Ume Scallion Dressing

The second post I that I wrote on this blog was called Magical Dressing. It told tale of an enchanted liquid that incites passion and obsession in people, a dressing that can, on its own, bring people all the way to this little town.
There have been some comments, both online and off, that have inspired me to revisit this dressing. You see, back then, when I wrote that second post, I had no camera, and no sense that anyone might actually read what I was writing, and so, most importantly, I had no measurements. And instead of just updating that post, I’m giving this dressing a whole new post, because it’s just that good.
I’ve got a lot of other things to tell you about- honestly the recipes are backing up a little these days, but today I’m telling you about this dressing again because to tell you the truth, it’s been a bad week. The summer has hit us like a rough wave in bad storm, and the undertow has got me. And although the good moments are starting to appear here and there, the week culminated, this afternoon in me sitting by myself in packed theater while my children were whisked off to rock out to Dan Zanes by other parents. Yes, today, I attended a kid’s music concert by myself. After coming from a birthday party. And for those of you who know me, you know that it doesn’t get much worse than that. Except that because I had whittled myself into a grump, it was like I was at a party where everyone was having the time of their lives except me. Because this wasn’t Raffi or anything- this was Dan Zanes, one of the only cool kid’s musicians there is. It was a full- on party. And I was paralyzed, and teary, and feeling that special feeling that can only be described as what you feel when your feeling sad and grumpy and someone is trying to get you to get up and dance. Old as the hills, that feeling. Am I right or am I right?
Anyway, the dressing. The reason that I feel the need to talk about it today is that this dressing makes me feel good about myself. People’s eyes light up when they eat it, and they want more, and they want the recipe and they want to bathe in it. Joey even put it on a hotdog yesterday, and that worked too. So here is the recipe, with measurements.

Ume Scallion Dressing

This makes a lot of dressing, which is good, because if you give some away, people will be really happy with you. Feel free to halve the recipe, or to play with it as you see fit.

One big farmer’s market bunch of scallions, or two regular- trimmed of the stringy part of the root and the very top of the green. Really you can use almost all of the scallion. You should have about 8 oz.

4 oz. watercress, stems and leaves

3 cup canola oil

2- 3 T umeboshi vinegar, to taste

1 T salt

Put it all in a blender. Blend.

Eat on anything. Stays good for about 5 days in the fridge.