Sometimes it’s a terrible thing to get old enough to remember wonderful restaurants that have closed down, notably The Brown Derby in Hollywood and Little Joe’s in Downtown Los Angeles. I’ll show you how to recreate some of the iconic recipes from these wonderful places.
Original Brown Derby Salad Dressing
When I was a little girl, I was lucky enough to have my mother take me to The Brown Derby in Hollywood. My mother had Cobb Salad, I had curried chicken. We each had a taste of the other’s dinner, and I loved the presentation and flavor of the Cobb Salad. Later in life, I was disappointed to find Cobb Salad made with huge ingredient pieces, it’s a chopped salad, for goodness sake, so all the pieces should be small.
There are a plethora of recipes for the original Brown Derby salad dressing. Even today, just looking to see what others put in their dressing, I came across at least 3 that were completely different. You may ask yourself, how do I know that The Good Plate’s recipe is the right one? Well, this recipe comes directly from The Brown Derby Cookbook published in 1949. The recipe for the famous Grapefruit Cake is also in that book, although my recipe differs in the icing and decoration.
Little Joe’s
When I was in college dating, my boyfriend and I got lost in Downtown Los Angeles. We were hungry and stopped for lunch at Little Joe’s near China Town. I had an antipasto salad, and it was wonderful. I went back many times to Little Joe’s and especially enjoyed that salad and their Spaghetti Bolognese. I will be writing about that sauce at another time when it gets cool enough.
Antipasto
I don’t think I need to tell you how to make an antipasto. But, I can tell you that certain things really should be there, like peperoncini, olives, cured meats, and cheeses. An antipasto is a perfect way to get rid of small bits of cheeses and lunch meat that are too small to use for sandwiches. Depending on what you put in it, it can serve as the start of the meal, as it does in Italy, or it can become the whole meal as ours was tonight accompanied by Stuffed Garlic Bread.
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Email Me the Recipe
Antipasto with Original Brown Derby Salad Dressing
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Ingredients
- ⅓ cup Red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon Sugar
- ½ teaspoon *Dry mustard
- ½ teaspoon Pepper
- 1 clove Garlic
- ½ cup *Olive oil
Instructions
- Put all the ingredients into a screw-top jar. Shake well to mix, and chill thoroughly Shake before use.
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