Vinegar-free Salad Dressing
I keep hearing folks say they can't have salad dressing. I don't always hear why, but I'm guessing the main culprit is vinegar. I have a vinegar-free salad dressing method that I love - it uses lemon juice. It's very flexible. In my book a salad dressing needs three essential things:
1. fat
2. acid
3. emulsifier
In most dressings, the fat is Extra Virgin olive oil (EVOO). My dressing is no exception: EVOO has enzymes, is naturally liquid at room temperature, and doesn't go rancid too fast.
The acid for my dressing is lemon juice. Occasionally I will use beet kvass, and I suppose you could even try kombucha, but lemon juice is my favorite.
You have a choice of emulsifier:
1. The most easy to obtain is raw egg yolks. If you can't have egg yolks, you can work your way up the gourmet ladder.
2. The next rung is anchovies. Anchovies are great because they have lots of omega-3s and calcium. I've heard that it's better to get them packed in water than packed in any oil besides EVOO. And of course avoid any extra ingredients other than salt.
3. At the top of my gourmet ladder is cured fish roe. I've used Tarama (Greek aged carp roe caviar), but Bottarga is basically the same. And I guess above that you could use real sturgeon caviar, but that seems a little insane. It's no accident that caviar is the "most gourmet" of the three: it's highest in vitamins and good fats. But all of these choices are excellent from a nutritional point of view. Anchovies have more salt than egg yolks, obviously, and Tarama has even more. You need to add salt to your dressing if you use egg yolks; otherwise you probably don't.
Okay, here's the recipe. Quantities are very approximate -- you'll need to try it and decide how you like it best.
MIKEE'S SALAD DRESSING
1 egg yolk/3 anchovies/2 Tbsp roe
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped finely
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt to taste
Place your emulsifier, lemon juice, garlic and optional salt in a bowl.
Mash or whisk it up till it's reasonably well blended.
Add a small splash of oil. Whisk until well blended.
Repeat until dressing starts to thicken. Small bubbles may form, evenly spread throughout.
Add the oil in a thin stream or slightly bigger spashes, whisking all the time. Make sure the oil gets blended in right away or the dressing will separate -- it's like mayonnaise.
Taste the dressing occasionally. When you have the right balance of fish/egg, lemon, and olive oil flavor, stop adding oil. You can add more lemon juice if you need to. Salt to taste. If you add a lot of oil, it will get thick like mayonnaise. This is really not necessary for a salad dressing.
TIPS ON EMULSIFYING:
* If you've ever tried to make mayonnaise, you know that it can be tricky the first time. Don't despair! Once you make it a couple times you'll be doing it in your sleep.
* This is a two-handed process. You can't hold the bowl while you're whisking because you need the other hand to pour the oil. If your bowl moves around, try putting a towel under it.
* As long as you don't add too much oil at once, you can just keep whisking to keep the dressing from separating ("breaking"). But if it does separate, here's the old mayonnaise cure:
In a new bowl, place another egg yolk (or other emulsifier). Whisk it up, and then add your broken dressing as if it were olive oil.
* Mayonnaise can be made in the blender or food processor, but the recipe usually calls for a whole egg in addition to the other egg yolks. I've had success making mayonnaise this way, but I've never tried it with the salad dressing.
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