Dad’s Blue Cheese Dressing
Dad loved to cook. How often did he and my mom show up at our home for a visit, and he’d take out of his wallet a recipe, folded small, usually cut out from the New York Times, that he wanted to cook together. Or sometimes, ahead of a holiday, an envelope would arrive in the mail with several such clippings.
Because he loved to cook so much, he also loved to learn new cuisines and techniques, and he frequently took classes all over New York City. One summer, my son, Daniel, lived with his grandparents while he had an internship there, and I cherish the photo of Dad and his grandson from their pizza class, with what was surely my father’s favorite, the Nutella pizza!
One of my favorite stories about Dad and food is not about cooking per se, but of how he chose to spend some of his summer vacation one year when I was a kid. Dad loved stopping at Ottomanelli’s on Bleeker Street from time to time, and wanted to learn more about meat and butchery. Through one of his clients, he arranged to spend two weeks working at the butcher counter of the Food Emporium, an upscale grocery chain in the city. He loved it, although once he did have to run and hide in the meat locker when he saw someone he knew coming towards him. He wasn’t sure how people would react to know their Wall Street lawyer was moonlighting as a butcher!
One of his go-to concoctions that I’ve made over and over is what I call Dad’s Blue Cheese Dressing. Of course he didn’t have an exact recipe, but when I asked he rattled it off to me. Although I wish he had written it down, that I had the recipe in his handwriting, I still have that piece of paper where I scribbled his instructions, riddled with thumbtack holes, from all the times I’ve taken it down and returned it to the bulletin board where we keep many of our favorite recipes.
This is a great dressing with plenty of blue cheese flavor but that’s not too thick, which makes many blue cheese dressings difficult to incorporate well into a salad. We just served it on a salad with leftover chicken, avocado, and beets. Beets have a special affinity for blue cheese, and I’m pleased we still have enough beets and enough dressing for another salad!
Dad’s Blue Cheese Dressing
Makes 1 cup
4 ounces blue cheese, crumbled
3 Tablespoons mayonnaise
¼ cup olive oil
2 Tablespoons white balsamic or red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon ketchup (or chili sauce – the kind that’s similar to ketchup, not spicy)
½ teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon lemon juice
Place the blue cheese and mayonnaise into a medium bowl. Break up the blue cheese chunks and mix with the mayonnaise. If you have bought blue cheese that is already crumbled, you will only need to break up the big pieces. If you are working from a wedge of cheese, you may need to use two forks to break up the cheese.
Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.