Basic skills - part 3: dressings and flatbreads

Basic Skills

A salad dressing is a great lesson in balancing seasoning and flavour. My ratio of acid to oil is three parts oil to one part acid. You can use any vinegar, red wine, white wine, balsamic or even citrus juice. Using a jam jar allows you to roughly see what your ratio is looking like.

Vinaigrette

Ingredients

• 1 part balsamic vinegar
• 3 parts extra virgin olive oil
• A decent amount of salt and pepper
• 1 tsp of honey
• 1 tsp of wholegrain mustard

Combine all the ingredients in a jar and then place the lid on the jar and give it a good shake. It's important to taste your dressing on a salad leaf. After tasting balance it by adding more of any of the ingredients as you deem necessary.

Other Dressings

Using my three to one ratio you can make loads of great dressings. Rather than olive oil, you can use hazelnut oil, rapeseed oil, mashed avocado, coconut milk or even pumpkin seed oil. For acids, you can use citruses like lemon, lime, orange or grapefruit or any vinegar. Flavourings and seasonings like miso, chipotle, toasted seeds, chillis, mustard, parmesan, salt and pepper give a great added dimension to any dressing.

A Simple Yoghurt Flatbread

Ingredients

• 150g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 pinch of sea salt
• 150g of plain yoghurt

Get all your ingredients together.

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Use a fork initially to bring everything together into a rough dough. Then use your hands to knead the dough until it's soft bread dough.

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Wash your hands and then flour your board or work surface. Split the dough into two, forming it into a rough round. Lightly flour your rolling pin so that it doesn't stick and gently roll the flatbread out into a rough round.

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Put a large frying pan, or griddle on medium heat. Once your pan is hot, cook each flatbread for 1-2 minutes on each side.

Accompaniments

You can add citrus zest, chopped garlic, chopped fresh herbs or dried herbs and spices. Flavoured butter with garlic and herbs and loads of different spices would go perfectly. Alternatively, you can have these flatbreads with an amazing spoon salad, combining red onion, lemon, vine tomatoes, mint, parsley and pomegranate molasses.