Strawberry Fields… As Saaaalad.
Trying to crank out this blog post as fast as I can since we’re taking a quick trip to Portland today! WHHHEEEEEEE. This is an arugula and strawberry salad with a very mild blue cheese and an aged balsamic dressing. Both the strawberries and arugula were from the New Roots CSA delivery last week!
The arugula had quite a bit of dirt on it, so I filled the sink with cold water and let it hang out for a bit (about 20 minutes) so that the undesirables would fall to the bottom – this also crisps the leaves a little too!
I drained the leaves and patted them down with a kitchen towel, sliced the strawberries and “chunked” the blue cheese. Then, I made the dressing. Aged balsamic is VERY sweet, so I wanted to keep the integrity of that delicate flavor by only adding a few other ingredients: 2 tablespoons balsamic, 1 tablespoon of good olive oil, 1 teaspoon minced shallots and a heavy pinch of Kosher salt and freshly cracked pepper. SIMPLE and MORE than enough for a salad that feeds two people!
So, I took one big bowl, added all of the salad components in and SLOWLY drizzled 1/2 the salad dressing AROUND the bowl, as close to the rim as possible – the dressing will slink down the sides of the bowl.
Once you gently toss it around with your hands you can scoop the leaves out in a semi-tight ball (think Indiana Jones after he pulls the “idol” off the pedestal in Raiders of the Lost Ark) and take the strawberries and cheese chunks that remain in the bottom of the bowl and quickly place them on top of the plated leaves – now your company will see what’s in the salad and say “WOW STRAWBERRIES? COOL.”
Flavor-wise, I don’t think the salad needed anything else. You get a hit of sweet from the strawberries and the dressing, then… a subtle pepperiness comes from the arugula and then you get a hit of INTENSE blue cheese flavor that rounds out perfectly as fast as it got there. It’s tasty. Hee hee.
Visually, it needed something ELSE to make it perfect – maybe some frisse for structure and a bit of white, or toasted pecans or walnuts to show depth and earthiness. ANYWAY IT WAS TASTIES.
I’ll be mobile blogging from the iPhone the next few days. HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!
XOXO 
~Herschell / Spec
