RECIPE: Salad Dressings

I know you saw my last post about summertime and eating salads. Right? RIGHT?

Well, it's all very well to make fancy salads, but to be perfectly honest, most of the time my salads are as plain as can be. Just whatever greens I have, combined with whatever else I have to throw in: nuts, dried fruit, caramelized ginger, spare vegetables, and sometimes even just the greens.

In that case, it's good to have some dressings on hand to add some variety when all you have are a week's worth of greens and the a bag of slivered almonds. Luckily for me, Food & Wine recently featured three simple recipes for basic salad dressings that are completely easy to make, and easy to improvise, so that if you anticipate eating several salads in the near future, you can have enough on hand to get you through the next few days of salad-eating.

I know this post isn't the most entertaining, but it's fairly useful, so check out the following salad dressing recipes while I try to get my groove back. Life has not exactly been easy the past few weeks and that does something to a girl's creative juices.


DIJON VINAIGRETTE:

• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
• 1/2 tablespoon minced shallot
• 1/2 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• salt and freshly ground pepper

In a small bowl, whisk the sherry vinegar with the shallot and Dijon mustard. In a thin, steady stream, whisk in the olive oil until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper.

BUTTERMILK DRESSING:

• 1 small garlic clove, smashed
• salt
• 3 tablespoons sour cream
• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• freshly ground pepper

Sprinkle the garlic with a pinch of salt and mash to a paste. In a bowl, whisk together the garlic, sour cream, mayonnaise and vinegar. Whisk in the buttermilk and season with pepper.



GINGER DRESSING:

• 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
• 1 tablespoon minced shallot
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• salt and freshly ground pepper

In a blender, puree the ginger, shallot, vinegar, mayonnaise and soy sauce. With the machine on, add the vegetable oil and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.