17 October, 2015
Vinaigrette
This post is with dedication to Kasia, who asked for it after my recent posts of avocado with vinaigrette and pear with Parma ham. The thing is I don’t really have a fixed recipe for vinaigrette. I know there is lots (and below one more based on the average of what we use), but depending on how strong the vinegar and mustard are and on the taste of the olive oil – the proportions may change, so be ready to adjust the recipe as you go.
Making the vinaigrette is simple, all you have to do is to mix the ingredients. Apparently salt dissolves in vinegar and mustard and will not dissolve well if you already added olive oil. So if you don’t forget, start with vinegar, mustard and salt. If you do forget, then it’s really not going to make so much difference.
You can mix it in a bowl, with a fork or a spoon or in a glass jar, it doesn’t really make much difference. I use plastic sauce bottle, although I heard that it’s better to use glass containers as the oil has similar molecule structure to plastic and it may prevent the vinegrette from having it’s full taste. Whatever, just use whatever you have handy. I think the most important is to use good quality olive oil, vinegar and mustard.
Ingredients
- 2 tbs balsamic vinegar (or red wine vinegar)
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp salt
- pinch of pepper
- 6 tbs olive oil
Instructions
- Mix vinegar, mustard and salt until salt dissolves.
- Add pepper and olive oil and mix again.
- Try the sauce and add more of any of the ingredients above to taste.
If you are using red wine vinegar you may want to use a little less than the recipe below, depending on how strong it is.
There’s a few special types of vinaigrette that I like:
- vinaigrette with tomato flavored vinegar (replace balsamic vinegar in the standard recipe with tomato flavored vinegar)
- garlic vinaigrette (add a small, pressed garlic clove to the standard recipe), works best with plain lettuce
- spicy vinaigrette (add 1/4 teaspoon of pure of chili peppers, or more if you like, but careful!), that works really well with salads that have fruit (for example salad with figs and goat cheese)
- creamy vinaigrette (add 1 tbs of mayonnaise), works good with arugula, especially if it’s spicy