Archive for December 29th, 2011

The Apostles of America's Test Kitchen

Once you try this vinaigrette recipe you may never spend another dollar on supermarket salad dressings. This is another recipe from America’s Test Kitchen, whose endless testing of seemingly infinite variations of recipes will usually produce a complete gem – this one is no different. The real beauty of this recipe is that the basic structure allows you to vary the outcome to make a wide variety of vinaigrettes to compliment any number of other flavors in the meal you are serving. Because you people are so special to me, I’m going to share the master recipe and the three suggested variations from ATK.

• ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons red or white wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons minced shallot or red onion
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (optional, but not really)
• 1.5 teaspoons minced fresh tarragon, dill, basil, or oregano, or ½ teaspoon dried
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
  

  The Word according to Jesus... I mean Christopher Kimball

Shake all of the ingredients together in a jar with a tight fitting lid. This will last up to one week in the fridge, but bring it back to room temp before you re-mix it. Now, the recipe says you can substitute dried herbs, and to be fair I have never tried this, but I don’t think it would be nearly as good without the fresh herbs.  Substitute at your own peril.

The last time I made this was on Christmas day when I had the pleasure of cooking for my brother Allen, his wonderful wife Heather, my mother, my aunt Pat and our family friend Annette. I went with white wine vinegar, 2 teaspoons of fresh tarragon, and 2 cloves of garlic and it was fantastic. Don’t shy away from the Dijon mustard either. I don’t like it on almost anything, but I love it in vinaigrettes. There is always a bottle of it in my fridge, and it never gets used unless I’m making one of these recipes. Now the 3 variations:

Balsamic Vinaigrette

Subsitute balsamic vinegar for the wine vinegar, and use oregano as the herb of choice. Reduce the amount of garlic to 1/2 clove. Note: Because of my respect for the testing methods of ATK’s recipes, I included that bit about the garlic. Obviously, I disregard all steps which require actually reducing the amount of garlic.

Raspberry Vinaigrette

Substitute raspberry vinegar for the wine vinegar. Increase the amount of minced shallots to 1 tablespoon and the fresh tarragon to 2 teaspoons. Omit the Mustard.

Honey-Dijon Vinaigrette

Substitute vegetable oil for the extra virgin olive oil and cider vinegar for the wine vinegar. Increase the mustard to two tablspoons. Omit the shallot and herbs, add 2 tablespoons honey and one tablespoon poppy seeds.