Norma's Salad Dressing

A plate of fresh crayfish, a loaf of good bread, a light salad and delicious dressing. What better meal will you find anywhere? It's certainly Kim's favourite meal and all he wanted for his 40th birthday was to sit down to a feed of crayfish and a beer. We were living in Mackay at the time and our very good friends in Western Australia, who also happened to be crayfisherpeople, organised a special delivery. Frozen and boxed with dry ice, the crayfish survived the flight from Perth to Mackay really well and were still frozen on arrival. 

I can still see him sitting at the kitchen table with crayfish, bread and butter and a beer. Bliss!

I'm not sure how many Christmas's we spent in WA, but quite a few. Kim's mother, sister, best/oldest friend and extend family live in WA. His brother moved to Qld and Kim followed soon after. 

Christmas is peak crayfish season and as we had friends fishing, and so did Norma (Kim's mother) we always manage to have a feed or three of crayfish when there.

Norma is a fantastic cook and is probably my greatest source of inspiration in my food journey. One recipe of hers that stands out above all is her French dressing. She was taught this and many more by her french brother-in-law who I think taught her a lot about cooking too. Australia in those days (Norma is 94) was very much a meat and 3 veg type cuisine, and that was often salt meat as there wasn't too much refrigeration.

A crayfish lunch usually started off with Kim at the kitchen sink cleaning the crays; me making a salad and Norma making the dressing. This was a process I watched many times but never really recorded, which I'm really regretting now. On a recent visit, she actually showed me the recipe but it doesn't represent how she made it. 

I think I've successfully recreated the recipe as I remember it. The picture below is my recent attempt to serve with prawns and fresh sourdough bread. I made this one in a mortar and pestle and I think it worked really well. The photos that accompany the recipe where taken a little while ago and I used a knife and board as I really wanted to do it as Norma used to do it. You can use just about any vinegar, but a white wine vinegar is probably best. I used my apple scrap vinegar and frozen lime juice the other day. I also used half home made and half dijon mustard, so please feel free to try with what you have on hand. In the photos further below it looks like I used red wine vinegar, so really anything works. The main thing is that it's a thick almost mayonaisey type dressing.

Normas Salad Dressing

Ingredients:

4 Large cloves garlic

Pinch of salt

4 teaspoons french (dijon, seedy, homemade) mustard

2/3 cup good olive oil

1/3 cup vinegar (white wine, apple cider, apple scrap, kombucha, jun)

1-2 teaspoons lemon or lime juice (taste as you go)

Method:

Crush the garlic with the salt - either by hand using the blade of a knife or a mortar and pestle

Scrape this into a jar. I'm sure Norma used to add a little oil before adding the mustard, just a teaspoon full. Then add the mustard and mix really well, so that it is kind of creamy.

Add the oil, a teaspoon full at a time, mixing continuously. Remember that you're emulsifying it.

Then mix the vinegar and finally the lemon/lime juice. 

It does make a big batch so reduce amounts if wanting to make a smaller amount. It does keep fairly well so during salad season, a big batch isn't such a bad idea. You don't need to eat it with crayfish - it's perfect on any sort of salad!

Please let me know if you give it a go and it works. And of course if you think it's as delicious as I do.