Basic Salad Dressing

Basic Salad Dressing in a Cassis bottle.  Photo by Rob Robitaille

One item that is alway, and I mean always, in my fridge is a bottle of basic salad dressing.  My mom calls it Rob's House Dressing, which is nice, but I think it would come off as pretentious if I would start calling it that.  I'm flattered that she does, though.  In case you are wondering why it is in the Cassis bottle, it's because it has a really cool pour spout with a pop-off cap which works like a shaker so it is harder to over-dress your salad.  Although not nearly as colorful as the family tree of French sauces, this does have an interesting one of its own.  This is the building block of just about every other salad dressing I make outside of something like a buttermilk ranch or thousand island.  It is very nice by itself for use on delicately flavored greens, but nearly anything can be added to make something completely different.  Add some Italian herbs and you have a light Italian dressing. Add the same herbs and some mayo, and you have a creamy Italian dressing.  Add a bit more mayo and some grated Parmesan and you have an excellent wing sauce.  Like with most things, you are only limited by your imagination.

Basic Salad Dressing

• 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp salt
• black pepper to taste
• 3/4 cup canola oil

Add all the ingredients except oil in a suitably sized bottle or jar and let stand on the counter for at least an hour shaking occasionally to mix.  Add the oil and refrigerate until needed.  Shake vigorously before using.

Italian Dressing Seasoning

• 1/4 cup garlic powder
• 1/4 cup onion powder 
• 2 tbsp dried basil
• 2 tbsp dried marjoram
• 2 tbsp ground fennel seed
• 1/4 cup dried oregano
• 2 tbsp crushed red pepper
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup kosher salt
• 1 tbsp black pepper

Mix together and store in an air tight container.  Makes about 2 cups.  Combine to your taste with the basic salad dressing to make a light Italian dressing.

Tortillas...Another Secret Weapon of the Kitchen

Cheese Pizza.  Photo by Rob Robitaille

I think I must have taken a cue from Jacques Pepin for his enthusiastic embrace of the tortilla.  He points out that it is a ready to use crust for deserts and other things.  I can think of no better use (well, other than its normal use in Mexican cuisine) than for mini pizzas.  Whenever I am short on time, or just want something quick and easy for lunch or dinner, I make pizza.  As long as you don't pile it a mile high with toppings, these tortilla crust pizzas can be baked in 5-8 minutes.  I make these for lunch with plenty of time to spare during my lunch hour.

Sad story tangent.  I was taking out my cooling rack from my cupboard that has the dividers that you can store cookie sheets, cutting  boards, etc. and it hooked my favorite pizza stone that we got for a wedding present over 20 years ago.  It rolled out and as I tried to save it with my foot, which was my only free appendage at the time, it tipped and cracked in half.  Dammit!  I'm going somewhere with this, so bear with me.  So I started researching pizza stones.  Turns out the brand I had, which was perfectly smooth, is now rough and not near the quality it was.  In fact, it is a lot harder to find a really nice smooth stone.  Mario Batali makes a nice pizza stone, but there is no way I will spend $89 on one.  Then it hit me that I have a 10.5" lodge cast iron griddle pan.  Perfect.

So the way this works is that I put the griddle pan in the oven and turn it to 425 F.  While it is heating up, I mix a can of tomato past with some Italian herbs, and spread it on a tortilla.  Then I add my toppings, usually some kind of meat and Parmesan.  By that time the oven beeps at which time I wait another five minutes so that the pan can catch up in temperature.  Then, I slide the pizza onto the pan and set my timer for 5 minutes.  After 5 minutes I start to check on it until the cheese is golden and bubbly.  Then I remove it to a cooling rack and wait another 5 minutes until it is cool enough to not cause 3rd degree burns in my mouth.  During that time I rinse the griddle under hot water with a stiff brush (never use soap on a cast iron pan unless you plan to re-season it!).  Now it is time to enjoy a crispy flavorful pizza and it only took about 20 minutes from start to finish.

What makes this really fun is that you can buy any size tortilla for this and you can make several different styles of pizza for any one meal.  If you prefer a pizza with more toppings, go for it.  It will just take a bit longer to cook, but I prefer mine thin and crispy.  Next time you don't know what to cook for dinner or lunch, give this a try.  Chances are you will probably have all the ingredients on hand.  And to finish my sad story, I don't think I will bother replacing my pizza stone since the griddle pan works even better (and is harder to break).  If I decide I need some thing larger, Lodge makes a 14" baking pan with handles that would make a fantastic pizza pan.  See, things always seem to find a way of working out.

Tempura

Shrimp and green bean tempura with spicy mayo.  Photo by Rob Robitaille

What can you say about tempura, other than it's fantastic.  If you are not familiar with tempura, a Japanese specialty, it is basically deep fried food, but with a twist.  The batter is very light, crisp, and doesn't overpower the food like traditional deep frying tends to do.  I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with typical deep fried food, quite the contrary, I love it.  But tempura is like the refined cousin.  Tempura batter is fairly thin, so by its very nature does not coat the food too much.  There are tons of variations on the normal tempura batter.  Some have egg, some have rice flour, some use water, some use seltzer water, and on and on.  I think the spirit of tempura is there as long as the batter is thin and relatively simple.  I have seen just about anything served in the style of tempura, perhaps even more than you see in typical deep frying.  Green beans and shrimp are among my favorites, but cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, asparagus, zucchini, onions, basically anything as long as it is not too moist and can be properly cooked in only a few minutes.  I have done pickles, and they were wonderful, but not particularly crispy due to their natural sogginess.

As with many cuisines, especially eastern cuisine, there are a lot of rules.  And while I am a stickler for technique in some cases, I don't like to get too bogged down in them so it makes you not want to attempt them.  If you are familiar with batter deep frying, then you probably know most of the rules:

• Let your food dry a bit before adding to the batter.
• Don't crowd your deep fryer.  Things tend to stick together in a huge clump, but more importantly, it lowers the temperature of the oil, which just makes for soggy, oily food.
• Resist the urge to mess with your food once in the deep fryer. 
• Drain well.  A wire cooking rack on a baking sheet works well for this.
• Cook at around 350 degrees F.

Now, there are a couple additional rules for the batter itself:

• Mix the ingredients until they are just combined.
• Use very cold liquid.

Now, for the confusion.  Some say mix the batter right before you use it, and some say to refrigerate it for 30 minutes prior to use.  This may have some merit based on what kind of liquid (flat or carbonated), but I have not spent any time testing this.  I will just tell you what I did, and as you can see, it was very light and crisp, and it was delicious.  Not to mention easy.

All-Purpose Tempura

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup corn starch
• 1 cup lager (I use Grain Belt Premium)
• 1 lb extra large shrimp (26/30)
• 1 lb green beans
• Oil for deep frying (I use canola)
• A deep fryer or heavy pot

Lightly mix the flour, corn starch, and beer in a bowl.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes.  In the mean time, heat your oil to 350 degrees F.   Peel the shrimp and blot dry with paper towels.  Feel free to place the each shrimp on a short bamboo skewer lengthwise.  This will keep the shrimp straight.  If you don't care about such things, as I obviously didn't in the picture above, skip that step.  Place on a couple layers of paper towel and let dry until ready to use.  Trim and wash the beans and dry just like you did for the shrimp.  When 30 minutes have past, you are ready to go.  Working in small batches, place 1/4 of the beans in the batter, then place them, one at a time, into the oil.  Fry for about 2 minutes, just until the batter becomes golden brown. Gently remove to a wire rack placed over a baking sheet.  Place in a warm oven.  Repeat until the beans are done.

Next, repeat the process for the shrimp.  They will only take a couple minutes as well.  Remove the skewers prior to serving.  Enjoy with your favorite tempura sauce or a spicy mayo like I did.