Simple salad dress

I’m always amazed at how many salad dressing there are in supermarkets, especially when they are mostly all filled with additives and fake flavors. It’s so much healthier to make your own and it only takes about 5 minutes, on average to make. Plus a homemade dressing not only tastes better, but it’s far more healthy for you than what you will find in the grocery isles. I think I’ve purchased salad dressing 4-6 times in my life.  When living in Japan, there was a creamy sesame dressing that I couldn’t figure out how to make, so until I figured out the obscure ingredients, I bought it… later I discovered even that dressing was a breeze to make.

I grew up on homemade dressing. In fact, I was in charge of making it in the summers, in France when staying with my grandparents, at the early age of 6. Usually, it was my grandfather’s job to make the dressing but I didn’t mind making it as I preferred my version, as did my sister and mom. My grandfather’s had a definite pucker effect-he loved vinegar.

We spent every summer with our grandparents in a small village surrounded by farms near Normandy. I was lucky to have been exposed to some of the best ingredients. One very important ingredient to me is the type of mustard I use in my dressing. I don’t like the softer version dijon from the US, I won’t name the brand because I don’t want to offend, it’s a good mustard for some, I just won’t be pulling up to a car, rolling down my window and asking, “Pardon me, do you have any…” Plus, it’s a taste thing. If you’ve had the real stuff, the others don’t compare. I buy Maille mustard but not from their site— you can find it at nicer gourmet supermarkets and definitely on Amazon. First you want to add maybe a count of 1-Mississippi, 2-Mississippi, 3-Mississippi when pouring your red wine vinegar ( or sherry vinegar, balsamic, white wine vinegar-whatever you desire, play around) You need to whisk the vinegar into the mustard. Then slowly add the Olive oil, or use a lesser fragrant oil, like grapeseed oil, a mix is good too. But you can constantly whisk while counting to 8 or 9 Mississippi… and voila, you have an emulsified dressing. Play around…. after you can add chopped herbs, add minced shallots, garlic… You can come up with millions of versions. Whisking works better than shaking in a jar. Whisking the oil slowly creates a creamy dressing or more technically, an emulsification.
Enjoy!
I will put a few exact versions of recipes, for those who are afraid of my childish counting methods