tarragon vinegar – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

2-12: Tips About Salad Dressing

Jamie Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters March 25, 2020April 17, 2020appetizers, apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, black pepper, blender, blue cheese, canola oil, crème fraîche, Dijon mustard, dressing, dried herbs, dried spices, dry mustard, emulsion, food processor, French, fruit salad, garlic, grape juice, healthy, herbs and spices, honey, how-to, lemon juice, lime juice, mayonnaise, olive oil, orange juice, pasta salad, potato salad, Ranch, red raspberry vinegar, red wine vinegar, restaurant-style, salads, salt, sour cream, spice blends, sunflower oil, sweet mustard, tarragon vinegar, Thousand Island, untested, vegetable juice, vegetable oil, vinaigrette, vinegar, white wine vinegar, yellow mustard, yogurt

Since there’s about to be quite a few salad recipes coming up, I thought I’d put 2-12: Tips About Salad Dressing out there as well. I tried to think of more salad dressing variations than what they list here, but honestly? Most “traditional” salad dressings do fall into one of the three categories they establish: vinaigrette, cream/mayo-based, and low-calorie. Go ahead–can you think of one that doesn’t?

PS: I spy that sneaky tarragon vinegar in their picture below. If you want to learn to make your own, check out 19-7: Fresh and Dried Herbs.

At the restaurant I worked at a few years ago, we made our own dressings from scratch. And by “we”, I mean “me”–I made all the dressings for the whole restaurant every week and kept everything stocked up, since it was my station (garde manger, or pantry chef) that made the salads. We made a blue cheese, ranch, Caesar, creamy balsamic vinaigrette, and another lighter, more traditional vinaigrette.

One of the first times I made the blue cheese dressing (which required a giant immersion blender and a 22-quart Cambro–it’s kind of like mixing concrete in a bucket), a customer liked it so much they asked to buy some to take home. I guess that makes me qualified to write about salad dressings now.

Hey–I have to find something to do while we’re all staying at home for a while. And so do you (probably), so why not read this?

19-7: Fresh and Dried Herbs

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School April 22, 2018October 18, 2020apple cider vinegar, bay leaves, bouquet garni, celery, cheesecloth, chervil, chives, cloves, cooking school, dried herbs, fines herbes, French, garlic, healthy, herb salt, herb-roasted, herbes de Provence, herbs and spices, Italian parsley, Italian seasoning, lavender, lemons, limoncello, liqueur, nutmeg, orange peel, parsley, rosemary, sage, salads, smoked ham, spice blends, steeped, tarragon, tarragon vinegar, thyme, untested, vinegar, white wine vinegar

19-7: Fresh and Dried Herbs has been a recipe-in-the-making for a few months. I mention frequently that I often write these entries months after I complete the actual recipe, but this one actually took me that long TO complete.

Usually, these Cooking School cards don’t have too much in the way of actual recipes–often times it’s more like the card above, more recommendation than actual recipe. I’m not going to restate what they’ve written here–it’s all good advice. Jump behind the cut for some herb blend recipes as well as a DIY vinegar challenge and BONUS limoncello recipe.

6-35: Chicken Diable

Jamie Martin Group 06: Poultry & Game, Section 2: Main Courses March 5, 2016June 18, 2020black pepper, boiled, boneless, bread crumbs, breasts, broiled, butter, cayenne pepper, cheese, chicken, chicken bouillon, coated, cornstarch, crispy, Dijon mustard, dinner, dredged, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, French, grated, lunch, melted, olive oil, panko, Parmesan, parsley, salt, shallots, sifted, simmered, slurry, tarragon, tarragon vinegar, tenderized, untested, vinegar, white pepper, white wine

Here’s a pretty basic “chicken with sauce” type recipe that can be fancy or not-so-fancy. “Chicken Diable” or “Chicken a la Diable”, as evidenced by the name, is essentially “the Devil’s chicken”, evoking images of spices and fire. 🌶 🔥 As Serious Eats notes in their version of the dish, the French have a very different idea of spiciness than some other cultures.

Everyone’s got their version of this dish–here’s Bon Appetit’s, and Google turns up many more results. Whether it’s actually spicy is up to you–if you actually like things spicy, prepare to have to add some heat to this one.

2-36: California Egg Salad

Jamie Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters January 27, 2016March 14, 2020bacon, black olives, black pepper, boiled, California, crème fraîche, Dijon mustard, easy, egg salad, eggs, green olives, green onions, hard-boiled, inexpensive, lettuce, lunch, mayonnaise, pan-fried, red wine vinegar, salt, sour cream, Tabasco sauce, tarragon vinegar, tomatoes, turkey, untested, vegetarian

I’m not quite sure what makes 2-36: California Egg Salad “Californian”. I think in the 1980s if you served something on lettuce leaves instead of on bread and used light mayonnaise instead of regular, it was now “healthy” and therefore “Californian“. 🌴☀️🏄🏻‍♀️

I like how their idea of “livening up” egg salad is adding Tabasco and mustard. Really living on the edge there, Simply Delicious.

Side note: The bottle in the back of the shot looks the tarragon vinegar they have you make in 19-7: Fresh and Dried Herbs.

2-34: Avocado-Parmesan Salad

Jamie Martin Group 02: Salads, Section 1: Appetizers & Starters April 17, 2014March 14, 2020appetizers, avocados, black pepper, blender, cheese, chopped, cucumbers, Dijon mustard, dinner, dressing, dry mustard, easy, egg-free, fairly inexpensive, Glendale apt, gluten-free, grated, iceberg lettuce, leeks, lemon juice, lemons, lettuce, lunch, olive oil, parsley, peeled, Prosciutto, salads, salt, sliced, tarragon, tarragon vinegar, untested, vegetarian, vinegar

We start our journey in Book 1, Group 1: Appetizers & Starters with 2-34: Avocado-Parmesan Salad. Got that? It’s further broken down into subgroups, depending on different classifications. I see now where I get my classification aptitude.

We start here due to yesterday’s CSA box delivery brimming with already-ripe avocados (a rarity). As avocados are a fickle beast, it was imperative to consume them in the near future.