After finding raspberries on sale for .99 yesterday I made a simple and tasty vinaigrette. I roughly chopped a handful of raspberries and paired it with some minced shallot, champagne wine vinegar, some Bono Olive Oil which I've found very good at its $10-11 price point, salt and pepper. It had a nice tartness with a sweet finish from the raspberries coming through. I'll definitely be making it again on a hot summer day, if we ever get one.

Yeah, fruit + shallots + vinegar + olive oil is one of my standards in season, too. Peaches, berries, just about anything works, throw it in the food processor and let 'er rip. I amazed friends last summer by whipping this up with some peaches that were getting mushy, you'd think I'd just improvised a tokamak reactor in their kitchen.

Mike G wrote: you'd think I'd just improvised a tokamak reactor in their kitchen.

We did this one year for the University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt.

New favorite salad dressing I whipped up today:

Mock Kraft French Korean Dressing

Whisk together
4 Tbs Mayo (preferably Kewpie)
4 Tbs Orange Juice
2-3 Tbs Gochujang (Korean pepper paste)
1 tsp dark sesame oil

I've done similar things with miso instead of gochujang, but tonight I wanted spicy. The color comes out almost identical to Kraft French, that creamy orange color. You get spicy, creamy, savory, a nice dressing for bitter/sweet items such as radish, cucumber, lettuce, carrot, bell pepper.

I made mine with the above ingredients on lettuce plus a little baby bok choy, chopped grilled chicken breast and a few Korean steam/fried dumplings. Great meal on a warm night.

Have enjoyed this southern cornbread panzanella with buttermilk herb dressing before and liked it again tonight, with great farmers market tomato:
http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2009/09/ ... ead-salad/

While I prep the main and the cooked sides, my wife does the salad and the dressing. Lately, she has been adding some avocado mashed up and halving the oil and so far, it's been great.

mhill95149 wrote:While I prep the main and the cooked sides, my wife does the salad and the dressing. Lately, she has been adding some avocado mashed up and halving the oil and so far, it's been great.

I love the idea of avocado. Avocodo makes everything better and the vinegar probably keeps it from browning nicely.
I've been on a big miso kick (the problem is that I get in a little trouble for having 3 different kinds of miso in the fridge).

We really like this Bill Kim recipe for grilled chicken incorporating miso. You could probably use gochochang and/or ssamchang instead.

I've also been making a sesame/miso dressing with the following rough proportions:
3 T yellow or white miso
2 T rice vinegar
3 T grapeseed oil
1 T sesame oil
1.5 t sugar
1 T grated ginger
1 clove minced garlic

Then I blend everything up and add water to thin as necessary. Really nice complement to a massaged ribbons of raw kale salad (lots of kale to use from my CSA) or mizuna.
splash of fish sauce

I made this Balsamic Soy dressing the other day, and at first it was too oniony and I could taste the soy very strongly but now that it's been sitting in the fridge, it's really good. I made a 1/4 recipe, and did it in an old mustard jar (using the mustard in the bottom) - just shook it up really well after it was all in there!

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011 ... ecipe.html

Been thinking a lot about this lately because during the current crisis, I seem to have a consistently good line on greens and am looking to mix it up as much as possible to avoid getting into a salad rut. I'll throw just about anything I have on-hand into a dressing but know I must be missing some obvious options.

The Headliners (aka essentials)
Oils
Vinegars/Acidic Citrus Juices
Buttermilk
Tahini

The Rhyhym Section: (aka emulsifiers)
Mustard
Egg Yolk
Avocado

The Soloists: (aka featured ingredients)
Anchovy
Garlic
Ginger
Fruit/Zests
Fresh Herbs
Sugars/Honey/Sweeteners

What else?

=R=

miso / doenjang

Bleu, and other sharp, cheeses.

ronnie_suburban wrote:I'll throw just about anything I have on-hand into a dressing but know I must be missing some obvious options.

=R=

Regulars for me
Prepared or fresh-grated horseradish and/or wasabi
Tomato paste (in a squeeze tube)
Some dried herbs are still worth using: thyme, oregano, basil
Sour cream
Mayo

Guest Stars
Bacon fat or shmaltz
Minced fresh chile
Worcestershire sauce
Soy Sauce
Fish Sauce
End of a jar of jam

Both tomato paste and horseradish appear in a wonderful zippy dressing that resembles a much-better Kraft Catalina French out of the Gourmet mammoth tome.
Sour cream + mayo in equal amounts make for perfect creamy dressings (usually a little more acid to thin them out)

On the fish sauce front, the basic Thai salad dressing has no oil (but is often served with rich meats), just fish sauce, citrus or vinegar, chiles, and herbs, plus usually sugar, usually alliums (the one I made last night out of Shesimmers' grilling book had neither but it had orange juice to sweeten).

A Senegalese salad dressing:

2 cups loose packed parsley (I used parsley stems)
4 scallions
1 habanero (seeded) - I skipped
2 medium garlic cloves
1 tsp lime zest
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup toasted peanut oil (I just vegetable oil)

I put everything in a quart take-out container, then used a stick blender to puree it.

This went over a salad of mango, avocado and tomatoes.

This was adapted from Milk Street.

Based on this thread I made miso dressing for the first time, and it was soooo good! We had already recently been enlightened that we don't use miso often enough, but hadn't thought of this application