mustard since 1632.
We have all noticed food inflation and blue cheese is not exempt. A four ounce container of crumbles is upwards of five dollars. My favorite brand is Castello, made in Denmark. I used the “Plenty Method” and bought two 19.4 ounce packages at a wholesale food source for only $17.62. I froze one package (yes, you can freeze some types of cheese) and then stored the rest in a 100% airtight container. When I buy blue cheese this way I can buy three times more. And I don’t have to worry about the cheese going to waste because I properly store the extra amount.
I took Ellie’s evolved blue cheese vinaigrette recipe over to her house to try. She was impressed and wanted the recipe!