The Wedge Salad Makes A Comeback

The prognosticators for food trends keep telling us that the Iceberg Wedge Salad is back. In fact they have been telling us for the past 10 years that this popularized mid-century modern first course celeb has been making its comeback!

Of late, perhaps many would give credit for its resurgence to the Mad Men craze. This American television period drama series is also acclaimed for the cocktail rebirth. But I digress.

I love blue cheese and so for me the Wedge Salad becomes another delivery mechanism for the pungent bite-y cheese.

The Wedge Salad probably fell out of favour like most things do when they become overdone, predictable and are no longer prepared with care. The fickle are then easily wooed to the next new salad sensation.

The formula for the Wedge Salad is pretty consistent - iceberg lettuce quartered, lots of bacon, tomatoes and chives for colour.  

As Shawna Wagman points out in her Trends article in Ottawa Magazine's Eating & Drinking 2014, variations in eateries around town include pickled spicy eggs, fried pig's ears, cucumber petals, crushed pink peppercorns, and even pickled carrots. 

Any reincarnation that satiated me in this century has still been quite familiar.

My latest CSA basket from Roots and Shoots Farm included a head of iceberg lettuce. Wedge was the first thing that came to mind.  

This particular head was a beautiful green with tender flawless, though quite loosely packed leaves. The iceberg lettuce I bought for my last Wedge Salad in March looked utterly anemic in comparison.

Whether you follow food trends or like food 'just because', get yourself a crisp Berg and start piling on the Blue.

BLUE CHEESE DRESSING FOR AN ICEBERG WEDGE SALAD

Inspired by many. Bon Appétit Magazine, Fine Cooking Magazine, Aaron McCargo Jr., Martha Stewart, David Lebovitz to name a few.

This blue cheese dressing handily covers 4 servings.  It makes a great dip for carrots, celery and suicide wings. Just use less buttermilk and lemon juice so it is 'stiffer'.

Ingredients:

100 - 125 gr. blue cheese, depending on your taste

4 tablespoons sour cream

3 - 4 tablespoons buttermilk, depending on your preferred consistency

2 - 3 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

a dash of sriracha

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Combine the crumbled blue cheese, sour cream and mayonnaise.  Mash the blue cheese as you stir but make sure it still has some chunks throughout.  Add the lemon juice and stir.  Add the buttermilk until you have the desired consistency.  Add a dash of sriracha and season with salt and pepper to taste.

The dressing will stiffen when fully chilled.  Have it sit out while you are preparing the plates to soften it.

Serve over a quartered iceberg lettuce, core removed.  Garnish with bacon chunks/crumble and wedges of small tomatoes.  Sprinkle with chopped chives.  Include small chunks of blue cheese if you have some leftover.

Red Chard Risotto in Celebration of Food Day In Canada 2010

The risotto was another great side dish for our Food Day in Canada celebration this weekend. This recipe is adapted from one we found on the Epicurious website called Red Chard Risotto. The motivation for trying the dish was to make something special with our Swiss chard that came in this week's CSA food basket from Roots and Shoots Farm. One of our celebration guests was Italian so she lovingly brought all the ingredients together to perfection. Nice when it can be authentic too!





RED CHARD RISOTTO
Adapted from a recipe by Sandra Rudloff: Los Altos, California found in Bon Appétit - February 1996

5 1/2 cups homemade turkey stock
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups arborio rice
1 bunch Swiss chard (about 4 cups of leaves coarsely chopped and then stems diced)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
1 tablespoon butter

Bring broth to simmer in medium saucepan. Cover and keep warm.

Remove stems from chard leaves and dice. Coarsely chop chard leaves.

Heat oil in heavy large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and chard stems and sauté until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes.

Add rice and stir for about 3 minutes. Add wine and simmer until absorbed, stirring occasionally, about 2 minutes.

Add hot broth 3/4 cup at a time. Simmer rice and stir constantly until the broth is absorbed. Then add another 3/4 cup of broth and repeat. When the last broth is added, also add the chard leaves. They will cook down very quickly. Simmer until rice is just tender and risotto is creamy. The entire cooking time is about 20 minutes. Mix in 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese; season to taste with salt and pepper. Add butter and stir. Consider adding more Parmesan cheese. Serves 6.

Spinach Salad with Apples, Avocado & Bacon Paired with A Striploin Steak Smothered in Sautéed Mushrooms & Onions Then Sided with a Baked Potato

I had stumbled across the recipe for Spinach Salad with Apples, Avocado & Bacon one day when I was taking a leisurely browse through Epicurious.com. I was in search of a solution for an avocado and a Gala apple and this recipe instantly clicked. The author, Jeff Edmunds, published it in Bon Appétit in the December 2000 issue.

I am quite fond of the President's Choice Thick-Sliced bacon whenever a recipe calls for the salty stuff. In hindsight, I think I could have used less as it seems to remain substantial through the rendering. And perhaps a few extra chops with the chef's knife before it hit the salad would have made its bite a more appropriately portioned for its crispy crunch. The salty flavour has a way of making a fruity apple pop.






I was originally planning to serve the salad with Baby Back Ribs since I saw them on sale at Farm Boy. My shopping excursion afforded me very well priced Extra Lean Ground Beef and also steeply reduced Striploin Steaks.

http://farmboy.ca/pdf/flyer.pdf

Knowing I was getting short on my shopping to dinner window, I decided to go with steaks for today and the ribs can be tomorrow's delight. The steak proved to be a worthy choice in that it allowed me to move along some onions, mushrooms and potatoes. In the end I was glad that the Striploin was not full price as there was too much grisel for our liking. We much prefer a steak that cuts like hot knife through butter. So I won't be telling you to run to Farm Boy for this special but the salad is certainly worth a try!