Steakhouse Salad on a Stick

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Memorial Day is right around the corner.  There will no doubt be copious amounts of barbecue, beer, wine, and lots of sides.  If we are lucky, there will also be a sufficient amount of beautiful sunshine, too.  Why not add something fun, impaled, and moveable to the mix?  I am a huge fan of anything poked with a stick, and I can’t wait to get the skewers out again, so when I saw these salads in the June issue of Food Network magazine I had to bite.   All of them had appeal, but I have my doubts about skewering a hard-boiled egg, and am not so sure about poking a wooden skewer through a crouton.   But the Steakhouse Salad?  I was sold.   Bacon, blue cheese, poke it with a stick… you got me.  Yes, it’s a salad, but it’s not what you’d expect, and you can get just about anybody to eat something when you put it on a pointed stick and tell them they can run with it.

The Blue Cheese Dressing recipe that follows is from the Iceberg Wedge Salad recipe I posted back in 2015.  Also a great crowd pleaser, if you’re not inclined to poking and threading your salad.   If you’re time crunched, you can always use a store-bought dressing that you like, but give this home made recipe a try.  I think it is, by far, the best blue cheese dressing recipe I have found and tastes just like what you get when you order a salad someplace out.   You can make it ahead, which is always a good idea, and let the flavors develop.  You may even be lucky enough to have some left over to bottle and keep in your fridge for the next week.

Have a great Memorial Day.  And stock up on those wooden skewers.

Steakhouse Salad

• 1 head Iceberg lettuce
• 1 lb. thick cut bacon
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes

Cut lettuce into smallish, skewerable-sized wedges.  Cook bacon until lightly crisp and then cut each strip  into 2 inch sections.  Skewer wedge of lettuce, piece of bacon, and cherry tomato – 2 times for each skewer.  Serve with blue cheese dressing.

Blue Cheese Dressing

• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 heaping tablespoon finely chopped shallot
• sea salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3/4 cup light sour cream
• 1 tablespoon fresh chopped chives
• 1/2 cup crumbled mild blue cheese
• freshly ground black pepper

Combine 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar, chopped shallot, and a pinch of sea salt in a small bowl.  Let stand.  Measure 1/2 cup milk (I used skim, but you can use 1%, 2%, or whole) and remove 1 tablespoon.  Add 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar and stir well.  Let stand.

Add sour cream, chives, and blue cheese to shallot and vinegar.  Add milk, starting with 3 tablespoons, whisking well, or use an immersion blender.  Add more milk to adjust consistency if desired.  Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.