Salad Dressings: Everything Starts with Vinaigrette

 

Salad Dressings:  Everything Starts with Vinaigrette

 

 

I haven’t purchased commercial salad dressing in a LOOOOOONNNG time.  It’s not the cost that bothers me with commercial stuff, and I confess I can’t make it like the big factories do.  See, I don’t have MSG, phosphoric acid, xanthan gum, EDTA, inosinate, and Guanylate handy in my kitchen.   I’m just a simple guy who did pass chemistry, but didn’t use that ebullient knowledge to plot my way through life.

 

I wouldn’t even know exactly what to buy, so I decided to find out.  When I looked up disodium guanylate, my spell checker ripped off it’s mask, coughed in my face, and shot me an evil look.

 

Disodium guanylate, also known as sodium 5’-guanylate and disodium 5’-guanylate, is a natural sodium salt of the flavor enhancing nucleotide guanosine monophosphate. Disodium guanylate is a food additive with the E number E627.  It is commonly used in conjunction with glutamic acid.

 

Nope. Decided to skip that ingredient, along with a host of others and start with the basic ratio for vinaigrette:  3 parts oil, 1 part vinegar.

 

Started with, I said, not finished with.  See, that’s just too oily for me, so I dropped the ratio down to 2 to 2.

 

But, there are many many oils and vinegars.  To start, I had to pause a minute for a sip of wine and ponder the variations.  Pondering took longer than I’d expected.  And more wine.

 

I settled on olive oil and rice vinegar, which is not so strong as other vinegars.  And to help out my sweet tooth, I used seasoned rice vinegar.

 

But, once you begin adding ingredients and since your blender is being ignored, it was time to invite the blender to join the team.  Finely chopped garlic….oh, hell, add another clove.  No need to be stingy.

 

Want the dressing to stick more easily on the salad greens?  Add an egg yolk.  Make the blender happy!

 

I don’t like to splash salt and pepper directly on salad greens, so I add a dash of sea salt and freshly ground pepper to the mix.

 

Damn good, but in days to come, I fiddled and added different ingredients, but not all at once.  Sometimes I wanted a hint of Dijon mustard and sometimes something citrusy. 

 

Lemon zest lends freshness.  Orange slices add a bright flavor.

 

Like things creamier?  Sometimes I do. Best to add an egg yolk and blend it in before adding some cream or buttermilk.

 

How about an Asian tilt?

 

Try this:

 

Sesame oil and olive oil, or canola oil (one portion each)

Peanut butter (2 portions)

Lime juice (one portion)

Soy sauce (one and a half portions)

If you didn’t use seasoned rice vinegar, add honey to suit your taste

A clove or two of diced garlic

Hot sauce if you like, plus salt and pepper

 

Once again, blend it well.

 

For the Asian salad, I add shredded cabbage to the greens.

 

I prefer to tell you the portions instead of a tablespoon of this and that ‘cause I don’t know if you’re making salad dressing for two or twenty.  But, as a rule, I make more than I need, so I’ll have some in the frig ready to use.

 

Yes, I have added wine or sparkling wine to the dressing.  And sometimes I use a mix of vinegars, such as balsamic, or unseasoned rice vinegar.  

 

Fresh herbs, like rosemary or basil, or cilantro will serve you well.

 

I realize this is a shotgun blast of dressing ideas, but that’s part of the fun.

 

A few years ago, as I visited a friend and his wife, he asked me to “Please make that salad, with the dressing you made when we were at your house.”

 

“’Fraid I’m going to have to wing it, bro.  I never make the same dressing twice.” 

 

See even salad can be exciting, especially if you get to piddle with the dressing.

 

What if you don’t have a blender?  Well, if you’ve got wine, you’ve stomped grapes, right?

 

 

 

       

Steak Salad With Sweet Potato Dressing

Steak Salad With Sweet Potato Dressing

The question came up, as it normally does:  What are you making for supper?  Usually, I have a ready answer, but on this dreary evening, with rain pounding the roof and making the garden happy, all I could think of was driving through the downpour and getting a good solid soaking on the race across the parking lot. 

Didn’t fancy a dripping sprint, and besides, my whisky card had been punched.  Twice.

So, it was time to use both my lonely brain cells and dig through the frig like a feverish husband about to fail his supper exam.  

Hope was rewarded.  Salad greens and tenderloin steak.  Funny, I thought I’d eaten the steak last night.  I know I drank the wine that was supposed to go with the steak….

One thing I never keep around the house is salad dressing, but I do keep a blender and olive oil and seasoned rice vinegar, salt and pepper.  Wait!  I also found a small, baked sweet potato.  I’d never made sweet potato dressing and searched my quivering mind to remember if there was a reason.  Couldn’t find one in the mental catalog of things my wife hates.  Disgusting things I’ve tried?  Nope, not there either.

Don’t want to keep you in suspense. The whole meal turned out to be superb and now, kitchen magician that I am,  I’m not only going to reveal how to make the salad and the salad dressing, but also how to cook the perfect steak.

Recipe for the perfect steak:

8 ounce prime tenderloin filet, 2 to 3 inches thick

olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oven to 400ºF or 200ºC

Note:  Yes prime tenderloin is pricy, but one steak fed two people, so dry the tears and cough up the coins!

Note:  This recipe will leave the steak crusty on the outside and pink in the middle.

Rub the tenderloin all over with olive oil, then sprinkle both sides with sea salt and ground pepper.  Set aside.

Oil a heavy frying pan (I use iron) and heat it until the oil is just starting to smoke.  Toss in the steak and sear the first side for exactly 2.5 minutes. Flip it over and sear the second side for exactly 2 minutes.

Put the frying pan and steak in the hot oven for exactly ten minutes.

Take it out and let it rest for at least ten minutes, then slice it thinly.

Now for the salad dressing.

1 small, well baked sweet potato, peeled and chopped

2 tablespoons diced sweet onion

1 cup olive oil

1 cup seasoned rice vinegar

sea salt and ground pepper to taste

Note:  I choose not to make my guests salt and pepper their salad, so instead, I include it in the dressing.

Put all ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth.  Taste and add another toss of salt or pepper as desired.  This recipe will yield more dressing than you need for one salad.  Put the remainder in a jar, cover and keep in the refrig.

Salad Recipe:

2 cups chopped iceberg lettuce (for crispness)

2 cups mixed salad greens

Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

1 cup diced sweet onion, marinated for a few minutes in seasoned rice vinegar and a sprinkle of cumin 

3 tablespoons roasted and salted pumpkin seeds

Note: pour off excess vinegar before adding marinated onions to the salad, otherwise the salad will curl your lips.

I served the salad with a light, French rosé wine.

Mix all ingredients, add some of the salad dressing and mix again. Don’t add too much dressing!  You want the salad crisp and refreshing.

Place the thin slices of steak on the salad.  Voilá!

My wife was enthusiastic until she found out how much I’d paid for the steak, but by the second bottle of wine she was happy again.

If you enjoyed my blog, please tell your friends!

Tomatillo Salad Dressing

Salad dressing?  Oh, much more than that!

First of all, I NEVER buy salad dressings.  Never say never?  Well this time I say it with fearsome pride.  If you’ve got a blender or a fork to stir oil and something acidic, you’re set to defy the limits of the salad dressing aisle and cast off that loathsome cloak of unhealthy serfdom.

This time my salad dressing adventure began with my curiosity over tomatillos. Don’t remember using them in a recipe.  Of course, copious quantities of fermented grape juice may have dulled the memories.  Or perhaps it was memories…..well, let’s leave it at that and just say it was memories I’ve learned to block out, as well as their names and how they cruelly broke my ever hopeful heart.

But, back to tomatillos.  Little green tomatoes, si?  Well, kinda.  Same family, but are all siblings the same? A solid no, and especially not in the nightshade family!  Tomatoes, tomatillos, eggplants, potatoes, petunias, chili peppers, paprika, tobacco, and even some deadly siblings, such as the belladonna, join together in one unhappy clan.

Tomatillos, also known as Mexican husk tomatoes, are native to Mexico and have been cultivated since the pre-Columbian era.  Pre-Columbian? you might well ask.  Yes, for engineers and math majors, pre-Columbian refers to the time before Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492.  We’re talking all the waaaaay back, into the deep pre-history of the B.C. days.

Yes, yes, I hear the complainers at the back of the room whining, so, leaving your knowledge incomplete, I’ll move on to the recipe.

Tonight, I wanted to make a tomatillo salad dressing, but found that I stuffed so much in the blender that I’d concocted a cross between a sauce and a salad dressing.  So, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, if you make this delicious…whatever you wish to call it…you’ll find it goes well on salad, or roasted vegetables, or roasted meat, or (depending on the consistency you desire), even makes a splendid dipping sauce for crisp tortillas.

Now we’ll really get down to it!

Tomatillo Dressing

Heat oven to 425ºF

3 Tomatillos, husk removed, then sliced in halves

1 Jalapeño, cut in half and seeds and stem removed

1 Poblano pepper, cut in half and seeds and stem removed

½  of a large, sweet onion, roughly chopped

1 heaping teaspoon Spanish smoked paprika 

Juice of 6 small tangerines (or more to taste)

½ Cup olive oil

One strong handful of fresh basil

One strong handful of fresh cilantro

1 level Tablespoon of salt (or more to taste)

4 Tablespoons honey (or more to taste)

Puttin’ it together:  Line a baking pan with parchment paper.  Place the first four ingredients on the sheet and sprinkle with paprika.  Roast for about 20-25 minutes (every oven is different) until the vegetables are beginning to char.

Put all the ingredients (including the charred vegetables) in a blender and puree.  Add more olive oil as needed to get the consistency you want.

Taste and add honey and salt as needed.

For the salad, mix several varieties of lettuce, cabbage, celery, bits of peeled tangerine, and anything else your heart desires.  I like to add a few cashews to give it some extra crunch.

This will make about 3 cups of salad dressing.  Put any remaining dressing in the frig.  Pat yourself on the back, grab another cup of vine juice … makes the heartbreak easier to live with!

Another Unforgettable Lunch in France

Restaurant Au Wasigenstein 

Candlelight and Roses 

Alsatian Beer is Superb

A Touch of Pinot Noir

Avocado Salad done right! 

Wild Boar

Red Cabbage

Spätzle

Our Wonderful Waitress

A Toast to an Unforgettable Lunch with friends!

My job on a cloudy, slightly brisk spring day, was to wind our way from quaint German towns, into nearby France, and through the blooming Alsatian countryside to the tiny village of Wengelsbach, nestled in a deep, almost hidden valley.  Why would I want to, besides idle wanderlust?  Food of course, but not just any food.  The driving force behind the driving were the renowned lunches, impeccably served in the demure but illustrious Restaurant Au Wasigenstein.

Wengelsbach?  Wasigenstein?  German names in France?  Don’t mention it out loud, Alsace has changed hands so many times over the last 150 years, it’s hard to tell who’s right handed and who’s left handed.  It’s definitely France now, but evidently the locals are taking no chances.  Speak German or French to them and they don’t miss a beat.  Guess it’s become too much of an effort to change the village names every few years.

With the dropping of borders and caught in the economic embrace of a common currency, nobody seems to mind the intertwining of cultures and cuisines and no one is impolite enough to dwell on the memories of cannon fire that echoed through the valley not all that long ago.

Wengelbach is truly tiny.  There are probably no more than two dozen homes, the restaurant, and a small jewel of a chapel.  My first thought was, why not live here?,.. followed shortly by the second thought:  why would anyone want to live here?  There’s no gas station, no food mart, one restaurant, and a place to pray.  Welcome to the simple life.  No kids or schools either, which leads me to see Wengelsbach, even with its pastoral beauty, as a dying town.

Still, it’s an interesting place.  I passed a house with a flag hanging from the porch.  As I stopped to study it, a man came out, with a big smile on his face.  “Know what flag that is?” he asked in English.  My first thought was Italian.  He shook his head no.  “Right colors, but there’s a lion in the middle and the stripes are horizontal.”

Reaching into memories of my misspent youth, I blurted out, “Iranian.”

His smile broadened.  “But it’s before the current regime.”   I was about to thank him and walk on, but this man wanted to talk and he’d found a listener.  “I do not like the current regime, but I will be quite angry if the United States or Israel attack Iran.”  Was it a challenge?  I had no idea, but there are some things I don’t discuss with strangers.  Sex, and debauchery yes.  Politics, no.

I side-stepped.  “I was in Teheran years ago.”

“Did you like the food?”  he asked.  Ah, fruitless conflict avoided.   Huge sighs.  Smiles all around.  Hand shakes.  Pats on the back.  On to lunch.

The  Restaurant Au Wasigenstein deserves it’s reputation.  I knew it as soon as we walked through the door and smelled the wood fire and saw the lavish custard and berry tarts on the bar.  The interior resembled a pine paneled hunting lodge, except for the starched white tablecloths, gleaming glasses, and polished cutlery.  Roses sat invitingly on each table; sliver candlesticks offered a warm glow.  We were shown to our seats and within minutes, every table around us filled up.

Our black and white attired waitress smiled and kept smiling as she handed us extensive menus and warmed our palates with descriptions of the menus of the day.  If anything, she understated the dishes.  Avocado with a creamy homemade mayonnaise and shrimp, turned out to be a full salad plate, half a avocado on a bed of mixed greens, with boiled egg slices, lightly steamed vegetables, and mounds of baby shrimp.  The greens were spiked with lovely vinaigrette.  A basket of crusty French bread on the side, made this a meal in itself, but there was more to come.

Roasted wild boar in a rich, dark wine sauce, grilled vegetables, and tiny cups of both fresh apple sauce and wild berry sauce completed the feast and made the hour and a half drive through the twisting mountain roads worth every minute and every bite.

We ate.  We drank Alsatian beer and Alsatian pinot noir.  “Ready for dessert, or coffee,” the waitress asked.  I closed my eyes, clinched my jaws, my knuckles turned white as I gripped the chair and forced myself not to shout, “Hell yes!”

“No,” said the couple we were with.  “We’re going to Wissembourg.”  Ah, but that’s another story, filled with rich coffee, richer desserts, and another picturesque Alsatian town worth mentioning.  I will mention it, later.

Restaurant Au Wasigenstein

Tel:  0388095054

www.wasigenstein-wengelsbach.com

Closed Monday and Tuesday

Going Green, Red, and Garlicky

        Stop!  Don’t put that goopy, mass produced salad dressing in your cart!  Put the damn bottle back on the shelf.  Have you read the ingredients?  Let’s make some good stuff instead.  It’s so simple you’ll never, ever buy salad dressing again.  All you need is a blender, some basic ingredients and three minutes.  Don’t have a blender?  Don’t lie to me, you margarita swilling swine!

        By the way, did you know that margarita means daisy in Spanish?  Hey, shape up!  You ought to know what you’re drinking. 

        Back to the salad dressing.  Here’s the basic recipe:  1/4 cup olive oil, 1/2 cup vinegar, 1 clove garlic, salt, and pepper to taste.  Put it in a blender.  Presto!  You’ve made a wonderful vinaigrette, and it’s only the beginning of your salad dressings adventures.  By the way, I always use Spanish olive oil.  To my tongue, the flavor is more intense.  Note the photo and the old sake bottles I use for my olive oil and kosher salt.  Nicely shaped bottles never go to waste in my house.  By the way, why do they call it kosher salt?  How can salt be anything else?  Kosher salt is the salt they use to cure kosher meat.  Mystery solved.

        Now back to the salad dressing for some not so basics.  For a change of pace, try using flavored vinegars.  I often use seasoned rice vinegar, shown in the photo, also strawberry vinegar, rosemary vinegar, and other vinegars that intrigue my taste buds. I keep strawberry and rose vinegars on my shelf.

        For tonight’s salad, I’m topping fresh baby greens with chopped strawberries and some toasted walnuts.  Hint:  how to toast walnuts.  Put them in a pan over moderate heat – no butter, no oil.  Let them toast, tossing occasionally until you smell the sweet, nutty aroma.

        For tonight’s salad dressing, I’m following the basic recipe, but using 1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar, which is slightly sweet, 1/4 cup champagne vinegar, and also tossing some fresh strawberries into the blender, first removing the tops and any white parts.  How many strawberries?  I started with four large ones, but I needed more berry flavor, so I added a couple more. 

        Want your dressing a little sweeter?  Instead of half and half seasoned rice vinegar and regular, use a full 1/2 cup of seasoned rice vinegar, or add sugar or honey.  Want it creamier?  Add an egg yolk.  Don’t worry about an uncooked yolk.  Just make sure you keep any leftover dressing in the refrig.

        One day soon, we’ll talk about how to make your own flavored vinegars, but right now let’s enjoy the baby greens, walnut, and strawberry salad, with the strawberry vinaigrette