Bleu Cheese Dressing

This week's recipe: Bleu Cheese Dressing

(Yes, bleu not blue, 'cos I'm fancy like that.)

I'm visiting my mom in eastern Washington, so I brought the ingredients along and informed her that we'd be trying my dressing on the guinea pigs of our family. Sounded fine to her.

America's Test Kitchen shows up regularly in my email inbox and on January 30 (this year) it had this recipe in it. Sounded good. Sounded easy.

So here it is:

Bleu Cheese Dressing
Makes about 1½ cups

3/4 cup (3 ounces) Stilton cheese, crumbled
3/4 cup mayonnaise
6 tablespoons sour cream
1 1/2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

1. Combine all ingredients in food processor and process until smooth, scraping down sides as necessary.
2. Serve.
   

Dressing can be refrigerated in an airtight container for 1 week.

Well, I substituted bleu cheese for the stilton (not by choice, they only carry flavored stilton at Trader Joe's—who knew?). And something inside me really wanted to sub yogurt for the sour cream. But they didn't have any in a smaller-than-quart sized container, so I got the sour cream.

Next observation: if I put all of the ingredients and whiz them up until smooth, how do I end up with chunks of bleu cheese in there? Answer: I only whiz ½ cup of bleu cheese in with the rest of the ingredients and stir the rest in at the end—OR—I do as the directions state and stir in an additional 1/4 cup (one ounce) of crumbled bleu cheese at the end.

So, I did the latter: a full 3 ounces in the recipe as called for, plus an extra ounce crumbled stirred in. Which actually turned out to be 2 extra ounces crumbled in. And the bleu cheese I used was too creamy, I need a drier bleu (perhaps stilton is dryer? maybe use gorgonzola?).

(Nevermind that the original recipe—here—was for CREAMY Bleu Cheese Dressing.)

Further, this strikes me as something that would taste best the day after it's made. Don't you think? So, in the best world, I did step one, refrigerated it overnight, and used it (step two) the next day. In reality, I did the dressing in the afternoon and used it that evening.

How was it?

Good. Not great. Nothing spectacular. No one was standing on their chair at the dinner table brandishing their fork and proclaiming this concoction the savior of mankind. Or anything really like that.

Grandpa thought it was "pretty dang good," aunt thought it was "really good." I just thought it was unremarkable bleu cheese dressing.

I thought it lacked the punch-you-in-the-face component that I like about bleu cheese.

Yes, it was creamy. Yes—because I added the extra cheese at the end—it had chunks of bleu cheese in it. Yes, we could all tell that it was what it was supposed to be—bleu cheese dressing, not ranch.

And it was thick. Some may like that, but I wanted it a little thinner. Perhaps adding a little buttermilk (as omitted by the folks at cookscountry.com) would thin it perfectly.

Perhaps letting it sit will bring out the bite of bleu cheese.

But I'm not throwing out the recipe. Next time 'round: more bleu cheese (somewhere in the neighborhood of 6–8 ounces total), a little less mayonnaise, sub some (or all) of the sour cream for yogurt, and add a little buttermilk (tang + liquid).

Yes, that's the plan.

Cauliflower-Garlic Soup

One of my go-to recipes.

I clipped it out of Sunset magazine (December 2004), pasted it into a spiral notebook I was keeping for "those recipes I wanted to make," forgot about it for a stint, and finally made it.

It was fantastic. Creamy, subtle, the tiniest bit sweet and salty, not too cauliflowery, not too garlicky (why is there a "k" in garlicky? I digress...), and oh so easy.

Cauliflower-Garlic Soup
Makes 3 quarts

1 head garlic, unpeeled
1 tablespoon butter
3 heads caulifl ower (4.5 pounds total)
2 quarts chicken broth
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons chives, snipped

1. Heat oven to 400°.
2. Cut top 1/2-inch off of garlic head. Set garlic on a sheet of foil and top with butter. Draw sides of foil up around garlic and pinch together to enclose in a loose, sealed pouch.
3. Bake 45–50 minutes, until garlic is soft when pressed. Unwrap and let stand until cool enough to handle.
4. Meanwhile, cut caulifl ower heads into 1-inch fl orets, discarding leaves and stems. In a 4-quart pot, combine caulifl ower and broth. Cover, bring to a simmer over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer until caulifl ower is very tender when pierced, 12–15 minutes.
5. Squeeze garlic cloves from papery skins into pan with caulifl ower and broth; pour in cream. Working in batches, transfer to a blender and whirl until smooth (or use an immersion blender). Return soup to pan and add nutmeg. Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Heat through over medium-low heat while stirring occasionally.
7. Serve with chives.

I make it just as written, save for the following:

• Cauliflower: discard the leaves and the core, but just roughly chop the rest—it's all going to be blended later anyhow
• Blending: I always use an immersion blender
• Serving: I wait to add the nutmeg until serving, grating it directly onto the soup; thyme leaves are a fantastic substitution for the chives (equally as pretty, if not more)

It's quick (save for the roasting of the garlic). You can eat it out of a bowl with a spoon or serve it in mugs and sip away.

I store the leftovers (and, because you're making 3 quarts, there will be leftovers) in a lidded pitcher in the refrigerator. This makes pouring into a bowl or mug the next day easy and you don't have to dirty another ladle.

This is an excellent soup to make when you're not feeling well, too.

Link to online recipe from Sunset here.