See Part 1 of my Salades Composées two-part series here.
Salad dressings
The soy and ginger dressing (from my Smoked Salmon Salad recipe) goes well with other fish, too, such as salmon, tuna and prawns and with pan-fried duck breasts.
Basic vinaigrette
The common mistake with vinaigrette (apart from using poor quality oil and vinegar) is to use far too much vinegar and then to add sugar. Please don’t. If you want a sweeter, sharper result, try the honey version below. If you want to include garlic, rub a cut clove all round the inside of your salad bowl. The quantities here will do several salads, but you can keep leftovers in a closed jar in the fridge for a week or you can simply reduce the proportions.
½ tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp best red wine vinegar
8-10 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
½-1 tsp sea salt
Generous grinding of black pepper
Either shake all the ingredients together in a jar or whisk them together in the order given.
Walnut oil vinaigrette
Use the same proportions as above, but exchange 2-3 tbsp of the olive oil for walnut oil.
Honey vinaigrette
This is an intensely flavoured sweet, sharp vinaigrette – good with savoury flavours such as chicken livers and bacon, with blander things such as potatoes and avocados, and with nuts.
2 tbsp white wine, cider, honey or raspberry vinegar
2 tbsp mild, but good quality honey
8 tbsp olive oil
Sea salt and black pepper
Dissolve the honey in the vinegar, then whisk in the oil and seasoning.