Hand me down…

My aunt, since deceased, was very active in the women’s association here and at one time, she and another lady from Kuching represented Sarawak at an international women’s conference held in Manila, Philippines. When she came back, at family gatherings, she started serving salads with her very awesome dressing and of course, everyone in the family got her to share the recipe and since then, we would make our own.

It is nothing difficult actually. First you beat an egg with some vinegar together…

Oops!!! I did not have any vinegar that day so desperate situations would call for desperate measures and I used calamansi lime juice instead. I think the acidity is needed to sort of “cook” the egg.

After that, pour in one bottle of salad cream…

– salad cream, mind you…not mayonnaise and a can of evaporated milk. Normally, I would use Heinz or Delmonte but that day, I could not find any at the shop near my house so I settled for a local brand instead.  Pulsate till smooth.

In the past, we would fry our own peanuts and remove the skin and pound. That, of course, would be a lot of work and some of us resorted to using the salted peanuts for this, removing the shell and skin, of course…and some even used peanut butter. My late aunt would definitely not settle for any such shortcuts and would stick loyally to the original recipe. Me? I use these…

We used to have very nice ones here but lately, nobody seems to be making them anymore…leaving me no choice but to use these. I would add more so as to have the peanut fragrance and because these are sweet, there is no need to add any sugar. In the past, we had to add that to balance the sour taste of the vinegar and the salad cream.

Just remove the wrappers and dump it all into the blender…

…and blend till smooth…

There you have it! Easy, isn’t it?

I remember way back in 1986, I went to Port Dickson with some college mates and we stayed at one of the government chalets there. We had to do our own cooking and I made this salad dressing for the salad. Of course, everyone loved it and they all asked for the recipe.

You just assemble whatever you want in your salad…

…and pour the dressing on top…

…and mix it all together and eat.

Go on, give it a try and let me know what you think of it. For one thing, I can assure you that it is heaps better than just plain mayonnaise.