Last weekend I went to a fabulous French restaurant. The ham, spinach, and Gruyere cheese crepe that I had was amazing, but I have to admit that the best thing I ate that night was the dressing on the salad.
They served a wonderful green salad before our meal, and brought out a bottle of their homemade herb vinaigrette dressing. Ever since then I have been thinking about this dressing and how great it was, so last night I decided to try and re-create it. I looked up a few different recipes for herb vinaigrette and tried to combine ingredients from several of them based on what I remember tasting in the restaurant's dressing. After combining light mayonnaise, a little vinegar, olive oil, fresh basil and parsley, some Parmesan cheese, and a little sugar, I had a pretty good replica. But that was just the beginning of what turned out to be one of the best meals I have ever made.
Having successfully re-created the dressing, I then needed something to put it on. I love salads, and wanted to make a salad that blended a lot of flavors, and that would be filling enough to eat on its own for a meal. I started with some mixed greens and baby spinach leaves. For me, the darker the lettuce, the better. Next I chopped up some fresh turkey that I had sliced thick at the local deli. Then I added some grape tomatoes (even smaller than cherry tomatoes), fresh avocado, and fresh mango to add some texture, color, and flavor to the salad. Then I cooked a few strips of bacon and once they cooled, chopped them up and sprinkled them into the salad. Finally I toasted some pine nuts in a little olive oil and added those as a finishing touch before tossing it all in the herb vinaigrette dressing.
I had a few people over, and served the salad with warm bread and butter. It was a hit! Everyone loved the diverse flavors, and of course the dressing. I had so much fun making the dressing and coming up with the right combination of foods for a successful salad, that it made me realize how fun cooking really is, and that I wish I could cook like that for a living. Perhaps I will look into some cooking schools, and culinary schools, and possibly have a new career ahead of me.
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