Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Shallot Salad Dressing

I was asked for a salad dressing my father use to make.
I know he did one in the wooden bowl that I think must have been your classic Cesar Salad dressing; rub the bowl with garlic, add all ingredients in the bowl and then throw in the mixed greens and toss.

 I found  this recipe several years ago and it reminds me of one he use to make.
I know his used fresh shallots because I remember well his search for fresh Shallots.
All you could find back then were some frozen ones. He used them, but grumbled knowing there was something better out there somewhere.
I can't help but think of him anytime I buy the fresh ones.

My father loved good food and would have relished and found humor in the slow food movement, as I do.
He thought and talked about food as far back as I can remember. He loved whole wheat, stout breads, that he would call peasant breads. He called wonder bread, “library paste” and wanted nothing to do with it.
He was fond of good cheese, a good cut of meat, a meal well prepared and loved to cook when he had time.

Some of my favorite memories are eating his Chili with a grapefruit, orange and onion green salad on the side.The hot spicy of the chili set off by the citrus was so good. (My sister Leslie just posted our father's chili go read about it and put in on your list to make) Mark and I shared this meal with my parents every Sunday while I was expecting my first child.
A lazy Sunday evening, Chili, the parents and good conversation.

When we traveled as a family he looked for good Mom and Pop diners and once told me to judge a place by the cars in the parking lot.
He said if there is a Cadillac next to a pick up truck you can bet the food is good.

Now back to the salad dressing:
Using your favorite small pottery bowl mix the following:

1 TBS. Minced shallots
½ tsp paprika
½ tsp. powdered mustard
¼ dries basil
¼ tsp. oregano
½ tsp salt
pepper to taste
1/3 cup Olive oil
3 TBS. vinegar
Place all but the vinegar in a bowl.
Stir well and let sit for about 1 hour.
Stir in vinegar.
You can play with this depending on the herbs you like.
Tarragon instead of basil and oregano…
Add garlic if you like….  or you could use this to dip some of that good bread in.

10 comments:

Linda Starr said...

I love shallots, this sounds delicious.

Tracey Broome said...

Now that's a newspaper man if ever there was one. Gerry was describing the newsrooms of the past to Wesley and he described your dads look in this photo exactly. My friend Barbara made lunch for me last week and we had cilantro dressing from Trader Joes. If you get to a TJs sometime pick up a bottle, soooo good, I could drink it!

Lori Buff said...

This sounds delicious and your father sounds like a wise man.

Claudia from Idiot's Kitchen said...

Your dad sounds wonderful and very much like mine who makes several varieties of his own salad dressing. I especially like that your recipe requires use of one's favorite pottery bowl!

cookingwithgas said...

This is what i grew up with - the press room was very different back then.
All recipes should start with a nice pottery bowl.

Gail said...

oh, that sounds so good! I always have shallots in my vegetable basket. Love them and use them a lot.

powen liu 劉博文 said...

food....thank you for sharing this. I am going to try it this Saturday.

Trish said...

Thanks Meredith! I am going to try the recipe..sounds great!.. Ahh, Dad's. :)
T.

Shortstuff said...

Nice picture of dad and I think that's "Byline" our first dog which I was really too young to remember well. He did make a tasty dressing as I recall. Dad...not Byline!

cookingwithgas said...

Yep, that is byline. You and I don't have a lot of memories of him.