Warm summer night salad bowl

Recipes: Chef's salad, Thousand island dressing, Vinaigrette

May. That time of year when one day it's summer and the next day it's not. When it's summer and hot, the last thing you want to do is heat up the stove and work hard over dinner. That's when it's time to go for the salad bowl - crisp lettuces, a little protein, some veggies, maybe a few crumbles of cheese. And, definitely, home made dressing. If you haven't tried making your own salad dressings, you're in for a big treat! I promise, you'll never go back to supermarket dressings again.

Salad Dressings 101: Thousand Island

This is my BF's favorite dressing. He's been known to order Caesar Salad with Thousand Island on the side. Serious. The bad thing is, even the best supermarket Thousand Island tastes like chemicals, because that's the only way it doesn't spoil on the shelf. The good thing is, it's easy to make at home, so why wouldn't you? I make just enough for two with a big dinner salad. If there's any left over we have it for lunch the next day. Thousand Island lasts in the fridge no more than three days, so don't make a double batch unless you're feeding a crowd.

In case you're curious, Thousand Island dressing was named for the thousand islands in the St. Lawrence River between Canada and the northern border of the U.S. Legend has it that it was invented in that region and popularized at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. It was wildly popular by the 1950s.

• 1/4 cup chopped sweet pickles. Bread and butter pickles work well for this (Trader Joe's, most supermarkets) or regular sweet pickles or gherkins. Don't use sweet pickle relish, which will give the dressing a bad taste.
• 2 chopped green olives with pimientos, or 6 chopped pickled jalapeno slices (the favorite at our house)
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/2 tablespoon chili powder (generic, or I use New Mexico Red Chili powder)
• 1 clove garlic, chopped fine
• 1 teaspoon water
• Juice of half a fresh lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Mix all together in a bowl. Cover with cling film and refrigerate while you are making your salad. If you can let the flavors meld for an hour, that's great. If not, it'll still be fabulous.

Thousand Island dressing is also wonderful on burgers, or in Reuben sandwiches. Yum!

Salad Dressings 102: Vinaigrette

This is my favorite, and there are at least a million ways to make it. Unlike Thousand Island and other mayonnaise-based dressings, vinaigrette lasts a week or more in the refrigerator. I make a little jar of it and keep it on hand. When I want to use it, I take it out of the fridge so it can come to room temperature, then I shake it up good. Never can tell when you might want an avocado or some raw cauliflower with a drizzle of vinaigrette!

• In a small jar with a cover, add 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder, 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, 1/2 teaspoon herbes d'Provence (or other dried herb you like), 1 tablespoon unflavored rice vinegar, and one tablespoon fresh lemon juice. Put the cover on, and shake well.
• Add 5 tablespoons good extra virgin olive oil. Put the cover back on and shake well again. Keep in refrigerator and bring to room temperature before shaking and using.

Use vinaigrette sparingly on your salad, and toss well to distribute it.

There are other good salad dressings you can make at home. One of them is Blue Cheese Dressing, which we've already covered in this post. Blue Cheese dressing is another one where the supermarket version falls far short of home made. If you've tried the supermarket dressing and didn't like it, try the home made. You might find true love.

Chef's Salad

Chef's Salad is a name for a salad that has in it whatever the Chef wants to put in it. That's you!! There are a few traditional items that you'll get if you order a chef salad in a restaurant, but you don't even have to pay attention to those if you don't want to.

Just for the record, the traditional items are:

• Lettuce, often iceberg or chopped romaine
• Julienned ham and/or turkey
• Some kind of cheese, usually cut in sticks
• Bell pepper strips
• Avocado chunks
• Tomato wedges (in or out of season, argh!)
• Hard-boiled eggs, cut in wedges

Here's the Chef's Salad I served the other night with my home made Thousand Island dressing. In this case, I made individual salads rather than one big one, just because. In our salads we had:

• Chopped romaine lettuce
• Sliced green onions
• Crumbles of Maytag blue cheese
• Roasted red bell pepper our neighbor made and shared
• Raw cauliflower from our garden
• Marinated and pan-grilled chicken breast (marinated in olive oil and lemon juice for 30 minutes, salted and peppered, pan-grilled for 5 minutes each side over med-high heat, let sit for 10 minutes to finish, and sliced thin)

You see, you can vary your Chef's Salad any way you, the Chef, desire. Buon appetito, and stay cool!