Recipe: Vinaigrette Dressing (Delia Smith)

Vinaigrette refers to a mixture of oils, vinegar and sometimes flavoured with herbs and spices and is most commonly used as a salad dressing. It is also known as "French dressing". According to Delia, when it comes to dressing a salad properly, we can learn from the French, in her words "they dress their salads with a lot of care". Delia suggests using either wine vinegar, cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar and never malt vinegar as it is way too strong.  I usually go for wine or balsamic vinegar.

My favorite mix is a ratio of 2:1 extra virgin olive oil to balsamic vinegar and some finely chopped shallots and seasoned with salt, pepper and a little soft brown sugar. Delia's vinaigrette dressing consists of English rock salt, garlic, mustard powder, wine or balsamic vinegar, black pepper and olive oil. The ratio of vinegar to olive oil is 1:6. Personally, I feel 6 tablespoons olive oil to 1 tablespoon balsamic is not really balanced, even this time I have reduced it to 4 tablespoons and found it too oily. In future I will further reduce it to 3 tablespoons. And I do like my salad dressing to be on the tart side. The addition of mustard powder is as an emulsifier to stabilise the mixture, and also to flavour the vinaigrette.

Other variations of this vinaigrette dressing includes herbs (add freshly chopped chives, tarragon, parsley, basil, chervil, mint, oregano or thyme) and lemon (use lemon juice instead of vinegar for a more tart dressing).

This vinaigrette dressing was used in this brown rice salad recipe (click for recipe).


Vinaigrette dressing
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
1 tsp coarse sea salt
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 rounded teaspoon mustard powder
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Freshly milled black pepper


1. Begin by placing the salt in the mortar and crush it to a powder, then add the garlic and, pound together until you get a smooth paste.

2. Next add the mustard powder, balsamic vinegar and some pepper, and mix thoroughly until the salt dissolves.

3. Finally, add the olive oil, and whisk vigorously until blended. Whisk again before dressing the salad.

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