There isn’t any cream in this, but because the dressing emulsifies, it just looks like it contains cream or sour cream or something dairy. Except for an egg – a raw egg. It does contain peanut oil and olive oil and the acid is from red wine vinegar.

Every so often I get a yen to try a different salad dressing. Nearly every time I do, I revert back to my favorites, but I get tired of the similar flavors in them (garlic, Parm and usually a little bit of blue cheese). So I venture away as I did this time with something unusual. I found the original recipe in a favorite cookbook of mine, A Cook’s Tour of Sonoma by Michele Jordan. Her version contained one thing I didn’t want – green olives – so I substituted capers. And I used extra virgin olive oil – instead of the pure olive oil. I also added garlic – just because I like it. About the oil – I used extra virgin because I don’t HAVE any pure olive oil. I should, but my goodness, I don’t know about you, but I have bottles and bottles of different kinds of oils in my pantry. Way too many, and I rarely use the pure olive oil. The author has a revised edition of the book available too – The New Cook’s Tour of Sonoma which I understand from reading about it, contains a lot more touring information – food purveyors, tours about food, cheese, etc.

To make this, you just start adding ingredients to the blender. This recipe (in its original form) came from a restaurant in Santa Rosa, and was enough quantity to feed about 100 people. My recipe software easily scaled it down and I have about 1 1/2 or 2 cups of dressing which must be used within 3 weeks. Reason? It contains raw egg. The original actually called for one egg, and I truly didn’t know what I’d do with part of a raw egg, so I just used a whole (very small) egg for the quantity I made. It has in it some Dijon, Worcestershire, soy sauce (so you don’t need any salt) and a bunch of dried herbs – but all in very small amounts. Oh yes, it has a tiny pinch of curry powder in it too. I love that hint – if you didn’t know it was there I don’t think you could taste it. Then you slowly pour in the peanut oil, olive oil and lastly the red wine vinegar and it’s done. Other than gathering up all the herb and spice jars, it took little time to make.

If time permits, do let it sit out (in a sealed jar) for several hours to let the flavors marry before you use it to dress a salad, or pour over some spring asparagus. It would also work over cooked pasta (as a salad, not an entrée). I did let it sit out for awhile, then put it in the refrigerator for several more hours before I used it on the green salad you see above.

What’s GOOD: it’s easy to make, it’s creamy, and full of all kinds of interesting herb flavors. Love the miniscule hint of curry powder in it (you could easily eliminate that if you don’t like curry). It’s definitely different! We both liked it very much.
What’s NOT: it does contain raw egg – I don’t have a problem with that, but many people do. It also – because of the egg – doesn’t keep as long – the author recommended no longer than 3 weeks.

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A luscious salad – different – healthy, really – because it doesn’t have all that much oil in it – hard to believe it could taste so good! Dried figs give it a base, and you do add some crumbled bacon.

Having been asked to bring a salad to dinner at friends recently, I ransacked my to-try file, to find something that would complement Thomas Keller’s Roast Chicken and Vegetables, which my friend Donna was going to make. Donna reads my blog (thank you, Donna!) and is always so kind to tell me how much she likes it. Music to any blogger’s ears, I’ll tell ya!

It didn’t really take much to make this dressing – it’s an interesting one – it uses dried figs, balsamic vinegar (I used a fruit-flavored one, but you can use plain too), water, chicken broth (yes, really, chicken broth), honey, shallots and fresh thyme. All things I had on hand. The figs are simmered for

just a minute in the balsamic vinegar and allowed to “steep” or sit while you pull together the rest of the ingredients. Then it’s all whizzed up in the blender. Meanwhile, I chopped up and fried a bunch of bacon. I made this salad twice, on consecutive nights, and used different greens. I couldn’t find arugula the first day, so I substituted Romaine, leaf lettuce and microgreens. I actually think the salad needs some bitter greens to offset the fig-sweetened dressing, so the second time my DH was able to find arugula and I used Feta cheese  that time, rather than the cotija I’d tried the first time. The original recipe (from Cooking Light) called for goat cheese, but I didn’t have any. Nor did I really want to buy a log of goat cheese when I only needed a little bit for the salad. I almost always have Feta on hand, which keeps soaking in brine for many, many weeks. I did have cotija (it’s a dry, salty Mexican cheese that’s used mostly for garnish), so I used that one time.

The second night (pictured above) I had arugula, but not quite enough dressing, so I just added more EVOO and another little jot of balsamic vinegar to what I had left from the previous night, and it was plenty for a salad for 4.

What’s good: the low-calorie, low-fat aspect of the dressing. Of course, bacon kind of puts it over the top, but once you divide it among several people, no one has all that much bacon. I added pine nuts one night just because I thought the salad needed some kind of crunch to it. Since it doesn’t have any added vegetables, I really did think it needed some added texture.

What’s not: nothing at all – just know this isn’t any standard kind of vinaigrette – it’s sweet from the figs, but will complement lots of meals – pork for sure – often pork is accompanied by fruit.

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What I had on hand were tangerines. Other than eating them out of hand, I didn’t have many thoughts on what to do with them. Aha! Dressing. And I found a recipe in my collection that I’d never made, although I’d had it at a cooking class some years ago.

Some years ago my friend Cherrie and our respective husbands attended a wine tasting event at our local Bristol Farms market (a very upscale grocery store here in So. California). At the time (and perhaps still) a gentleman named Bruce Jacobs was the Executive Chef there, and he and his staff served a dinner paired with the wine. An early course was a lovely salad with a warm round of lightly sautéed goat cheese (lightly breaded with Panko, I think) and the greens were drizzled with this dressing. It was absolutely perfect for that salad.

With the tangerines I had, which came from a tree we have at our desert house, this seemed the right thing to do with them. What I will tell you is that when you mix a lot of fruit juice in a salad dressing, and you dress your salad – it will more quickly wilt the fancy lettuces (like leaf lettuce or soft spring greens). My recollection is that he served this with a curly endive salad, which is a sturdy green that can hold up against a citrus juice dressing. I used Romaine. Spinach should work too. The dressing was made in the food processor, but it may not matter because the dressing doesn’t emulsify very much (there isn’t any egg or mustard, or sour cream to bind it). Although as I type this I made the dressing yesterday, and it is still holding together just as in the photograph above. So maybe it does emulsify more than I think it does.

My only advice: serve this with some kind of fruit in it – like the mandarin oranges I used, or some dried cranberries. Sliced almonds would be nice too. You could also make the salad with some cabbage added, or spinach (certainly very sturdy greens). If you don’t like rosemary, certainly any other fresh herb would work (tarragon, thyme for instance).

What’s good: the tangy tangerine flavor – and it’s a very light dressing. I did use extra virgin olive oil (it calls for “olive oil,” so the extra virgin really isn’t necessary, but I didn’t have anything else). You don’t want the oil to overpower the delicateness of the tangerine juice, that’s all. Adjust the sweetness to your own tastes – and it may depend on how tart the tangerines are too!

What’s not: don’t keep it too long – I’d suggest using it up within about 4-5 days if you can.

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Anytime I find a new or slightly different salad dressing, I’m intrigued. As I read the recipe for this, in a new cookbook that was given to me, The New Southwest Cookbook by Carolyn Niethammer, I liked the idea of the cilantro suspended in the dressing. And that technique worked beautifully, as you can see in the photo at left.

The salad that was in the accompanying recipecontained a few different ingredients that I chose not to use (field greens, jicama, carrots) but I did have arugula, celery, tomatoes and radishes. So really, you can make the salad portion with your own choice of ingredients.

Serving this as part of a complete dinner with a southwest emphasis, it was a perfect side. My friend Joan liked this salad (and the dressing first and foremost) better than anything else in the dinner I prepared. I did too. It was the lime juice that made it so, in my opinion.

I made it up ahead – about 2-3 hours before dinner – both the salad and the dressing. So when our guests arrived, I just had to toss the salad and it was done.

One of the caveats about this dressing, though, is that it needs to be used within 24 hours. As I write this it’s been 48, but I’ll use up the rest of it with tonight’s dinner. The reason it doesn’t keep is the cilantro. Once fresh cilantro encounters anything wet, it goes to mush. Perhaps in this dressing that won’t happen quite so quickly – it’s still nicely suspended in the dressing – but I’m sure the taste is likely waning. For a salad for 5 people, I used about 3/4 of the dressing, so you might want to reduce the quantity if you’re making just one salad for 4 people.

What’s good: the sweet and tart from the sugar and lime juice. Loved the flavor of this dressing, and the salad was also wonderful (red bell pepper, radishes, arugula, Romaine and Feta). A definite make-again recipe.
What’s not: only that the dressing doesn’t keep well – preferably only 24 hours. Otherwise, the salad is a winner.

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Lest you think that I have run out of ideas for this blog (since this is a re-run), let me just say that at the moment I’m writing this, I have about 12 posts ready in the queue, poised in waiting for me to press the button called “publish.”  It’s just that this old recipe, which I posted in March of 2008, but have been making since the late 70’s sounded so “right” for dinner the other night. And it was. And it just reinforced how much I love this salad! But I updated it some.

My hubby went grocery shopping for me to buy the things I didn’t have on hand (cabbage, Top Ramen, iceberg lettuce). But since I’m always thinking about ways to update my old recipes, I decided to add two other ingredients to this salad – sugar snap peas, and some fresh corn that I would cut off the cob. Otherwise, the recipe is true to its original. I’m sure no self-respecting Chinese would sully the original salad with something like sugar snaps or corn, but they sounded good to me, so I just DID it.

If you want to go to my original post about it, you can read how I first tasted Chinese Chicken Salad at Ming’s in Palo Alto (in about 1978), and was blown away by fresh cilantro (not available then in regular grocery stores).

If you have some left over chicken pieces, have a hankering for a cool, refreshing salad, well, try this. The dressing is sweet and tart, enhanced with toasted sesame oil.

What I liked: everything about it – the textures, the sweet and sour dressing, even the little crunchy Top Ramen noodles that get crushed in the salad.

What I didn’t like: nothing! This is a favorite salad.

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Nothing but a standard, but very tasty vinaigrette dressing. One that’s made without garlic, but with fresh chives, parsley and tarragon (this time) in it. Easy and keeps for a couple of weeks.

Actually, I’ve posted this recipe before, but it was buried inside a rice salad construct. It was last year, actually, but I’ve been making this dressing for at least 30 years. Back when I first bought the Silver Palate Cookbook 25th Anniversary Edition’. That cookbook has been a favorite of mine all these years. In fact, my old paperback copy finally bit the dust (the spine just gave out, came unglued) so I bought a new hardback copy, their 25th anniversary edition. It doesn’t have any spots and stains on the pages like my old one did. I almost feel bereft to have had to throw out the old book.

The page that contained this recipe had numerous mustard smears and the Rice and Vegetable Salad that I always made it with had some oil spatters on its pages. Well used.

The dressing is called “Our Favorite Vinaigrette” because the ladies of the Silver Palate (Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins) used it for just about everything. I mean EVERYTHING! My preference is to serve this vinaigrette with veggies (as in the rice salad linked above). It’s also delicious on sliced tomatoes too. This time I made it to serve on a green salad – it’s just an old-faithful recipe that never lets me down. Dijon mustard helps to emulsify it and give it ample taste. I always use Maille, the French Dijon mustard – it is a standard on my refrigerator shelf. I like it far better than Poupon. But, use your choice in any case. This particular time I used an inexpensive red wine vinegar (mostly because I didn’t think its nuances would shine through), and I used Costco’s Kirkland EVOO. The fresh herbs give it plenty of flavor – you can vary what you put in it – and you can vary how MUCH you put in it. The recipe calls for Italian parsley and chives. As I was snipping herbs to make this, I noticed the tarragon sprigs were leggy, so I grabbed some of them as well. I mixed the dressing in a big Pyrex measuring cup and used my immersion blender rather than the stand-blender. Made for easier clean-up.
Ideally, this is best within a few hours of making it, but it will keep just fine for many days. I know I’ve kept it  up to 2 weeks. The flavor likely isn’t at its peak any longer, but it will still garnish a nice salad. I was making a huge salad for 20+ at our grandson’s birthday (they were expecting 20 adults and about 20 children). I filled up my gigantic salad bowl that I only use for these kinds of occasions. We didn’t need all the dressing (I doubled the recipe below), so I’ll have plenty to last me for several weeks. I used more herbs this time because I was making a very neutral salad (head lettuce, some nice European greens, corn, radishes and yellow tomatoes) and I wanted the dressing to give the salad some oomph. When you dress the salad, taste it to make sure it’s got enough – definitely don’t use too much – but yet that’s an axiom for any salad, eh?

What I like: just that this is a sturdy and hearty dressing – one that will go with lots of different things.

What I didn’t like: nothing at all!

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One of the things I crave for dinner, especially in warm weather, is a big, honkin’ green salad with oodles of fresh veggies chopped up in it. I like fresh fennel, carrot, celery, sugar snap peas, tomatoes (in this case I had super heirloom cherry tomatoes), avocado, radishes, arugula, Belgian endive, some red leaf lettuce and usually some Romaine too. If I have left over baguette I might make some garlic croutons (in this case I didn’t). I’ll add some Feta cheese perhaps. Maybe hearts of palm or pickled beets; even a few kidney beans. If I had them languishing in the refrigerator I’d add hard boiled eggs, left over chicken, or maybe tuna.

Under most circumstances I have a jar of one of my home made salad dressings in the refrigerator. Today, no. I’d used them all up. But I did have some of the Little Girlie’s Green Sauce remaining, so I perused a Southwestern cookbook I got as a gift recently and sure enough, there was an avocado dressing in it. It contained all the ingredients in the Green Sauce and then some. So I adapted it and came up with a scrumptious avocado dressing that tasted just great on the big salad to which I added a lot of the ingredients I mentioned above. My DH gets weary of chewing a big salad. Not me. I enjoy all the crunch and know that it’s so good for me too. I go several days sometimes without making a salad as we have lots of veggies (2 sometimes) instead. But this time of year we have so much beautiful garden bounty at the farmer’s markets, and perfect for a salad.

This dressing tastes something like the avocado dressing they used to serve at one of our local Mexican restaurants. With pepitas sprinkled on top, it made a delicious meal. I never knew how they made it – I’d say I nailed it without even trying to do so. To my mind, the mayonnaise is what makes the difference – it’s not just an oil/vinegar or oil/lime juice vinaigrette, but has a creamy consistency. I used to think it had sour cream in it. I think not! It was mayo. The cookbook I consulted didn’t have mayo in it, so that’s one of my additions. Just don’t make a lot of the dressing as it probably won’t keep indefinitely – avocado tends to go “off” after a day or two. And cilantro isn’t a keeper in liquid either, although it managed really well in the Green Sauce, I noticed. It kept fine for about 6 days. If you have left over of this dressing, serve it like guacamole with chips.

What I liked: well, the avocado garlic flavor was rich and tasty in the salad. Use your own judgment about how much to use. My salad took about 3 T. per serving, I think – I didn’t measure. In any case, with the avocado as the main ingredient, it’s not bad for you anyway. So scoop more as needed until it tastes right.

What I didn’t like: nada.

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If you’ve never had Green Goddess, you’re missing out. Of course, you need to like a creamy dressing to begin with. Instead of the cloying taste of ranch dressing (which I do rarely eat), this has a bright herby flavor, some piquant additions from anchovy and wine vinegar. Plus a bit of Worcestershire (which you don’t taste, but it adds lots of umami).

Making green goddess isn’t hard. You just need to have a bunch of fresh herbs, tarragon amongst them and mayo. Some recipes include sour cream. Ina Garten’s version includes basil (instead of tarragon). There’s also a buttermilk version too (which would be lower in calorie). I use low-fat sour cream if I have it on hand. But the original recipe called for only mayo, and that’s this recipe, which I like very much. This time I made a very small batch as I only wanted enough to nap on some fresh asparagus.

But even at that, I had left over dressing, so the next night I used it as a dip for artichokes. Worked just great. I probably won’t make it again for many months. It’s rich (obviously). But I do love the herbs (particularly the tarragon, which predominates) and the bite from the fresh garlic. This recipe came from The New York Times. They did an article back in 2008 about it in which they related the origin of green goddess (a cook/chef the Palace Hotel in San Francisco in the early 1920’s, who created it to honor the actress in a then-play by the same name). The Times 2008 article used a recipe from  “The California Cookbook,” by Callahan. Supposedly the Palace Hotel (on Montgomery Street), to this day, still serves 200+ green goddess salads every day of the week!

What I liked: well, I’ve always liked green goddess, so it’s not new to me. Love the herbal taste and the variety of things I can do with it other than just toss with Romaine lettuce.

What I didn’t like: nothing at all!

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There’s a short story to tell: when I was still in college (oh, many years ago) I worked every Friday night and all day Saturday at Marston’s (an old family-run San Diego department store). I worked in the Personnel Dept. (remember when they used to call Human Resources the Personnel Dept.?). My job was to train new sales employees – things like how to use the cash register (no electronics at all although they were electrically run). And about the company’s general policies including ethics – plus some limited safety info – mostly boring stuff. Anyway, on Saturdays when I wasn’t teaching I’d walk to a diner a few blocks away. They had a Caesar Salad on their menu that I was crazy about. It was just the best. It had all the elements of a perfect Caesar – Romaine, an egg-based olive oil dressing with good Parmesan, some big honkin’ croutons and a strip or two of anchovies on top. And lemon. That began my my appetite for anything Caesar, I’ll tell you. Hence you’ll find many Caesar type dressings here on my blog.

It would logically follow, then, that as I was reading the most recent issue of Bon Appetit, I was motivated by a recipe in the issue for a Parmesan Chicken and Caesar Roasted Romaine (salad). As I’m writing this, it’s not yet “up” on epicurious or I’d link to it. It got me to thinking. I had everything I needed to make this, but I wanted some dressing on the salad. So I improvised a bit, although I roasted the chicken and Romaine as indicated in the recipe. I went to my current favorite Caesar dressing – a Phillis Carey one that is cinchy easy made with mayo as the base. I’ve printed it up below as a separate recipe – you need that recipe IF you like Caesar. Phillis served it on a steak salad (and I wrote it up then as an integral part of that salad) at a cooking class a couple of years ago and I’ve been a fan of it ever since!

It was an easy dinner. Well – let me re-phrase that – it took me one hour to do it all – make the dressing, prep the chicken, make the panko crumb topping, prep the Romaine, heat the oven, roast the chicken, then roast the Romaine, cook some haricot verts (my very favorite recipe, garlic green beans), toss them in a skillet with some garlic and olive oil, plate it, drizzle on some of the Mayo Caesar dressing and serve! Whew! I felt a little like a one-armed paper hangar. Normally time isn’t of an element, but we had choir rehearsal and my magic time is “sit down to eat by 6:00.” We made it at 6:05, fortunately. (As an aside – we had sufficient leftovers of the chicken – so I chopped them up, cut up about a cup of the garlic green beans, made a Romaine salad with tomatoes, celery – and tossed it with more of the Mayo Caesar Dressing – that was out dinner the next night.)

The photo at left shows you one little deviation. I have good Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, but I decided to use some Pecorino cheese I bought recently that contains some truffles. You can see some of the truffle stuff (little black specks). Oh does it make this cheese fantastic. It’s called Pecorino al Tartufo. It was sprinkled on top of the salad only – I used good Parmigiano for the dressing.

Once I lightly pounded the chicken breasts, they were placed on a large baking sheet (you need a large one to fit the big Romaine head halves). The panko crumb/cheese mixture was spooned on top and it went into the oven for exactly 10 minutes. The crumb mixture had just started to brown. Meanwhile I had brushed the cut Romaine halves with olive oil. They went on the tray and were baked another 5 minutes. At that point I didn’t think the lettuce had enough color, so I turned the oven on the broil for about 1 minute only (more and the chicken would have turned too firm and the Romaine would have been a black mess). Remove and serve. With the dressing dribbled over the Romaine and some cheese sprinkled on top.

What I liked: the overall taste – but then I love chicken Caesar salad under most circumstances. As long as the dressing is good.

What I didn’t like: not a thing. Delicious.

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You might not think roasted carrots could be in/on a green salad. Let me assure you, you will be delightfully surprised at how flavorful this salad is. Trust me!

A couple of weeks ago my friend Cherrie and I attended a cooking class with Tarla Fallgatter. Actually it was on Valentine’s Day (hence the color-clashing red/pink plates). A few nights later Cherrie made this salad when the 4 of us were visiting our friends Stacey & Russ, who live in San Jose, but I forgot to take a better photo. . .

No matter what – if you like carrots – you’re going to adore this salad. I may make it today, just because looking at that photo sends my salivary glands into overdrive! When Cherrie made it she and I found some of the adorable multi-colored baby carrots at a local market (see photo left). They made a pretty presentation on the plates.

But even if you can’t find the pretty carrots, use regular orange carrots. Buy organic, though, as they have so much more flavor. You’ll want to adjust the roasting time depending on the size of the carrots. They want to be just barely cooked through – not mushy.

The dressing is so perfect for this salad – a honey mustard vinaigrette with pear vinegar. I liked the dressing well enough that I’d make it all by itself. In this salad you dress the carrots with just a bit of the dressing, and dress the salad lightly also. The recipe makes more dressing than you’ll need, which is just fine by me! More for another dinner.

What I liked: the carrots – roasted – are just intensely full of flavor. Worth making for any reason. And I particularly liked the arugula – but you can use mache instead. Whatever is available. And the dressing is particularly good too.

What I didn’t like: nothing at all. Fabulous recipe.

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