TL; DR:
- Ina Garten likes to make her own buttermilk ranch.
- The Barefoot Contessa makes it flavored with several ingredients, including Dijon mustard.
- Reviewers say they should take it easy on the salt.
“Store-bought is fine” doesn’t apply to Ina Garten’s buttermilk farm. The host of the cooking show prefers homemade. Although, as with most of her Barefoot Contessa meals, Garten’s recipe is simple. Find out how Garten’s buttermilk farm is made and what reviewers have to say about it.
Ina Garten prefers homemade ranch dressing
Unlike tomato sauce or pasta, buttermilk ranch is not one of the store-bought items in Garten’s pantry. As she said in her 2010 cookbook Barefoot Contessa, How easy is that?she likes to make it herself.
“Instead of making ranch dressing right out of the box, I prefer to make the real thing,” she said. “It’s easy and has so much flavor from Greek yogurt, buttermilk, scallions and fresh basil.”
“I serve it plain over good Bibb lettuce, but it’s also delicious mixed with chopped cabbage for coleslaw,” she continued. “In the summer I make large batches of this dressing and keep it in the fridge for a quick salad or as a dipping sauce for raw vegetables.”
Dijon mustard is the surprise ingredient of the Barefoot Contessa
Mustard in buttermilk farm? Garten does it. Her buttermilk ranch recipe calls for Dijon mustard. Not much more than a tablespoon, but just enough to add another layer of flavor.
Garten’s buttermilk farm recipe doesn’t list a particular brand of Dijon mustard. However, there are two types listed on hair’s ‘ingredients’ page Barefoot Contessa website. One option is Maille whole grain Dijon mustard. Another is Gray Poupon Dijon mustard.
The Barefoot Contessa host puts the mustard in the bowl of a food processor, one of her must-have kitchen gadgets, with fresh basil, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and chopped scallions. Then she adds “good olive oil” (her go-to is Olio Santo), garlic, kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper.
After she’s pureed everything until it’s “really creamy,” Garten adds “good mayonnaise.” What she’s left with isn’t the “packaged kind” of buttermilk farm, but “the real thing,” she said on her food network show. And as an added bonus, “it’s really better in advance,” Garten explained. “The flavors really mix,” she said, which is why it needs to sit in the fridge for an hour.
Reviewers warn not to follow Garten’s buttermilk farm recipe exactly
While the Barefoot Contessa is known to follow recipes exactly, reviewers of Garten’s Buttermilk Farm Recipe don’t recommend following her lead. The most common complaint among reviewers is that it is too salty.
“Definitely salty to taste,” one person wrote. Another commented on the importance of using the right kind of salt. They said Garten usually uses Diamond Crystal kosher salt, which they described as having the least salty taste of any major brand. “So if you use table salt, it naturally becomes much saltier, so just use half of what she uses,” they said.
Still unsure about adding Dijon mustard? Many reviewers praised Garten’s Buttermilk Farm for being just store bought, only better. One said the mustard, as well as the garlic, gives it some “heat”, the “buttermilk and yogurt cool down almost as soon as you notice it.”
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