Salad Dressing

[kernelbogey]

Just in from the garden for a quick Nicoise-lite sort of salad and thought I'd invite recipes for salad dressing.

The salade du jour for one at Bogey Towers:

Little Gem lettuce and Rocket leaves
half a red pepper thinly sliced
half a dozen baby tomatoes, halved
half a dozen boiled small salad potatoes
an 80g tin of Charles Basset tuna in oil

The dressing:

Best olive oil I have in the house (today, Extra Virgin from Crete)
Top notch balsamic vinegar (more often I would use fresh lemon juice)
half teaspoon of Colman's mustard powder
large pinch of salt
smidgin of freshly-ground black pepper
(Sometimes, on a non-work day I'll add a crushed clove of garlic)
These ingredients thrown into a sealable wide-mouthed jar,
vigorously shaken before pouring over salad.

I never bother with measuring any of this but with the jar I can easily estimate the proportion of oil against the vinegar/lemon juice - about 4:1

[kernelbogey]

... thought I'd invite recipes for salad dressing....

Oh - does no one make their own dressing?

[Richard Tarleton]

Yes - my recipe similar to yours, though I vary the mustard according to mood (sometimes a Dijon, or a grainy mustard), and the vinegar, and I put two or three whole cloves of garlic in the jar. I make more than I need, and keep it in the fridge, where the garlic continues to infuse. As we get through quite a lot of it, it doersn't sit there for very long, but the end of a particularly good batch can be topped up with a little olive oil to stretch it a bit further.

Extra virgin of course, classified origin, green bottle.....

Amusing chapter about olives and olive oil in the last volume of Chris Stewart's "Driving over Lemons" trilogy, "The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society".

[kernelbogey]

Interesting tip about the 'ongoing' garlic, Richard.... thanks. I occasionally come across unusual dressings at meals with others, but sadly so many people now seem to buy the ready-made ones. Haven't heard of Chris Stewart - will investigate.

[Globaltruth]

Yes, we do a similar one without salt but using a French whole grain mustard. Ongoing bay leaves as well as garlic work well.

And substituting other vinegars (cider, white wine) for Balsamic help ring the changes.

[Richard Tarleton]

Haven't heard of Chris Stewart - will investigate.

He was (for a matter of weeks) the first drummer with Genesis (his school friends) before they sacked him. A professional sheep-shearer and all-round interesting human being, about twenty years ago after a varied life he bought a run-down farm in the Alpujarras south of the Sierra Nevada, and has written three entertaining books on life there, starting with "Driving Over Lemons". He is a friend of the founder of the Rough Guides, Mark Ellingham, who helped him get the first book published, whereupon it became a runaway best seller. Lightweight stuff but very enjoyable, and it gave Gerald Brenan's great "South from Granada" a bit of a revival.

[Anna]

I use the basic recipe as in first message but minus salt. When dressing green beans I like to add very finely chopped fresh chillie. Sometimes use lemon juice, sometimes lime juice with finely chopped coriander, depends what I'm putting the dressing on, fresh herbs of choice make a change. Vinegars vary, using mainly balsamic at the moment. Never buy commercially produced dressings, no point in ingesting artificial additives (plus a lot of them contain sugar) and spending money when all ingredients are available in the kitchen.

[kernelbogey]

...Sometimes use lemon juice, sometimes lime juice with finely chopped coriander, depends what I'm putting the dressing on, fresh herbs of choice make a change. Vinegars vary, using mainly balsamic at the moment...

Interesting thoughts Anna. I avoid if possible using vinegar if I'm serving wine, as I find flavours clash especially with a red, e.g. Barolo ) and use lemon. I haven't tried lime, but now will. I try from time to time to wean myself off salt in dressings or when cooking vegetables, on health grounds, but relapse quite quickly. May have to try a determined campaign of self-discipline!

[kernelbogey]

He was (for a matter of weeks) the first drummer with Genesis (his school friends) before they sacked him. A professional sheep-shearer and all-round interesting human being, about twenty years ago after a varied life he bought a run-down farm in the Alpujarras south of the Sierra Nevada, and has written three entertaining books on life there, starting with "Driving Over Lemons". He is a friend of the founder of the Rough Guides, Mark Ellingham, who helped him get the first book published, whereupon it became a runaway best seller. Lightweight stuff but very enjoyable, and it gave Gerald Brenan's great "South from Granada" a bit of a revival.

Very interesting Richard, and thanks!

[Richard Tarleton]

I have a reprint of an 1882 Spanish cookbook entitled "El Practicón - Tratado completo de la cocina". It's a sort of Spanish Mrs Beeton, and in places it is hilarious. There is a chapter on preparing "hygenic salad" -"Ensalalda higiénica".

The author clearly had a low opinion of salad, which he says only serves to prolong the meal, and as he puts it "Lo que hay de cierto, y que no habrá quien lo refute, es que sólo los ruminantes nacieron para comer hierbas crudas. La ensalada, propiamente dicha, no es otra cosa que hierba cruda" - eating raw grass is strictly for ruminants, and salad is nothing but raw grass. He reminds us that the habit of eating raw plants anointed with oil and vinegar came to [Spain] from Italy, where it was inherited from the ancient Romans.

He quotes Ovid as saying that Man has been given a divine face intended for looking at the heavens, not munching grass. With the help of a series of charming line drawings, he shows the cook preparing the salad the night before, leaving it on the cool windowsill overnight, and then throwing it all into the street the following morning. This, he says, "es la única ensalada higiénica que se conoce".

[kernelbogey]

Getting impatient waiting for the rice to be cooked last night I ate my salad before the rest of the meal: and reflected that, in my experience, this is normal practice in the US.

[Richard Tarleton]

Getting impatient waiting for the rice to be cooked last night I ate my salad before the rest of the meal: and reflected that, in my experience, this is normal practice in the US.

And Spain (they no longer throw it out of the window).

[french frank]

Excellent, RT - the man was an eccentric, of course . I use an old marmalade/olive/mustard jar with a cap for mixing, though if you don't one handy, put the ingredients into a tubby tumbler and put cling film over the top to shake it all up.

I would use moutarde de Dijon, or wholegrain, rather than the dry mustard powder, certainly with crushed garlic, and yes, to finely chopped fresh red chilli. Green 'erbs sometimes - whatever is to hand (not parsley, though). Long infusion is good.

Out of curiosity, I bought some Italian olive oil flavoured al tartufo bianco. It smells slightly ... petrolly . Most of the time I use Italian olive oil (imported by my local deli, and cheap) but I think probably I favour good Greek for taste.

[vinteuil]

I have a reprint of an 1882 Spanish cookbook entitled "El Practicón - Tratado completo de la cocina". / ... / he shows the cook preparing the salad the night before, leaving it on the cool windowsill overnight, and then throwing it all into the street the following morning. This, he says, "es la única ensalada higiénica que se conoce".

... clearly following the precept of Dr Johnson -

"It has been a common saying of physicians in England, that a cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing."
[ in James Boswell: Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides ]

[greenilex]

Don't forget the Palestinian olive oil...it has a wonderful flavour and needs to be promoted, imo.