Salad dressing

Salad dressing is the next step from a vinaigrette. once that you have made this then you will want to make something a little better that will carry a lot more kick so you will want to make a dressing .

You will need a good virgin olive oil. Extra virgin if you can get it and if it is the first pressed extra virgin olive oil the better. You can blend your oils as well , nut oil, seamy seed oil or vegetable oil if you Like.

Then you will need vinegar of some kind. You do not want any thing that is to harsh. What you want is good quality white wine vinegar or a cider vinegar if you can get them. You can also use lemon or orange juice if you want . As long as you have something that is a good acid back note to cut threw the oil.

Then some thing to act as a seasoning to the dressing. This could be mustard, herds, garlic onions you can use almost any thing you like as long as it goes with what you are serving it with.

The main thing to remember is that as with a vinaigrette you use about three parts oil to one part vinegar and you will be about right. For a good all round no messing dressing take three parts oil and one part vinegar and then some Dijon mustard. About one teaspoon. Add them all to one bowl and whisk them together and there you have your most basic dressing.

For fish I like to take a good oil and some lemon juice, three parts oil to one part lemon juice. And then take some very fine diced onions and dill, how much it up to you but you want it to be free moving and not all herb and onions.

Let it all stand in a bowl for a while. This allows time for all the flavours to work in to one another before it goes on to the salad. Then before you use whisk it all up together and sue straight away. If you use it straight away the onion can be a little to much. But if you can not wait use fresh chives instead.

Then once you have mastered the basic dressing you could try what is one of my favourite dressings that I was introduced to by a German chef living in England who trained in France. That could make this a European dressing .

Take one egg and separate the white form the yolk and place the yolk in bowl. Then add the olive oil a little at a time as if you were making mayonnaise. In-between this add a little of a good quality balsamic vinegar. Then some more oil so that you get a emulsion going. You still need about three to one of oil to vinegar.

Once you have done this take a very good spoon of whole grain mustard and mix that in to the mix and then season with fresh ground nutmeg. What you end up with is a very rich and pleasing blend of sweet and sharp spicy flavours that go well with most salads, but do not use to much as it is very powerful as a dressing and full of flavour.