Friday 15 May 2009

SALAD TIMES

After spending a long but fruitful week in London, looking for a flat, a job, and some sunshine all i have wanted to do was cook a nice salad with a simple vinaigrette. The salad dressing or vinaigrette is one of the easiest things to master in your kitchen, but everyone has powdered mixes, bottles of store bought chemicalized dressings, and for some an absolute fear of the simple salad dressing...

The idea of a salad dressing is very simple. Its an emulsion of acid and fat. What that means to you and me...vinegar or citrus juice and oil. The ratio is the important part, and unless you want you greens to taste like straight vinegar, then hold to the rule of a minimum of 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar!!! Some people push it all the way to five parts oil to one part vinegar, but I think you get the gist...its not all vinegar with a splash of oil...no matter how healthy you are trying to be. Being healthy is no excuse for bad food...neither is eating a fat free salad dressing an excuse to drown your lovely salad greens!!!!

So below is a quick recipe for a basic salad dressing with very standard quantities of an acid (lemon juice), a fat (olive oil) , and a binder (mustard and garlic) that can be altered in hundreds of ways...and i will describe a few after the recipe...


Basic Vinaigrette

PREP
1 lemon, juiced ( about 4T)
1 garlic clove, smashed to a paste
1 t Dijon mustard
s,p
3/4 cup EVOO ( use less extra virgin and more vegetable oil for adjustments in cost and calories)
Fresh herbs, fine dice

WHAT TO DO

1. Mix all ingredients but olive oil in a large bowl.
2. Slowly drizzle in oil as you whisk the dressing ( circular motion, back and forth...fast, fast)
3. Continue slowly drizzling oil into the dressing until emulsified (creamy texture).
4. Taste the dressing by drizzling a bit on some salad greens...does it need more fat, s,p...
That's it!!!

But now the key part is to toss your freshly washed salad greens( and dried) in some of the dressing. Use just enough to coat the leaves...no leaves swimming in a pool of dressing.
The mark of a great salad is that the dressing is there to assist the flavour of the vegetables, not the reverse. So buy fresh vegetables, wash them, cut them with care, and toss gently in the vinaigrette so as not to smash em up before you eat them...

MORE DISHES TO WASH

With the above recipe you have the base for many items, below are a bunch of lil ideas that you can test out...

Add an egg yolk to the beginning mix, and follow same steps and you will have mayonnaise.

Or...Temper the egg yolks ( slowly heat over a double boiler till change color but don't let em scramble), eliminate the mustard and garlic and lemon juice, change oil to clarified butter and you have the basis for a simple hollandaise sauce.

These are the simplest sauces, that seem to cause such anxiety...so next time you want to make salad dressing follow the directions above and then think of some changes such as...

Change the acid component to soy and rice wine vinegar, add fresh ginger and green onion, use sesame oil and veg oil...and you will have an Asian inspired vinaigrette

Use lime and cilantro with dash of cumin for your fajitas veggie salad...

Want the dressing creamy...use a bit of the h0me made mayonnaise as a base, or try roasting a tomato, puree it, and use this instead of the mustard...

Light and creamy...use yogurt, with fresh mint, lemon juice, and puree of cucumber and then the same ratio of EVOO...or mix tahini with yogurt and hit it at end with fresh toasted sesame seeds...

Just remember: acid (vinegar, citrus juice), fat (veg oil, olive oil, sesame oil, etc), binder (such as egg yolk, mustard, garlic puree, roast tomato puree) and some salt, pepper, and fresh herbs...

So take the 2 minutes to make your own dressings...buy some good olive oil, some fresh citrus and herbs, and stop buying jar after jar of processed dressings...you can make them cheaper, faster and healthier...

p.s. Next time you are at your favorite restaurant, ask if they make their own dressings. Its so cheap and easy, if they don't you may want to ask for oil and vinegar instead. And then think about what else they either don't know how or don't care enough to make themselves!!!





2 comments:

  1. Ohh this is perfect. Thanks, Greg!

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  2. Thanks...if you have any specific questions you want a blog entry dedicated to, let me know and i will do my best...

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