Springtime and salads

For me, soup is a daily necessity until the weather turns warm enough to go outside without a jacket. And then salads are my daily fix. Happily, this just happened here and so I've been on a salad rampage for the past week. I've been buying a few heads of bio (organic) lettuce at the market and then washing, spin drying and storing them in the fridge so I can have a fast lunch. But what is a salad without the dressing? Or even the other additions? So here are my favorite dressings- for those of you who don't make your own, try it. Its not difficult, you just need a mortar and pestle or a blender.

First, if you are doing a dressing with garlic, always remember to grind it to a paste with sea salt as it removes the bitterness.

Typical French Vinagrette
a garlic clove, peeled
sea salt
5 tablespoons (or so) good extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons (or less) of good red wine vinegar
1 rounded spoon of Dijon mustard

Grind the garlic and the salt together, add the oil, blend, add the vinegar, blend, add the mustard, blend well. Easy.

Suggestions: substitute various sea salts, try olive oils from different countries, substitute part of the oil with walnut or pumpkin seed oil (that's the family favorite, usually without the mustard), try sherry or rice vinegar or lemon juice, change the mustard (our current favorite is a dijon with Pain d'Epices- spice bread- that my hubby picked up in Dijon) or even eliminate the mustard.

That is also my favorite dressing for spring asparagus or for salad Nicoise.

My favorite Japanese sesame dressing (from Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking)
I ususally make a batch x4 so I can have some on hand for quick lunches...

2 tablespoons of sesame paste (I use tahini)
2 tablespoons freshly roasted and ground white sesame seeds
2 tablespoons of dashi stock
1 tablespoon of rice vinegar
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of caster sugar
salt and chili or sichimi togarashi to taste (optional, I haven't tried it with yet!)

combine all ingredients well.

My other favorite dressing (from one of my all time favorite cookbooks, Moro)
Pomegranate Molasses dressing
1 garlic clove, crushed to a paste with sea salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons of pomegranate molasses
1 tablespoon of water
4 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 teaspoon of caster sugar (optional)
sea salt and fresh ground pepper

mix in the cinnamon and pomegranate molasses to the garlic paste. Add the water and then whisk in the olive oil until it emulsifies.

I love this on fall or winter salads with blue cheese, fresh walnuts and apples or with walnuts and pomegranate seeds. Moro recommends it with fish, quail or braised spinach as well- I just haven't gotten around to trying it!