Sunday, June 3, 2012

Summer Salad


This is for my dear friend, Julianne of Providence Lodge.  She has been asking for my homemade salad dressing recipe for years and I just kept forgetting to send it to her.  Finally, my dear, here is the recipe - along with one for croutons, if you please.

Spicy Bacon Vinaigrette
1/3 C ketchup
1/2 C white vinegar
2/3 C sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 C olive oil
1/2 lb. bacon, crisply cooked and crumbled (you can use bacon bits)
1 green onion, chopped

Blend first 6 ingredients together until smooth; add bacon and green onion.  Stir or shake well.  Store in refrigerator.  (I doubled this recipe, by the way).
Pouring the olive oil into the vinegar, sugar, garlic mixture
Frying the bacon
Adding the bacon and green onions to the liquids
Ready for the salad

Homemade Croutons
1 loaf day old french bread (or wheat, or white, or whatever you have on hand)
1 cube butter
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, minced
chives, Italian spices (whatever suits your fancy)

Cut bread into cubes.  You can use fresh bread, however, slightly stale bread is better.  Melt butter in skillet (I prefer cast iron) and add garlic.  Saute for about 1 minute.  Add spices to garlic and butter.  Put bread cube in with butter mixture (you may have to do this in batches, depending upon the size of your skillet, adding more butter and spices is required).  Stir to coat bread cubes.  Dump bread onto cookie sheets (I cover mine in tin foil to contain the mess) and put into a 300° oven for about 20 minutes or until toasted and dry.  These will keep for weeks in a sealed jar or plastic bag.

My favorite bread for croutons is homemade french bread, however, any kind of bread works well.  For these croutons, I used stale store-bought bread and they turned out wonderfully.
Cubed bread
Sauteing garlic
Stirring bread to coat with butter and garlic
On a cookie ready for the oven
Crisp and savory - very crouton-like
Plenty for many salads to come
Welcome in summer with salad, bacon dressing and homemade croutons!

2 comments:

  1. Oh boy the dressing looks good... gotta point Momma in this direction later :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. What kind of olive oil do you use?

    ReplyDelete