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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (July 28, 2020)
TUESDAY, JULY 28, 2020 THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD — 3B HOME & LIVING MAKING YOUR OWN SALAD DRESSINGS Breaking the bottle habit ¼ tablespoon salt 3 tablespoons plain yogurt ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1 tablespoon extra- virgin olive oil By Daniel Neman St. Louis Post-Dispatch A salad without dressing is just a pile of limp, uninspired lettuce. It is the dressing that makes a salad sing. It brings the greens to life, it makes the produce productive. What was once mere vitamins and roughage and something that sticks to your teeth becomes, with the measured applica- tion of a dressing, a dish to praise and celebrate. And it is all due to some oil and a little vinegar, and maybe yogurt or a splash of lemon juice. Salad dressing is something you can make yourself; the possibilities are endless. Try adding a combination of dif- ferent herbs to oil and vinegar, or go for a sweet dressing with honey and a bit of fruit. Best of all, dressings are both fast and easy to make — unless you make seven dif- ferent dressings at one time. Then they take longer than you might think and are kind of a hassle. I made seven dressings for this story, both vinaigrettes and yogurt-based dressings. Some were tart, one was sweet and all were beauti- fully balanced. Each one was perfect with lettuce, but many could also be served with vegetables or even fruit. I started with a Bistro Vinaigrette. This is the dress- ing we have on hand at all times at my house, a dress- ing I sometimes eat literally every day of the week. It is my favorite dressing, and if you try it, it will probably become your favorite dressing, too. It is so good that I decided to write a story about salad dressings just so I could write about Bistro Vinaigrette. It is a simple vinaigrette (oil mixed with vinegar or lemon juice), enlivened, as many are, with Dijon mustard. But it stands out in a few ways: It has chopped shallots in it, and the shallots are allowed to rest in the vinegar and salt for 10 minutes before the mustard and oil are added. This extra step smooths out the shallots’ sharp edge. And there is one more key factor that makes the dress- ing so good — it does not use olive oil, which is typically used for vinaigrettes. Olive oil has too strong a fl avor for this dressing. A neutral-fl avored oil, such as grapeseed or canola, keeps the dressing’s delicate fl avors in harmony. Next, I made an herb vinaigrette, which means the time has come to talk about emulsions. You know how oil doesn’t mix with water or vinegar or, for that matter, egg yolk? How it separates into a gross, oily mess? When you emulsify a dress- ing, you pour oil very slowly into vinegar (or lemon juice) and usually something like mustard or an egg yolk while whisking it together very fast. Through a miracle of science that would take a long time to explain, and I’d probably get it wrong, the oil and other ingre- dients blend into one another and can stay combined for up to several days. If they separated again Hillary Levin /St. Louis Post-Dispatch-TNS Homemade Strawberry Yogurt Dressing. Hillary Levin /St. Louis Post-Dispatch-TNS Homemade Bistro Vinaigrette, with shallot and mustard. its vinaigrette named for its owner-chef, Paul Elbling. Sauce Vinaigrette “Chef Paul” has more going on in it than the other dressings I made. Along with the egg yolk, mustard, vinegar and oil — two types of oil, actu- ally — it has white wine and a wealth of aromatic ingre- dients. These include thyme, oregano, nutmeg, rosemary, basil, garlic and white pepper. In the wrong hands, this would end up as a brash cacophony of fl avors. But Chef Paul knows what he is doing. His hand is subtle, and the result is exquisite. This is a dressing to serve on a special occasion, such as happening to have it on hand (which is likely, because you make a quart and a half of the stuff at a time), or you are simply in the mood for a sublime dressing. On the other side of the fl avor spectrum, and earning a much lower score for degree of diffi culty, is Strawberry-Yo- gurt Dressing. This is a simple dressing of strawberries and yogurt, plus some honey and half a gill of orange juice. It is easy to make, but it is deceptive. The sweetness of the berries and the honey play off the tang of the yogurt, with the sweet tanginess of the orange juice there to tie it all together. I turned to the inimical and irreplaceable Jacques Pepin for one dressing. The great chef’s creamy yogurt dressing is the best of both worlds: It is a vinaigrette and it also uses yogurt. It is tangy, as you might expect, but it does not go over- board. In Pepin’s hands, it is a well-balanced combination of just fi ve ingredients. Only salt and pepper are added to the oil, vinegar and yogurt. It is the fastest and simplest of all the dressings I made, and one of the most satisfying. The last dressing, also yogurt-based, is savory and quite unlike any of the others. It could come straight out of the Mideast; the yogurt is blended with tahini, lemon juice and garlic. It works as a great dipping sauce for crudites as well as a dressing for salad. before you’re done with the dressing, just shake it vigor- ously together in a jar with a lid and it will recombine certainly long enough to enjoy your salad. The Herb Vinaigrette is a great example of an emulsion. You slowly add corn oil to a beaten egg yolk, whisking (or using a blender) all the while. That makes an easy emulsion, but what makes this dressing superb are the ingredients you add after it is combined: minced garlic, minced parsley, minced dill and minced basil for a fresh, herbaceous taste, and some wine vinegar for just the right bite. The same principle holds true for the classic Caesar Dressing, which is another of my all-time favorites. Here, the oil is enthusiastically whisked into a mixture of egg yolk, lemon juice and Dijon mustard. That emulsion actually wouldn’t be bad on its own, but we are here to praise the Caesar dressing — not to bury it — because of the other ingredients that are added to it. Using a sharp knife, you make a paste of anchovy fi l- lets, garlic and salt, and whisk that into the emulsion. If it sounds complicated, don’t worry. As Caesar himself said, “Experience is the teacher of all things.” Note: I am well aware that the Caesar Salad was named for its creator, Caesar Cardini. However, as far as we know, Cardini never said “Experience is the teacher of all things.” My next emulsifi ed dress- ing came from a restaurant STRAWBERRY- that, for many years, was YOGURT DRESSING considered the fi nest in Yield: 4 cups Richmond, Virginia. Of all the things La Petite France 16 ounces (2 cups) plain yogurt did well, one of the best was 1½ pints strawberries, hulled and coarsely pureed ¼ cup orange juice ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons honey Empty the yogurt into a bowl, but do not whisk it (which would make it become watery). Whisk together the strawberry puree, orange juice and honey. Gently stir into the yogurt. Chill before serving. Per (2 tablespoon) serving: 28 calories; 1 g fat; 1 g satu- rated fat; 2 mg cholesterol; 1 g protein; 4 g carbohydrate; 4 g sugar; 1 g fi ber; 5 mg sodium; 17 mg calcium — Recipe from “The Frog/ Commissary Cookbook” by Steven Poses, Anne Clark and Becky Roller BISTRO VINAIGRETTE Yield: About 2/3 cup 1 tablespoon fi nely diced shallot ½ teaspoon fi ne salt 2 tablespoons wine vinegar (red or white) 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard 6 tablespoons (3 ounces) neutral oil, such as sunfl ower seed, grapeseed or canola Freshly ground pepper, white if available 1. In a medium bowl, combine the shallot, salt and vinegar with a wooden spoon. Let rest for 10 minutes to take the edge off the shallot. 2. Stir in the mustard. Pour in the oil slowly, stirring all the while to create an emul- sion. Sprinkle generously with pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Cover and refriger- ate until ready to serve. Keeps up to 1 week in the refrigerator in a glass jar with a tight lid. Per (2 tablespoon) serving: 155 calories; 17 g fat; 3 g saturated fat; no cholesterol; no protein; 1 g carbohydrate; 1 g sugar; 1 g fi ber; 311 mg sodium; 3 mg calcium — Recipe from “Tasting Paris” by Clotilde Dusoulier CREAMY YOGURT DRESSING Yield: 4 servings 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar HERB VINAIGRETTE Yield: About 1 ½ cups 1 egg 1 cup corn oil Whisk together the vinegar, 1/3 cup wine vinegar salt, yogurt and pepper. Whisk 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon pepper in the oil. Serve immediately ½ teaspoon minced garlic or store in refrigerator. 2 tablespoons minced parsley Per serving: 87 calories; 8 g 2 tablespoons minced dill fat; 2 g saturated fat; 4 mg 1 tablespoon minced fresh cholesterol; 2 g protein; 1 g basil or 1 teaspoon dried carbohydrate; 1 g sugar; no fi ber; 446 mg sodium; 28 mg Mix the egg in a food pro- calcium cessor or blender, or whisk — Recipe from “Essential by hand, until light-colored. Pepin” by Jacques Pepin Gradually add the corn oil so that it is well blended. Add the remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly. Chill before using. Store in refrig- erator. SAUCE VINAIGRETTE ‘CHEF PAUL’ Yield: 6 cups 1 egg yolk ¼ cup Dijon mustard 1½ cups white wine 1½ cups wine vinegar 1½ teaspoons salt 1½ teaspoons dried thyme ¼ teaspoon white pepper 3/8 teaspoon dried oregano ½ teaspoon nutmeg ½ teaspoon dried rosemary ½ teaspoon dried basil 2 garlic cloves 2 cups salad oil (such as vegetable, corn, canola, grapeseed or saffl ower oil) ½ cup olive oil Per (2 tablespoon) serving: 172 calories; 19 g fat; 3 g sat- urated fat; 16 mg cholesterol; 1 g protein; 1 g carbohydrate; no sugar; 1 g fi ber; 200 mg sodium; 5 mg calcium — Recipe from “The Frog/ Commissary Cookbook” by Steven Poses, Anne Clark and Becky Roller CAESAR DRESSING Yield: 3/4 cup 3 oil-packed anchovy fi llets, chopped 1 large garlic clove, chopped 1. Have all the ingredients 3/4 teaspoon (or more) ready before beginning. In a kosher salt blender, put the egg yolk, mus- 1 large egg yolk tard, wine, wine vinegar, salt, 2 tablespoons fresh thyme, white pepper, oregano, lemon juice nutmeg, rosemary and basil. 3/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard Mix well at medium speed for ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons 30 seconds, taking care not to vegetable oil turn off the blender. 3 tablespoons Parmesan, 2. With the blender still on, fi nely grated slowly add the oils, pouring them in a very thin stream into 1. Mound anchovies, garlic the liquid in the blender. Take and salt on a cutting board. care to add the oil slowly so Using the side of a chef’s the dressing will not separate. knife, mash and chop until Refrigerate before serving. well combined, then continue to work mixture, holding Per (2 tablespoon) serving: 107 knife blade at an angle, until calories; 12 g fat; 1 g satu- a smooth paste forms. (Alter- rated fat; 4 mg cholesterol; 1 nately, you can use a mortar g protein; no carbohydrate; and pestle or mini chopper to no sugar; no fi ber; 107 mg do this step.) sodium; 2 mg calcium 2. Whisk egg yolk, lemon juice and mustard in a me- — Recipe from “Chef Paul’s La dium bowl. Place a kitchen Petite France” by Paul Elbling towel in a medium saucepan, then place bowl in pan. (This holds the bowl in place while you whisk with one hand and pour oil with the other.) Yield: 1 cup 3. Adding drop by drop to start and whisking constantly, drizzle a few drops of oil into 1 plump, moist garlic yolk mixture. Continue, going clove, green germ slowly, until mixture looks removed if necessary slightly thickened and glossy. ¼ cup tahini (sesame paste) Continue to whisk, gradually ½ cup plain low-fat yogurt adding oil in a slow, steady 2 tablespoons freshly stream until all oil has been squeezed lemon juice used and mixture looks like ½ teaspoon salt mayonnaise. Add a dash of water and whisk, adjusting In a food processor or blender, mince the garlic. Add with more water if needed, the tahini, yogurt, lemon juice until dressing is the consis- tency of heavy cream. and salt, and puree to blend. 4. Add anchovy mixture Taste for seasoning. Store the dressing in the refrigerator for and Parmesan and whisk until smooth. Taste and adjust sea- up to 1 week; shake to blend soning with salt, if needed. again before using. TAHINI-LEMON- YOGURT DRESSING Per (2 tablespoon) serving: 55 calories; 4 g fat; 1 g satu- rated fat; 1 mg cholesterol; 3 g protein; 3 g carbohydrate; 1 g sugar; 1 g fi ber; 152 mg sodium; 26 mg calcium — Recipe from “Salad as a Meal” by Patricia Wells Per (2 tablespoon) serving: 103 calories; 11 g fat; 8 g satu- rated fat; 33 mg cholesterol; 2 g protein; 1 g carbohydrate; 1 g sugar; 1 g fi ber; 219 mg sodium; 37 mg calcium — Recipe by Rick Martinez, via Bon Appetit
