Pardon Me!! I'm Dressing!

I remember an old joke that goes:

Question: What did the Mayonnaise when the refrigerator was opened?

Answer: PAH-Leeeze. Close the door. I'm dressing!!!

It took me the longest time to understand that joke because I always considered mayonnaise to be, well, mayonnaise. As far as I was concerned, salad dressing always started with vinegar and oil.

On a trip to New York City, I stopped in a restaurant and ordered an Arugula salad. Arugula is a peppery kind of green unlike the less flavorful Iceberg or Romaine lettuces that many of us often think of when making a salad. When the salad arrived, it looked so great I had to snap a photo.

My New York inspiration

It tasted even better than it looked, and that is saying something.

The dressing, unlike anything I had eaten before was lemony with a trace of garlic and mustard. I knew at that moment that I had to replicate it and make it my "house dressing".

My mother-in-law came for a lunch visit one day and I served her my version of the Arugula salad.

Mary Otey Rogers

She proclaimed it the best salad dressing she ever had. And who am I to argue?

I don't know about the rest of you readers, but for me, when I get a compliment from an in-law, no matter how big or small, I chalk that up as a win. To get a FOOD compliment from someone who grew up in the same house as Frances "Rangie" Otey, the grand dame of great food, is a major victory. If course I said merely said, "Thanks" and then proceeded to try to permanently burn the moment in my memory forever.

To be honest, this dressing is so easy, you really don't need a recipe, you just need to know the ingredients and modify as you go. But, just to be fair, I am going to start you off with some measurements for the ingredients.

John's Lemon and Olive Oil House Dressing

(I just made up that name as I typed it, but I think it works)

Ingredients:

Finely grate and reserve 1 teaspoon of lemon zest before juicing.

1/2 cup of fresh Lemon Juice. It normally takes two or more Lemons to yield 1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice. Do not use Lemon juice that comes in a bottle if you can avoid it. The bottle is really impossible to get any zest from anyway.

1 Cup of Extra Version Olive Oil

(The Lemon Juice to Oil ratio is One to Two. This means you add in twice as much Oil as the amount of Lemon Juice)

1 teaspoon of finely minced garlic (Or try using a shallot for a milder flavor)

1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt

1/4 Freshly ground black pepper (freshly ground is more fragrant and flavorful than pre-ground pepper)

1 teaspoon of Dijon Mustard

1/4 cup of finely grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Pour into a container, seal tightly and refrigerate for few hours before serving to allow the flavors to marry.

While in the refrigerator, the salad dressing will thicken and separate. Before assembling your salad, remove the dressing from the refrigerator and allow the dressing to come to room temperature. Whisk the dressing together before using.

Find a bowl for your salad and place a small amount of dressing, (two or three tablespoons at the most) in the bottom. A little dressing goes a long way. Never top dress a salad or you will use too much. Next fill the bowl with your greens. With your clean hands, gently toss the greens to coat them with the dressing.

This dressing is perfect with Arugula or Endive, but I prefer Arugula. When I make a salad, I start off with freshly washed greens. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, the greens are already triple washed. It says so right on the box, but I still rinse them again anyway to revive them from their slumber. My wonderful mother-in-law, impressed by my salad dressing, gave us a salad spinner to make washing the greens easier. Both she and the salad spinner are tops in my book.

I like to add in diced Granny Smith Apples to the salad for the tangy sweetness they add. I sometimes also add in walnuts or pecans for crunch. If I have goat cheese, I will crumble some of that in it. Saying that I crumble the goat cheese might be a stretch. It is after all goat cheese so it won't really crumble as much as come off in small globs. If I have any left over meat, or macaroni pasta, I might throw that in.

Really you can consider the Arugula and dressing as a jumping off platform and then customize it from there. I love beets, Jim hates them. If I am making this salad for myself, I will throw those in. They look great and are tasty.

Time to gather

With summer quickly approaching, the salad days are here. Give this dressing a try. But for goodness sake, once you put it in the refrigerator, please close the door.

It is after all, dressing.