How’s this for a (not so) little pot o’ sunshine?
Fresh, home made in next to no time, French dressing for salads and…
well, lots of stuff. Like, use it as a glaze for chicken, or (one of my faves) combine it with Kraft Dinner, mayonnaise, and some veggies to make a macaroni salad of a different color, or set aside just a bit from your batch and make your own Special Sauce (think “two all beef patties…” special).
And all’s you need is a blender.
INGREDIENTS
Catalina French Dressing:
•1/4 cup sugar
•1/4 tsp salt
•1/4 tsp paprika
•1/4 tsp celery salt
•1/4 tsp dry mustard
•1/4 tsp Caribbean Calypso Seasoning*
•1/2 sweet onion
•1/3 cup ketchup
•1/2 cup veggie oil
Special Sauce:
•1 cup mayonnaise
•1 tbsp salad vinegar
•1/3 cup sweet pickle relish
•1/3 cup French dressing
•1/4 tsp black pepper
•2 tsp dried onion flakes
*or, add a bit of Cayenne and some fresh lemon, lime, and/or orange zest.
First, make the French dressing by placing the sugar and seasonings in the blender along with the onion. Add the vinegar and ketchup, then cover and blend until the onion is well chopped and the mixture is smooth.
With the blender running, slowly drizzle the oil in through the feed hole, allowing the dressing to absorb the oil and emulsify.
C’est tout! You’ve got yourself a fine batch o’ French dressing, and with a lot less sugar and other stuff you really don’t need in your salad dressing. You can use this right away, but the flavor will improve if you let it rest in the fridge overnight.
Nice, as I noted above, on a salad, pretty decent on chicken, and not too, too shabby in macaroni salad; but let’s take it one more step and use it as the basis for Special Sauce, which, of course, is pretty terrific on burgers, but did you know you can use it on pizza?
Simply stir together the sauce ingredients in a bowl and transfer to a covered jar. Stash in the fridge for a couple of hours to let the flavors blend – and those dried onion bits to rehydrate.
It’s also pretty darned nice on a garden salad – think Russian or Thousand Island dressing here – and, as it turns out, on a modified taco salad, but that’s a post for a different day…
like, Monday, mebbe.