Author Notes: At first glance, this is a shockingly brash dressing. April Bloomfield uses not just lemon juice, but whole lemon segments, and more mustard than could possibly seem like a good idea. But she also knows about restraint, and adds just enough addictive nips of caper and shallot to keep you going, and gentler undercurrents of lemon juice, salt, and sugar. At The Spotted Pig, she serves it with a fried pig’s ear salad, but salads with other fatty meats, cheeses or avocado work too. Bloomfield says finely chopped parsley is a nice addition. Adapted very slightly from A Girl and Her Pig (Ecco, 2012) —Genius Recipes
Makes: about 1 cup
Prep time: 5 min
Ingredients
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2 medium lemons
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3 tablespoons finely chopped shallots
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2 tablespoons Dijon mustard (choose one whose flavor you like on its own — we used Maille)
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2 tablespoons drained capers, finely chopped
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1/2 teaspoon Maldon or another flaky sea salt
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1/2 teaspoon superfine sugar
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1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Directions
- Segment the lemons over a bowl to catch the juices (see note below). Set aside.
- Squeeze the juice from the membranes into a separate bowl, add the rest of the ingredients, and stir well.
- Add the lemon segments and toss gently to coat them without breaking them up. Use straightaway or chill in the fridge, covered, for up to an hour.
- Note: To segment the lemons: Use a sharp knife to cut off just enough of the fruit’s top and bottom to expose a full circle of the flesh on either end. Stand the lemon on one of its ends, place your knife point at the seam where the fruit meets the pith, and use a gentle sawing motion to cut away a wide strip of pith and skin, following the curve of the fruit from top to bottom. Repeat the process until all you have left is a nice, round, naked fruit. If you’ve missed any white pith, trim it off. Make a cut down either side of each segment, right against the membrane, and gently pry out each segment, one at a time (see slideshow). Flick out any seeds, and set the segments aside in a bowl, reserving the juicy membranes.
/0b77ca4a-c3cb-4552-b878-04ae93830024--food52_04-03-12-3659.jpg "April Bloomfield's Lemon Caper Dressing 2")
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Photo by James Ransom
First you start with April Bloomfield's new book. This cover has us in awe.
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It's pretty inside too.
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Segment your lemons first. Start by cutting off both ends. (Don't worry, you can squeeze the juice from them after so they won't go to waste.)
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Then set your lemon on its bum and shave off the sides to expose the segments.
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Any lingering pith can just be trimmed away.
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Then (carefully!) slice along each membrane to free the segments — do this over your bowl to catch the juices.
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Ta-da!
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You're left with this shaggy thing, but there's still lots of juice trapped in there.
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So squeeze!
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Lemon meat, with debris.
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Next, turn to your shallot.
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To mince, first trim off the root end.
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Then slice in half length-wise.
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The peels should roll away easily. Trim that dried out tip while you're at it.
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Lay it flat and (again, carefully!) make even horizontal cuts in your shallot, leaving the root end intact to hold it all together.
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It should look like a relatively even stack.
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Next up: a row of vertical slits, again leaving the root intact.
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Almost there! Know where we're going next?
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The last cut — chop off even rows vertically again in at a 90 degree angle from your last cut, moving toward the root.
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Then you can leave them as is, or for salad dressing, I like to run the knife through a few more times, to mince them to "smithereen" stage.
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Last thing to chop — capers!
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Push them into your bowl, where your shallots and lemon juice are waiting.
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Small amounts of flaky sea salt and superfine sugar balance out the seasoning.
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And a whole lot of Dijon mustard makes it creamy and kicky. Use a good one.
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Last call for olive oil.
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Whisk (almost) all your ingredients together. Thanks to all that mustard, it will thicken and come together well, even without going out of your way to slowly emulsify the dressing.
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Finally the lemon segments are back for a swim.
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The punchiest dressing you may ever taste. You won't be able to get enough.
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Serve with something rich and fatty, and drink it in.
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