I share my favouritest most favourite dressing ever.

So I’m cooking from scratch a lot, and really enjoying it. Flavour, flavour, flavour.

It seems hugely ironic that I’m eating so much less, but enjoying what I do eat so much more than I used to. I’m eating lots of things that used to be verboten, and almost everything I eat is full fat (except that I prefer semi-skimmed milk, and although I like to cook with butter I prefer Clover on my bread). I am pretty sure that part of the reason I’m eating less is because what I am eating tastes so good. Diet food tastes like diet food to me – there’s always something missing.

The weird thing is that I’m not exactly going crazy with the bad food. For example, I’ve always liked making pastry, and pies and cakes were the sort of thing I’d buy and eat in bulk when dieting got too much for me. But I haven’t really had the urge, despite the fact that this time of year is usually a bit of a stodgefest for me. What I am getting is this almost constant craving for fresh food: salads, cheeses, grilled meat, fruit, yogurt. Apart from toast in the mornings that’s pretty much all I want. I do occasionally want a bit of chocolate, but only a bit.

Anyway, I finally cracked open my Wagamama book. I’ve had it for years and it’s gathered dust, mainly, but I love their house dressing (the sharp, gingery, tomatoey one that they put on their green salad) and wanted to see if it was in there. The thing is, I’ve never really been one for Oriental/Eastern cooking at home. I do have some recipe books that well-meaning friends have given me, but I have tended to think that Chinese, Japanese and Indian food is far better from restaurants than from my kitchen. In fact I am terribly, terribly wrong. These books don’t contain restaurant food, for the most part, and they are bristling with ideas for vegetables, and salad dressings, and meat marinades. They’re much more suited to my current ethos than, say, Nigella Lawson.

(Also, I have to thank the Wagamama book for telling me how to use a wok properly. The deal is this: you put the wok on high heat, dry. Only when it’s heated do you add the oil, which promptly starts bubbling away. Suddenly I completely see the point of my wok. But that’s by the by.)

So here’s the Wagamama house dressing. I’m using it on EVERYTHING, including an otherwise fairly Italian-influenced cured meat and goat’s cheese salad. It just works.

2 tsp finely chopped shallots (about a quarter to a half of a shallot, as far as I can see)
1 inch grated fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, finely chopped or grated
100ml vegetable oil (I use sunflower)
1.5 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoons tomato ketchup
3 tablespoons light soy (I’ve used dark as well, which works but is more treacly)
1 tablespoon water

Bung it all in a jar or a dressing bottle and shake it until combined. Try it. Try it now. You will thank me.