What's for Dinner Deb?

I haven't been keeping up with my plan to post "What's for Dinner, Julia?" entries each week.  No special reason.  I just haven't done it.  I haven't even done a "What's for Dinner, Helen" yet, but I have one in mind... once I get pictures together of that!

And tonight's post isn't a recipe from anyone famous or an authority on cooking.  It's just a salad dressing that I've made for years, and quite frankly, simply love!  I first saw it on a church cookbook that came out something like 20 years ago?  The cover came off a long time ago, and I keep an envelope as a bookmark on this recipe.  It's just about the only recipe I ever pull up from this old cookbook, but it's yummy!  I have given it as gifts before to a special friend who loves this recipe as much as me.  It's not only good on lettuce salads.  It is also great spread on chicken and then bake until the chicken is done.  Easy smeasy and yummy.  Does it get much better?

Oh!  And it's yummy on crackers, too!

This is Mayfair Dressing, made famous by the Mayfair Hotel in downtown St. Louis.  I don't know that this is the "official" recipe, but it's good whether it is the "right" one or not.

I started out seeing if this would get me close to the old Pizza Hut Romano salad dressing that I remember loving about 4 lifetimes ago when I was in high school.  It doesn't, but that is ok.  I will keep working on that.

I used my food processor, but if you have a blender, that would work, too.  This is a creamy emulsified dressing, so unless you want a serious arm workout, use a food processor or blender.

There is one other thing I need to tell you about this salad dressing.  It uses a can of anchovies.

That's right.  Anchovies.  Half of you just went, "Oooo!  Yuck!" and the other half just went, "Oooo!  Yum!"  All I can say is even if you're in the "yuck" camp, give this a try.  The anchovies yield an unami taste to this salad dressing that nothing else will replace, but you don't really taste the anchovies themselves.  You're just going to have to trust me on this.

If you've never opened a can, here is what they look like.

The eyes and outside skin has been removed, so take heart that the can doesn't look like this...

See how nice they look in the can by comparison?

Ready now?  Or have I lost all of you?

For the brave of heart, I began with 1 clove of garlic, 1 stick of celery, 1/2 of an onion and the 2oz can of anchovies, 1 tsp. of sugar, 1 T. of mustard and 3 tsp. of ground pepper in my food processor bowl.

Mix that all together until the veggies are chopped.

Doesn't look like much yet, does it?  I know.  But hang tight.  It gets better.

And since I was hoping to head towards the old Pizza Hut Romano dressing, I dumped in a couple of handfuls of grated Romano.  Even though that didn't get me where I wanted to land, the cheese goes good regardless!

I mixed all of that in, and then it was time for the eggs.  1 egg...

...mixed in, and then the 2nd egg...

...and finally one more egg.

And finally we add the oil - 2 cups of oil.  I used a combination of olive and vegetable oil.  I poured in through the feed tube with the processor on to emulsify the mixture.

I tried to pour it slowly to help the emulsification - and yes, I am very glad that I have a food processor to do this instead of the old fashioned way of beating in a few drops of oil at a time by hand!

And thanks to the magic of my food processor, before too long we had a finished dressing!

I tasted it using a cracker, and corrected it with a bit more pepper, but you may decide you want it a bit sweeter.  You can always add a touch of maple syrup for sweetness or Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce or additional mustard for a more savory profile.  But try to keep in mind that this dressing improves with sitting in the fridge for about 24 hours, so you may want to wait to correct the seasoning until after that time.

As I said, great on lettuce salads.  Great on chicken.  Great as a pasta salad dressing.  Great smeared onto french bread and toasted with Parmesan cheese.  Seriously - whether it is the "real" Mayfair dressing or not really doesn't matter to me!  This stuff tastes good used lots of ways!

So there you have it - a What's for Dinner Deb that isn't from somebody famous, but is way easy and way tasty!

Yes, even with anchovies!  Ha!  Ha!