Reply to cooking meat and vegetables with olive oil, balsamic, and herbs

Forum Index » Food, Cooking, and Restaurants

Reply to "cooking meat and vegetables with olive oil, balsamic, and herbs"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote]    Anonymous wrote:I finally figured out that when I make my basic balsamic vinaigrette, if I make a bunch of it to have around on hand, it can also serve as a go-to quickie marinade or dressing for just about anything.

I go with one part olive oil to two parts balsamic, and then depending on mood and what I'm making I'll add one or more of: garlic, shallots, black pepper, dried herbs (most often basil), or sometimes a little bit of a good mustard, or reduce it with some red wine for a pan sauce (whisking in a little butter right at the end).

OP here again. These tips are great! Thank you for responding to my vague question

PP, this recipe sounds delicious. How long can it keep in the fridge? A few days?[/quote]

I don't keep it in the fridge; I keep it on the counter.  The acid in the vinegar keeps it from going bad.  Since it's olive oil, if it went in the fridge it would get sludgy.  
Since the balsamic vinegar also has some sugar in it as well as the acid, you can't keep it forever, but you can keep it for several weeks, maybe a month.  I've never had a problem, I always use it up in that time.  
When you make it, you want the oil to emulsify in the vinegar--that is, to reduce the oil to drops tiny enough that they blend in smooth and don't separate themselves back out.  The traditional way to do that is to whisk the vinegar in a bowl, pretty fast, while drizzling in the olive oil slowly.  This takes some practice.  The easy way is to whirl it in the food processor instead.  Same approach--start with the vinegar, drizzle the oil in slowly. 
The good news is that if it doesn't emulsify all that will happen is it will separate on the counter--you'll notice the oil floating on top of the vinegar.  If that happens, just whisk it or whirl it in the food processor again before using.  It's still fine to eat.  
I keep mine in a plastic squeeze bottle I bought at the kitchen store for $0.69.  If mine separates, I just cover the bottle hole with a finger and shake it up like a cocktail shaker, works fine.  
I keep the basic oil/vinegar mix that way and then add the other stuff when I decide what I'm doing with it--making a marinade or dressing or whatever.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics