Friday, January 25, 2008

Arugula greens with pears and Blue Cheese Vinaigrette

I had a craving for a decent, simple salad the other day, and we made something a little like this at work, so I figured i'd make it on here.

Ingredients for the dressing:
1 1/2 cup Olive oil
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/4 cup cream
Salt and White pepper to taste










First, make the vinaigrette. Combine the vinegar and salt; whip until the salt has dissolved.









































Now, combine the oil into the vinegar, whipping all the time to blend.

























Season with the white pepper to taste, and this is what it should look like. This is a perfect vinaigrette dressing to use as well.

Also, if you think the flavor of the olive oil is too strong, you can use extra light olive oil, which has a more subtle flavor.










To make it a blue cheese vinaigrette, crumble up the blue cheese, combine it with the cream and blend.











You can do this by hand with a whip, but it's hard because the blue cheese is pretty tough.













Blend until smooth, and add it to the vinaigrette.













And there's the blue cheese vinaigrette.













You can cut up the pear pretty much any way you want, and if the skin is soft enough, you can add it into the salad, or slice it off if you prefer.

I just cut the pear in half, then half again, and so on, then cut out the tough part in the middle with the seeds.







Take a little handful of the arugula for each plate, a few pear slices, drizzle with the dressing and serve.
























1 comment:

Cooklady said...

Neil:

I found your website via google, looking for a link to "orange supremes." I've been writing my own blog (cooklady.com) about culinary school -- I started at the California Culinary Academy (also a Cordon Bleu school) in November, 2006, and this coming Friday is the last day of my externship. Graduation is in another month. I'm really enjoying your blog -- good luck and keep it up!!