Boiled Lemon Salad

Sweet and Spicy Barbeque Sauce

Raspberry Vinegar

This vinaigrette is absolutely perfect over uncooked arugula leaves, or to use in cooking over fish or chicken.  The raspberry and honey really add a sweetness to the tart vinegar and without being overpowering, they can mute the bite of stronger types of fish.  It is fairly quick and easy to make, stores well if kept in your fridge and unlike store bought ones, there is no greasy residue and you know 100% of the ingredients!  The latter is always the biggest reason for making things from scratch in my book.

Fresh raspberries usually are a bit on the expensive side, but short cutting with frozen raspberries or canned ones just doesn’t do.  If you can, hand select your raspberries.  They can be shades of red to even black and usually are at their peak in the late summer months.  If you hold them in your hand, they should not leave stains.  Perfect raspberries are firm and they will perish fast, so avoid any that show signs of mold or leaking.  If they are prepacked, open the containers and sift through to make sure that most if not all are fresh.  You should avoid the entire container if you see any that show signs of mold!

When you get your raspberries home, don’t store them away.  You want to remove them from the container or the bag and gently put them into a colander.  Run them under flowing cold water and sift them gently with your fingers.  Lay them out on a soft cheesecloth or a few layers of paper towels and then store them flat on a cookie sheet in the fridge until you use them.  They should be used within 2 days – tops!

Ingredients

2 cups fresh raspberries, cleaned

1 1/4 cup white wine vinegar

1/3 cup honey*

*Make certain that what you are purchasing is honey.  Many grocers carry imitation honey, but the label will indicate if it is actual honey.

• In a heavy saucepan over low to medium heat, combine all ingredients.
• Allow to come to a simmer and remove from heat.
• Using an electric mixer on low speed, puree the heated mixture until well blended.
• Using a tea strainer, separate the pulp and seeds from the vinaigrette before storing in an air tight bottle.

You can set aside the seeds and pulps to press over meats such as fish or chicken or pork to help retain moisture while cooking.  Or you can discard.