Archive for March 29, 2008
Warm Bacon Salad Dressing-Vinaigrette
March 29, 2008 | 
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Who doesn’t love bacon? Ok there are a few of you out there, but for so many of us, it’s a delectable tidbit we indulge in every so often.
This easy to make and oh so delicious warm bacon salad dressing I perfected after craving and recreating it from a local fave restaurant. This one does not call for cornstarch as I have seen elsewhere – I have made this one for years…It’s a simple twist on my Balsamic Salad Dressing – this one obviously goes great over spinach salad...but any fresh looking salad greens will do.
Remember to allow the dressing to cool slightly, so that you don’t unintentionally wilt your salad greens.
Ingredients:
- 1 pound bacon – thick sliced is best
- 1 small onion-diced or minced/or three shallots minced
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1 tablespoon grainy dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 1 cup olive oil
- 1/3-1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- Juice of one lemon (2-3 tablespoons)
- 3 cloves garlic – minced
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 5 tablespoons mayonnaise
- ****Equipment Needed:
- Skillet, bowls, whisk, slotted spoon, One naked salad needing awesomely homemade warm bacon salad dressing
Directions:
- The first trick when making this salad dressing dish, is not to overcook your bacon nor cook it too fast.
- Slice up bacon into 3/4″ inch pieces
- In skillet, and add one tablespoon of olive oil into cold skillet.
- Place cold bacon in cold skillet.
- Turn on heat to medium – and let bacon slowly crisp on.
- If bacon fat, while cooking, is spattering onto your stove top, you are cooking the bacon too fast. Cooking bacon on medium and not high heat is best.
- Stir on occasion to turn bacon pieces over so they can brown evenly.
- While bacon is cooking, dice up onions and mince garlic.
- In separate bowl, add minced garlic, mayonnaise, mustard, honey and salt and pepper. Measure vinegars and add to bowl.
- With whisk, stir to incorporate well.
- Slowly with stirring with whisk, add olive oil very slowly stirring all the while to make an emulsion. Using a blender might make this step easier for some.
- Once bacon is crisp and cooked, using a slotted spoon, remove bacon and set aside allowing it to drain over some paper towels placed on top of a bowl.
- Remove most of bacon fat, reserving roughly three tablespoons of bacon in skillet.
- Wipe sides of skillet of any dripped bacon fat before returning to stove.
- Keeping heat on a medium to medium-low, add onions and let become translucent – maybe five minutes time.
- Turn heat off. Slowly add vinegar and oil mixture, the skillet will still be hot and mixture may bubble on you.
- Turn heat back on and let simmer (not boil) for three minutes.
- Let hot dressing cool 5-10 minutes before adding to salads, in case you do not wish to “cook” or wilt your salad greens – it will still be warm.
- Right before using salad dressing, add your bacon back to the salad dressing. And voila, add over your favorite salad.
Enjoy!
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Leahs Oh So Famous Sexy Homemade Salsa
I actually would like not to share this recipe of mine. Really I wouldn’t – but it is such a hit when ever I serve it up and when I bring it to parties, I finally decided I should share.
It’s such a must for every party I have my guests would be terribly disappointed they have come to love this salsa that much!
…Now, a word to the wise, the time it takes me to cut up everything can be daunting for some (it can take me an hour), but if you were to do this in a food processor, you would sadly be disappointed – the idea is for each ingredient to be finely chopped so that when you scoop it up with your chosen tortilla chip, you can see the actual ingredients, and not a mushed mess of glop!
BUT DO NOTE: I have successfully made this in a food processor, but in steps and by ALWAYS using the pulse button, otherwise you really do get mushed veggies. Start by pulsing each ingredient independently (of those needing to be chopped) and then removing those from processor bowl and place into a larger bowl when you are to add the liquids (lime juice, apple cider vinegar, diced tomatoes and tomato paste and dry ingredients) and stir accordingly.
This is a fresh bright tasting salsa, you will never want to eat it from a jar again. No offense to jar-lovers, but it is really that good!
Ingredients
- 1 large can of crushed tomatoes
- 1 large can of petite diced tomatoes
- 1 small can of tomato paste
- 1 large onion – Spanish, though Bermuda makes it look extra pretty
- 3 scallions
- 2 large sweet green peppers
- 2 large sweet red peppers
- 1 yellow or orange sweet pepper if it can be in your budget
- 3-6 jalapeños
- 1/2 of one seedless cucumber
- 5 good sized fresh garlic gloves
- 4 tablespoons spoons freshly diced cilantro (3 tbsp if dried)
- Zest and juice of 4 limes (the fresh zest is a secret ingredient)
- 3/4 cup of apple cider vinegar (the other secret ingredient)
- 1 tablespoon of freshly ground pepper
- 2 tablespoons kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- A couple of shots/shakes of hot sauce
- 1 teaspoon of dried crushed red pepper
Directions
- This amazing crowd-pleasing party dish does take up a lot of time in dicing and cutting up the ingredients but it is so well worth the oohs and ahs you will receive and this salsa can be made the day before your party. I wouldn’t do it any further in advance since you want the colors to be bright as possible. Also I wouldn’t attempt to do this in a food processor, the final results will be mush, you want the dish to look pretty, and be able to notice all the different colors, not a huge pulped mess.
- Once completed, put in bowl or container tightly covered until ready to use. It’s great to impress if you bring it to a party, it’s a sure fire hit.
- All ingredients are to be fresh, rinsed and diced up small as you can muster and hopefully nothing larger than 1/2″ big. I try to get them about 1/4″ and smaller. So a sharp knife is essential. Remember – these are to be easily scooped onto crackers, pita chips, etc.
- Starting with sweet peppers, rinse, remove seeds and dice, place in large bowl.
- Remove skin of cucumber, use half if a long cucumber, and slice and dice as you did the peppers, place into bowl.
- Finely mince garlic, place into bowl.
- Add canned tomatoes to bowl.
- Slice and dice up Onion and scallions and add to bowl.
- Add hot sauce and crushed red pepper
- Add apple cider vinegar along with salt, pepper and sugar.
- Stir what you have now got in the bowl.
- Roll limes on the counter with the palm of your hand to loosen up their juices, then grate all zest off, add to bowl.
- Next cut up limes, and squeeze as much juice from limes as you can into bowl.
- Rinse Cilantro well, then use a good handful, try to remove as much of stems as possible, then mince up small, place it in bowl then stir. See how pretty it’s starting to look and the smell – oh my!
- Add one half of a small can of tomato paste stir till well incorporated into salsa.
- Taste – hmm getting very close.
- Add jalapeños, remove seeds as they add heat, slice and dice as small as possible similarly like you did the garlic. Start with two (2) jalapeño peppers to keep it on the mild side, add more as necessary to gain the heat factor that you would like.
- Wash and rinse hands with soap and even using the insides skins of what’s left of the limes, to help remove any oils left over from the jalapeños.
- Do remember that even with one hour ‘s time in the refrigerator, the flavors will have come together more, and may be hotter than you first tried it since juices of vegetables have had the chance to settle into being an amazing super salsa.
- If you make it too hot, you can adjust by adding more sugar, a little water, and another med. sized can of crushed tomatoes to mellow it out.
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