Creamy Peanut Salad Dressing : LTU Milk

As you all know, I love salads and a great salad needs a great salad dressing. There are many types and brands of salad dressings on the supermarket shelves but nothing beats making your own at home. I found another fantastic homemade salad dressing last Thursday courtesy of Mr Arthur Wee. This is his late aunt's recipe and it uses ingredients that we can easily find at home or the supermarket.

One of the ingredients used is salad cream and the only salad cream that I have known all my life is Heinz Salad Cream. This was introduced to me by my mum when I was a little girl. My family swears by Heinz salad cream and we use it for making coleslaw and potato salad. I even like having it with just hard boiled eggs.

My favorite salted peanuts.

This dressing also uses one raw egg and according to Arthur, the vinegar cooks the egg. I am game to have the raw egg but if you have reservations, I suggest that you use pasteurized eggs. I have used pasteurized raw eggs when making Tiramisu and no one in my family has suffered any ill effects. 

Blend egg with vinegar. 

Now on to the dressing! I followed Arthur's instructions and blended the raw egg and vinegar first. As with home style recipes, Arthur did not mention how much vinegar to use and I reckon one tablespoon should suffice. After that I poured the whole bottle of salad cream into the blender. There is usually some salad cream sticking to the bottle and being the stingy person that I am, I poured some evaporated milk (the next ingredient) into the bottle, gave it a good shake and poured whatever salad cream that I could salvage into the blender.

Crushed peanuts. Actually I put it into the spice mill and used the pulse function to get this texture.

I was not sure if I should add the remaining evaporated milk because I was afraid that the dressing would be too runny (I was very naive). But since Arthur used the whole can of milk, I did the same and dumped the crushed peanuts in as well. Whizzzzz.....I blended the ingredients for quite some time to ensure that everything was well mixed and properly emulsified. And sure enough, the dressing was creamy and thick. Not too runny in the least.

Creamy and delicious dressing.

Now, for some finger licking. I dipped my finger into the dressing and had a taste. mmmmmmmmMMMMMMMM!!!! Wow, Arthur! This is so good! Really, really good! I admit at first that I was iffy about the evaporated milk. I am not a milk person but I was willing to try this recipe. And no regrets. All the ingredients complimented each other so well and I could hardly taste the milk. I did not have to adjust for any seasoning as the dressing was sweet enough for me and since I used salted peanuts, I did not need to add salt.

Some of the dressing splashed onto the blender lid while it was whizzing away. Guess what happened next? Shhh.....

My only regret was that I should have added another packet of crushed peanuts. You see, I bought only two packets (total 80g) and looking back, Arthur used 120g of crushed peanuts. That amount is about right and I should have had the presence of mind to make sure that that was the amount of peanuts I should have bought. I tried looking for Tong Garden roasted peanuts when I went out to Aeon but they had all sorts of other nuts and not peanuts! I settled for a local brand but sadly the peanuts were not good at all. They were under-roasted and did not taste good :(

Anyway, the dressing was already awesome and I decided to make a meat free salad. I have been eating too much meat lately and I thought I would give my digestive system a rest. I had the usual salad greens, cucumbers, sweet peppers, tomatoes and onions. For the protein, I settled for hard boiled eggs and pan fried beancurd.

This salad dressing does get very thick when stored in the fridge. All you need to do is take it out from the fridge about 20-30 minutes before serving. It is also great as a dip for vegetables like carrots, cucumbers and celery. 

So, if you love creamy salad dressings with the fragrance of peanuts, what are you waiting for? Make this dressing pronto! 

Creamy Peanut Salad Dressing
Recipe source : Still Crazy After All These Years

Ingredients :
- 1 bottle Heinz Salad Cream
- 1 can evaporated milk
- 120g crushed peanuts and more for sprinkling
- 1 raw egg
- 1 tablespoon distilled vinegar

Method :
1. Put egg and vinegar in blender and blend for a few seconds.
2.  Add salad cream, evaporated milk and crushed peanuts.
3. Blend until the mixture is thick and creamy.
4. Use immediately or pour into a container and store in the fridge.

Notes :
1. It is important that you use adequate crushed peanuts to get that full nutty flavor. Additional crushed peanuts for sprinkling on the salad is optional but highly recommended.
2. This dressing becomes quite thick when stored in the fridge. I recommend that you take it out from the fridge about 20 to 30 minutes before serving.
3. I learnt from Arthur that it is alright to keep the dressing the fridge for a few days. I reckon one week should be OK.

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs Up organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen of My Little Favourite DIY and hosted by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House.