Still in New Orleans, and feeling the summer heat already, made me want summertime meals. Particularly salad for supper. So the other night I decided to make The Wedge Salad Cajun Style because I adore the flavors of The Big Easy. My recipe was inspired by the one in Food and Wine Magazine, which was inspired by Chef Nina Compton.

Dinner for 2 – The Wedge Salad Cajun Style

Nina Compton is the amazing Chef/Owner of one of our favorite restaurants here, Bywater American Bistro. She’s a Top Chef alum, that I am proud to call friend! So if Nina had a hand in this recipe, I knew it had to be delicious.

For my Wedge Salad, I actually took cues from both Nina Compton and Mason Hereford from another on of our favorite restaurants, Turkey and the Wolf. The end result was pretty much the perfect combination of Nina and Mason’s influence along with some of my own additions.

Of course I started with a large, very firm head of iceberg lettuce. I took out any frustrations that I might have by whacking that stem end on my kitchen counter to loosen the core. After removing the core I simply cut the iceberg into 4 quarters, and put 1 section on each of our plates. I let the lettuce wedges just hang out while I cooked off a whole bunch of bacon.

A close look at that yummy Wedge Salad Cajun Style

While the bacon crisped up on paper towels, I cooked some beautiful Gulf shrimp in the rendered bacon fat after seasoning the shrimp with salt, pepper and Tony Chachere’s Cajun Seasoning. The peeled and deveined shrimp only need about 90 seconds on each side to cook!

For the dressing I combined lots of good blue cheese crumbles with mayonnaise, sorry Mason but Hellmann’s is my go-to, sour cream and buttermilk. Then for the perfect balance of flavor that any good Blue Cheese Ranch dressing needs, I added fresh lemon juice, Crystal Hot Sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper and celery seeds. Gave the whole enchilada a good stir and let all of the ingredients get to know each other while I finished composing the salad.

To the wedges of iceberg lettuce that had been patiently waiting for adornment, I added big crumbles of bacon, all 8 slices! Then I divided the cooked shrimp between our 2 plates and anointed the whole thing with lots of Blue Cheese Ranch Dressing, a scattering of sliced scallions and a drizzle of Balsamic Glaze. But the crowning touch for flavor and crunch is a whole bunch of Everything Bagel Seasoning!

The Wedge Salad Cajun Style served with Ciabatta Garlic Bread

The Wedge Salad Cajun Style was so yummy, that we practically inhaled it!!!

The Wedge Salad Cajun Style

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This Wedge Salad has the best ingredients from a couple of different recipes for wedges. Inspired by New Orleans chefs (Mason Hereford and Nina Compton) and by living in The Big Easy for the past 5 months, it is full of flavor, textures and enough bacon and shrimp to make it a perfect salad for supper.

• Total Time: 23 minutes
• Yield: 2 servings 1x

Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

8 slices thick cut Apple Smoked Bacon

12 jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined

2 teaspoons Tony Chachere’s or Zatarain’s Cajun Seasoning, more or less to taste

1 firm head iceberg lettuce

4 scallions, trimmed and sliced

2 tablespoons Balsamic Glaze

1/4 cup Everything Bagel Seasoning, or more to taste

For the Dressing

4 ounces good quality blue cheese, crumbled

1/2 cup mayonnaise, Hellmann’s or Duke’s

1/4 cup full fat sour cream

1/4 cup buttermilk

Juice of half a lemon

1/2 teaspoon Louisiana Crystal hot sauce, or more to taste

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt, or half as much Morton’s

1/4 teaspoon celery seed

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

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Instructions

1. Place the bacon in a large cast iron skilled and cook over medium heat, turning frequently, until completely cooked, about 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the bacon to paper towels to drain and crisp up.
2. Season the shrimp with salt, pepper and Cajun Seasoning on both sides. Raise the heat to medium-high and add the shrimp to the skillet with the rendered bacon fat. Cook on each side for about 90 seconds. Remove the shrimp to a plate and reserve.
3. Remove the core from the lettuce and cut into 4 equal wedges. Place 1 wedge on each of two plates. Reserve the rest for another use.
4. Prepare the dressing by adding the blue cheese, mayonnaise, sour cream and buttermilk to a mixing bowl and stir to combine. Add all of the remaining dressing ingredients and stir to combine well. Taste and adjust for spice, lemon and seasoning.
5. Crumble the cooked bacon equally over each wedge of lettuce. Divide the shrimp between the two plates. Liberally dress each wedge. Sprinkle the scallions on top and drizzle with the Balsamic Glaze. Generously sprinkle the Everything Bagel Seasoning over everything.

Notes

If you don’t have Everything Bagel Seasoning, you can make your own with equal parts of sesame seeds, poppy seeds, dried minced garlic and dried minced onion along with some coarse sea salt. Just mix it all up in a bowl. I usually make my own in bulk and keep it in an airtight container in my pantry. It keeps for quite a while!

• Author: Sandy Axelrod
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 13 minutes
• Category: Salad, Dinner, Lunch
• Method: Sautéing
• Cuisine: Cajun

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