This past Saturday, I had one of my most enjoyable days ever as a farmer. I was invited to sit in on a class Chef Alan Wong taught called Salad Dressing 201.

I had previously taken Salad Dressing 101, so I met the prerequisite.

Chef Alan loves to teach and he’s very good at it. He explained that fruits can be used as an emulsion—something to keep the solution mixed.

After using mango to make a vinaigrette, he asked, “And what else could we have used? Guava? Okay, good. What else?”

He started demonstrating how to make a spicy tomato dressing. Halfway through he said, “Notice this is the tomato soup that we do. You can do different colored tomatoes and pour them in glasses, side by side. Now add miso, roasted garlic, apple cider vinegar and blend in extra virgin olive oil. You now have spicy tomato dressing, using the tomato as the emulsifier.”

He asked, “Isn’t tomato a fruit?”

“What other fruit could you use?”

He took ½ cup of rice, salt and  ½ cup of water. Blended until syrupy. I’m thinking, “Rice? What is he doing blending rice?”

Rice is a starch, he says, and he asks: “What other kinds of starches could one use?” The class answers, “Sweet potatoes.” “Taro.”

“Good,” he says. “What else?”

“Add 2 tablespoons rice vinegar and rice oil. Blend.” Did I hear that right? Rice oil?

He says, “Make shoyu vinaigrette and add it to the rice mixture with wasabi. That’s the shoyu rice cream wasabi vinaigrette.”

The students tried a spoonful of each dressing. All the while, Chef Alan asked for opinions and suggestions. One had no choice but to be engaged. It was great!

By the way, try this, he said: Hamakua Sweet Tomato raisin. Dried with Balsamic vinegar and sugar.

I need to ask about this. I need to know how to make it.

At the end, Chef Alan made a dish with caramelized tomatoes. Cocktail tomatoes caramelized with one part sugar to one part sherry vinegar. Cook down in sauce pan.

He also smashed a cocktail tomato down in a dish. Put goat cheese on top of the tomato, and parsley and basil on top of that. It was beautiful to look at and delicious to taste.

I came away from the class with so many ideas floating around. I understand the general picture now and am thinking of a thousand delicious possibilities.